The number of native Britons, and their role, in Anglo-Saxon England has been hotly debated for generations; the English were seen as Germanic in the nineteenth century, but the twentieth saw a reinvention of the German `past'. Today, the scholarly community is as deeply divided as ever on the issue: place-name specialists have consistently preferred minimalist interpretations, privileging migration from Germany, while other disciplinary groups have been less united in their views, with many archaeologists and historians viewing the British presence, potentially at least, as numerically significant or even dominant.
In this collection of essays Nicholas Brooks explores some of the earliest and most problematical sources, both written and archaeological, for early English history. In his hands, the structure and functions of Anglo-Saxon origin stories and charters (whether authentic or forged) illuminate English political and social structures, as well as ecclesiastical, urban and rural landscapes. As well as previously published essays, Anglo-Saxon Myths: State and Church, 400-1066 includes a new account of the English origin myth and a review of the developments in the study of Anglo-Saxon charters over the last twenty years.
"The Earliest English Kings" is a sweeping and thorough overview of Anglo-Saxon History from the sixth century to the eighth century and the death of King Alfred. Kirby explains and explores the 'Heptarchy' or the seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, as well as the various peoples within them, wars, religion, King Offa, and the coming of the Vikings. In this completely revidsed edition, the author brings this classic book up to date to reflect on current findings on this line of rulers. With maps and family trees, this book reveals the complex, distant and tumultuous events of Anglo-Saxon politics.
The Earls of Mercia - Lordship and Power in Late Anglo-Saxon England
This book constitutes a major reappraisal of the late Anglo-Saxon state on the eve of its demise. Its principal focus is the family of Ealdorman Leofwine, which obtained power in Mercia and retained it throughout an extraordinary period of political upheaval between 994 and 1071. In doing so it explores a paradox: that earls were extraordinarily wealthy and powerful yet distinctly insecure. The book contains the first extended treatment of earls' powers in late Anglo-Saxon England and shows that although they wielded considerable military, administrative and political powers, they remained vulnerable to exile and other forms of political punishment including loss of territory.
Recent scholarship on the Anglo-Saxon prognostics has tried to place these texts within the realm of folklore and medicine, inspired largely by studies and editions from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By analysing prognostic material in its manuscript context, this book offers a novel approach to the status and purpose of prognostic texts in the early Middle Ages with particular attention to the Anglo-Saxon tradition. From this perspective, it emerges that prognostication in Anglo-Saxon England was not folkloric but a scholarly pursuit by monks not primarily interested in the medical aspects of prognostication.
