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Loading... British Forts in the Age of Arthurby Angus Konstam
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Belongs to SeriesOsprey Fortress (80)
When the Romans left Britain around AD 410 the island had not been fully subjugated. In the Celtic fringes the unconquered native peoples were presented with the opportunity to pillage what remained of Roman Britain. By way of response the Post-Roman Britons did their best to defend themselves from attack, and to preserve what they could of the systems left behind by the Romans. The best way to defend their territory was to create fortifications. While some old Roman forts were maintained, the Post-Roman Britons also created new strongholds, or re-occupied some of the long-abandoned hill-forts first built by their ancestors before the coming of the Romans. Packed with photographs, diagrams and full color artwork reconstructions, this book provides a unique examination of the design and development of the fortifications during the Age of Arthur, analyzing their day-to-day use and their effectiveness in battle. It closely describes the locations that are linked to the most famous warlord of the Dark Ages, the legendary Arthur - Tintagel, Cadbury and "Camelot". Although these great bastions were to eventually fall, for a few brief decades they succeeded in stemming the tide of invasion and in doing so safeguarding the culture and civilization of Post-Roman Celtic Britain. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)725.18094109015The arts Architecture Public structures Government Military, CastlesLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.5)
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Wikipedia in English (1)
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The first thing to be said is that this is an attractively illustrated 64-page paperback, largely in colour, with maps, photos and original reconstructions by Peter Dennis of the sites of Tintagel, Wroxeter, Dinas Emrys, South Cadbury, Birdoswald and Bamburgh. The second thing to be noted, however, is that you have to use the utmost care in accepting the author’s statements as gospel: there are plenty of half-truths and out-of-date bits of information, such as the now-discredited old theories about Castle Dore in Cornwall having a Dark Age hall — subsequent work in the eighties showed there was no Dark Age occupation. The bibliography shows an over-reliance on books published in the 70s, since when much re-evaluation has gone into Late Antiquity. In fact the title of the book is a clear acknowledgement of an indebtedness to John Morris’ The Age of Arthur, a work which sadly is both misguided and unreliable.
If you take the text and artist’s reconstructions with a large pinch of salt then Angus Konstam’s book forms a useful introduction to the broad military background of the period; while its evocation of “the most famous warlord of the ‘Dark Ages’” and his “doomed” attempt to “unite the Britons in the face of Saxon invaders” demonstrates a largely uncritical belief in the historicity of Arthur. British Forts in the Age of Arthur seemed so promising, but for a booklet published in 2008 it is surprisingly and disappointingly out-of-date.
http://wp.me/s2oNj1-outdated (