The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles, 350-650 [Hardcover]

John Morris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 1973

A lifetime's scholarship enabled John Morris to recreate a past hitherto hidden in myth and mystery. He describes the Arthurian Age as 'the starting point of future British history', for it saw the transition from Roman Britain to Great Britain, the establishment of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales from the collapse of the Pax Romana. In exploring political, social, economic, religious and cultural history from the fourth to the seventh century, his theme is one of continuity. That continuity is embodied in Arthur himself: 'in name he was the last Roman Emperor, but he ruled as the first medieval king.'

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Morris was the first professional historian to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the scattered evidence concerning the infant years of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, their influence on each other and their relationship with Europe. The Age of Arthur is now the classic account of the British Isles from the fourth to the seventh centuries. Senior Lecturer in AncientHistory at University College, London, the late Dr John Morris founded the journal Past and Present in 1952 and was its first editor. He initiated a major new edition of the Doomsday Book and, with A.H.M. Jones, the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. His last book, Londinium: London in the Roman Empir

Product Details

• Hardcover: 665 pages
• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; 2nd edition (May 17, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0297176013
• ISBN-13: 978-0297176015
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.8 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,015,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The historical Arthur..., April 7, 2004

By 

JR Pinto (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles from 350 to 650 (Hardcover)

John Morris's The Age of Arthur is an excellent reference guide for anyone interested in the historical Arthur, or the Dark Ages in general. It's as old as I am and I found it in a used book shop. At more than six-hundred pages, it is incredibly detailed and a bit hard to read cover-to-cover, but you can get the gist of it with some judicious skipping.

Some historians may have trouble with the conclusions that Morris draws. He relies heavily on folklore as his source. His thinking is, if there's smoke there's fire - if all these chroniclers write about a King Arthur who lived during the time of their fathers, then there's probably some truth to it.

As far as I can tell, the majority of historians (including Simon Schama) believe that there was a warlord named Arthur - he was the last Brit to fight off the Saxon hoards. The details of his life and the character of the man are unknowable. Morris would agree with that - he doesn't give us details of Arthur's life. There are snippets provided from historical writings - some of which portray Arthur as a tyrant. There is a Vortigern in this book, but no Merlin. Who knows how true Morris's assertions are, but in all fairness, like Herodotus, he does provide his source materials so you can make up your own mind.

24 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Allow me to rephrase that..., June 5, 2001

By 

"jefgodesky" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles, 350-650 (Hardcover)

Ahh, the incredulous acceptance of youth. Yes, to think there once was a time, not so long ago as I might wish it were, when I accepted every pearl of Dr. Morris' wisdom without question. I'm much more well-read on the subject now, and much more academically rigorous, or so I'd like to think. No doubt this review will pain me one day as well, but for now, I must set my mistakes aright!

The Age of Arthur is a very big book on an age we really don't know very much about. How do you put together that much material on such a scanty base of primary sources? Why, by accepting your sources without question, of course! Dr. Morris, bless his soul, was a widely respected scholar in Britain, until he published this book. And while I may not like the vitrolic, rabid attacks launched against his late person because of this publication, the fact remains that there's too many holes in its historical content to use in any way except with the utmost caution. Dr. Morris uses here sources of often questionable reliability, and is often too scanty in his citations to pick apart the reliable history, from the unreliable source material, from Dr. Morris' own conclusions. It is a wonderful book, as historical fiction if nothing else, but as a history book ... be careful. Be very, very, very careful. And please, if that is what you intend to use it for, know your conventional history books backwards and forwards, before you pick this one up.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Reads well, but can it be trusted?, April 7, 2011

By 

Caleb Hanson (Wilmington, MA, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles from 350 to 650 (Paperback)

The subtitle is a much better indicator of this book than is the title: it is a history of the British Isles, including Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and also Brittany, during this period (more like 400-700, actually) in the context of contemporary continental history and the history of religion, particularly the rise of monasticism; it is not especially about King Arthur. (I got the book many years ago and have tried several times to read it for the history of Arthur himself, unsuccessfully. I went back to it now after my recent studies of continental Late Antiquity/Dark Ages, and got a lot more out of it.)

On the other hand, the title proper does give warning of the book's main weakness: Morris approaches the period with some very old-fashioned ideas. He takes for granted the existance of a real historical King Arthur, for instance, despite a lack of much to actually say about him. When he covers Germanic peoples settling in Roman territory in Gaul, his language is all conquest and occupation, not hospitalitas and Roman policy. He is very happy to be cozily English.

And when Morris tries to propose a new, revisionist interpretation, he does it in some of the oddest places: Geoffrey of Monmouth was just kidding! His history of King Arthur was a parody, a joke that got out of hand, never meant to be taken seriously! The legend of Arthur that grew up from reading Geoffrey was, according to Morris, like treating "1066 and All That" as a straight textbook. (I'd be more willing to entertain this analogy if he took the trouble to get Sellar's and Yeatman's names right--he calls them Selman and Yeats.)

The material on Ireland and the North was new to me, readable and interesting; the back matter is full of useful-looking documentation and lists of sources. Sadly, I just don't know how far I can trust it.