A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain: England, Scotland, and Wales, C. 500-c. 1050This book provides a unique work of reference cutting across ancient cultural divisions within Dark Age Britain, and it enables the reader to follow the careers of people as far apart in time and place as the early Kentish kings and Viking earls of Orkney. Entries range from well-known characters such as Merlin, Alfred the Great, the historian Bede and the Danish warlord Cnut to the more obscure Pictish kings and abbots of Iona. Each entry is presented in a succinct and compact form in an easily accessible A to Z format. Here experts on a multitude of early historic peoples in Britain have brought together a dossier of scholarly findings on all those whose lives can be reconstructed from an examination of early source material, incorporating the very latest research. Englishmen from Wessex to Northumbria, Welshmen and Cornishmen, Northern Britons, Scots and Picts, Scandinavians from the Danelaw and York as well as from the Viking earldom of Orkney and the Southern Isles, all take their place in this wide-ranging survey of the people of Dark Age Britain. This detailed work of reference, supplemented by chronological and genealogical tables, will be an essential tool for all those with an interest in Dark Age Britain. |
Common terms and phrases
abbess abbot of Iona Adomnán Áedán Ælfgifu Æthelbald Æthelberht Æthelburh Æthelflæd Æthelred Æthelweard Æthelwold Aldfrith Alfred Anderson Annals archbishop of Canterbury Athelstan Bamburgh battle became king Bede Bernicia BIBL bishop British brother Bruide Cenél century Ceolwulf church Cnut Cnut's Columba Constantine Cuthbert Dál Riata Danes Danish daughter death defeated Deheubarth Deira died dynasty Eadwig ealdorman earl East Anglia Ecgberht Ecgfrith Edgar Edmund Edward the Elder Edwin Eirikr England English Eochaid father Frankish Gabhráin grandson Harthacnut Hywel Ireland Irish Kenneth Kent killed king of Dál king of Gwynedd king of Mercia king of Northumbria king of Scots king of Wessex kingdom kingship Lindisfarne mac Alpín Macbeth Malcolm married monastery monastic monk murdered Nechtán Norse Óengus Olafr Orkney Oswald Oswiu Penda Pictish Picts probably reign Rögnvaldur Roman Rome royal ruled ruler Scotland Scottish slain Smyth Stenton Strathclyde Britons succeeded successor Swein thegn Thorfinn Uhtred Viking West Saxon wife Wilfrid York