Anglo-Saxon Myths: State and Church, 400-1066
Nicholas Brooks
Language: English
Pages: 272
ISBN: 1852851546
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In this collection of essays Nicholas Brooks explores some of the earliest and most problematical sources, both written and archaeological, for early English history. In his hands, the structure and functions of Anglo-Saxon origin stories and charters (whether authentic or forged) illuminate English political and social structures, as well as ecclesiastical, urban and rural landscapes. As well as previously published essays, Anglo-Saxon Myths: State and Church, 400-1066 includes a new account of the English origin myth and a review of the developments in the study of Anglo-Saxon charters over the last twenty years.
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be longer than that of any other English rulers apart from George III (1760-1820) and Victoria (1837-1901). Such doubts deserve attention because the supposed fifty-six-year reign conflicts with the evidence of a writer who was an exact contemporary of /Ethelberht, namely Gregory of Tours. Writing Book IV of his History at some date in or before 581, Gregory described how the Prankish king Charibert had (in 561) succeeded to his share of the kingdom of his father Lothar and had then taken as his
Welsh and Irish sources and notwithstanding the fact 9 D.N. Dumville, ' "Nennius" and the Historia Brittonum', Studio. Celtica 10-11 (1975-6), pp. 78-95; idem, 'Some Aspects of the Chronology of the Historia Brittonum'., Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 25 (1972-4), pp. 439-48; idem, 'The Historical Value of the Historia Brittonum', Arthurian Literature, 6 (1986), pp. 1-26; idem, 'Historia Brittonum: An Insular History from the Carolingian Age', Historiographie imfruhen Mittelalter, ed.
immediately around the cathedral complex. In Canterbury therefore, as in early medieval Trier, 34 there seems to have been a period when the area of settlement within the Roman walls had contracted and was restricted to the area around the cathedral immunity. Whether as the name might indicate this restricted borough was fortified by earthwork and timber defences within the Roman circuit can only be determined by excavation. Already in the ninth century there is evidence at Canterbury of
with Rome. Certainly, when, in the eighth century, we first have detailed evidence of the practice at Canterbury, we find that Rome and Gregory remained the models. It was the Roman, not the Gallican, psalter text that was used,15 while Archbishop Cuthbert's synod of Clofesho of 747 prescribed the general use of a written exemplar from the church of Rome in the office of baptism, in the mass, and in liturgical chant; it also advocated the adoption of an 11 Ibid., i. 27 (Resp. i), pp. 78-80. For
divine help his ecclesiastical career soon resumes its progress to even higher office. The pattern occurs in his youth at Glastonbury, here at Eadmund's court and again at the accession of Eadwig. We may suspect that the whole story of Dunstan's imminent expulsion, of the king's miraculous hunting escape and of Dunstan's consequent elevation is a tale that has much improved in the telling to fit this generic pattern. Abbot of Glastonbury (940 X 946-956) B. tell us that Eadmund repented of his
