College position(s)
Fellow
Subject
Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic
Specialising in
Early Medieval History; Legal History
Dr Jake Stattel
Rosamund Chambers Research Fellow
Degrees, Awards and Prizes
BA with Teaching Cert, MPhil, PhD
Research Themes
I am an early medieval historian using law and legal culture in order to understand this complicated period with its few surviving sources. As Rosamund Chambers Research Fellow in ASNC, I am working on a postdoctoral project at Girton which combines legal history with our growing understanding of the ‘Vikings’ in Europe and beyond. This project will use new approaches and wider sources of evidence to open a window into early legal practice both in Scandinavia and across the Viking Diaspora. This builds on my doctoral studies into the legal culture of the Vikings in England and the ‘Danelaw’.
Responsibilities
I am a College Lecturer teaching and supervising undergraduates in ASNC as well as for medieval papers within the Faculty of History, including Outline 2: The British Isles in the Middle Ages.
Other
Much of my work has revolved around the ‘Danelaw’, a term used by medieval writers in reference to legal differences which distinguished the regions of England conquered and settled by Viking armies. In new analyses of fragmentary sources, and with comparisons with Scandinavian records, I have outlined unique legal practices and cultural ideas in the Danelaw which help us understand the influence of the Vikings and their Anglo-Scandinavian descendants on the nascent Kingdom of England. My article ‘Legal Culture in the Danelaw’ has won three ‘best article of the year’ awards, including the Sutherland Prize for British Legal History.
I recently completed my PhD in History at Cambridge with a thesis on the legacies of the Danelaw and the legal importance of Scandinavians in England. I am currently developing a monograph which investigates and evaluates the Scandinavian influence on English common law. I hold an MPhil from Cambridge and a BA with Teaching Certification from Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania).
I have been a visiting Associate in the Harvard Department of History and in Autumn 2026 will be an International Visiting Researcher at the Centre for the World in the Viking Age (WiVA), Uppsala University.
Links
The Danelaw on the Gone Medieval podcast