Moss, John The Dark Ages

The Emergence of an English Identity

What has historically been referred to as the Dark Ages since the 14th century has proven to be less dark than previously thought. It is fair to say that the 600 years between the Romans' withdrawal from Britain and the Norman invasion in 1066 were more opaque than dark. It was a time of invasions of Britain by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, triggered by mass migrations from Eastern Europe to the West by warlike tribes such as the Goths, Vandals and Huns, by Vikings from the North, Moors from the East and Scotti tribes from the West. Most of these different peoples left few written records of their history or culture, as they were obviously more concerned with conquest. What is known about them comes from early medieval sources such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Irish clergy and medieval writers such as Bede, Nennius and Gildas, who often relied on earlier, unverifiable accounts. Later accounts by Henry of Huntingdon and Geoffrey of Monmouth resembled stories rather than history and were often heavily interspersed with ancient myths and folklore. Against the backdrop of contemporary studies and extensive archaeological research, this book attempts to shed some light on this darkness.