Sharon Turner

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Sharon Turner (1768 - 1847), historian. Born in London, Turner was a solicitor who left the profession after he became interested in the study of Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon literature. He settled himself in the area of the British Museum for sixteen years. Utilizing his access to rare materials, he was the first serious scholar to examine the migrations of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. The results of his researches were published in his History of the Anglo-Saxons (1799 - 1805), appearing in several subsequent editions. Thereafter he continued the narrative in History of England (1814-29), concluding with the end of the reign of Elizabeth I.

These histories, especially the former, though somewhat marred by an attempt to emulate the grandiose style of Gibbon, were works of real research opening up and to a considerable extent developing a new field of inquiry in the area of Anglo-Saxon history.

For example, Herodotus reported the Persians called the Scythians “Sakai,” and Sharon Turner identified these very people as the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons. In carefully determining their origins in the Caucusus, Turner wrote: “The migrating Scythians crossed the Araxes, passed out of Asia, and suddenly appeared in Europe in the sixth century B.C...The names Saxon, Scythian and Goth are used interchangeably.”

Turner also authored a Sacred History of the World, a translation of Beowulf and a poem on Richard III.

Turner's place as a historian has been debated by later generations of academics.

This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.