Customer Reviews

The Anglo-Saxons (Pelican)

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During the 1960's and into the 1970's Pelican put forth a range of books that covered various peoples such as Vikings, Hittites and Phoenicians. Perhaps unsurprisingly for Pelican they also sallied forth with a book on the Anglo Saxons.

Now firstly it must be said that later archeological finds may impact on some of what is imparted here. However my overall 'gut feeling' on this small, somewhat breezy book is that perhaps not a huge amount has changed in our overall understanding of the Anglo Saxons and that later work has perhaps just fleshed out things more and more. And given the brevity of the book it's a fair call to say that only the salient points would ever be discussed in a book of this size anyway.

A number of photographic plates are included in the book along with some line drawings (in my edition at least) and it all helps the laymay understand more about the people who in essence came to dominate great swathes of territory in their newfound home. A worthy book overall and one I have good memories of though those hankering after a highly scholarly work may want to look elsewhere.

Wilson reviews both what is known about the Anglo-Saxons and of the 150 years of archeology done on them, and the resultant debates amongst researchers. In a concise account, he covers the centuries from when they arrived in Britain to the Norman invasion.

Much of the account deals with weapons and warfare. The book is generously illustrated, including numerous black and white plates.

One item doesn't appear to be discussed. Somewhere between when the Anglo-Saxons arrived and 1066, they dropped gender from their nouns, in what was to become English. None of the other European languages did this. While the text looks at manuscripts, this point wasn't explored.