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3 Les destinées de l’Illyricum méridional pendant le haut Moyen Âge. 4 Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge 120–2. Rome: 5 l’École Française de Rome. 2009. 238 pp. + 50 b/w and 101 color figures. 6 EUR 55. ISBN 978 2 7283 0870 5; ISSN 0223 9883. 7 8 This is the proceedings of a conference jointly organized by École 9 française de Rome, Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance, and 10 the Albanian Institute of Archaeology in Lezha (Albania) in 2008.In 11 the introduction, Etleva Nallbani explains its main objective as throw- 12 ing new light on developments in the Western Balkans during the early 13 Middle Ages, primarily on the basis of archaeological research con- 14 ducted in the past two decades. The present volume witnesses not only 15 the technological advances in archaeology, which can be seen at work in 16 a number of contributions, but it also bears the mark of a renewed 17 interest in rural settlements and the relative departure from political 18 history in favour of detailed analyses of production, distribution, and 19 exchange routes. 20 Rather than summarize the wealth of insights in a short space, I will 21 focus on two major themes addressed by this volume: urban and rural life 22 in Illyricum and patterns of production and distribution. Pascale Cheva- 23 lier and Jagoda Mardešic´ contribute an insightful piece on urban life at 24 Salona during the sixth–seventh centuries based on the recent excavations 25 conducted in the episcopal complex of the town. The gradual trans- 26 formation of the late Roman city is best exemplified by the ‘ruralization’ 27 of public spaces, the appearance of fortified areas owing to growing 28 insecurity in the course of the sixth century, and the presence of intra- 29 mural burials. What seems atypical for many fortresses of the Balkans is 30 the conclusion that Salona was not destroyed by barbarian invaders but 31 was peacefully and gradually deserted towards the middle of the seventh 32 century. Unlike the case of Salona, at Lissus the spectacular cemeteries 33 spanning several centuries from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages 34 are located outside the walls of the city. The preliminary conclusions 35 drawn by Etleva Nallbani and Luc Buchet point to a high density of Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) 354–375 © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX42DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148,USA JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 2 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 3CEA877A /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 graves and a significant variety in grave architecture, which might witness 2 the presence of a heterogeneous population at Lissus in the early Middle 3 Ages. 4 The decay of urban institutions and the gradual impoverishment 5 caused by wars and epidemics during the sixth century are discussed by 6 Skënder Muçai in his concise overview of Albanian archaeological 7 research concerning late antiquity. This phenomenon is exemplified by 8 the case of Byllis, an important town from Epirus Nova. Aside from 9 urban developments Muçai points to the gradual ruralization of the 10 Illyrian provinces of Epirus Nova and Prevalitana, beginning with the 11 second half of the fourth century. The transition from late antiquity to 12 the early Middle Ages is covered by Jean Terrier, Miljenko Jurkovic´ and 13 Ivan Matejcˇic´ in a very important essay furthering our understanding of 14 rural life in the Guran region of Istria. What seems most interesting after 15 the initial stages of the research is the existence of purely medieval 16 settlements in this rural area, created anew and alongside agglomerations 17 dating back to late antiquity. 18 The patterns of exchange in the Adriatic, Aegean, and the Mediter- 19 ranean regions were drastically transformed after the geo-political 20 changes of the seventh century. Joanita Vroom focuses on the ceramic 21 finds from the excavations from the Triconch Palace at Butrint. Based 22 on the pottery assemblage Vroom concludes that Butrint ‘was linked 23 politically, culturally and commercially with the Byzantine world’, but 24 also that cooking jars from Butrint have analogies on the Italian coast, 25 especially at Otranto. Similar cultural and economic connections seem 26 to be true also for Lissus. Sauro Gelichi and Claudio Negrelli use the 27 same type of evidence, this time from a western Adriatic perspective, 28 based on excavations conducted recently at Comacchio. Much like 29 Vroom in the case of Butrint, they acknowledge a certain continuity 30 with late antique patterns of production and exchange but also empha- 31 size the economic regionalization. A major conclusion drawn from the 32 development of local production and the study of widespread ceramic 33 types, the globular amphora in particular, is the role of the north Adri- 34 atic region in the intensification of exchange with the Agaean world 35 and the eastern Mediterranean, with Venice and Comacchio acting as 36 emporia. 37 The ten diverse and stimulating contributions gathered in this 38 volume will no doubt offer a new perspective on the destinies of Illyri- 39 cum in the early Middle Ages. We should expect even more enlight- 40 ening finds from the multinational archaeological teams working on 41 major Albanian sites. 42 43 University of Florida ANDREI GÂNDILA˘ Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 3 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 4D7323B2 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 The Present and the Past in Medieval Irish Chronicles. By Nicholas 2 Evans. Studies in Celtic History. Woodbridge and Rochester: The 3 Boydell Press. 2010.xv+ 289 pp. £60. ISBN 978 1 84383 549 3.

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5 The Irish chronicles, otherwise known as the Irish annals, are considered 6 sources of paramount importance for the history of early medieval 7 Ireland and , and for the dating of events in both Ireland and 8 Britain, but they survive in manuscripts from no earlier than the eleventh 9 century. This raises the question of how much of the information is 10 genuinely early, and what has been added or altered during the later 11 development of the texts. Evans’s study builds on previous research, and 12 attempts some of the basic groundwork to improve our understanding of 13 the annals by establishing their textual development, and by identifying 14 key changes in them, both textual and chronological. To this purpose, his 15 study is limited to the better-known and perhaps better-understood texts: 16 the Annals of Ulster (AU) and its close relative, the Annals of Loch Cé; 17 and the Annals of Tigernach (AT) and the Chronicon Scotorum (CS; both 18 of the ‘Clonmacnoise group’), with occasional reference to their close 19 relatives, the Annals of Inisfallen and the Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib. 20 The title (the ‘Present’ and ‘Past’) of the volume is apt. Evans’s Intro- 21 duction describes the manuscript sources and comments on previous 22 scholarship (in particular and at some length on the recent controversial 23 publications of Daniel Mc Carthy), and considers the various theories 24 concerning the nature of the ‘Chronicle of Ireland’, the hypothetical 25 common source to c.911 of the surviving texts. The first three chapters 26 examine in turn the sources of the principal annals (AU, and AT and CS) 27 for the period from 911 to 1100, and the relationship of the Clonmacnoise 28 group to the ‘Chronicle of Ireland’, and with a fourth chapter examining 29 the items shared by AU and the Clonmacnoise group for this period. Evans 30 provides a detailed analysis of the annals’ developing vocabulary, in which 31 he detects evidence for communication between the various centres of Irish 32 scholarly activity up to the mid-eleventh century. The remaining four 33 chapters consider the earlier section of the annals, covering the period from 34 431 to 730, and evidence for the later alteration of these with the insertion 35 of items from Mediterranean history – , emperors and some notable 36 events – into the common stock of AU and the Clonmacnoise group. 37 Following this, an attempt is made to reconstruct the chronology of the 38 Irish chronicle at the time when these items were added, and further to 39 reconstruct the original chronology of the annals before the addition of 40 these items. The eighth chapter discusses evidence for the overall recasting 41 of the Clonmacnoise-group annals for the years ad 431–730 at some time 42 during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 4 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 47CA6474 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 This is followed by a chapter summarizing the conclusions reached in 2 the preceding chapters and setting the chronicles in their wider geo- 3 graphical and social context. The ultimate conclusion of this second half 4 of the book will no doubt be somewhat disappointing for historians of 5 the early Middle Ages: Evans demonstrates that there are no easy solu- 6 tions to the problems of the chronology of the annals for the period prior 7 to 664, as his Appendix 1, a concordance of the annals for ad 431 to 730, 8 makes clear. His renumbering (of necessity) of the annals of the so-called 9 ‘third fragment’ of AT underlines the urgent need for a new edition of 10 this text. 11 Although highly technical and densely argued, with extensive foot- 12 notes, The Present and the Past is written in a lucid and readable style, 13 with the often complex evidence presented in an exceptionally clear and 14 orderly manner. Maps are provided for places and geographical features, 15 and for territories and peoples mentioned in the text, and there are 16 numerous figures in the text tabulating the chronological questions under 17 discussion. Most of the chapters conclude with a summary of their 18 findings and with suggestions for further research. The edition by Boydell 19 is of the very high standard we have come to expect from this publisher, 20 and both publisher and author are to be congratulated on a volume that 21 should be a model and inspiration for future scholars working on the 22 early medieval insular chronicles where, as Evans observes more than 23 once, there is still so much to be done. 24 25 Independent scholar HENRY GOUGH-COOPER 26 27 The Divorce of Lothar II: Christian and Political Power in 28 the Carolingian World. By Karl Heidecker. Translated by Tanis M. 29 Guest. Conjunctions of Religion and Power in the Medieval Past. Ithaca: 30 Cornell University Press. 2010.xi+227 pp. £29.50,$45. ISBN 978 0 8014 31 3929 2. 32 33 The attempts of the Carolingian king Lothar II to divorce his wife 34 Theutberga have long had a central place in the history of western 35 marriage and of Carolingian politics. Yet many aspects of this case have 36 been under- or unexamined. In this translated and revised version of his 37 Kerk, huwelijk en politieke macht: de zaak Lotharius II (855–869) (Amster- 38 dam, 1997), Karl Heidecker provides an accessible, lucid, and well- 39 researched account of this notorious affair. For greater detail on certain 40 points, particularly sources and evidence, scholars will want to consult 41 the original Dutch book, but the English version is the more straightfor- 42 ward read. Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 5 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 408B89F5 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 Heidecker opens with a concise summary of changes in marriage 2 regulations from the time of Pippin the Short to the grandsons of 3 Charlemagne, demonstrating the gradual development of some new 4 ideas. By the mid-ninth century churchmen tried to insist that 5 be blessed by priests and to Christianize formerly secular elements of 6 marriage. Heidecker’s ensuing discussion of sources recognizes the hos- 7 tility of the authors of many surviving texts from the time of the scandal; 8 quite a few were composed after Lothar’s death. The sources are therefore 9 generally negative toward Lothar, and Heidecker rightly emphasizes that 10 we cannot assume these texts reflect widespread opinion during Lothar’s 11 lifetime. 12 Heidecker presents Lothar’s attempts to divorce Theutberga in six acts. 13 In clear explanations of complex familial and political relations, the first 14 two acts demonstrate why Lothar found it expedient to marry Theut- 15 berga in 855 and why he first tried to divorce her in 857.In855, alliance 16 with Theutberga’s brother Hucbert was advantageous, but by 857, Lothar 17 wished to sever this bond. An accusation of sodomy and incest against 18 Theutberga and Hucbert gave Lothar a chance of remarriage, which was 19 crucial because Lothar wished to formalize a union with Waldrada, his 20 companion prior to marrying Theutberga and the mother of his son 21 Hugo. The third act analyzes Hincmar of Rheims’ De divortio, one of the 22 most important surviving sources. Heidecker tracks political changes over 23 the time Hincmar wrote it and compares his opinions on Lothar’s divorce 24 with those on other contemporary cases. Hincmar did not remain con- 25 sistent in his views but rather moulded his responses to fit political 26 expediency. 27 Acts 4 and 5 further explore Lothar’s supporters and detractors. 28 Heidecker offers a cogent explanation, especially for non-specialists, of 29 the reasons bishops and kinsmen backed Lothar, or in some cases did not, 30 when he lived openly with Waldrada while Theutberga proclaimed her 31 innocence and appealed to Nicholas I for reconsideration of her case 32 (860–2). Significantly in Act 4, Heidecker consigns to ‘the dustbin’ the 33 idea of , marriage between two consensual partners without 34 parental consent. By employing manuscript evidence and picking apart 35 illogical interpretations of texts, Heidecker shows that partnerships 36 between men and women should be examined contextually and indi- 37 vidually. Act 5 measures the degree to which Pope Nicholas I (858–67) 38 exerted authority over the divorce case. When kings wanted something 39 from the pope or he was able to play them off one another, he could 40 succeed in imposing his will far from Rome. In 865, Lothar had to take 41 Theutberga back as queen because Nicholas excommunicated him, 42 putting his kingdom in peril from his uncles Louis the German and 43 Charles the Bald. Yet shortly thereafter Nicholas could not enforce his Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 6 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 455CA3A7 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 removal of bishops nor his excommunication of Waldrada when those in 2 power north of the Alps passively ignored his orders. Lothar’s case here 3 stands as an example of the limits on the power and will of an early 4 medieval pope. 5 Lothar’s efforts to divorce were cut short by his death in 869. Many 6 immediately saw his end as a judgement upon the king, and this negative 7 view of Lothar has endured. Heidecker calls for a new interpretation and 8 convincingly demonstrates the political nature of these matters while 9 acknowledging their considerable social and religious ramifications. 10 Lothar’s case helped spur increasing clerical definition of legal marriage 11 and the emergence of two key characteristics of lawful marriage in the 12 west: mutual consent of both partners and lasting monogamy. 13 Now that Heidecker’s valuable contribution to the history of politics, 14 marriage, and law in the Carolingian world is available in English, it 15 should gain the wider audience it deserves. The inclusion of some rela- 16 tively long source selections, with original Latin passages in footnotes, 17 makes the book ideal for graduate seminars. The book’s genealogical 18 charts are indispensible for understanding the text, especially for anyone 19 not well versed in this period of Carolingian history. A map and list of 20 kings’ reigns are also included. 21 22 Northern Illinois University VALERIE L. GARVER 23 24 Byzantine Art: Recent Studies. Essays in Honor of Lois Drewer. 25 Edited by Colum Hourihane. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and 26 Studies 378. Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance 33. 27 Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2009.xx+ 197 pp. $60, €45. 28 ISBN 978 0 86698 426 3. 29 30 The nine essays in this volume were presented as papers at a one-day 31 conference held at the Index of Christian Art, Princeton University, in 32 2008, to coincide with the annual Byzantine Studies Conference held 33 that year in nearby Rutgers University. They focus on Byzantine iconog- 34 raphy, and are dedicated to Lois Drewer, who developed the Byzantine 35 resources in the Index over the course of her long and fruitful career. 36 Three of the essays deal with themes relevant to the chronological span of 37 this journal, and they will be the focus of this review. 38 Slobodan C´ urcˇic´’s ‘Representations of Towers in Byzantine Art: The 39 Question of Meaning’ (pp. 1–37) surveys – as the title indicates – images of 40 towers in early Byzantine art, with particular attention to the corpus of 41 sixth- to eighth-century floor mosaics in (modern) Syria and Jordan, and 42 to the Khludov Psalter in Moscow (Historical Museum, cod. gr. 129), Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 7 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 412EE729 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 normally dated to the mid-ninth century. C´ urcˇic´ persuasively argues that 2 towers have a distinctive iconographic and symbolic role in Byzantine art, 3 essentially as symbols of Heavenly Jerusalem. Unfortunately, he appears to 4 be unaware of an article which anticipates his own discussion of the 5 mosaics (my own ‘The Conquest of Space’, in Ruth Macrides (ed.), Travel 6 in the ByzantineWorld, 2002), and the major book on the Khludov Psalter, 7 which deals explicitly with the miniatures he considers (Kathleen Corrig- 8 an’s Visual Polemics in the Ninth-Century Byzantine Psalters, 1992). As a 9 result, the chapter is stimulating but not definitive; we await C´ urcˇic´’s 10 promised monograph on the theme for a deeper treatment of the material. 11 Henry Maguire’s ‘Moslems, Christians, and Iconoclasm: Erasures 12 from Church Floor Mosaics during the Early Islamic Period’ (pp. 111–19) 13 provides a provocative rethinking of why animal and human figures in 14 the floor mosaics of certain churches in Syria and Jordan were carefully 15 picked out and replaced with foliate motifs or scrambled mosaic cubes. 16 The Christian congregations of the churches concerned were apparently 17 responsible, and it is widely believed that peer pressure from their Islamic 18 neighbours spurred this ‘iconophobic’ activity. Maguire focuses on the 19 Church of the Virgin at Madaba, where in 767 a sixth-century mosaic 20 was removed and replaced with a mosaic inscription that begins ‘Looking 21 on Mary the Virgin mother of God and on Christ whom she bore...’ 22 We do not know what the inscription replaced, but Maguire suggests that 23 it may refer to an image of the Virgin in the apse. If so, Christian 24 iconophobia in Syria and Jordan was not directed against sacred portraits; 25 and indeed the mutilated subjects on church floors are normally personi- 26 fications, people, and animals, often still just discernable. Basing his 27 arguments on the acts of the second Council of Nicaea of 787, which 28 temporarily restored image veneration, Maguire notes that animals and 29 nature personifications were associated with pagan gods and idols. He 30 concludes that, rather than bowing to Muslim peer pressure, the Chris- 31 tians who defaced mosaics in the churches of Syria and Jordan were 32 enthusiastic Orthodox worshippers, familiar with the theological debates 33 about images centred in Constantinople, who were attempting to distin- 34 guish themselves from idolators in the long-running image debates that 35 began in the seventh century. 36 Finally, Eunice Dauterman Maguire’s ‘Muslims, Christians, and 37 Iconoclasm: A Case Study of Images and Erasure on Lamps in the Johns 38 Hopkins University Archaeological Collection’ (pp. 121–52) – a pendant 39 of sorts to the previous chapter – looks at defaced clay oil lamps. This is 40 a virtually untouched topic, and Dauterman Maguire presents examples 41 of lamps with ornament removed before firing and ornament chipped 42 away after removal from the kiln. She asks why images on lamps were 43 sufficiently important to warrant this treatment, and concludes with an Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 8 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 4A56C481 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 examination of the amuletic function of lamps before noting that these 2 small oil lamps made of clay are important barometers of the changes that 3 mark the transformation from late antiquity to the Middle Ages. 4 5 University of Birmingham LESLIE BRUBAKER 6 7 Europe’s Barbarians AD 200–600. By Edward James. The Medieval 8 World. Harlow: Pearson. 2009. xii + 344 pp. ISBN 978 0 582 77296 0. 9 10 Assessing the overall significance of the role played by Europe’s barbar- 11 ians in the early medieval period has never been completely straightfor- 12 ward. Whether the rise to prominence of Goths, Franks, and others was 13 cause or effect of the collapse of Roman dominance has long been 14 debated, but it used to be agreed that the appearance of these entities 15 marked a new historical era, and that some of them could be seen as 16 ancestral to the states of early modern and modern Europe. Most of us are 17 now pretty familiar with one of the major intellectual developments 18 which has further complicated barbarian history. Since no one–afew 19 ultra-nationalists aside – now believes that national communities, rigidly 20 defined by descent and culture, have provided the prime means of orga- 21 nizing larger groups of human beings since time immemorial, how – 22 given the inadequate descriptions provided by Roman sources – are we to 23 conceive of the agglomerations of humanity operating under such labels 24 as Visigoth and Frank? Moreover, as Edward James rightly points out, 25 two other historiographical developments have further muddied the 26 waters. First, the rise of a North American ‘school’ of late antique 27 studies – with little interest in matters non-religious and in the increas- 28 ingly former Roman west post-400 ad – has implicitly (and in part 29 deliberately) suggested that the barbarians’ rise to prominence was not a 30 major historical phenomenon. Second, much of the output of the exten- 31 sive European Science Foundation project on the Transformation of the 32 Roman World focused on concepts such as ‘continuity’, ‘transformation’, 33 and ‘assimilation’. These again tend to imply that nothing very revolu- 34 tionary was afoot in the passage from Roman to post-Roman Europe. 35 The appearance of James’s new synthesis is thus timely, and, as you 36 would expect from a scholar of his calibre, the work brings huge clarity to 37 these troubled waters. Well designed, the study comprises an analytical 38 introduction to the methodological problems – in both sources and 39 historiography – involved in studying barbarians, followed by three nar- 40 rative chapters, which serve a largely introductory role to the seven 41 thematic ones which follow. These focus unerringly on the key issues 42 in barbarian studies and provide the real meat of the work. A brief Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 9 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 44CAEA55 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 conclusion rounds off the study. Throughout the writing is crystal clear 2 and the touch light, the substantive sections being punctuated by enlight- 3 ening asides. My favourite is a note that the site of Tara has been 4 destroyed by people hunting the Ark of the Covenant. 5 The key thematic chapters display many virtues. The geographical 6 range could not be bettered. James’s study focuses not just on the tradi- 7 tional Goths and others, but introduces Slavs where appropriate (given 8 his date limits), and – more consistently – deploys less well-known 9 material from Ireland, Britain and Scandinavia to explore themes such as 10 the longer-term effects of with the Roman empire, religious 11 conversion and the development of state structures. The result is a range 12 of more interestingly complex arguments with a greater appreciation of 13 the variety of possible particular outcomes within broader, overarching 14 patterns of change. There are far too many to list, but I’m sure he’s quite 15 right, for instance, to emphasize in Chapter 10 both that so-called Arian 16 Christians were convinced of the correctness of their position, and the 17 variety of actual religious outcomes that emerged even in just those 18 societies which converted to what was becoming Christian orthodoxy. I 19 also particularly enjoyed the Scandinavian material in Chapter 11. For the 20 most part, too, the full range of scholarly opinion is at least mentioned in 21 all of these chapters and properly referenced allowing further exploration. 22 Being an interested , I do have some reservations but most are 23 pretty small. James doesn’t come clean, for instance, that supposing the 24 Gothic Tervingi to have been split before they were assaulted by the Huns 25 involves using the mid-fifth-century Socrates, who demonstrably knew 26 little about non-religious history, to correct Ammianus’ detailed contem- 27 porary account: the chances that this is a methodologically correct move 28 are very small. I am genuinely surprised, likewise, that he thinks that the 29 majority of scholarly opinion follows Goffart’s view that incoming bar- 30 barians were rewarded with tax allocations rather than real estate. I am 31 myself confident that the contrary is true. In addition, many scholars 32 (and they are numerous even if tending to make less noise in print than 33 their opponents) are not so convinced as Chapter 5 appears to be that the 34 modern insights into how larger-group identities change require us to 35 discount our ancient source material’s insistence that they nonetheless 36 sometimes played such an important role in the action. But these are 37 relatively small points, and my only major reservation is in fact with 38 Chapter 8 on migration. This is a controversial topic and James is of 39 course entitled to his own view, but I do think he spends too much time 40 here on all the nonsense about Scandinavia. No one really believes this 41 any more, and it does seem to me that he uses its unnecessarily detailed 42 refutation to imply that all possible instances of large-group movement in 43 the period are pretty much equally ridiculous. But the Tervingi and Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 10 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 4AF30727 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 Greuthungi of 376 or Theoderic’s Ostrogoths in – to take but two 2 examples – are by contrast described as large mixed and coherent groups 3 of humanity on the move in not obviously nonsensical contemporary 4 accounts. Whatever its conclusions, the chapter would have been more 5 helpful, I think, had it focused on these kinds of instance. 6 At least as important as these chapter level arguments, however, are the 7 overarching perspectives James brings to his work. Above all, James argues 8 – in my view correctly – both that the end of the empire marked a major 9 change in the unfolding patterns of European history, and that the Roman 10 empire did not voluntarily will itself into non-existence. In the face of some 11 of the contrary assertions made in self-proclaimed revisionist writing, it is 12 another major contribution of this book to re-emphasize these important 13 points. If anything, they might even have been made more strongly. James 14 notes rightly that the Vandal and Anglo-Saxon successor states were 15 established by conquest, setting distinct limits on ‘voluntarist’ visions of 16 the end of Roman power. In doing so, however, he draws a contrast with 17 other instances where ‘treaties’ (Lat. foedera) are mentioned. It’s worth 18 remembering, though, that, as at Versailles in 1919, treaties often follow 19 major bouts of conflict, their main points actually dictated by the outcome 20 of that violence. On closer examination, most of the major Roman– 21 barbarian treaties of the fifth century (with Alaric, Euric andTheoderic for 22 instance) all follow this pattern. And what might also have been mentioned 23 is the debilitating effect of each loss of territory on the tax revenues of the 24 central Roman state and its capacity to maintain armies (all well docu- 25 mented in contemporary sources), so that each enforced loss of territory 26 made it more likely that others would have to follow. 27 28 King’s College London PETER HEATHER 29 30 Charters of Peterborough Abbey. Edited by Susan Kelly. Anglo-Saxon 31 Charters 14. The British Academy: Oxford University Press. 2009. xxviii 32 + 404 pp. + 3 maps. ISBN 978 0 19 726438 6. 33 34 This edition of Peterborough charters is the fourteenth in the British 35 Academy series ‘Anglo-Saxon Charters’ and the ninth by Dr Kelly herself. 36 After a very detailed introduction of 119 pages, Kelly presents edited texts 37 and associated commentaries for thirty-one charters (she also edits four 38 further documents as appendices). This edition marks a significant depar- 39 ture from previous volumes in the series, since for the first time it is 40 concerned with a religious house situated in territory that, after the 41 mid-ninth century, experienced considerable Scandinavian intrusion. To 42 an extent, this historical situation is represented in the range and type of Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 11 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 3C3BCB05 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 document preserved at Peterborough abbey, some of which are very 2 different to those in more standard West Saxon archives. 3 Peterborough abbey was founded originally in the late seventh century 4 by Seaxwulf, who was also the abbey’s first abbot; at this moment it was 5 known as Medeshamstede (a name which Peterborough traditions suggest 6 was inspired by a nearby pool in Nene called Medeswæl or Medeswelle; see 7 p. 4). Kelly expounds the early history of the abbey, suggesting that it 8 would have had close links with the nearby minster of Castor and 9 warning that the twelfth-century Peterborough sources which purport to 10 convey a detailed description of the early foundation of the abbey are best 11 approached with a good deal of scepticism. Kelly documents the impor- 12 tance of Peterborough as a Mercian religious house in the late eighth and 13 early ninth century and she once more questions the twelfth-century 14 Peterborough tradition that Medeshamstede was wholly destroyed in the 15 mid-ninth century. 16 There has been much scholarly debate recently about the impact of 17 Scandinavian settlement on religious establishments in the area known as 18 the Danelaw. Kelly emphasizes that the Peterborough archive can help 19 significantly in this debate, in particular the composite memorandum 20 numbered 30 (S 1448a) which provides much information about the 21 reality of Anglo-Danish integration. She discusses the possible fate of 22 Medeshamstede’s endowment, suggesting that there would have been 23 profound changes in landholding in the century 870–970, with various 24 estates passing into the hands of Scandinavian lords (pp. 30–3). 25 In the remainder of her historical introduction, Kelly explains the 26 change in name from Medeshamstede to Burh and in so doing considers 27 that the use of the latter name, traditionally thought to have been 28 adopted in the late tenth century, could possibly have had its roots in the 29 pre-Viking period (pp. 39–40). She continues by explaining the crucial 30 role that Bishop Æthelwold played in the so-called refoundation of the 31 abbey in the late tenth century and puts this into the wider context of 32 Æthelwold’s actions in the other Fenland abbeys of Ely and Thorney. 33 From 984 historical material is more plentiful concerning Burh and Kelly 34 charts its evolution up until the Conquest and even beyond; it seems to 35 have been from the year 1052, and the accession of Abbot Leofric, that 36 Burh enjoyed one of its most prosperous periods. But any advance seems 37 to have been checked by the Norman Conquest and a 1070 assault on 38 Peterborough itself. 39 One of the reasons that the Peterborough archive is particularly inter- 40 esting is that it contains documentary evidence that does not directly 41 concern Peterborough itself but in fact comes from Breedon-on-the-Hill, 42 Hoo in Kent, and Woking and Bermondsey in Surrey. Stenton, basing his 43 arguments partly on this material, suggested that the early community at Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 12 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 4A7A03DE /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 Medeshamstede had been the head of a monastic federation, whose archive 2 naturally contained documents which belonged originally to its daughter 3 houses. In a separate and important section (pp. 67–78), Kelly expresses 4 doubt about this idea of a monastic federation and suggests that the 5 composite character of the Peterborough archive is reflective not so much 6 of a federation but rather of displacement and disruption of minsters in the 7 Danelaw, which resulted in the concentration of documents in one single 8 archive (p. 78). 9 Kelly’s ‘History of the Archive’ (pp. 78–85) contains essential back- 10 ground information to the charters themselves and of the Liber Niger, the 11 earliest extant cartulary from Peterborough (dating to the second quarter 12 of the twelfth century); but also an illuminating discussion both of oral 13 procedures in the Danelaw and of the diverse character of the Peterbor- 14 ough archive. Her ‘Authenticity of the Charters’ (pp. 97–102) provides a 15 very useful overview of the authenticity or otherwise of each document 16 preserved in the Peterborough archive. Of particular interest here is her 17 examination of those documents which purport to be from the seventh 18 century (pp. 97–8), one of which seems to be a memorandum of a lost 19 diploma (3,S1806) and another of which seems to be a composite 20 document compiled with information from a series of genuine seventh- 21 century texts (4,S1803–5). Kelly’s discussion of the relationship between 22 a set of twelfth-century forgeries in the archive and the Peterborough 23 version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is similarly engaging (pp. 99–100; 24 also pp. 65–6). 25 There is much that is of interest in this book and much that 26 goes against established scholarly opinion; and it is of course of funda- 27 mental importance that the Peterborough charters are here presented and 28 made accessible in a modern scholarly edition. It seems a shame, then, that 29 it is let down by constant typographical errors and omissions of words. 30 31 Robinson College, Cambridge D.A. WOODMAN 32 33 Anglo-Saxons and the North: Essays Reflecting the Theme of the 34 10th Meeting of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists in 35 Helsinki, August 2001. Edited by Matti Kilpiö, Leena Kahlas-Tarkka, 36 Jane Roberts and Olga Timofeeva. Essays in Anglo-Saxon Studies 1. 37 Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 364. Tempe, AZ: Arizona 38 Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2009. [viii] + 191 pp. £ 32. 39 ISBN 978 0 86698 412 6. 40 41 The first volume in this new series of Essays in Anglo-Saxon Studies from 42 Arizona combines an interest in all matters Anglo-Saxon with closely Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 13 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 3B39BF42 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 related areas in Northern European studies. Most of the contributions 2 were first read at the Helsinki conference of ISAS, which focused on the 3 theme of ‘Anglo-Saxons and the North’, one befitting the hitherto north- 4 ernmost ISAS conference ever held. With nine essays on literature, lan- 5 guage, codicology, history and archaeology, the book offers a broad 6 spectrum of subjects, which will be of interest to both Anglo-Saxonists 7 and scholars of Old Norse studies. 8 The book opens with Joseph Harris’s discussion of the Rök stone 9 inscription. On this well-known rune stone from Östergötland, a long 10 inscription by Varin in memory of his son Vamoð features elements 11 familiar to an Anglo-Saxonist, such as Theodoric, the prince of the 12 Mærings, who died among the Hreiðgoths, an echo of the Old English 13 poem Deor. Following literary interpretations of this much-discussed 14 inscription, Harris argues that two-thirds of its content derives ultimately 15 from West Germanic oral sources, and postulates possible ties between 16 Scandinavia and continental centres such as the Frisian trade post of 17 Dorestad and Charlemagne’s capital of Aachen. Harris’s article demon- 18 strates the importance of a thorough knowledge of Germanic philology, 19 which is also the subject of Katrin Thier’s contribution on terms for ships 20 and shipping parts in and Scandinavia. By tracing the etymolo- 21 gies of such terms and by distinguishing borrowing from other develop- 22 ments, Thier shows a word field that was very much alive in the early 23 Middle Ages and which reflects frequent contacts between England and 24 Scandinavia. 25 Two of the contributions to Anglo-Saxons and the North focus on 26 metrics. Geoffrey Russom points out that the assessment of Norse Eddic 27 poetry has suffered from the uncritical application of Sievers’s method of 28 scansion and the comparison with Old English verse. By applying his 29 word-foot theory, Russom explains that the development of three distinct 30 metres in Eddic poetry is a natural reaction to the changing syllable 31 structure of Old Norse. Jonathan Roper compares Old English verse with 32 Baltic–Finnic alliterative verse which flourished in Finland, Estonia and 33 adjacent regions until well into the nineteenth century. Having discov- 34 ered as many parallels as there are differences in these widely divergent 35 traditions, Roper argues for the much better-documented Finnish tradi- 36 tion of alliterative verse to be used by Anglo-Saxonists in their search for 37 answers to the many questions about Old English verse that still remain 38 unanswered. 39 History and archaeology are a fruitful mixture in the contributions by 40 Debby Banham and Frank Battaglia. Debby Banham looks critically at 41 the evidence for Scandinavian influence on Anglo-Saxon agriculture, in 42 particular at the possibility that open field farming was introduced by 43 the Vikings, and argues for caution. The archaeological and historical Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 14 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 42F2259B /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 evidence suggests continuity rather than revolution. Frank Battaglia takes 2 to heart Rosemary Cramp’s advice that archaeologists should consider 3 literature, while literary critics should also pay attention to material 4 evidence (p. 67). With ample reference to archaeological discoveries, 5 Battaglia investigates the transition of bogs to halls as centres of religious 6 practice in early medieval Denmark. This transition symbolized a change 7 from the veneration of chthonic deities by means of offerings, to the 8 worship of a later generation of gods through celebration. Battaglia 9 finishes his paper with the question of what this may mean for the 10 interpretation of Beowulf, where Grendel’s morhop stands in opposition 11 to Hrothgar’s Heorot. 12 The most famous Anglo-Saxon object in Northern Europe today is 13 perhaps the St Petersburg Bede manuscript, which is the subject of 14 George Hardin Brown’s contribution. Brown offers a very well-informed 15 overview of past and present scholarship and provides a justification for 16 the prominence of the St Petersburg manuscript in the most recent 17 editions of Bede’s Historia. 18 Two papers in Anglo-Saxons and the North deal with the modern 19 perception of Anglo-Saxon and Norse history and literature. Jonathan 20 Wilcox discusses the Russian critic Mikhail Ivanovich Steblin-Kamenskij 21 (1903–81), whose critical appraisal of Old Norse literature may serve as a 22 ‘potentially liberating’ (p. 115) force for Anglo-Saxonists and as ‘an anti- 23 dote to the painstaking but under-theorized work that generally prevails 24 in Anglo-Saxon studies today’ (p. 120). Barbara Yorke takes us back to the 25 Victorian age, and shows how the history of King Alfred and the Vikings 26 was used to justify Britain’s imperial wars in India and South . As 27 Alfred fought just wars against the Vikings, but in the end pacified and 28 converted these savages, so British forces in India and South Africa fought 29 comparable enemies with a similarly noble purpose. The Vikings were 30 therefore both enemies and examples to historically minded Victorians. 31 Although the variety of subjects addressed by the different contribu- 32 tions is substantial, this does not undermine the cohesion suggested by 33 the title – something occasionally seen in publications of conference 34 proceedings. The articles are scholarly and informative, and, without, 35 exception, provide food for further thought. 36 37 University of Groningen KEES DEKKER

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39 Chalcedon in Context: Church Councils 400–700. Edited by Richard 40 Price and Mary Whitby. Translated Texts for Historians, Contexts 1. 41 Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 2009. vii + 205 pp. £65. ISBN 978 42 1 84631 177 2. Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 15 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 4083F868 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 The Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 553 with related texts 2 on the Three Chapters Controversy. Translated with an introduction 3 and notes by Richard Price. Translated Texts for Historians 51. Liverpool: 4 Liverpool University Press. 2009. xiv + 717 pp. £120. ISBN 978 1 84631 5 178 9. 6 7 The welcome debt historians owe to Richard Price and his collaborators 8 continues to grow. The Acts of the (2006), which 9 he prepared with Michael Gaddis, disappeared quickly from conference 10 book displays and was reissued again in paperback. Its three volumes 11 include, not only a clear and reliable translation of the acts with com- 12 mentary, but an excellent introduction, supporting documents, and 13 useful maps, glossary, and indices. Now scholars may add a complete 14 translation of The Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 553 to their 15 personal libraries. Once again Price’s extra labour in supplying detailed 16 indices and an up-to-date bibliography makes this volume a valuable 17 aid to research as well as an accessible introduction to the doctrinal and 18 political issues surrounding the Fifth Ecumenical Council. Roughly a 19 third of its contents consists of translations of important documents 20 that helped to set the stage for the council, including letters from 21 western clergy in reaction to Justinian’s 544/5 edict against the so-called 22 Three Chapters and the emperor’s own follow-up edict On the Ortho- 23 dox Faith from 551, and the two Constituta issued by the unfortunate 24 Pope Vigilius, the first rejecting and the second accepting the emperor’s 25 position. The lengthy introduction situates the acts in their historical 26 context ‘on the road from Chalcedon’. Here Price also probes deeply 27 into the politics constraining the bishops’ deliberations and especially 28 into the evolution of Justinian’s strategy across the 540s and 550s: from 29 first attempting to win over the eastern opponents to Chalcedon, the 30 emperor shifted to muscling through a consensus among all its sup- 31 porters in the east and west. Ironically, it would be the ‘losers’, those 32 who refused to join the consensus, whose pejorative narrative would 33 dominate the legacy of Constantinople. Price encourages historians to 34 return to the documents themselves, which preserve voices on both 35 sides of the contest. Doing so requires sensitivity to both their historical 36 context and their ‘literary character’. The acts, in particular, ‘remain a 37 credible record of a council whose proceedings, choreographed in 38 advance, were more akin to liturgy than to a modern parliamentary 39 debate’. Scholars and students could not have a better entry into those 40 proceedings than this volume. 41 Yet Price offers more. Many of the literary and textual issues he raises 42 in the translations of Chalcedon and Constantinople are explored at 43 length by the essays collected in Chalcedon in Context, which Price edited Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 16 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 3C5353CF /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 together with Mary Whitby. It is the first volume in a new companion 2 series to Translated Texts for Historians, called Contexts. The purpose of 3 the new series is to situate translation volumes ‘in the framework of the 4 latest scholarly debate with edited papers by leading researchers who have 5 met to discuss problems and prospects’. The essays indeed provide an 6 informative context that also serves as an introduction to key issues for 7 the historical interpretation of church councils and their records. Several 8 authors are drawing on their own previously published or forthcoming 9 work, including a translation of the Lateran Council of 649 by Price and 10 Catherine Cubitt. Most focus to varying degrees on ancient editorial 11 practices, the importance of translation, and the influence of both eccle- 12 siastical and secular politics on council proceedings. Together they give a 13 good sense of the dynamic state of the field and point to numerous areas 14 of ongoing investigation. 15 The first essay is by David Gwynn on ‘the definition of Christian 16 tradition’ between the Council of Nicaea (325) and the issue of the 17 Henotikon (482). No one before 451 seems to have known of any 18 ‘Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed’ as such but that did not stop the 19 bishops at Chalcedon from taking it up as an authoritative complement 20 to the Nicene Creed. Along with approving some of ’s 21 writings and Leo the Great’s Tome, they expanded Christian authorita- 22 tive tradition to include more than Scripture alone. Focusing on the 23 Council of Ephesus (431), Thomas Graumann addresses two related 24 challenges that other essays also will tackle. First, it is often important but 25 difficult to tell when texts were read aloud in the council and to what 26 effect; the most consequential instance of this is Cyril’s third letter to 27 . Second, editors made interventions in the record, not only for 28 the sake of concision and clarity, but to shape the appearance of the 29 proceedings, with the emperor not least envisioned among their audi- 30 ence. Fergus Millar picks up on the problem of editorial activity and even 31 more on issues of language and translation in his detailed study of a 32 Syriac translation of the acts of the second Council at Ephesus (449)from 33 a manuscript dated to 535. With the aid of chronological tables of texts 34 and events, he demonstrates how this translation fits into a moment of 35 imperial goodwill toward non-Chalcedonian theology and into the early 36 rise of a Christian Syriac literary culture. Andrew Louth returns to the 37 Syrian perspective when he asks why, if Chalcedon was the culmination 38 of conflict between Alexandrian and Antiochene schools of doctrine, did 39 Syrian bishops come to reject Chalcedon along with the Egyptians? 40 Louth argues that Cyril represented not an Alexandrian school but ‘the 41 broad consensus’, which he went outside of his philosophical comfort 42 zone to defend against Nestorius in the Twelve Chapters. One effect 43 was to rouse the anger of Syrian bishops, who themselves had never Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 17 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 430D1120 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 constituted a school and whom the Henotikon later helped push 2 to decisive renunciation by affirming the Twelve Chapters but not 3 Chalcedon. 4 Chalcedon is centre stage in two essays by Price. The first is a narrative 5 that highlights, among other things, the presiding role of the imperial 6 representative who, ‘it is clear, thoroughly enjoyed his work’, and how 7 dynamics changed over successive sessions. In what might be read as a 8 variation of Gwynn’s argument, he characterizes the reception of Chal- 9 cedon’s acts as a ‘new conciliar fundamentalism’, whereby the ‘honest 10 disclosure of tensions and agreements’ became fodder for future disagree- 11 ments. In the next chapter, Price goes on to test the honesty of those acts 12 under three rubrics: truth, omission and fiction. Variations between the 13 two extant versions of the acts, as well as close attention to subscription 14 lists, are shown to reveal some cases of omission or fiction. Although 15 unanimity was required of verdicts, the record of some disagreement 16 might have been intended to validate the proceedings to non-participants 17 or future generations (Graumann made a similar point in his essay). 18 Three essays focus on later councils and their relationship to the 451 19 council. Chalcedon’s authoritative status was made certain only in 20 Justinian’s reign, when first the emperor and then the second Council of 21 Constantinople ‘rewrote history with a will’, trying to dispel ambiguity 22 and resolve contradiction. According to Price, this ‘reshaping of the 23 historical record’ was ‘more the fruit of wishful thinking than deceit’. 24 Catherine Cubitt’s essay on the Lateran Council of 649 addresses key 25 themes in this volume, especially the contest between imperial and epis- 26 copal authority, the use of acts from earlier councils as proof texts, and the 27 importance of language – the Lateran acts were issued in both Latin and 28 Greek. If there is a big jump from Chalcedon to Constantinople to 29 Rome, Judith Herrin demonstrates the immediacy of issues raised at 30 Chalcedon for bishops assembled during 692 in what was called the 31 Council in Trullo as well as the Quinisext Council. Herrin first traces the 32 legacy of Chalcedon’s canon 28, on the ecclesiastical status of Constan- 33 tinople, in the context of canon lists and other collections circulating in 34 the Greek east and Latin west. She then looks more closely at the form 35 and function of such lists as the background to comparing the canons of 36 Chalcedon and the Quinisext Council. 37 The final two essays by Charlotte Roueché and Price return to scruti- 38 nizing the acts of Chalcedon in order to address two important subjects: 39 the role as well as the recording of acclamations during council proceed- 40 ings; and the degree to which those proceedings allowed room for 41 ‘bishops behaving badly’. Naturally, there is much overlap between these 42 essays. The editors might have imposed more consistency and provided a 43 fuller introduction or conclusion, one which highlights the common Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 18 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 46C96538 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 themes running through the volume. The maps and glossaries found in 2 Price’s translation volumes are missed and some considerable knowledge 3 on the part of readers is occasionally taken for granted. Those who forget 4 their Three Chapters may have trouble figuring out why Ibas of Edessa 5 and are mentioned so often. Some may wonder 6 why one contributor denounces the term miaphysite as a ‘barbarity’, 7 when all other contributors prefer it to monophysite. In summary, more 8 volumes in the Contexts series are most welcome. But they would be 9 more broadly useful and long-lasting if they enjoyed the same editorial 10 care that goes into the TranslatedTexts. For now, Price and his colleagues 11 have supplied a wealth of ideas and resources for investigating the history 12 of church councils. 13 14 Ohio University KEVIN UHALDE 15 16 The Viking Age: Ireland and the West. Proceedings of the Fifteenth 17 Viking Congress, Cork, 18–27 August 2005. Edited by John Sheehan 18 and Donnchadh Ó Corráin. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2010. xxviii + 569 19 pp. + 147 b/w figures and 22 colour plates. £45. ISBN 978 1 84682 101 1. 20 21 This lengthy and profusely illustrated record of the fifteenth Viking 22 Congress is produced in the instantly recognizable clear, crisp style of the 23 Four Courts Press. Some fifty papers, each with its own bibliography, fit 24 into the main themes of the Congress: Viking-Age Ireland, Development 25 of Urbanism, Scandinavia and the Continent and Weapons and Warfare. 26 Congresses have been held at roughly four-year intervals since the first at 27 Lerwick in 1950. Congress proceedings have certainly increased in length 28 (and weight) since then – a nightmare for editors – but it is rather 29 unfortunate that the sixteenth conference, in Iceland in August 2009, was 30 held before the volume under review was published. Indeed the Icelandic 31 volume is also promised for the end of this year or early in 2011. Never- 32 theless we can sympathize with the editors and their assistant Shannon 33 Lewis-Simpson and applaud the high quality and accuracy of their work. 34 Congress proceedings are always eagerly anticipated by everyone with an 35 interest in the Viking Age and they are an undoubted stimulus to further 36 study and research. 37 About half the regionally based papers are on Ireland with signifi- 38 cant contributions on Scandinavia, Iceland, Faroes, Scotland and 39 England. The Sagas, runic and other inscriptions and emporia also 40 feature. Identifying the earliest phases of Viking activity preoccupy a 41 number of authors. Maurice Hurley, for example, exploring Viking 42 elements in Irish towns, points out that despite uneven archaeological Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 19 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 3F5B13D1 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 investigation Dublin’s urban development still appears to contrast with 2 that in other Hiberno-Norse towns. Large-scale excavation in Waterford 3 city centre has revealed nothing earlier than the early to middle eleventh 4 century despite mention in the annals of Viking settlement there a 5 hundred years earlier. Vikings in Cork are mentioned first in the mid- 6 ninth century, but the earliest settlement evidence is late eleventh. 7 However Waterford, at least, appears to have been a relocated settlement 8 since excavations begun in the year preceding this Congress had already 9 started to show earlier settlement of the ninth and tenth centuries at 10 Woodstown, six kilometres upstream from the town centre. Hurley was 11 only able to give brief details, but subsequent work has revealed a large 12 earthwork enclosure with evidence of metal-working and commerce. It is 13 currently interpreted as a longphuirt, but other suggestions include a 14 trading settlement. 15 Linzi Simpson draws together evidence emerging from the area of the 16 Black Pool on the River Poddle, which gives Duib-linn its name. Here, if 17 the RC dates are correct, ninth-century burials of young Scandinavian 18 warriors, hearths, post-holes and clench nails have been found in an area 19 which was already settled. The early Christian cemetery dating c.700– 20 1200 close to the church of St Michael le Pole may suggest that it was the 21 site of Dublin’s monastery. Eamonn Kelly reports on the work done in 22 Connemara by Erin Gibbons and himself. He believes that Vikings in 23 this area quickly assessed its settlement potential and that coastal areas 24 came under their control quite quickly, perhaps as early as the second 25 decade of the ninth century. Areas of machair grassland plus rich marine 26 resources were inviting. The Eyrephort warrior burial close to the beach 27 is reinterpreted as that of a settler rather than an isolated transient burial. 28 Place names, burials and artefacts all indicate substantial Viking coastal 29 settlement in Connemara and work on the Atlantic west coast of Ireland 30 might reveal a similar situation there. Kevin Edwards and Douglas Borth- 31 wick suggest that RC dates from Toftanes, Faroe Islands and increasing 32 environmental evidence appear to agree with the historical date for Norse 33 arrival about ad 800. 34 Julian Richards and John Naylor report on the work of VASLE (Viking 35 and Anglo-Saxon Landscape and Economy Project) set up in 2004 and 36 designed to use and interpret finds made under the Portable Antiquities 37 Scheme in England. Accompanying maps move from illustrating the 38 varying densities of finds of all periods from which deductions can be 39 made about constraints on data collection, to period-specific maps where 40 the distribution of artefacts such as lead weights and bridle, stirrup and 41 harness fittings are shown. This is an exciting venture with real potential 42 to change our view of the Scandinavian impact on England. Important 43 also is Alan Lane’s updating of his work on pottery in the Hebrides, Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 20 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 4616AE47 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 where a sequence from c.500 ad to c.1400 is now identifiable. Publication 2 of the vital Udal site might clarify questions about the date of the new 3 Viking style. 4 There is much to absorb and stimulate in these fifty papers. Once 5 again a Viking Congress report does not disappoint and moreover is 6 reasonably priced given today’s standard. 7 8 University of Exeter DEREK GORE 9 10 Slaves and Warriors in Medieval Britain and Ireland, 800–1200. By 11 David Wyatt. Leiden and Boston: Brill. 2009. xix + 455 pp. + 4 b/w ills. 12 € 152.00. ISBN 978 90 04 175334. 13 14 This book starts with a most provocative sentence: ‘Modern preconcep- 15 tions and sensibilities have profoundly affected historical interpretations 16 of the medieval institution of slavery’ (p. 1) and it ends with the similar 17 accusatory statement: ‘Many historians have chosen, either consciously or 18 unconsciously, to sweep such unsavoury social undercurrents [such as 19 illicit slave trades and human trafficking] belying the progress of western 20 “civilisation” under the historical carpet. There has been a distinct ten- 21 dency amongst both historians and archaeologists to de-emphasize or 22 ignore such practice’ (p. 402). 23 In between, there is an engaging and reasonable argument, written by 24 a sometimes frustrated author. His frustration and energetic discussion 25 are, in my opinion, well founded: our understanding of the medieval 26 world is indeed problematic and biased, owing to the nature of our 27 written sources. However, during his own ‘clean-up operation’, the 28 author falls into several traps, especially when taking comparative 29 examples from outside the British Isles, to make his points. 30 Nevertheless, in this important book, David Wyatt takes a new and 31 fruitful approach to British–Irish medieval slavery, which is a welcome 32 complement to works by David Pelteret. Wyatt does this in a somewhat 33 unorthodox way, in that he looks upon medieval slavery as having a 34 background not so much in economic conditions, as in cultural ones. 35 The former have provided the normal framework for explanation of the 36 background to slavery, especially during the extensive Marxist-coloured 37 research of the 1970s. According to Marxist historical theory, slavery was 38 a means of production which was found in early stages of civilization, but 39 became obsolete in a capitalist system. By looking instead upon slavery as 40 a cultural phenomenon, this book makes it obvious that slavery contin- 41 ued well after the Middle Ages and in fact still exists, even in Western 42 societies. In his analysis, Wyatt is forced to bring up that most sensitive Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 21 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 41CA4937 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 subject, sexuality, which for a long time was absent from historical 2 analyses of the Middle Ages. He is able to show, beyond question, that 3 to fully understand the qualities of medieval slavery, we must bring 4 masculinity, sexual dominance, honour, power, gender and virilization 5 into the discussion. An important nexus in all this concerns the young, 6 unmarried men, and the warrior fraternities, which were so vital in early 7 (pre-)historical periods, but remain so little known and discussed. In 8 my opinion, this combination of slavery and young men, warrior frater- 9 nities and masculinity (macho societies), discussed by Wyatt is most 10 important, and a key for understanding early slavery not only in Britain, 11 but also, for example, in Scandinavia. Here, Wyatt has opened up a new 12 research field, which will, no doubt, be important in the future. 13 In his attempt to argue for a much more widespread usage of slavery in 14 Anglo-Saxon England than has previously been recognized, Wyatt makes 15 use of citations from colleagues, and comparisons with Scandinavia. The 16 arguments here presented are, however, sometimes vague, and sometimes 17 not even valid. For medieval Britain, citing Alex Woolf, who claims that 18 ‘most rural households probably included some slaves’, leads Wyatt to 19 conclude that such a statement ‘is significant because if peasant farmers 20 also owned slaves...’,ending in the bold verdict: ‘As a consequence, it 21 seems likely that the slave numbers recorded within Domesday have been 22 grossly underestimated’ (p. 35, my italics). It is, of course, impossible to 23 build a case on non-evidenced arguments like this, surrounded by ‘ifs’ 24 and ‘probablys’. Wyatt is obviously aware of this, so he turns to Scandi- 25 navia for evidence. Referring to Ruth Mazo Karras, who based her 26 discussion of Scandinavian slavery partly on the evidence of the Icelandic 27 sagas, he states that ‘slave ownership was prolific among farming house- 28 holds and many slaves existed and worked alongside their peasant 29 masters’ (p. 35). Such a bold statement, founded upon saga stories, is 30 really on shaky ground. Slave descriptions in the sagas are exceptionally 31 stereotyped, and cannot be recommended as unsupported (non-) histori- 32 cal sources. Wyatt continues (perhaps) therefore to refer to some Scan- 33 dinavian scholars who contributed to the book Trälar (ed. Myrdal and 34 Lindkvist, 2003; including myself), and states that suggestions of a low 35 percentage of slaves in society, and of a high proportion of free peasants 36 in Scandinavia, influencing a decline in slavery in the Danelaw, ‘are 37 directly contradicted by the weight of the primary evidence and second- 38 ary evidence illustrating the slave-owning nature of Scandinavian society’ 39 (p. 35). This is, to use Wyatt’s own wording, to ‘grossly’ misinterpret the 40 contributions in the book Trälar. To my knowledge, we in principle lack 41 this kind of evidence for Scandinavia. One of the kinds of ‘primary 42 evidence’ upon which Tore Iversen built much of the hypothesis he 43 presented in his most influential and excellent thesis Trelledommen Early Medieval Europe 2011 19 (3) © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JOBNAME: No Job Name PAGE: 22 SESS: 12 OUTPUT: Thu May 26 16:08:52 2011 SUM: 2BEE9BB3 /v2451/blackwell/journals/emed_v19_i3/05emed_324

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1 (1997), regarding a high percentage of slavery in early Scandinavia, is 2 highly questionable: that is, the place-name evidence. By contrast, what 3 is characteristic of the opinions of scholars represented in Trälar is their 4 differing interpretations of the number of slaves in society, and their 5 generally cautious approach to Scandinavian slavery, owing to the lack of 6 sources. It is therefore impossible to use the Scandinavian evidence to 7 argue for wide usage of slaves in Anglo-Saxon society. This hypothesis 8 might be correct, but it is not possible to validate it with (non-existent) 9 Scandinavian evidence. 10 The best argument for a larger slave population is – I assume – that 11 only male slaves used for agriculture were numbered in Domesday, but 12 that there must also have existed unnumbered slave women and children, 13 which would have made the total count of slaves in England higher than 14 that suggested by this source. 15 There are some other flaws, which could be changed in a new edition, 16 such as: Helle Vandkille (not Vandekilde) is a she, not a he (p. 63 ff.); J.P. 17 Schjødt (not Schjødr, p. 94 n. 158); Fagrskinna is not a saga (p. 95), but 18 a manuscript, a catalogue of Norwegian kings, their histories, intermixed 19 with short stories (thættir); and Landnámabók (p. 120) is not the ‘earliest 20 Icelandic source we have’. 21 But these are minor criticisms (from my Scandinavian perspective). 22 Instead, David Wyatt is to be praised for focusing on, and giving us 23 plenty of arguments for, the significant cultural aspect of medieval 24 slavery. It is a shame that the publisher has chosen to charge €152/US$ 216 25 for this important and thought-provoking book: the targets are obviously 26 the major university libraries, rather than individual students. This work 27 should be on the bookshelf of every student interested in early slavery in 28 Europe. 29 30 University of Aberdeen STEFAN BRINK

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