Index. Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Abbreviations of Key Texts -- Works Cited -- Texts -- Materials -- Contexts -- Ruin Mythologies -- The Desolation of Britain -- Origin Mythologies -- Roman Buildings in the Exeter Book Elegies -- Roman Buildings in Andreas -- Rural Settlements in Early-Saxon England -- Loci Amoeni in the Vernacular Tradition -- Conclusion -- Settlements Before the 'Viking Age' -- Rebuilding Christendom in the Ruins of Rome -- Cosmic Halls in Beowulf and Cædmonʼs Hymn -- Minster Authority : Cædmon in the Historia Ecclesiastica -- Building the English Church in De Templo -- Structuring the Everyday in the Exeter Book Elegies -- Wīcs in Old English Poetry? -- Burhs in Middle-Saxon England -- Conclusion -- Settlements, Strongholds, and the Alfredian Reinvention -- Reclaiming the Urban Landscape in Andreas -- The Archaeology of the Burghal Hidage -- Society, Settlements, and the 'Alfredian' Translations -- Society, Settlements, and Asserʼs Vita Alfredi -- Conclusion -- Spiritual Strongholds in Late-Saxon England -- Bethulia as Burh in the Old English Judith -- Cities of G̦ood and Evil in Elene, Juliana, and Daniel -- Ælfric, Wulfstan, and the Building of Christendom -- The Anglo-Norman City in Durham -- Afterword -- Of Time and the City -- Earth, Wood, and Stone -- Structures of Community -- Works Cited -- Index.
Summary:
The first interdisciplinary study of settlements and strongholds in early medieval England through their representation in literary and material culture. In recent years numerous advances in archaeological and historical studies have enhanced our understanding of the form and function of settlements and strongholds in the landscapes of early medieval England. Until now, this groundbreaking work has not been matched in studies of early English literature, where no concerted effort has been made to investigate how these findings can inform our understanding of their representation in texts -- and vice versa.This study shows that literary works offer considerable insight into the ways their authors, readers, and other audiences thought and felt about the constructed places and spaces in which they lived their lives. Covering a broad range of evidence from the end of Roman rule to the Norman Conquest, it is the first study of its kind to offer an interdisciplinary account of the relationship between the built environment as it appears in the material record, and in a range of textual productions. Settlements and Strongholds interrogates correlations and disjunctions between the stories found in the soil and in written works of various kinds, focusing on vernacular texts and Latin works that informed their development. It argues for a deeper appreciation of the relationship between imaginative works and the material contexts in which they were created, revealing the parallel development of ideas and concepts that were fundamental in shaping early medieval England.
Series:
Studies in the Early Middle Ages, 1377-8099 ; volume 45
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.