ABOUT ME
My name is Alison Case and I have dabbled in Medieval recreation with the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) for over 20 years. I've recreated personas in Late Medieval England (1100s), some approximation of European Cavalier (late 1600s), and Italian Renaissance (1500s), all very, very badly.
This time, I find myself working on a 6th century Anglo-Saxon persona and I want to do it right. I was intrigued by the early Anglo-Saxon period because it was a time of rebuilding after the political mess left by the Romans when they left Britain at the end of the 4th century. Additionally, the Migration Period (4th - 7th century CE) was, as the name suggests, a time of major immigration from mainland Europe, seeing an influx of people from what is now modern day France, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, and southern Sweden. To be near enough to a major Eastern seaport to interact with these newcomers struck me as very exciting.
ABOUT My Persona
Æbbe aet Uuluic lives in Uuluic (now called Woolwich) in the Kingdom of Kent in and around 550 CE. She is the widow of a wealthy textile merchant and now assists her stepson in the running of the business. As her stepson is unmarried, she is still very much in control of the household. Because Æbbe married into a family and community very much to do with textile production, she is well versed in the weaving and general production of textile goods.
​
Because of her proximity to Lundenwic (now called London), Æbbe has seen a number of newcomers arrive every year from mainland Europe in what would eventually become known the Migration Period. The daughter of a convert to the newly introduced religion of Christianity, she attends church but holds on to a number of older customs from before the missionaries came to Britain.