Rory Naismith - Early Medieval Britain, c. 500–1000 (Cambridge History of Britain)

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This volume is written to provide students with an introduction to early medieval Britain: what happened, why and how to understand where the information comes from. It gives an outline of key chronological developments, and looks at larger themes, including the idea of Britain and the islands place in contemporary Europe. The chapters are divided into three sections on Conceiving Early Medieval Britain (which concentrates on ideas), Making Early Medieval Britain (which concentrates on chronologically specific developments) and Living in Early Medieval Britain (which concentrates on broader cultural and social developments).

The book is, it should be stressed, about Britain, at a time when the island was divided by language, culture and politics. For that reason there is a lot of comparison: setting one area alongside others, with important differences in how they worked. I have sought to include examples and discussion from multiple parts of Britain in every chapter, but inevitably balance and coverage is uneven. This is a result, above all, of what sources survive from the period; for some parts of the island on some topics, virtually nothing is known. Certain areas are outside the remit of reliable written history for the entirety of this period. Conversely, some areas are very well covered. Where the balance in a given chapter swings more towards one region or tradition, it is partly a response to what is available, but also out of an effort to present a coherent and informative approach. I have, wherever possible, noted ways in which details from one region might reflect what was going on elsewhere in areas less favoured in their surviving sources.

A number of practical points should be laid out here. The first relates to language. Early medieval Britain had multiple languages, each with its own spelling conventions. These referred to the same people and places differently, and in some cases there are also separate conventions in modern scholarship depending on various national or disciplinary traditions. In this book, names of places and individuals are generally given in the most familiar modern English form: hence London for Londinium , Londonia , Lunden or Lundenburh , and Alfred the Great for lfrd . Rulers of Alba in the ninth and tenth centuries are often now referred to using the medieval Gaelic or Middle Irish form (e.g. Causantn or Constantn) in order to underline the dominant language of the kingdom at that time, though for the sake of clarity this volume will primarily use the modern English equivalent if one exists (e.g. Constantine).

Each chapter is set up to include an initial overview paragraph, which functions as an abstract. The main text is complemented by boxes, most of which contain extracts from key sources, or discussion of particular methods or issues. All are provided in translation, with a note in the caption of which language the original was in. At the end of each chapter will be found a selection of key texts. These are chosen to emphasise general issues raised in each chapter: a fuller list of further reading can be found at the end of this volume and on the associated website, including all works directly used in writing each chapter. Also at the end of each chapter is a series of points for discussion. These are not meant to have easy, simple answers: many of them are versions of the questions that professional historians are still tackling. They are meant as a starting point for broader thinking on the topic.