BRITAIN A.D.
A Quest for Arthur, England and the Anglo-Saxons
FRANCIS PRYOR
Harper Press
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2004
Copyright © Francis Pryor 2004
Francis Pryor asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this book
Maps and diagrams by Leslie Robinson and Rex Nicholls
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007181872
Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007347582
Version: 2017-01-05
For Maisie
From the reviews of Britain AD:
‘Controversial, deceptively clever and a damn good read’
BBC History Magazine
‘Pryor’s opinionated (yet fairly argued) text rollicks along, informed by a great deal of recent research and new discoveries…Eminently readable’
British Archaeology
‘Francis Pryor has been an eloquent advocate for a new, fascinating vision of the prehistoric past. After Seahenge and Britain BC, this book completes an exhilarating trilogy in which the received ideas of far too long are swept away’
Scotsman
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE Origin Myths: Britons, Celts and Anglo-Saxons
CHAPTER TWO The Origins and Legacy of Arthur
CHAPTER FIVE Late- and Post-Roman Britain: The Situation in the South and East
CHAPTER SIX The ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Origins of England
CHAPTER SEVEN Arthurian Britain: The Situation in the West and South-West
CHAPTER EIGHT The Making of the English Landscape
CHAPTER NINE Continuity and Change
Britain ad is in a sense the third volume of an informal trilogy on the archaeology and early history of Britain. It was not planned as a trilogy from the outset, because the idea only came to me gradually, as I was writing the first of the three books, Seahenge. I knew then that I had to write Britain bc, and in my heart of hearts I also wanted very much to tackle the challenge posed by the collapse of Roman rule and the onset of the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ of the fifth to seventh centuries ad. But I felt more than a little daunted by the task. It was the writing of Britain bc that gave me the broader perspective and confidence to undertake the present work.
As I worked on Seahenge, I became aware that I was writing a book about what archaeologists refer to as ‘process’: the methods, approaches and techniques whereby archaeology is actually done. In