In the Land of Giants: A Journey Through the Dark Ages

by Max Adams

Overview

A cultural exploration of the Dark Age landscapes of Britain that poses a significant question: Is the modern world simply the realization of our ancient past?

The five centuries between the end of Roman Britain and the death of Alfred the Great have left few voices save a handful of chroniclers, but Britain's "Dark Ages" can still be explored through their material remnants: architecture, books, metalwork, and, above all, landscapes.

Max Adams explores Britain's lost early medieval past by walking its paths and exploring its lasting imprint on valley, hill, and field. From York to Whitby, from London to Sutton Hoo, from Edinburgh to Anglesey, and from Hadrian's Wall to Loch Tay, each of his ten walking narratives form free-standing chapters as well as parts of a wider portrait of a Britain of fort and fyrd, crypt and crannog, church and causeway, holy well and memorial stone.

Part travelogue, part expert reconstruction, In the Land of Giants offers a beautifully written insight into the lives of peasants, drengs, ceorls, thanes, monks, knights, and kings during an enigmatic but richly exciting period of Britain’s history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681772738
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	10/11/2016
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	16 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Max Adams is the author of Admiral Collingwood, The Prometheans, and The King in the North, all published in Great Britain. This is his first book to be published in the United States. A university professor, Max lives in the northeast of England.
Max Adams is the author of In the Land of Giants and The Viking Wars, both available from Pegasus Books. A university professor, Max lives in the northeast of England.

Table of Contents

Author's note xi

Prologue It is written 1

Chapter 1 The kingdom of Dál Riata: Rothesay to Kilmartin 20

Interlude: Gilsland to Haltwhistle 55

Chapter 2 Marches: Telford to Wrexham 62

Interlude: Haltwhistle to Hotbank 91

Chapter 3 Looking for giants: London to Sutton Hoo 98

Interlude: Once Brewed to Warden Hill 136

Chapter 4 Eda Frandsen: Falmouth to Mallaig 144

Interlude: A Corbridge circular 179

Chapter 5 Heroes: Wareham to Yatton 190

Interlude: Walking on the Wall on the spot 231

Chapter 6 Time among the Britons: Anglesey to Bardsey Island 236

Interlude: The Tyne: Hexham to Ovingham 281

Chapter 7 Sense of place: Donegal 288

Interlude: Ovingham to Newcastle 327

Chapter 8 Speed: Meigle to Canterbury 336

Interlude: Newcastle to Jarrow 374

Chapter 9 Midwinter: York to Whitby 384

Postscript: Who are the British? 423

Appendix 1 Journey distances 427

Appendix 2 Timeline 429

Notes 433

Recommended reading 443

Acknowledgements 445

Editorial Reviews

08/08/2016
Rambling about his native Great Britain, writer and archaeologist Adams (The Wisdom of Trees) reveals the subtle ways in which the past permeates the present, despite the presence of modern motorways and housing developments. “I went to Wessex to walk with the heroes of the Dark Ages,” he writes, “not to praise them, but to understand how a mythic past has infiltrated the fabric of the landscape.” Adams peers into the countryside and sees what was once there, imagining the inhabitants of centuries past. Archeology can say what happened, but “rarely can it say why.” Part history lesson, part travelogue, and part philosophical musing, this book reminds readers of a world in which time and distance were measured differently. This is not an idyllic journey. There are blisters, mud, cold, more mud, and encounters with a “megalithic tentacle roundabout” and a business park that is “a creepy landscape, overdesigned, inorganic, and inhuman.” This is a book to savor; as readers travel with Adams, noting meetings with strangers, discoveries of ancient shrines and henges, and enjoying intimate contact with the surroundings, they will long to get some hiking boots and a staff to follow these forgotten trails. Photos. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"In some ways like Thoreau’s Walden, In the Land of Giants touches many bases. Adams has the uncanny ability to invoke and revive the past, to see as the peasants and nobles 1500 years ago might have seen. In the end, what we get from this unusual book is a stereoscopic view of today’s landscape made affecting and somehow more real, touched as it is by people and places long gone."

Providence Journal

"A meaty book about the diversity of the British and the complexity of British medieval (and ancient, for that matter) history. Adams is great when introducing big ideas and allowing readers to make the small but essential connections between them."

Bookreporter

"Adams strikingly evokes the Dark Ages and reminds readers that the British landscape is dotted with far more of its remains than most would suppose. The combination of history and travel writing is always a difficult hybrid to master, but Adams has done so ably, creating a veritable gazetteer of the Land of Giants for others to follow."

The Literary Review

"This richly detailed journey reminds readers that the medieval Dark Ages actually shone with creative human energies rivaling those of our own era. A distant age evoked with the thrill of fresh rediscovery."

Booklist (starred)

"Beautifully written. An engaging and scholarly journey through Britain’s landscapes."

Times Literary Supplement

"Adams has succeeded in creating a bold account concerned with those timeless qualities that bind people together across centuries."

BBC History Magazine

"This richly detailed journey reminds readers that the medieval Dark Ages actually shone with creative human energies rivaling those of our own era. A distant age evoked with the thrill of fresh rediscovery."

Booklist

Beautifully written. An engaging and scholarly journey through Britain’s landscapes.

The Times Literary Supplement

08/01/2016
Part travelog, part history, and part philosophical musing, this work by Adams (The King in the North) explores Britain's Dark Ages (400–900s CE) through various walk-abouts across the island's landscape. These are not ramblings but planned routes that try to encompass various ruins, historical sites, and even modern cities along the way. Each route is the individual theme of each chapter and also prescribes the past that Adams, a noted archaeologist, touches on. History is not the only aim of the book, though. Adams fills each chapter with asides about modern Britain to show how past and future collide and intersect in ways as old as they are new. For those who aren't familiar with British geography or early British history, having a map or historical atlas nearby is recommended as a quick reference to help add context to the small maps included. VERDICT A fascinating read for medievalists and history buffs. Readers will savor the almost whimsical happenstance; instead of a strict chronology, the volume is meant to be read however one wants, in chapter order or jumping among sections.—Laura Hiatt, Fort Collins, CO

Library Journal

2016-08-25
This is no ordinary history of the Dark Ages but rather a confounding, engrossing amalgamation of information and beauty.This is exactly the sort of book to expect from a man who is equal parts archaeologist, Early Medieval expert, outdoorsman, and wordsmith. Slipping into the skin of a wandering nomad, Adams (The Wisdom of Trees, 2015, etc.) strikes out around the country, solo or sometimes in the company of friends, for days on end with little more than a tent, pack, map, and his acute understanding of how landscape influenced cultural and political histories. When it comes to the Dark Ages, we could fill volumes with what we don’t know, but the Celtic world in Britain and beyond did not utterly disappear when the Roman Empire pulled out their last remaining garrison. Rather, as the author notes, “society survived and evolved; kings ruled, warriors fought, monks prayed and peasants farmed.” The oft-painted portrait of doom and neglect has come into question recently, and scholars have even rebranded the time period more respectfully as “Early Medieval.” However, there are still far too few authors covering this time period, which makes Adams’ book all the more valuable to readers. Through visits to ruined Roman outposts, ancient fortresses, historic churches, and other locales, the author seeks to flesh out the bones of an era that has flummoxed historians and archaeologists alike for centuries. His series of long walks and in some cases nautical ventures took him from Hadrian’s Wall to Ireland, Somerset, Northumberland, Cornwall, and throughout Scotland, and the journey is a pleasure for the medievally minded. While some things are freshly illuminated, Adams’ subject is elusive, and ultimately, this isn’t a book of new discovery. But the author’s act of retracing these paths breathes life back into the sites and people from hundreds of years ago, and for that experience alone, it is a worthy book. Myth and ancient magic meet with solid historical ground in Adams’ voyage through a largely forgotten age.

Kirkus Reviews