The Community, the Family and the Saint: Patterns of Power in Early Medieval Europe

Contemporary research has striven to integrate different disciplinary traditions in the analysis of particular societies. For early medieval Europe the organising forces of social identity and power are crucial and this collection demonstrates the varieties of interaction, conflict and development. The twenty-two essays span literary and historical texts, artefacts and archaeological evidence from a wide geographical area, ranging from the early Celtic world to the emerging city states of twelfth-century Italy. The volume is arranged in four sections which reflect the nexus of power in this period: Community and Family; Saints; Power; and Death, Burial and Commemoration.