Brittany And The Atlantic Archipelago 450 1200

How did Brittany get its name and its British-Celtic language in the centuries after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire? Beginning in the ninth century, scholars have proposed a succession of theories about Breton origins, influenced by the changing relationships between Brittany, its Continental neighbours, and the 'Atlantic Archipelago' during and after the Viking age and the Norman Conquest. However, due to limited records, the history of medieval Brittany remains a relatively neglected area of research. In this new volume, the authors draw on specialised research in the history of language and literature, archaeology, and the cult of saints, to tease apart the layers of myth and historical record. Brittany retained a distinctive character within the typical 'medieval' forces of kingship, lordship, and ecclesiastical hierarchy. The early history of Brittany is richly fascinating, and this new investigation offers a fresh perspective on the region and early medieval Europe in general.

"Brittany is rich in archaeological remains from prehistory. At many junctures in the remote past, the peninsula has been a centre of cultural innovation, or a corridor by which innovations have passed between the Mediterranean, inland Europe and the Atlantic. At the dawn of the Neolithic, it was the home of some of Europe's earliest and most spectacular megalithic funerary monuments, in particular the sequence of long mounds, passage graves and tumuli around Carnac from between 4700 and 3500 BC. At about the same period, thousands of dolerite axes made from the local stone at Plussulien, Côtes d'Armor, were transported all over western France. In the third millennium BC, rich grave goods and votive deposits show the region benefiting from its central position along the riverine and ocean trade routes from the Mediterranean to Britain. In the later Bronze Age Brittany may have been relatively isolated, a possible sign of this being the manufacture of thousands of non-functional bronze axes with a high lead content, purely for ritual burial. But from ca 500 BC Brittany's external contacts revived, with signs that it developed a 'middleman' role in channelling materials such as tin and copper from southern Ireland and south-west Britain to the power centres of west-central Europe, and later to the Mediterranean. It may have been by way of Brittany that La Tène art spread to Britain in the fifth century BC, the region's elegantly decorated pottery making use of the sinuous motifs of central European metalwork in a new medium. A dense settlement pattern reveals an elite able to assert its status with defended, banked and ditched enclosures and, on the coast, 'cliff castles'. Another distinctive artefact that survives in thousands from Iron Age Brittany is the stela, or shaped stone column. On the eve of Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul for the Roman Empire, we glimpse the political make-up of the peninsula. It comprised five territorial units, civitates, that each issued its own sophisticated coinage and had become rich from trading in Mediterranean wine with southern Britain; and it was part of a larger maritime region called in Gaulish Aremorica, the land facing the sea. 'Armorica' (French Armorique) is often used by modern writers as a synonym for Brittany, or as a convenient term for the peninsula in the prehistoric and Roman periods before it was settled by Britons. It must be borne in mind, however, that historically the name 'Armorica' referred to different extents of land at different times, usually including more territory than what later became 'Brittany'"--

While it is well-established that Brittany and the Insular world were closely linked during the medieval period, the precise nature of these connections continues to spark debate. Was there a significant migration in the fifth century, or were the connections more multi-faceted and enduring than medieval accounts suggest? And how might we triangulate the Atlantic connections with other influences on medieval Brittany, including those from the Carolingian world? Drawing together research that was first presented at the conference 'Brittany and the Atlantic Archipelago: Contact, Myth and History 450-1200', held in Cambridge in December 2017, this volume seeks to present new and ground-breaking research into both Brittany and its broader European context during the medieval period. The chapters gathered here range across various disciplines, including textual history, archaeology, hagiography, onomastics, and the study of liturgical evidence, offering new insights into our understanding of medieval Brittany, as well as drawing out particular connections (and disconnections) between Brittany and its neighbours.

The devolutionary shifts in British politics and the nature of British identity lead the contributors to this study to ask when and where was Britain. The notion of an Atlantic Archipelago is unfamiliar yet it allows a fresh approach to literary criticism and the assimilation of external ideas from neighbours.

Situates Celtic languages and literatures in relation to European movements, in the tradition of Helen Fulton's groundbreaking research. Professor Helen Fulton's influential scholarship has pioneered our understanding of the links between Welsh and European medieval literature. The essays collected here pay tribute to and reflect that scholarship, by positioning Celtic languages and literatures in relation to broader European movements and conventions. They include studies of texts from medieval Wales, Ireland, and the Welsh March, alongside discussions of continental multicultural literary engagements, understood as a closely related and analogous field of enquiry. Contributors present new investigations of Welsh poetry, from the pre-Conquest poetry of the princes to late-medieval and early Tudor urban subject matters; Welsh Arthuriana and Irish epic; the literature of the Welsh March - including the writings of the Gawain-poet; and the multilingual contexts of medieval and post-medieval Europe, from the Dutch speakers of polyglot medieval Calais to the Romantic poet Shelley's probable ownership of a Welsh Bible.

Study of the Norman World's borders, frontiers, and boundaries in Europe, shedding fresh light on their nature and extent. The Normans exerted great influence across Christendom and beyond in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Figures like William the Conqueror and Robert Guiscard subdued vast territories, their feats recorded for posterity by chroniclers such as Orderic Vitalis and Geoffrey Malaterra. Through travel and conquest, the Normans encountered, created, and conceptualised many borders, with the areas of Europe that they ruled and most affected often being grouped together as the "Norman World".This volume examines the nature, forms, and function of borders in and around this "Norman World", looking at Normandy, the British-Irish Isles, and Southern Italy. Three sections frame the collection. The first concerns physical features, from broad frontier expanses, to rivers and walls that were both literally and metaphorically lines of division. The second shows how borders were established, contested, and negotiated between the papacy and lay rulers and senior churchmen. Finally, the third highlights the utility of conceptual frontiers for both medieval authors and modern historians. Among the subjects covered are Archbishop Anselm's travels across Christendom; the portrayal of borders in the writings of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Gerald of Wales; and the limits of Norman seigneurial and papal power at the edges of Europe. Overall, the essays demonstrate the role that the manipulation of borders played in the creation of the "Norman World", and address what these borders did and whom they benefited.and negotiated between the papacy and lay rulers and senior churchmen. Finally, the third highlights the utility of conceptual frontiers for both medieval authors and modern historians. Among the subjects covered are Archbishop Anselm's travels across Christendom; the portrayal of borders in the writings of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Gerald of Wales; and the limits of Norman seigneurial and papal power at the edges of Europe. Overall, the essays demonstrate the role that the manipulation of borders played in the creation of the "Norman World", and address what these borders did and whom they benefited.and negotiated between the papacy and lay rulers and senior churchmen. Finally, the third highlights the utility of conceptual frontiers for both medieval authors and modern historians. Among the subjects covered are Archbishop Anselm's travels across Christendom; the portrayal of borders in the writings of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Gerald of Wales; and the limits of Norman seigneurial and papal power at the edges of Europe. Overall, the essays demonstrate the role that the manipulation of borders played in the creation of the "Norman World", and address what these borders did and whom they benefited.and negotiated between the papacy and lay rulers and senior churchmen. Finally, the third highlights the utility of conceptual frontiers for both medieval authors and modern historians. Among the subjects covered are Archbishop Anselm's travels across Christendom; the portrayal of borders in the writings of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Gerald of Wales; and the limits of Norman seigneurial and papal power at the edges of Europe. Overall, the essays demonstrate the role that the manipulation of borders played in the creation of the "Norman World", and address what these borders did and whom they benefited.eurial and papal power at the edges of Europe. Overall, the essays demonstrate the role that the manipulation of borders played in the creation of the "Norman World", and address what these borders did and whom they benefited.

This volume provides a collection of chapters by a multidisciplinary collection of experts on the linguistic variegation of the later-Roman and post-imperial period in the Roman west. It offers the first comprehensive modern study of the main developments, key features, and debates of the later-Roman and post-imperial linguistic environment.

Throughout the recorded history of Britain, belief in earthbound spirits presiding over nature, the home and human destiny has been a feature of successive cultures. From the localised deities of Britannia to the Anglo-Saxons' elves and the fairies of late medieval England, Britain's godlings have populated a shadowy, secretive realm of ritual and belief running parallel to authorised religion. Twilight of the Godlings delves deep into the elusive history of these supernatural beings, tracing their evolution from the pre-Roman Iron Age to the end of the Middle Ages. Arguing that accreted cultural assumptions must be cast aside in order to understand the godlings – including the cherished idea that these folkloric creatures are the decayed remnants of pagan gods and goddesses – this bold, revisionist book traces Britain's 'small gods' to a popular religiosity influenced by classical learning. It offers an exciting new way of grasping the island's most mysterious mythical inhabitants.