Review: Ravenna by Judith Herrin

Synopsis: In 402 AD, after invading tribes broke through the Alpine frontiers of Italy and threatened the imperial government in Milan, the young Emperor Honorius made the momentous decision to move his capital to a small, easy defendable city in the Po estuary - Ravenna. From then until 751 AD, Ravenna was first the capital of the Western Roman Empire, then that of the immense kingdom of Theoderic the Goth and finally the centre of Byzantine power in Italy.

In this engrossing account Judith Herrin explains how scholars, lawyers, doctors, craftsmen, cosmologists and religious luminaries were drawn to Ravenna where they created a cultural and political capital that dominated northern Italy and the Adriatic. As she traces the lives of Ravenna's rulers, chroniclers and inhabitants, Herrin shows how the city became the meeting place of Greek, Latin, Christian and barbarian cultures and the pivot between East and West. The book offers a fresh account of the waning of Rome, the Gothic and Lombard invasions, the rise of Islam and the devastating divisions within Christianity. It argues that the fifth to eighth centuries should not be perceived as a time of decline from antiquity but rather, thanks to Byzantium, as one of great creativity - the period of 'Early Christendom'. These were the formative centuries of Europe.

While Ravenna's palaces have crumbled, its churches have survived. In them, Catholic Romans and Arian Goths competed to produce an unrivalled concentration of spectacular mosaics, many of which still astonish visitors today. Beautifully illustrated with specially commissioned photographs, and drawing on the latest archaeological and documentary discoveries, Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe brings the early Middle Ages to life through the history of this dazzling city.

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I picked this one as: (1) I have Herrin's "Byzantium" which I enjoyed; and (2) for the inclusion of Galla Placidia and the Visigoth Kingdom, and the succeeding Ostrogoth and Lombard Kingdoms.

The period covered off was one of turmoil - political and religious, of conspiracy and machinations, internal and external power struggles, creation and destruction of empires. It was a period I was familiar with - and Herrin's tome is more on the academic side of things rather than a travel guide for the uninitiated. The city prospered after the fall of Rome, and this is evident in the church building program undertaken in the early 6th century and the city's position as a key power base for the Byzantine Empire.

For me, Herrin's book provided me with what I was specifically looking for - for others, a more general history may be in order.

Note: read in 2020 / review posted 2025

Review: A Night of Flames by Matthew Harrfy

Synopsis: A wild land. A lethal fanatic. A violent revolt.

Northumbria, AD 794: Those who rule the seas, rule the land. None know the truth of this more than the Vikings. To compete with the sea-faring, violent raiders, the king of Northumbria orders the construction of his own longships under the command of oath-sworn Norseman, Runolf.

When the Northern sea wolves attack for the second year, the king sends cleric turned warrior, Hunlaf, on a mission across the Whale Road to persuade the king of Rogaland into an alliance. But Runolf and Hunlaf have other plans; old scores to settle, kin to seek out, and a heretical tome to find in the wild lands of the Norse.

Their voyage takes them into the centre of a violent uprising. A slave has broken free of his captors, and, with religious fervour, he is leading his fanatical followers on a rampage – burning all in his path.

Hunlaf must brave the Norse wilderness, and overcome deadly foes to stop this madman. To fail would see too many die...

This follows on from A Time For Swords, and we begin with Hunlaf - in old age - recounting his earlier years.

The motley group of warriors continue their quest - the search for the sacred book The Tree of Life, stolen in the Viking raid that set Hunlaf on the warrior path.  But there is an added urgency to their quest, as one of their own must also be found.

Harrfy follows the well-trodden path of the "Hero's Journey" - in "A Time For Swords" we had the departure, wherein young Hunlaf leaves his ordinary existence for adventure, accompanied by his mentor - companion, Runolf.  In this second of the series, we see Hunlaf undertake the initiation component, wherein during the course of his adventures he faces many trial and tribulations (or in this case, many battles) with the assistance of his loyal warband. Overcoming the enemy, there is the reward.

Harrfy's narrative is such that the reader finds themselves not only drawn into Hunlaf's world but posited into the warband itself. Again, Harrfy's extensive knowledge of this period comes to the fore.  The next instalment is eagerly awaited.

The Langobards before the Frankish Conquest

The Langobards or Lombards were the last Germanic group to invade the Roman Mediterranean, crossing the Alps into Italy in 568-9. They were nonetheless one of the longest-lasting, for their state survived Charlemagne's conquest in 774, and was the core of the medieval kingdom of Italy. The incompleteness of their conquest of Italy was also one of the root causes of Italian division for over 1300 years after their arrival. 

But they present a challenge to the historian, for most of the evidence for them dates to the last half-century of their independence, up to 774, a period in which Langobard Italy was a coherent and apparently tightly-governed state by early medieval standards. How they reached this from the incoherent and disorganised situation visible in late sixth-century Italy is still a matter of debate.

The historians and archaeologists who contribute to this volume discuss Langobard archaeology and material culture both before and after their invasion, Langobard language, political organisation, the church, social structures, family structures, and urban economy. It is thus an important and up to date starting point for future research on early medieval Italy.

Editors: Giorgio Ausenda, Paolo Delogu and Chris Wickham

Review: A Time For Swords by Matthew Harrfy

Synopsis: Lindisfarne, AD793. There had been portents – famine, whirlwinds, lightning from clear skies, serpents seen flying through the air. But when the raiders came, no one was prepared. They came from the North, their dragon-prowed longships gliding out of the dawn mist as they descended on the kingdom's most sacred site.

It is 8th June AD793, and with the pillage of the monastery on Lindisfarne, the Viking Age has begun.  While his fellow monks flee before the Norse onslaught, one young novice stands his ground. He has been taught to turn the other cheek, but faced with the slaughter of his brothers and the pagan desecration of his church, forgiveness is impossible.

Hunlaf soon learns that there is a time for faith and prayer... and there is a time for swords.

Anglo Saxon England

Germanic tribal migrations into Britain began about the middle of the 5th century, and according to the 6th-century British writer Gildas, were invited by a British king to defend his kingdom against the Picts and Scots. Archaeology, however, suggests a more complex picture showing many tribal elements, contacts, revolts, use of mercenaries and local resistance.  By the end of the 7th century though divided into several kingdoms, there was a sense of "unity" that was eventually strengthened when all kingdoms south of the Humber acknowledged the overlordship of a single ruler, known as a bretwalda, a word first recorded in the 9th century.  The Christian Church provided another unifying influence, overriding political divisions, although it was not until 669 that the church in England acknowledged a single head.

Anglo Saxon Religion

The word pagan is a Latin term that was used by Christians in Anglo-Saxon England to designate non-Christians. There is no evidence that anyone living in Anglo-Saxon England ever described themselves as a "pagan" or understood there to be a singular religion, "paganism", that stood as a monolithic alternative to Christianity.  There was no neat, formalised account of Anglo-Saxon pagan system of worship, which focused around a belief in deities and  a variety of other supernatural entities which inhabited the landscape; and that there was clear diversity even among the pre-Christian belief systems.  Martin Carver stressed that in Anglo-Saxon England, neither paganism nor Christianity represented "homogenous intellectual positions or canons and practice"; instead, there was "considerable interdigitation" between the two.

Celtic Christianity

This was a term which broadly referred to certain features of Christianity that were common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages. Some writers have described a distinct Celtic Church uniting the Celtic peoples (of Cornwall,Man, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, northern England) and distinguishing them from the Roman Church, while others have classified it as simply a set of distinctive practices occurring in those areas ..... such practices being a distinctive system for determining the dating of Easter, a style of monastic tonsure, a unique system of penance, and the popularity of going into "exile for Christ".

Kingdom of Northumbria

The Anglo-Saxon countries of Bernicia and Deira were often in conflict before their eventual semi-permanent unification in 654. Political power in Deira was concentrated in the East Riding of Yorkshire, which included York, the North York Moors, and the Vale of York. The political heartlands of Bernicia were the areas around Bamburgh and Lindisfarne, Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, and in Cumbria, west of the Pennines in the area around Carlisle. The name that these two countries eventually united under, Northumbria, may have been coined by Bede and made popular through his Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Æthelred I was the king of Northumbria from 774 to 779 and again from 790 until he was murdered in 796. His reigns were noted for the fierce rivalry for the throne, and the relative ease in which reigning monarchs has no compunction about removing rivals ... permanently. When Lindisfarne was sacked by the Vikings, Alcuin wrote letters to Æthelred, blaming the event on the sins of Æthelred and his nobility.

Lindisfarne Monastery

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, commonly known as either Holy Island[ or Lindisfarne, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important centre of Celtic Christianity under Saints Aidan of Lindisfarne, Cuthbert, Eadfrith of Lindisfarne and Eadberht of Lindisfarne.   Lindisfarne was also the home of the famous Gospels, thought to have been the work of Bishop Eadfrith (dc.721), and belived produced in honour of the great northern saint, Cuthbert.  In 875, after enduring eight decades of repeated Viking raids, the monks fled Lindisfarne, carrying the relics of Saint Cuthbert with them. It was post Norman conquest of England, that a priory was reestablished.

Raid on Lidisfarne

The earliest recorded planned Viking raid on Lindisfarne occurred  6 January 793 (source is the Anglo Saxon Chronicle):

A.D. 793. This year came dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully: these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery, dragons flying across the firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island, by rapine and slaughter. 

According to the 12th-century Anglo-Norman chronicler Symeon of Durham, the raiders killed the resident monks or threw them into the sea to drown or carried them away as slaves – along with some of the church treasures.

A.D. 794. ...... Ethelred, king of the Northumbrians, was slain by his own people ...... In the meantime, the heathen armies spread devastation among the Northumbrians, and plundered the monastery of King Everth at the mouth of the Wear [Jarrow]. There, however, some of their leaders were slain; and some of their ships also were shattered to pieces by the violence of the weather; many of the crew were drowned; and some, who escaped alive to the shore, were soon dispatched at the mouth of the river.

This represented one of the last raids on England for about 40 years. The Vikings focused instead on Ireland and Scotland.

This then is the world in which this coming of age / hero's journey adventure is set - 8th Century England or rather, Northumbria as the idea of a united England was still to come.  In this version of the hero's quest, a young monk, Hunlaf, struggles with his identity in the face of Viking incursions - is he " ... a warrior in the clothes of a monk ... ".  He even begins to question his religion, asking "... where was God when his flock had been violated and murdered? ...".

This is the first in a series, which the author himself says, pays homage to that great underdog film "The Magnificent Seven". Here we have a motley crew of warriors drawn from all corners of the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic world, who must pit themselves against the might of the Vikings.  Again, as in "The Magnificent Seven", each warrior much prove themselves worthy to join by feats of skill with the weapon of choice. And throughout, we follow the transition of the young, naive monk into a stout warrior.

The narrative is told in the first person of Hunlaf, who is looking back over his life, whilst penning what will become known as the Annals of Hunlaf of Ubbanford.

The Anglo-Saxon period is well known to Harffy, whose "Bernicia Chronicle" series is set in this time, so there is no doubt that he had on hand a dearth of information from which to craft his tale.

I am sure that readers of Bernard Cornwell, Edoardo Albert, Robert Low, Giles Kristian, Tim Hodkinson would enjoy this. And quite possibly fans of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" or Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose".

The Woman Who Discovered Printing by T.H. Barrett

This beguiling book asks a set of unusual and fascinating questions—why is early Chinese printing so little acknowledged, despite anticipating Gutenberg by centuries? Why are the religious elements of all early printing overlooked? And why did printing in China not have the immediate obvious impact it did in Europe?

T. H. Barrett, a leading scholar of medieval China, brings us the answers through the intriguing story of Empress Wu (AD 625–705) and the revolution in printing that occurred during her rule. Linking Asian and European history with substantial new research into Chinese sources, Barrett identifies methods of transmitting texts before printing and explains the historical context of seventh-century China. He explores the dynastic reasons behind Empress Wu’s specific interest in printing and the motivating role of her private religious beliefs. He also deduces from eighth- and ninth-century Chinese records an explanation for the lesser impact of the introduction of printing in China than in Europe. 

As Renaissance Europe was later astonished to learn of China’s achievement, so today’s reader will be fascinated by this engaging perspective on the history of printing and the technological superiority of Empress Wu’s China.

John Broughton's Dark Age Novels

Saints & Sinners:

Saxon times are not called the Dark Ages for nothing. It is a violent, unrecognisable world of kill or be killed …  In seventh century England, tribes and so-called kings vie for power and blood flows freely throughout the land.  Aethelred, ruler of Mercia, is being pressed from all sides – north, south, east and west. And his wife, Osthryth, daughter of a rival Northumbrian king, is murdered in unknown circumstances.  Osthryth’s ring falls into the hands of warrior noble Aethelbald who is accused of her murder and forced to leave Mercia by his conniving cousin Coeolred who has eyes on the throne. 

Mixed Blessings:

Mierce, the English Midlands, 8th Century A.D.   Æthelbald, King of Mierce, is a man of ambition. Having created much-needed stability within his domain, he now aspires to the taking of surrounding kingdoms to expand and fortify his own. With stealth and cunning, Æthelbald manipulates other men of power, like chess pieces, to achieve his goals.

As Æthelbald’s reign grows and strengthens, so too does the authority of the church, whose leverage over monarchical matters becomes increasingly overbearing. The church does not approve of King Æthelbald’s exploits with innocent women and seeks to bring him into line with the threat of eternal damnation.  This, the sequel to Saints and Sinners, chronicles the life of an English king in the days where the boundaries of kingdoms and social propriety were undergoing rapid change.

Perfecta Saxonia:

King Alfred never achieved his dream of uniting the disparate Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into one Perfecta Saxonia.  The man destined to fulfill Alfred's dream is his grandson, Athelstan, as the spark of unity begins in the Saxon kingdom of Wessex. Abandoned by his father and raised by his uncle, young Athelstan faces numerous adversities on his way to becoming a mighty warrior and diplomat.  But can he overcome the odds to transform England from an insignificant island off the Western European mainland, into the leading centre of tenth-century diplomacy and learning?

Wyrd of the Wolf:

In seventh century England, political and religious upheaval mean that nobody is safe.   As the old gods are eroded by the new church, and tribes and ambitious men vie for power, property and precedence, blood is shed throughout the land.  In the south, ealdorman Aelfhere believes that for his only child, sixteen-year-old daughter Cynethryth, marriage to a Saxon king is the way to security. And so, somewhat against her own wishes, Cynethryth is betrothed. Yet as battle rages around her, and with her betrothed away to fight, Cynethryth too becomes a victim of war. 

In the Name of the Mother:

It is 689 AD, and Cynethryth is returning from Rome, carrying her dead husband's child.  She soon gives birth to a son, Aethelheard, whose parentage alone places him in danger. His mother has a tough choice to make and travels to Dorset, where the king is a cousin of her late husband.  After the king adopts the boy, he grows up in the dangerous company of rebellious princes, all who wish to overthrow the mighty Ine, king of Wessex.

The Purple Thread:

It is 733 AD in Anglo-Saxon Britain – a time and a world of warriors, wars and religious extremes.  Begiloc, a young freedman from Wimborne with a wife and son, is most definitely a man of action. But his world is turned upside down when the young Briton and best friend Meryn are ordered away to protect English missionaries in Germany.  For a man accustomed to brutality, Begiloc has a soft spot for the purple-tinged mountains, waterfalls, lakes, animals, trees and flowers – beginning to muse whether they, rather than Man, do not better embody the essence of God.  However, mission follows mission across the continent and Begiloc is driven ever further from his loved ones at home.

Die for a Dove:

Invasion, 674 AD and Werburgh, great-niece of the Abbess of Ely travels by night to bury and save the abbey treasure under a wayside cross in the kingdom of Lindsey.  Werburgh has crafted a magnificent gold and garnet jewel in the form of a dove. A cryptic inscription on the back indicates the location of the treasure. The dove becomes a family heirloom and only resurfaces in the English Civil War.  The reappearance of a cryptic clue to the whereabouts of the forgotten dove leads to a hunt across two continents and a trail of deaths.

Ulf's Tale:

A Swedish nobleman. A kidnapped child. The choice between power and morality.  At the start of the slaughter-marred eleventh-century, nine-year-old Ulf is taken hostage by King Aethelred.  It’s the beginning of a life of luxury and opportunity for Ulf. But treachery and plotting throughout the country threaten uneasy alliances, while ambitious rivals attempt to seize power for themselves.  His own life threatened, Ulf embarks on a quest for unity to bring peace to the Baltic states. Will his own moral convictions be enough to overcome divided loyalties, religious clashes and ambitious kings?

Q5: Professor emeritus explores Middle Ages with new novel

Q5: Professor emeritus explores Middle Ages with new novel

After a long and eventful military career, including battalion command in Vietnam and four tours as an intelligence officer and Russian foreign area specialist in Europe during the Cold War, Col. George Steger began a second career in academia. He is a professor emeritus in history and international affairs at the University of Saint Mary. He has written a book entitled “Sebastian's Way.”

The novel is the story of two men: Charlemagne, “The Thunderer,” master of all Europe in the 8th century, who fights and rules like the pagan enemies he seeks to conquer, and Sebastian, a young warrior who challenges the king to forge a new path to peace. The pitch of the book is how difficult it is to have radically different ideas from those around you, especially if you are right and those in authority are wrong. Being different needs courage and a very good reason, and one needs to be prepared to pay the price. The background for the novel was the 30-year war Charlemagne fought with the Saxons.