University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education

From Civilisation To Barbarism? Western Britain in the Early

Middle Ages

Tutor: Dr Kirsten Jarrett

Week Five: Written Sources

•When and where was the text written? How long after the events described?•Who wrote the text? Did the writer have direct experience?•Why did the author write the text? Who was the intended audience?•In what form was the record made? Are there changes between the original source and later copies?

Appraisal of written sources:

key questions

Range of Written Sources•Civil and Military Surveys and Registers

•Legal Texts•Poetry and panegyrics•Polemics: criticisms and disputes•Religious texts – e.g. defixiones, Bibles•Epistolae: ‘letters’•‘Ethnic’ histories and Geographies•Annales, Chronicae and Historiae – narrative ‘histories’•Hagiographies / Vitae: Saints’ ‘Lives’•Memoriae: primarily stone inscriptions

•Notitia Dignitatum Occidents AD 395-408 (revisions <AD 425)

Records bureaucratic and military offices in the western Roman Empire

•Chronica Gallica CCCCLII (AD 452) DXI (AD 511) (Monastic, Southern Gaul? C9 – 10 MS) Records Saxon incursions (AD 410?) and conquest (c. AD 441?)

Continental Written Sources: C5

•Vita Germanus, Constantius of Lyons, c. AD 480 Records visits of Germanus (Bishop of Auxerre) to Britain to contest heresy, AD 429 and late 430s – early 440s First visit: Germanus support s British troops against Picts and Saxons. Mentions “man of tribunician power” Second visit: mentions regional leader

•Epistola, Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius, AD 460’s/70’s (senatorial family - City prefect, Bishop of Clermont-Ferrand)

Letters mention King Riothamus of Britanni – Britons or Bretons

Continental Written Sources: C6

Zosimus : Historia Nova (New History), early C6 (civil servant)

‘Gallic revolution influenced by Britons’ (draws upon now lost work of Olympiodorus, published c. 425)Mentions Honorian Rescript

Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, C 6References to usurper Constantine III and Constans

Procopius, mid C6 (civil servant) •Historia Arcana (Secret History) British ‘barbarians’ given diplomatic payments by Justinian•De Bello Gothico (Gothic Wars)

‘Tyrants’ in Brettania (Britanny?) and Brittia (Britain)Belesarius gives Britain to Goths in exchange for Sicily

Jordanes: Getia (Gothic History), AD 550 Summarises Cassiodorus’ lost History

Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiae AD 620IX, 2, 102: Legendary origins of Britons

C7 Written Sources:Continental, Irish and Anglo-Saxon

Laws of Ine: Wessex, late C7 - early C8

‘British’ Written Sources•Patrick: C5 - NW Britain?Epistola : letter to soldiers of (N?) British ‘tyrant’ CoroticusConfessio: ‘autobiography’

•Gildas: De Excidio Britannae, c. AD 500-550 (540?)Epistola: pseudo-historical preface

complaints to kings and clergy (Admonitiuncula)Fragmenta: fragments of letters (from Gildas?)Poenitentia: penetential – ecclesiastical ‘rules’

Later Sources: Western Britain

•Annales Cambriae: C8-12 (first compiled AD 954?) - containing entries from AD 613 onwards?•Liber Landavensis: ‘Llandaff Charters’ – C8-12, possibly incorporating some earlier sections (contains references to mid C5)

•Literary sources: ‘Praise poetry’ and mythologies [Week 6]

•Legendary ‘biographies’ and Hagiographies: saints’ ‘lives’ - most C9-11+ (e.g. Gildas: monastery Rhuys, Brittany, C9+ & Caradoc Llancarfan, C12)•Royal genealogies: Wales C9+? May claim descent from Adam, Jesus, or Roman emperors. Generational ‘telescoping’

•Historia Ecclesiatica Gentis Anglorum Bede: AD 731, Mentions Angles, Saxons, Jutes – C8 interpretation

•Historia Brittonum, ‘Nennius’: AD 829 / 30

•Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: late C9, Wessex

•Sanas Chormaic: ‘Cormac’s Glossary’ – Cormac mac Cuilennáin, d. 908. Refers to possible sites in Western Britain – C5-9 events? Entirely mythological?

Anglo-Saxon England and Ireland

1. What problems might we encounter when using textual evidence to study the Early Middle ages? 2. What social status might the authors have held; for whom may they written these texts; and why might they have been written? 3. What does the written evidence say about literacy and language? 4. What cultural changes and continuities from the Roman period might be detected from the texts of Gildas and Patrick? 5. Should we give precedence to historical evidence over the archaeology? How might we use different historical sources together?

Group ExerciseCritical Assessment of

texts

p. 20 Course Booklet: Handouts (Week 5A & B) & DEB

Inscribed Stones

Nearly 500 inscribed stones in Western Britainc. 250 dating to before c. AD 700

Inscribed stones (black dot), with Irish names (red dot) and ogham (blue dot),with more possible early examples (black outline)

Some use of prehistoric monoliths / ‘menhirs’? (Though different size / shape)

But, examples associated with prehistoric (& later) barrowsVariable degrees of ‘working’ – commonly rough pillars

Yealmpton, Devon

←Early medievalInscribed stones Often relocation tolater churches

Early post-Roman Inscribed Stones

• Late C4 – C7+ (consensus = late C5-7) not necessarily ‘Christian monuments’

• Possible Gallic, Mediterranean and Roman (via Ireland) influence? Bilingual inscriptions: ogham and Latin

• Boundary markers and grave memorials: lineage, land-ownership and status

• Religious, ‘professional’ and cultural identity‘PRESBYTER’, ‘EPISCOPUS’, ‘MAGISTER’, leadership

• ‘Of A of the son of B’

• FILI / FILIA (son / daughter of) – X son of Y

• NOMINE (in the name of) – C6 Gaulish or Mediterranean influence

• FECIT (made)

• HIC IACIT (here lies) – after mid-late C5 (?), Gaulish (?)

• IN HOC TUMULO / CONGERIES (within a tomb / stones)

• MEMORIA / BONEMEMORI (in memory of / of good memory) – Gaulish influence (?)

Common Latin formulae

Dating inscriptions

IN TE[M]PO[RE] IVSTI[NI] CON[SVLIS]…in the time of Justinus the Consul [?], c. AD540 [328- 650?]

Penmachno,Caernarfon

CATAMANUS REX SAPIENTISSIMUS OPINATISSIMUS

OMNIUM REGUMCatamanus wisest and most

renowned of all kingsCadfan, ruler of Gwynedd,

d. c AD 625: 613-29 [?]Llangadwaladr ,

Anglesey

‘Angle-bar A’:c. AD 500+ (?)

Gaulish influence (?)

Late C5 + Demetia

Linguistic changes

←Tomen-y-mur, Trawsfynydd

Early examples

Names and titles

MEMORIA VOTEPORIGIS PROTICTORISVoteporis the protector [ ‘Vortipor’?]

Castell Dwyran, Abernant, Carmarthen ↖

*rix / rig - ‘king’*tigernac- `land-owning, lordly’

CATACUS HIC IACIT FILIVS TEGERNACVSTir Gwenlli, Brecon /

Brycheiniog ↑

TIGERNACIDOBAGNI←Lllangwarren, Pemb.

BONEMIMORI [F]ILLI TRIBVNIIn loving memory of the son of TribunusRialton, Corn. PRINCIPI FILIV[S] AVDETI

Principius the son of AudentiusSourton, Devon

Religious identity

Penmachno St Endellion, Corn.

AVITORIA FILIA CVNIGNI Avitoria daughter of Cunignus ← Eglwys Gymyn, Carnarfonshire

Gender and relationships

--]ORIAPenmachno ↑ CONSOBRINOCousin →

VIR QONFAL FILIVS VENNORCIT (My) husband Qonfal son of Vennorcit

Madron, Corn. →

Changing Inscriptions

PATERN[--] COLI AVI FICIT ARTOGNOU COL[I] FICITArtognou, father of a descendant of Coll has had this made /Artognou descendant of Patern[us] Colus made (this). Colus made (this) Tintagel

Irish names

CVNORIX MACVS MAQVI COLINE Cunorix son of Maqui Coline

Wroxeter

Nanscow, St Breock, Corn.

VLCAGNI FILI SEVERIUlcagnus son of Severus

Primitive Irish

MAQI (son of)

Distribution of Ogham Stones

Inscribed stones (black dot), with Irish names (red dot) and ogham (blue dot),with more possible early examples (black outline)

Lewannick, Corn.

Ogham

Booklet p. 21-2

←The lines that extend

beyond the outline of the

Stone represent the

ogham strokes on the

back of the stone

Group exercise

Inscriptions Exercise KeyStone TRANSCRIPTION Translation

A. [HI]C IACET ULCAGNI Here lies Ulcagni

B. FANONI MAQVIRINI [The stone] of Fanonus, son of Rinus

C. RIALOBRANI CVNOVALI FILI

[The stone] of Rialobranus, son of Cunovalus

D. HIC PACE [--] REQVIEVIT CVNATDO HIC [IN] TVMVLO IACIT VIXIT ANNOS XXXIII

Here in peace has rested Cunatdo. Here he lies in the tomb. He lived for 33 years OR: Here in peace lately went to rest Cunaide. Here in the grave she lies. She lived 33 years

E. LATINI [Of Latinus here lies, the son of Macari