Wikipedia:Peer review/Hearthwerod/archive1

Hearthwerod

I've listed this article for peer review because I was unsatisfied with its previous state and decided to improve it. In byte size, it's more than doubled. I would like to know where the article stands now and where it's weak, and what can be done to improve it.

Thanks, Wombatmanboy (talk) 05:26, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

Pinging @Dudley Miles and @Mike Christie. Wombatmanboy (talk) 16:10, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

• I find this a puzzling article. I have never heard of the term before, even though I specialise in articles about Anglo-Saxon history. Checking Google Scholar and Google Books, I can only find two authors who use the term, D'Amato and Esposito, neither of whom are Anglo-Saxon specialists. Abels does write that The Battle of Maldon describes warriors who were members of Byrhtnoth's household as heorthwerod, (pp. 148 and 271 n. 11, not 148 n.11) but I cannot find any reference to hearthweru in any reliable source, and so far as I can see you do not have sources for an article on the subject. I suggest that you merge the article in Anglo-Saxon warfare, which is badly in need of expansion and improvement.

• You date Whitelock's EHD as 1968, but it was published 1st ed. 1955 and 2nd 1979. The 2nd ed. should be cited. I cannot trace Harrison as an Anglo-Saxon historian and he does not appear to be a reliable source. Dudley Miles (talk) 19:53, 31 March 2026 (UTC)

  Harrison can be found on the Osprey Publishing website here. Pollington uses the term hearthwerod here on page 35 of The English Warrior: From the Earliest Times to 1066. Williams also uses the term "hearthtroop" in the preface on page IX. The term is used here, also in reference to Byrhtnoth, in the introduction to Anglo-Norman Warfare: Studies in Late Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman Military Organization and Warfare, written by Matthew Strickland. Otherwise, I'll fix the year of Whitelock's EHD. Wombatmanboy (talk) 15:04, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

• The word hearthweru is only used once as the first word in the lead, and not at all in the main text. The word is apparently never used by any specialist historian of Anglo-Saxon England. It is an unsourced variant of the Old English heorthwerod, which is only cited by historians (and very rarely) for its use in The Battle of Maldon. There may be a justification for an article on the military members of the households of great aristocrats, or perhaps better as a section of an article on Anglo-Saxon warfare, but not with the current title.

• The Osprey site provides no evidence that Harrison is a reliable source. You would need at the least a favourable review of his book by an Anglo-Saxon specialist. Dudley Miles (talk) 18:25, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

  Sorry for the late response, I was sick.

  Anyway, I still think that the article is best existing on its own, especially since not all of its content is especially relevant to Anglo-Saxon Warfare. I could also use some of the content to improve that article, still. What other name would you suggest? Wombatmanboy (talk) 14:51, 3 April 2026 (UTC)