Landscapes across Europe were transformed, both physically and conceptually, during the early medieval period (c. AD 400-1200), and these changes were bound up with the conversion to Christianity and the development of ecclesiastical power structures. While Christianity represented a more or less common set of beliefs and ideas, early medieval societies were characterized by vibrant diversity: much can potentially be learned about these societies by comparing and contrasting how they adapted Christianity to suit local circumstances. This is the first book to adopt a comparative landscape approach to this crucial subject.
It considers the imprint of early medieval Christianity on landscapes along the continent’s western shore from Galicia to Norway, and across the northern islands from Britain and Ireland to Iceland. The construction of new monuments clearly led to some major physical changes, but landscapes are not just affected by tangible, material alterations: they are also shaped by new types of knowledge and changing perceptions. Christianity was associated with many such changes including new ways of seeing the land that directly affected how landscapes were inhabited and managed. By examining how people chose to shape their landscapes, this book provides fresh perspectives on the Christianization of Atlantic Europe.
Author(s): Tomás Ó Carragáin, Sam Turner (eds.)
Publisher: Cork University Press
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: XVI+634
Acknowledgements viii
List of Contributors ix
List of Figures and Tables x
Chapter 1. Introduction: making Christian landscapes in the early medieval Atlantic world / TOMÁS Ó CARRAGÁIN and SAM TURNER 1
IRELAND
Chapter 2. Hallowed by saints, coveted by kings: Christianisation and land tenure in Rathdown, c. 400–900 / GILL BOAZMAN 21
Chapter 3. Reconstructing the territorial framework for ecclesiastical and secular power structures: a case study of the kingdom of Uí Fáeláin / PAUL MACCOTTER 55
Chapter 4. Conversion and consolidation in Leinster's royal heartland / PATRICK GLEESON and TOMÁS Ó CARRAGÁIN 75
Chapter 5. Territoriality and the cult of Saint Ciarán of Saigir / ANNE CONNON 109
Chapter 6. Early ecclesiastical precincts and landscapes of Inishowen, County Donegal / COLM O’BRIEN and MAX ADAMS 159
WALES AND SCOTLAND
Chapter 7. Christianising the landscape in early medieval Wales: the island of Anglesey / NANCY EDWARDS 177
Chapter 8. Feeding the body and claiming the spirit(s): early Christian landscapes in west Wales / RHIANNON COMEAU 205
Chapter 9. Death and the formation of early Christian Scotland / ADRIÁN MALDONADO 225
ENGLAND
Chapter 10. The bones of the Northumbrian landscape: technologies of social change in the conversion period / SAM TURNER and CHRIS FOWLER 249
Chapter 11. Streanæshalch (Whitby), its satellite churches and lands / THOMAS PICKLES 265
Chapter 12. Converting the Peak District? Britons, Angles and Christians / JOHN MORELAND 277
GAUL AND IBERIA
Chapter 13. Funerary patterns in towns in France and England between the fourth and tenth centuries: a comparative approach / ELISABETH LORANS 303
Chapter 14. Christianisation and parish formation in early medieval France: a case study of the dioceses of Rennes, Dol and St Malo / ANNE LUNVEN 325
Chapter 15. Parish boundaries and the illusion of territorial continuity in landscape archaeology: the evidence from the Touraine / ELISABETH ZADORA-RIO 345
Chapter 16. The creation of ecclesiastical landscapes in early medieval Galicia (northwest Spain, fifth to tenth centuries) / JOSÉ CARLOS SÁNCHEZ PARDO 367
GERMANIC AND NORDIC LANDS
Chapter 17. From conversion to consolidation in eighth-century Hessia / JOHN HENRY CLAY 385
Chapter 18. The religious transformation of a landscape: Drenthe (the Netherlands), c. AD 800–1600 / JAN KOLEN 403
Chapter 19. Introducing Christianity to a challenging environment: the example of Norway / SÆBJØRG WALAKER NORDEIDE 423
Chapter 20. Alternative histories on the making of the early Christian landscape of Iceland / STEINUNN KRISTJÁNSDÓTTIR 441
Notes 455
Bibliography 543
Index 597
