Multilingualism in Early Medieval Britain

By Lindy Brady

In the words of its own historians, pre-Norman Britain held five languages and four peoples. Yet in modern scholarship, Old English is too often studied separately from the other languages that surrounded it. This Element offers a comprehensive synthesis of the evidence from the pre-Norman period that situates Old English as one of several living languages that together formed the basis of a vibrant oral and written literary culture in early medieval Britain. Each section centres around a key thematic topic and is illustrated through a series of memorable case studies that encapsulate the extent to which multilingualism appeared in every facet of life in early medieval Britain: religious and scholarly; political and military; economic and cultural; intellectual and artistic. The Element makes an overall argument for the dynamic extent of transcultural literary and linguistic culture in early medieval Britain before the arrival of the Normans.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1009275852
• ISBN13: 9781009275859
• Release Date: October 2023
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 86 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"