Making of England A New History of the Anglo-Saxon World, Hardcover by Athe

  

Making of England : A New History of the Anglo-Saxon World, Hardcover by Atherton, Mark, ISBN 1784530050, ISBN-13 9781784530051, Like New Used, Free P&P in the UK During the tenth century England began to emerge as a distinct country with an identity that was both part of yet separate from'Christendom'. Mark Atherton here shows how the stories, legends, biographies and chronicles of Anglo-Saxon England reflected both this exciting time of innovation as well as the myriad lives, loves and hates of the people who wrote them.

He demonstrates, too, that this was a nation coming of age, ahead of its time in its use not of th-Latin used elsewhere in Europe, but of a narrative Old English prose devised for law and practical governance of the nation-state, for prayer and preaching, and above all for exploring a rich and daring new literature. This prose was unique, but until now it has been neglected for the poetry. Bringing a volatile age to vivid and muscular life, Atherton argues that it was the vernacular of Alfred the Great, as much as Viking war, that truly forged the nation.