Settlements and Strongholds in Early Medieval England: Texts, Landscapes, and Material Culture

In recent years numerous advances in archaeological and historical studies have enhanced our understanding of the form and function of settlements and strongholds in the landscapes of early medieval England. Until now, this groundbreaking work has not been matched in studies of early English literature, where no concerted effort has been made to investigate how these findings can inform our understanding of their representation in texts - and vice versa. This study shows that literary works offer considerable insight into the ways their authors, readers, and other audiences thought and felt about the constructed places and spaces in which they lived their lives. Covering a broad range of evidence from the end of Roman rule to the Conquest, it is the first study of its kind to offer an interdisciplinary account of the relationship between the built environment as it appears in the material record, and in a range of textual productions. Settlements and Strongholds interrogates correlations and disjunctions between the stories found in the soil and in written works of various kinds, focusing on vernacular texts and Latin works that informed their development. It argues for a deeper appreciation of the relationship between imaginative works and the material contexts in which they were created, revealing the parallel development of ideas and concepts that were fundamental in shaping early medieval England.