Thursday 7 March 2019


Stumbling across a text about the Dark Ages is often like falling into an epic fantasy novel. You have your epic heroes and great characters, some of whom defy belief. They are ferocious warriors like Ivar the Boneless, or pious and righteous Kings like Alfred the Great. Even the map looks as if it was pulled straight of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones (And indeed, Tolkien's greatest works were inspired and crafted from his rich knowledge of Anglo-Saxon Britain).

 But herein lies the point. The Dark Ages of Great Britain are a period that is rich in drama, excitement and intrigue beyond the pale of sagas, illuminations and tales spun by sycophantic lords. We sift through the evidence and see a period full of invasion, war, conflict and the birth of nations like England. Yet that is not the true legacy of this period.  A popular view of the Dark Ages across Europe is that once Rome fell, Europe regressed into a barbaric state again. We have been told that we lost language, public works, law and order. That the West was ravaged by fierce Northern men and Eastern warriors.

The legacy of the Dark Ages lies not in the tales we have been told, or the TV dramas we enjoy watching. Within Britain, it is a rich history that saw the language we speak today crafted from numerous dialects spoken by hundreds of peoples from all the corners of Europe. It saw many of the largest towns and cities in the country develop into metropolitan lands, the creation of the Common Law we base our entire legal and political system in England upon, to the foundation of divisions and traumas that still haunt us today.

The Dark Ages were not a simple period full of simple people. And within the pages of this blog, I will be dissecting evidence, Kingdoms and the legacies of British history to present a period that is far more than just Vikings and Saxons.

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