On Friday, March 1, at 8:00 p.m., Benjamin Bagby and Sequentia will perform the world premiere of “Charms, Riddles, and Elegies of the Medieval Northlands” at Swarthmore's Lang Concert Hall.

 During the performance,  they will chant and sing a number of poetic songs from the medieval northlands (eighth–11th centuries) in Old English, Old High German, and Old Icelandic. Using medieval instruments including Germanic harps and wooden and bone flutes, the sounds will include charms, riddles, elegies, songs of magic and healing, laments over the loss of loved ones, and the pain of exile in a foreign land.

Sequentia’s Swarthmore residency and performance is sponsored by the William J. Cooper Foundation.

Bagby, a vocalist and harpist, will be joined by his Sequentia colleagues, Norbert Rodenkirchen, Hanna Marti, and Stef Conner. The performance will include Old English riddles, the Anglo-Saxon magic “Charm of Nine Herbs,” “Deor,” “The Wanderer,” some of the oldest recorded songs of German-speaking people, and much more.

Along with the Cooper Foundation, the event is sponsored by Swarthmore’s Departments of Music, English, Medieval Studies, and the Mary Albertson Fund.