Britain/Ireland 400-1100
Andrew Weeks
>I'm going to be taking a class in about a month on the archaeology
>of the period 400-1100 AD in Britain & Ireland. I'm interested in
>doing some reading about this period beforehand, preferably not
>narrowly archaeological in nature (save that for the class).
>I'd prefer good references to books on its political & cultural / art
>history, & anything else that mite help my understanding of the
>period. I'm fairly well acquainted with material on Ireland, somewhat
>on the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, & pretty much clueless about Scotland
>& the other Celtic kingdoms of Britain, during that period.
The standard work for Anglo-Saxon history is Frank Stenton: Anglo-Saxon England
in the Oxford History of England series (published by Oxford University Press).
If you want primary sources the best ones are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (after
700AD) and Bede's Ecclesiastical History (before 700), though this latter one
has lots of saintly miracles and stuff like that, and is generally better for
bishops than kings.
Scottish history is much more difficult and I believe very little is known from
Scotland prior to the 11th Century, apart from King lists and occasional
references in histories of England.
Andrew Weeks
South West Universities Regional Computer Centre
University of Bath
Claverton Down
Bath BA2 7AY
Tel: 0225-826174 email:A.W...@uk.ac.bath
or: A.W...@bath.ac.uk
Michael Steven Newton
>Scottish history is much more difficult and I believe very little is known from
>Scotland prior to the 11th Century, apart from King lists and occasional
>references in histories of England.
English crap. There were annals kept in Iona, one of the primary centres
of learning in Western Europe, during several centuries, as well as cross
references from annals kept in Ireland. During these times Ireland and
Scotland were very closely associated.
The book "Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland 50 AD to 1000" by Smyth is
definitely worth looking at, a standard text on the subject.
Also, "Invaders of Scotland", by Anna Ritchie, published by Her Majesty's
Stationary Office, is a nice glossy illustrated guide to the period in`
archaeological remains. Anna Ritchie also wrote a book called "Picts"
specifically on the Picts of Scotland, also published by HMSO in 1990.
There are many other references I could recommend if you were more specific
about what you wanted to learn.
Saor Alba!
mn
Mr S J Morris 92
|I'm going to be taking a class in about a month on the archaeology
|of the period 400-1100 AD in Britain & Ireland. I'm interested in
|doing some reading about this period beforehand, preferably not
|narrowly archaeological in nature (save that for the class).
|I'd prefer good references to books on its political & cultural / art
|history, & anything else that mite help my understanding of the
|period. I'm fairly well acquainted with material on Ireland, somewhat
|on the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, & pretty much clueless about Scotland
|& the other Celtic kingdoms of Britain, during that period.
Two good books on the history of the Brythonic Celts (i.e. the Welsh and
the former inhabitants of what is now England and Southern Scotland)
are:
'Language and History in Early Britain' by Kenneth Jackson
Edinburgh University Press
- although this book is principally about the development of the Welsh,
Cornish and Breton languages, the author performs a fascinating
analysis of the social and cultural circumstances under which such
developments took place.
'When Was Wales? A History of the Welsh' by Gwyn A. Williams
Pelican Books
- with reference to the period you're interested in, Williams writes
(I don't have the copy with me so I quote approximately) "so few
facts are known about this period that the responsible course of
action for a responsible historian would be to ignore it altogether -
to do that, though, would be an appalling dereliction of duty on
my part". He actually succeeds in producing a believable account
of what may have happened, which at least fits in with the more
secure history of the periods before and since.
Hope this helps.
--
Steve Morris,
Adran Ffiseg a Seryddiaeth, Coleg Prifysgol Cymru Caerdydd.
(Physics and Astronomy Dept., UWC Cardiff)
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Sean Kelley
The History of the Irish Race
by Seamus MacManus
Available at Barnes&Noble
Sean
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