Is there room for another general history of early medieval Britain? The answer is ‘yes, of course’ when it is as fresh and interesting as this one. Its USP is that it examines the history of the different peoples of early medieval Britain alongside one another in both thematic and chronological chapters, often with illuminating results. Differential survival of evidence inevitably means that some areas feature more than others, but there is a real attempt to compare and contrast the different provinces.
Archaeology is one of the sources of evidence that is drawn on. Significant sites like Sutton Hoo, Prittlewell, and Portmahomack are name-checked, and there is more general discussion of conclusions that can be drawn from such material as burial practices, defensive sites, and settlement evidence, but it is the penetrating analysis of the textual evidence that is the dominant feature of the book. Text boxes contain quotations from a range of written sources with expert commentary. For example, these include comparisons of the 7th-century King Cadwallon of Gwynedd as presented by Bede and in Welsh poetry, and of the boundary clauses of Welsh and Anglo-Saxon charters. St Findan’s experiences as a Viking slave are recounted in a translation made by the author himself.
There are also plenty of in-text illustrations that, among other things, help to fill the gaps for peoples like the Picts for whom relatively few written references survive. The Dupplin Cross (Perth and Kinross) has a rare inscription to King Constantine, son of Wrguist (fl. 789-820). What is probably a depiction of the king shows him as a warrior like his counterparts elsewhere in Britain, and the Gaelic form of the names is part of the evidence for the replacement of the Pictish language by Gaelic – a complicated topic that is clearly explained and discussed. The illustrations help to demonstrate the range of sources available for the period, though disappointingly they are only in black-and-white and, it has to be said, some of them are pretty murky. Only the magnificent sword-pommel from Beckley (Oxfordshire) in colour on the cover does justice to the wonders of early medieval art.
