Britain in the First Millennium

by Edward James

This survey of medieval Britain presents the events comprising the two great invasions from Continental Europe as a coherent narrative. Unique both for its broad historical perspective and for its wide geographic coverage, Edward James' all-encompassing history spans the "long" millennium from the first century BC through the Norman Conquest and covers events across the whole of Britain, from Cornwall to the Shetlands, providing the European context for events in England while also examining the many ways Britain differed from the rest of Europe. Students of medieval Europe will find his book an invaluable synthesis.

Genres: History, British Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Edward James is Professor of Medieval History at University College Dublin. He won the University of California's Eaton Prize for his book Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century (1994) and a Hugo Award for (jointly) editing The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction. He co-wrote, with Farah Mendlesohn, A Short History of Fantasy (2009) and he has co-edited a number of other books, all of them essay collections, with Farah Mendlesohn and others. One of these is the first and only academic book on Terry Pratchett, called Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature (first edition 2000, shortlisted for a Hugo Award in 2001). He is currently working on book-length studies of Gregory of Tours and Lois McMaster Bujold.

Reviews

[Peter Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers a long period and it is hard to be an expert upon an entire millennium. Hence this work is detailed in some areas, but not so in others. The end result is a fairly competent book, but not one that will rock your world. I found it a decent read, but not that exciting.

Although this book ostensibly takes in Britain, it is mostly focussed upon England, with Wales and Scotland only getting the occasional look in. There aren't many endnotes and it feels like one for the reasonably informed general reader rather than for someone with a decent level of knowledge.

In places the scholarship feels a bit creaky.

He:

favours Strensall over Whitby for the eponymous synod. This is despite no monastic remains being found at Strensall, nor any mention of a monastery there and that Whitby makes sense for lots of other reasons, such as it being a major centre at the right time, easy to get to by ship and fits with the political dimension of Oswiu and Alhfrith, etc

follows Stenton in seeing the Ealdfrith who attested a charter of Offa's in 786-796 as being a late king of Lindsey. However, it's only the fact that the name in the king list of Lindsey roughly matches this period and the high place of attestation in that charter that is in favour of this theory. Most experts believe it is simply a transcribing error and should be read as Offa's son, Ecgfrith.

equates Bretwalda as ruler of Britain.

has pennies named for Penda, to which one objection, from several, to this would be that it predates their introduction.

My favourite line from this book concerns Eadwig 'leaving his coronation for a spot of lechery'.


This is an ok book, but you could probably do better.

[Rhiannon Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear and sensibly cautious book which outlines what we can know while keeping track of what we cannot.

[Josh Liller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was assigned reading for my Medieval England college class. Older history like this is not really one of my areas of interest or strong knowledge, but the book was still moderately interesting and decently written. The author tries to be honest about the many limitations and uncertainties in the historical record for pre-Conquest England.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A re-read reminded me that it is a very good book, a very clear exposition of the events and developments of the period, and very honest about the current level of our ignorance of these. Also, contains a Terry Pratchett quote :)

[Sylvia]

I tried to actually read this book now that it wasn't required reading for me. I can't finish it. It was as dry and boring as I remember. I have to move to something else.