Stylistic Influences in Early Manx Sculpture

This chapter examines the influences in the early sculpture in the Isle of Man, particularly the crosses that were previously described as Celtic. It suggests that the inscriptions in the Manx sculpture epigraphically and linguistically relate the island to the lands round the Irish Sea, while their typology and style history provide rough chronological yardsticks. The findings reveal that most pre-Viking memorial stones can be found in cemeteries on the sites of keeills.

Bede’s Chronica Maiora: Early Insular History in a Universal Context

This chapter examines the early insular history of Bede's Chronica Maiora in a universal context. It considers Bede's treatment of salvation history in the Chronica Maiora's account of the archipelago in the era of the Roman conquest and the barbarian invasions, viewed within the context of contemporary world history. The chapter explains that the Chronica Maiora is located in Bede's magisterial survey of divine and human time and traces the providential unfolding of universal history through the six ages of this world.

Studying Early Christian Sculpture in England and Ireland: The Object of Art History or Archaeology?

This chapter examines whether the current study of the early Christian sculpture of England and Ireland is the object of art history or archaeology. It explains that the methods used to study early medieval sculpture in Ireland and England are accepted and discredited in both archaeological and art-historical circles. The chapter investigates two distinct approaches in Ireland and England, which intersect so thoroughly with art history and archaeology that they have come to be used to examine the medieval sculpture.

Glitter in the Dragon’s Lair: Irish and Anglo-Saxon Metalwork from Pre-Viking Wales, c.400–850

This chapter examines Irish and Anglo-Saxon metalwork in Wales during the pre-Viking period from 400 to 850. The findings indicate that the conscious creation or adaptation of distinctive glitter in metalwork was used to convey the social position, legitimacy, and cultural leanings of some groupings during the early medieval period. The chapter also explains that while it can be argued that the native material culture of some people of Wales became progressively distinctive in parallel with a growing sense of self-identification as Cymru, highly complex patterns of regional variation and expressions of identity appear to have existed.

Sand-dunes and Stray Finds: Evidence for Pre-Viking Trade?

This chapter examines discoveries of pre-Viking material that have occurred in sand-dune-dominated coastal margins and evaluates whether they are indicative of pre-Viking trade in the British and Irish Islands. It explains that sporadic occurrence of early medieval metalwork, glass, and pottery in these locations largely lacks contextual support and that this raises a number of interpretive problems. The chapter also provides some thoughts about Anglo-Irish economic contact during the mid-first millennium.

Behind Animals, Plants and Interlace: Salin’s Style II on Christian Objects

This chapter examines art-historical classification and style-dating and evaluates their applications in establishing the connections between Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England during the seventh century. It describes the animals and plants in Christian objects and suggests that they are variants of the Germanic Animal Style II defined by Bernhard Salin. The chapter also argues that these objects reflect the relationships between the Anglo-Saxon and Irish ruling elites.

The Practicalities of Communication between Northumbrian and Irish Churches, c.635–735

This chapter examines the relation between Northumbrian and Irish churches during the period between 635 and 735. It suggests that the journeys of churchmen between Ireland and Northumbria were in some ways inextricably linked with those of their lay counterparts and that the development of major ecclesiastical establishments during the seventh and early eighth centuries added a new dimension to trans-Irish Sea contact. The chapter also explains why the trans-Irish Sea contact did not cease in 664 when formal links between Lindisfarne on the one hand, and Iona and the Columban churches in Ireland, on the other, were terminated.

The Irish Role in the Origins of the Old English Alphabet: A Re-assessment

This chapter re-examines the role of the Irish in the origins of the Old English alphabet. There are many theories about the Old English alphabet's origins. These include those contained in Karl Luick's Historische Grammatik and E. Sievers and K. Brunner's Altenglische Grammatik, which both offered the view that the model for the Old English alphabet was the Latin alphabet. But the first work to cover Old English orthography was Alistair Campbell's Old English Grammar, which rejected the notion that the Latin alphabet which underlay the Old English alphabet was the one taught by the Irish.

Cemetery Settlements and Local Churches in Pre-Viking Ireland in Light of Comparisons with England and Wales

This chapter re-examines the evidence for local ecclesiastical and other burial sites in pre-Viking Ireland. It compares local churches and cemetery settlements in pre-Viking Ireland with those found in England and Wales. The chapter describes the density of the pre-Viking ecclesiastical sites in Ireland, church density and social structure in Anglo-Saxon England, and the local ecclesiastical sites in Cornwall and Wales.

Trouble at the White House: Anglo-Irish Relations and the Cult of St Martin

This chapter examines the doubtful issues in Bede's account of the pre-Viking history of Britain and Ireland in his Historia Ecclesiastica (HE). It focuses on the section of the HE where Bede attributed the conversion of the Picts to the work of Columba and the Christianisation of the southern Picts to one Nynia episcopo reuerentissimo et sanctissimo uiro de natione Brettonum. The chapter explores the origins of the cult of Saint Martin of Tours and considers what evidence it might offer about the nexus of influences operating upon Bede's account of the conversion.