'This is a book like no other. The author of that classic work, The Carolingian Lord, who demonstrated the wealth of new historical evidence and insights which semantic study of the Germanic lexicon can deliver, has struck again! He now offers a general but well referenced introduction to this field for those students of late Antiquity and the earlier Middle Ages who are interested in the interface of a Roman and Christian Europe with the civilisation of its Germanic neighbours. For the cultural historian, Language and History in the Early Germanic World will be an essential companion and guide for many years to come.' David N. Dumville, University of Cambridge

• Introduction; Part I. The Germanic World: 1. Religion; 2. Law; 3. Kinship; 4. Warfare; 5. People and army; 6. Lordship; 7. Kingship; Part II. Contact with the Non-Germanic World: 8. Contact with the Celts; 9. The migration of the Goths; 10. Germanic loanwords in Latin; 11. Latin loanwords in Germanic; 12. Trade and warfare with the Romans; 13. Names of the days of the week; 14. The vocabulary of writing; Part III. Contact with Christianity: 15. Problems of Christianisation; 16. The influence of provincial Roman Christianity; 17. The influence of Gothic; 18. The influence of the Merovingian Franks; 19. The influence of the Anglo-Saxons; 20. Contrasts in Christian vocabulary; 21. The vocabulary of ethics and fate; Bibliography; Index of words.

'This is a book like no other. The author of that classic work, The Carolingian Lord, who demonstrated the wealth of new historical evidence and insights which semantic study of the Germanic lexicon can deliver, has struck again! He now offers a general but well referenced introduction to this field for those students of late Antiquity and the earlier Middle Ages who are interested in the interface of a Roman and Christian Europe with the civilisation of its Germanic neighbours. For the cultural historian, Language and History in the Early Germanic World will be an essential companion and guide for many years to come.' David N. Dumville, University of Cambridge

• Introduction; Part I. The Germanic World: 1. Religion; 2. Law; 3. Kinship; 4. Warfare; 5. People and army; 6. Lordship; 7. Kingship; Part II. Contact with the Non-Germanic World: 8. Contact with the Celts; 9. The migration of the Goths; 10. Germanic loanwords in Latin; 11. Latin loanwords in Germanic; 12. Trade and warfare with the Romans; 13. Names of the days of the week; 14. The vocabulary of writing; Part III. Contact with Christianity: 15. Problems of Christianisation; 16. The influence of provincial Roman Christianity; 17. The influence of Gothic; 18. The influence of the Merovingian Franks; 19. The influence of the Anglo-Saxons; 20. Contrasts in Christian vocabulary; 21. The vocabulary of ethics and fate; Bibliography; Index of words.