Benjamin Hudson is Professor of History and Medieval Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. His books include Viking Pirates and Christian Princes: Dynasty, Religion, and Empire in the North Atlantic (OUP, 2005) and The Picts.Viking Pirates and Christian Princes: Dynasty, Religion, and Empire in the North Atlantic (OUP, 2005).

Benjamin Hudson's Macbeth before Shakespeare is a very entertaining and educating read. It succeeds very well in bringing out the man behind the myth, as well as explaining how the man became the myth. Hudson is a master of all the materials and languages required for the job, and he knows the history of Ireland and Britain around the year 1000 intimately.

• Note on MethodologyList of AbbreviationsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroduction: A Man and a LegendChapter 1: Macbeth: Place and Past Chapter 2: Macbeth Emerges Chapter 3: King of All the Scots Chapter 4: Fame and Defamation Chapter 5: Not the Beginning of the Legend Chapter 6: Weird Sisters and the Prior of Loch Leven Chapter 7: Macbeth and Renaissance Scotland Chapter 8: The Scot in Tudor England Chapter 9: Macbeth before Shakespeare Conclusion Appendix 1: Children of Macbeth Appendix 2: Andrew of Wyntoun's Macbeth Episode: A TranslationNotesIndex

Benjamin Hudson is Professor of History and Medieval Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. His books include Viking Pirates and Christian Princes: Dynasty, Religion, and Empire in the North Atlantic (OUP, 2005) and The Picts.Viking Pirates and Christian Princes: Dynasty, Religion, and Empire in the North Atlantic (OUP, 2005).

Benjamin Hudson's Macbeth before Shakespeare is a very entertaining and educating read. It succeeds very well in bringing out the man behind the myth, as well as explaining how the man became the myth. Hudson is a master of all the materials and languages required for the job, and he knows the history of Ireland and Britain around the year 1000 intimately.

• Note on MethodologyList of AbbreviationsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroduction: A Man and a LegendChapter 1: Macbeth: Place and Past Chapter 2: Macbeth Emerges Chapter 3: King of All the Scots Chapter 4: Fame and Defamation Chapter 5: Not the Beginning of the Legend Chapter 6: Weird Sisters and the Prior of Loch Leven Chapter 7: Macbeth and Renaissance Scotland Chapter 8: The Scot in Tudor England Chapter 9: Macbeth before Shakespeare Conclusion Appendix 1: Children of Macbeth Appendix 2: Andrew of Wyntoun's Macbeth Episode: A TranslationNotesIndex