Daily life in Arthurian Britain / Deborah J. Shepherd.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shepherd, Deborah J.

Series:

Greenwood Press "Daily life through history" series

The Greenwood Press daily life through history series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anglo-Saxons--Social life and customs.

Anglo-Saxons.

Great Britain--History--Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066.

Great Britain.

History.

Great Britain--Social life and customs--To 1066.

Manners and customs.

Physical Description:

xvii, 314 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Santa Barbara, California : Greenwood, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, [2013]

Summary:

If the King Arthur who gave name to an era actually existed, he would have lived at a different time, in a different area, and in a far different way than depicted in book, films, and television. Was Arthur a fabrication or composite? Or was he someone in disfavor with the chroniclers of the day, omitted from their accounts only to be reborn as legend centuries later in romantic accounts? Arthurian legends are immensely popular and well known despite the lack of reliable documentation about this time period in Britain. As a result, historians depend upon archaeologists to accurately describe life during these two centuries of turmoil when Britons suffered displacement by Germanic immigrants. Daily Life in Arthurian Britain examines cultural change in Britain through the fifth and sixth centuries-anachronistically known as The Dark Ages-with a focus on the fate of Romano-British culture, demographic change in the northern and western border lands, and the impact of the Germanic immigrants later known as the Anglo-Saxons. The book coalesces many threads of current knowledge and opinion from leading historians and archaeologists, describing household composition, rural and urban organization, food production, architecture, fashion, trades and occupations, social classes, education, political organization, warfare, and religion in Arthurian times. The few available documentary sources are analyzed for the cultural and historical value of their information. Book jacket.

Contents:

The setting

The people

Towns and countryside

Social identities

Making a living on the land

Making a living in crafts and trade

Keeping order

Matters of life and death.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780313332951

0313332959

9780313038525

031303852X

OCLC:

166388171