After Rome

by Charles-Edwards, Thomas; Langford, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780199249824
• ISBN10: 0199249822
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The chapters in this volume, each written by a leading scholar of the period, analyze in turn the different nationalities and kingdoms that existed in the British Isles from the end of the Roman empire to the coming of the Vikings, the process of conversion to Christianity, the development of art and of a written culture, and the interaction between this written culture and the societies of the day.

Author Biography

Thomas Charles-Edwards is Jesus Professor of Celtic at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Jesus College.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	x
List of maps	xii
Acknowledgements	xiii
List of contributors	xv
Introduction	1	(22)
Thomas Charles-Edwards
New nations	3	(5)
Fifth-century Britain	8	(4)
Ireland: territories, peoples, and dynasties	12	(11)
1 Nations and kingdoms: a view from above	23	(38)
Thomas Charles-Edwards
The fifth and sixth centuries: Britain	24	(7)
The fifth and sixth centuries: Ireland	31	(3)
The seventh century	34	(11)
The long eighth century, 685-825	45	(16)
2 Society, community, and identity	61	(42)
John Hines
The natural environment	63	(2)
Economic life	65	(11)
Social units	76	(7)
Social networks	83	(8)
Macro-groups	91	(10)
An overview	101	(2)
3 Conversion to Christianity	103	(38)
Thomas Charles-Edwards
Space and time: the landscape and the calendar	105	(2)
The implications of conversion	107	(7)
Christianity, the Roman Empire, and the barbarians	114	(1)
The conversion of Ireland	115	(8)
The conversion of Northern Britain	123	(1)
The conversion of the English	124	(17)
4 The Art of authority	141	(50)
Jennifer O'Reilly
The Romani, art, and building in the Roman manner	143	(5)
Jerusalem	148	(2)
The cult of the Cross	150	(1)
The Ruthwell Cross	151	(3)
The Codex Amiatinus	154	(5)
The Insular Gospel books	159	(1)
The Book of Durrow	160	(4)
The spiritual interpretation of Scripture	164	(4)
The authority of Scripture and the symbols of the Evangelists	168	(5)
Four-symbol pages: the Book of Kells	173	(4)
The individual Evangelist and symbol: St Luke and the Lichfield Gospels	177	(5)
The Crucifixion in the Durham Gospels: an image of orthodoxy	182	(9)
5 Latin and the vernacular languages: the creation of a bilingual textual culture	191	(30)
Andy Orchard
Latin and the vernacular in sub-Roman Britain and early- Wales	194	(7)
Latin and the vernacular in early Ireland and Scotland	201	(6)
Latin and the vernacular in Anglo-Saxon England	207	(11)
Conclusion	218	(3)
6 Texts and society	221	(38)
Robin Chapman Stacey
The sources	224	(12)
Texts and contexts	236	(5)
Writing history	241	(18)
Conclusion	259	(12)
Thomas Charles-Edwards
Universal and national	261	(5)
The unity of the British Isles	266	(5)
Further reading	271	(11)
Chronology	282	(12)
Genealogies	294	(4)
Glossary	298	(9)
Maps	307	(6)
Index	313