Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T12:00:26.431Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Writing in the Insular world

from PART I - THE MAKING OF BOOKS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2012

Richard Gameson
Affiliation:
University of Durham
Get access

Summary

Historical and historiographical context

The term ‘Insular’ can be taken to refer specifically to the history and culture of the Celtic, post Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon peoples of Britain and Ireland in the period between the retraction of the Roman Empire in the early fifth century and the advent of Viking raiders and settlers during the ninth. One of the major achievements of this era was the construction of a series of successor states in northern Europe, underpinned by the zeal for Christianity of the newly converted and a stability of administrative and social structure ensured by the effective collaboration of church and state. Essential to this process was the dissemination and reception of the Word of God, with its emphasis upon the law, social reform and teaching by example. A prerequisite of this was the reintroduction of literacy to those parts of post-Roman Britain that had lost the art (although some ecclesiastical centres such as Llandaff and Llantwit Major in Wales helped to perpetuate it), and its introduction into those Celtic and Germanic societies which had previously experienced only limited contact with writing, or had eschewed its use in favour of pre-existing oral processes for the preservation of collective memory. Such orality could be highly structured and schooled, preserving sophisticated literary, religious and legal knowledge, as in the case of the Celtic druidic classes. Celtic ogham and Germanic runes both represent proto-literate writing systems, inspired by contact with Roman scripts but used only for short commemorative or talismanic inscriptions.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×