HST204: Warriors, Saints and Heroes in Early Medieval Britain
20 credits (semester 1)
Module Leader: Dr Charles West
| Pre-requisites |
Pass in at least two of the Level One modules offered by the Department of History.
| Module Summary |
This module explores patterns of power in early medieval Britain from the withdrawal of Roman authority in the fifth century through to the incursions of the Vikings in the ninth. We will focus on Anglo-Saxon England, though Wales and Scotland will also come into consideration. Central themes include the problem of where the Anglo-Saxons came from, the relations between independent Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the role of the Church in reshaping ideas of royal power, the nature of heroic warrior culture, Anglo-Saxons’ sense of their place in the wider world, and the changing distributions of power in their own society. We will explore a range of sources, ranging from archaeological excavations and coins to poetry, travel-writing and historical chronicles.
| Teaching |
| Lectures | Seminars | |
| 1 | The collapse of Roman Britain | King Arthur: fact and (mostly) fiction |
| 2 | Wolves into the fold: Angles and Saxons (and Jutes) | Anglo-Saxon apartheid? |
| 3 | The origins of early English kingdoms | Ban the Bretwalda! |
| 4 | The Conversion of the English | Paganism and pastoral care |
| 5 | Celtic Connections | The Synod of Whitby, 664 |
| 6 | Dalriada and the Picts | The Problem of the Picts |
| 7 | The Golden Age of Northumbria | Bede's World |
| 8 | Wider Horizons | An Englishman in Jerusalem |
| 9 | The Mercian Supremacy | Markets and merchants (and Marx) |
| 10 | Beowulf | Legendary heroes |
| 11 | An heroic age: beginnings and ends | Heroes, saints and warriors |
| Assessment |
The word limit for essays includes footnotes, but excludes the bibliography.
| Selected Reading |
- J Campbell, (ed.) The Anglo-Saxons (1982, republished Penguin, 1991; with pictures)
- Beowulf: a verse translation : authoritative text, contexts, criticism, edited by Daniel Donoghue, translated by Seamus Heaney (London and New York, 2002)
- Thomas Charles-Edwards, After Rome, c. 400-c800: Short Oxford History of the British Isles (Oxford, 2004)
- Robin Fleming, Britain after Rome: the fall and rise, 400-1070 (London, 2011)
- Edward James, Britain in the First Millennium (London, 2001)
| Intended Learning Outcomes |
Students completing this module will have developed:
- A broad understanding of significant issues in a substantial period of medieval British history, enabling the identification of major historical debates.
- An informed understanding of the contrasting ways in which secular and ecclesiastical power found expression in the British Isles during a critical period in the history of early medieval Europe.
- A sense of the contrasts and similarities between Germanic and Celtic cultures in Britain and their relationship to contemporary political developments in continental Europe, notably the Frankish world.
- Their ability to present coherent arguments in seminars, exchanging views with both the tutor and other students.
- Their ability to analyse and contextualise translated primary sources, both narrative and documentary, and interpret them to the seminar group.
- Their ability to synthesise different interpretations and argue effectively from the evidence.
- Their ability to research particular historical issues and debates in a more detailed form for essay writing, coming to independent conclusions of the basis of the literature.
- Their ability to use the International Medieval Bibliography on-line as a tool for identifying relevant bibliographical material.