Download or read book Wales and the Britons 350 1064 written by T. M. Charles-Edwards and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most detailed history of the Welsh from Late-Roman Britain to the eve of the Norman Conquest. Integrates the history of religion, language, and literature with the history of events.
Download or read book Origin Legends in Early Medieval Western Europe written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-07-25 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains work by scholars actively publishing on origin legends across early medieval western Europe, from the fall of Rome to the high Middle Ages. Its thematic structure creates dialogue between texts and regions traditionally studied in isolation.
Download or read book Myths and Ancient Stories written by Kevin Mills and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-05-02 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to ancient myths and the critical discussions that surround them, this book dives into the stories of pre-modern culture, taking a comparative look at how they have shaped the West and modern storytelling as we have come to understand it today. It makes texts and scholarship from near Eastern, Classical and Celtic disciplines engaging and accessible, and traces narrative meaning through stories from ancient Mesopotamia to the BritishMedieval Period, offering compelling pathways into such writings as The Epic of Gilgamesh, Genesis and Job, The Odyssey, The Mabinogi, The Life of St Cadoc and Sir Orfeo. Looking at each in detail, Myths and Ancient Stories also explores myth through a modern lens, probing at how, in this scientific age, it continues to inspire contemporary film, games and literary works such as those by, Margaret Atwood, Colm Tóibín, Madeleine Miller and Pat Barker. Impressive in breadth and bringing together a wide range of foundational texts from diverse traditions for the first time, this work is the ideal orientation to the ancient works central to English literary culture, shedding light on the mythological roots of storytelling and narrative.
Download or read book England s Earliest Woman Writer and Other Studies on Dark Age Christianity written by Andrew Breeze and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2024-11-14 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was Whitby in Yorkshire the home of the earliest English woman writer? Did Roman Britain see Christians martyred at Leicester? Was St Patrick born in Somerset, not far from Bath? How in the age of Arthur did a saint rid Cornwall of a troublesome dragon? How were a Dark-Age Scottish queen and her lover saved from ignominy by a ring, miraculously found in the belly of a fish? These and other questions are answered in this book. Breaking spectacular new ground on Christianity in early Britain and beyond, it will be essential reading for both historians and the general reader concerned with writing by women, as its demonstration of an eighth-century life of Pope Gregory as the work of an unidentified nun underlines the perennial difficulties of female writers in a world dominated by men.
Download or read book Brittany and the Atlantic Archipelago 450 1200 written by Caroline Brett and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did Brittany get its name and its British-Celtic language in the centuries after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire? Beginning in the ninth century, scholars have proposed a succession of theories about Breton origins, influenced by the changing relationships between Brittany, its Continental neighbours, and the 'Atlantic Archipelago' during and after the Viking age and the Norman Conquest. However, due to limited records, the history of medieval Brittany remains a relatively neglected area of research. In this new volume, the authors draw on specialised research in the history of language and literature, archaeology, and the cult of saints, to tease apart the layers of myth and historical record. Brittany retained a distinctive character within the typical 'medieval' forces of kingship, lordship, and ecclesiastical hierarchy. The early history of Brittany is richly fascinating, and this new investigation offers a fresh perspective on the region and early medieval Europe in general.
Download or read book A Welsh Landscape through Time written by Jane Kenney and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2021-08-04 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Holy Island is a small island just off the west coast of Anglesey, North Wales, which is rich in archaeology of all periods. Between 2006 and 2010, archaeological excavations in advance of a major Welsh Government development site, Parc Cybi, enabled extensive study of the island’s past. Over 20 hectares were investigated, revealing a busy and complex archaeological landscape, which could be seen evolving from the Mesolithic period through to the present day. Major sites discovered include an Early Neolithic timber hall aligned on an adjacent chambered tomb and an Iron Age settlement, the development of which is traced by extensive dating and Bayesian analysis. A Bronze Age ceremonial complex, along with the Neolithic tomb, defined the cultural landscape for subsequent periods. A long cist cemetery of a type common on Anglesey proved, uncommonly, to be late Roman in date, while elusive Early Medieval settlement was indicated by corn dryers. This wealth of new information has revolutionised our understanding of how people have lived in, and transformed, the landscape of Holy Island. Many of the sites are also significant in a broader Welsh context and inform the understanding of similar sites across Britain and Ireland.
Download or read book A Companion to British Literature Volume 1 written by Heesok Chang and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-12-13 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to British Literature, Medieval Literature, 700 - 1450
Download or read book Warriors and Kings written by Martin Wall and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2017-02-15 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explore the 1,500-year history of Celtic resistance. Martin Wall explores the mythology and psychology of this unyielding and insular people.
Download or read book Pagans and Christians in the Late Roman Empire written by Marianne Saghy and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-05 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do the terms ?pagan? and ?Christian,? ?transition from paganism to Christianity? still hold as explanatory devices to apply to the political, religious and cultural transformation experienced Empire-wise? Revisiting ?pagans? and ?Christians? in Late Antiquity has been a fertile site of scholarship in recent years: the paradigm shift in the interpretation of the relations between ?pagans? and ?Christians? replaced the old ?conflict model? with a subtler, complex approach and triggered the upsurge of new explanatory models such as multiculturalism, cohabitation, cooperation, identity, or group cohesion. This collection of essays, inscribes itself into the revisionist discussion of pagan-Christian relations over a broad territory and time-span, the Roman Empire from the fourth to the eighth century. A set of papers argues that if ?paganism? had never been fully extirpated or denied by the multiethnic educated elite that managed the Roman Empire, ?Christianity? came to be presented by the same elite as providing a way for a wider group of people to combine true philosophy and right religion. The speed with which this happened is just as remarkable as the long persistence of paganism after the sea-change of the fourth century that made Christianity the official religion of the State. For a long time afterwards, ?pagans? and ?Christians? lived ?in between? polytheistic and monotheist traditions and disputed Classical and non-Classical legacies. ÿ
Download or read book Offa s Dyke written by Keith Ray and published by Windgather Press. This book was released on 2014-03-31 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The massive ancient earthwork that provides the sole commemoration of an extraordinary Anglo-Saxon king and that gives its name to one of our most popular contemporary national walking trails remains an enigma. Despite over a century of study, we still do not fully understand how or why Britain's largest linear monument was built, and in recent years, the views of those who have studied the Dyke have diverged even as to such basic questions as its physical extent and date of construction. This book provides a fresh perspective on the creation of Offa's Dyke arising from over a decade of study and of conservation practice by its two authors. It also provides a new appreciation of the specifically Mercian and English political context of its construction. The authors first summarise what is known about the Dyke from archaeology and history and review the debates surrounding its form and purpose. They then set out a systematic approach to understanding the design and construction of the massive linear bank and ditch that has come to stand proxy for the Anglo-Welsh border. What can currently be deduced about the build qualities of the Dyke are then summarised from the authors' recent (and newly intricate) study of details of its localised form and construction and its landscape setting. The authors meanwhile also explain Offa's Dyke as an instrument of late 8th-century Mercian statecraft and the imperial ambitions of Offa himself.
Download or read book World Literature and Postcolonial Studies written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-04-17 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the role of literature in our global landscape today? How do local authors respond to the growing worldwide power of English and the persisting effects of the colonial systems that paved the way for globalization today? These questions have often been approached very differently by postcolonialists and by students of world literature, but over the past two decades, a developing dialogue between these divergent approaches has produced robust scholarship and sometimes fractious debate, as issues of language, politics, and cultural difference have come to the fore. Drawing on a wide variety of cases, from medieval Wales to contemporary Syria and Australia, and on works written in Arabic, Basque, English, Hindi, and more, this collection explores the mutual illumination that can be gained through the interaction of postcolonial and world literary perspectives.
Download or read book Handbook of Arthurian Romance written by Leah Tether and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-06-26 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The renowned and illustrious tales of King Arthur, his knights and the Round Table pervade all European vernaculars, as well as the Latin tradition. Arthurian narrative material, which had originally been transmitted in oral culture, began to be inscribed regularly in the twelfth century, developing from (pseudo-)historical beginnings in the Latin chronicles of "historians" such as Geoffrey of Monmouth into masterful literary works like the romances of Chrétien de Troyes. Evidently a big hit, Arthur found himself being swiftly translated, adapted and integrated into the literary traditions of almost every European vernacular during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This Handbook seeks to showcase the European character of Arthurian romance both past and present. By working across national philological boundaries, which in the past have tended to segregate the study of Arthurian romance according to language, as well as by exploring primary texts from different vernaculars and the Latin tradition in conjunction with recent theoretical concepts and approaches, this Handbook brings together a pioneering and more complete view of the specifically European context of Arthurian romance, and promotes the more connected study of Arthurian literature across the entirety of its European context.
Download or read book Early Christianity in South West Britain written by Elizabeth Rees and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-03-30 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a new assessment of early Christianity in south-west Britain from the fourth to the tenth centuries, a rich period which includes the transition from Roman to native British to Saxon models of church. The book will be based on evidence from archaeological excavations, early texts and recent critical scholarship and cover Wessex, Devon and Cornwall. In the south-west, Wessex provides the greatest evidence of Roman Christianity. The fifth-century Dorset villas of Frampton and Hinton St Mary, with their complex baptistery mosaics, indicate the presence of sophisticated Christian house churches. The fact that these two Roman villas are only 15 miles apart suggests a network of small Christian communities in this region. The author uses evidence from St Patrick’s fifth-century ‘Confessions’ to describe how members of a villa house church lived. Wessex was slowly Christianised: in Gloucestershire, the pagan healing sanctuary at Chedworth provides evidence of later use as a Christian baptistery; at Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire, a baptistery was dug into the mosaic floor of an imposing villa, which may by then have been owned by a bishop. In Somerset a number of recently excavated sites demonstrate the transition from a pagan temple to a Christian church. Beside the pagan temple at Lamyatt, later female burials suggest, unusually, a small monastic group of women. Wells cathedral grew beside the site of a Roman villa’s funeral chapel. In Street, a large oval enclosure indicates the probable site of a ‘Celtic’ monastery. Early Christian cemeteries have been excavated at Shepton Mallet and elsewhere. Lundy Island, off the Devon coast, provides evidence of a Celtic monastery, with its inscribed stones that commemorate early monks. At Exeter, a Saxon anthology includes numerous riddles, one of which describes in detail the production of an illuminated manuscript in a south-western monastery. Oliver Padel’s meticulous documentation of Cornish place-names has demonstrated that, of all the Celtic regions, Cornwall has by far the highest number of dedications to a single, otherwise unknown individual, typically consisting of a small church and a farm by the sea. These small monastic ‘cells’ have hitherto received little attention as a model of church in early British Christianity, and the latter part of the text focuses on various aspects of this model, as lived out in coastal and in upland settlements, on islands, and in relation to larger Breton monasteries. Study of 60 Breton sites has demonstrated possible connections between larger Breton monasteries and smaller Cornish cells.
Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain 4 Volume Set written by Sian Echard and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-08-07 with total page 2102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain vereint erstmals wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zu Multilingualität und Interkulturalität im mittelalterlichen Britannien und bietet mehr als 600 fundierte Einträge zu Schlüsselpersonen, Zusammenhängen und Einflüssen in der Literatur vom fünften bis sechzehnten Jahrhundert. - Einzigartiger multilingualer, interkultureller Ansatz und die neuesten wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse. Das gesamte Mittelalter und die Bandbreite literarischer Sprachen werden abgedeckt. - Über 600 fundierte, verständliche Einträge zu Schlüsselpersonen, Texten, kritischen Debatten, Methoden, kulturellen Zusammenhängen sowie verwandte Terminologie. - Repräsentiert die gesamte Literatur der Britischen Inseln, einschließlich Alt- und Mittelenglisch, das frühe Schottland, die Anglonormannen, Nordisch, Latein und Französisch in Britannien, die keltische Literatur in Wales, Irland, Schottland und Cornwall. - Beeindruckende chronologische Darstellung, von der Invasion der Sachsen bis zum 5. Jahrhundert und weiter bis zum Übergang zur frühen Moderne im 16. Jahrhundert. - Beleuchtet die Überbleibsel mittelalterlicher britischer Literatur, darunter auch Manuskripte und frühe Drucke, literarische Stätten und Zusammenhänge in puncto Herstellung, Leistung und Rezeption sowie erzählerische Transformation und intertextuelle Verbindungen in dieser Zeit.
Download or read book ed n of the Gaels written by Keith Coleman and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2022-03-24 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first full-length work devoted to Áedán mac Gabráin, 6th century king of Dál Riata in Scotland. An associate of the famous St. Columba, he was the first recorded king to be ordained in the British Isles and was the most powerful ruler in his generation. His astonishing military reach took him from Orkney, Pictland, Ireland, Northumbria and the Isle of Man. This book details his dominant career, which came to a shattering end after decades of warfare at the Battle of Degsaston in AD 603. Beyond the record of warfare, there is a unique and tantalising accumulation of legend concerning Áedán, from stories about his birth, to tales of him in battle with Irish heroes. English sources mention him and he is one of the few Gaelic kings to feature prominently in Welsh tradition, where he is remembered as a uniquely powerful player in the north of Britain. Modern writers highlight Áedán as the father of a prince named Arthur, which has led to his place in Arthurian studies. Áedán’s prominence in his era qualifies him as a fascinating figure, whose life and legend are accessibly explored in this exciting account of this unique ruler.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to the Age of William the Conqueror written by Benjamin Pohl and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-06-09 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a comparative cultural history of north-western Europe in the crucial period of the eleventh century.
Download or read book Medieval Welsh Pilgrimage c 1100 1500 written by Kathryn Hurlock and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-12 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval Welsh Pilgrimage, c.1100–1500 examines one of the most popular expressions of religious belief in medieval Europe—from the promotion of particular sites for political, religious, and financial reasons to the experience of pilgrims and their impact on the Welsh landscape. Addressing a major gap in Welsh Studies, Kathryn Hurlock peels back the historical and religious layers of these holy pilgrimage sites to explore what motivated pilgrims to visit these particular sites, how family and locality drove the development of certain destinations, what pilgrims expected from their experience, how they engaged with pilgrimage in person or virtually, and what they saw, smelled, heard, and did when they reached their ultimate goal.
