Clare Downham – författare

The impact of Scandinavian invaders on the peoples of the Britain and Ireland was incalculable. Raiders on a sometimes large scale, they initially attacked coastal and river settlements, but ended up building towns and political entities which reshaped all the countries of the archipelago.Clare Downham's compelling new book reproduces a wide range of fascinating surviving material, ranging from chronicles to inscriptions on monuments. It brings together sometimes fragmentary, tantalizing works from our remote past to create a picture of a time which was--for the raiders--remarkable and exciting, and, through innumerable vicissitudes, a time when Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England began to stabilize as political areas, alongside such now long-vanished entities as the Kingdom of the Isles and the Danelaw.For anyone interested in this period, Downham's book is a superb, atmospheric and surprising source-book, showing how much the Scandinavians reshaped the British Isles, but also the limits of their impact.

Medieval Ireland is often described as a backward-looking nation in which change only came about as a result of foreign invasions. By examining the wealth of under-explored evidence available, Downham challenges this popular notion and demonstrates what a culturally rich and diverse place medieval Ireland was. Starting in the fifth century, when St Patrick arrived on the island, and ending in the fifteenth century, with the efforts of the English government to defend the lands which it ruled directly around Dublin by building great ditches, this up-to-date and accessible survey charts the internal changes in the region. Chapters dispute the idea of an archaic society in a wide-range of areas, with a particular focus on land-use, economy, society, religion, politics and culture. This concise and accessible overview offers a fresh perspective on Ireland in the Middle Ages and overthrows many enduring stereotypes.

Medieval Ireland is often described as a backward-looking nation in which change only came about as a result of foreign invasions. By examining the wealth of under-explored evidence available, Downham challenges this popular notion and demonstrates what a culturally rich and diverse place medieval Ireland was. Starting in the fifth century, when St Patrick arrived on the island, and ending in the fifteenth century, with the efforts of the English government to defend the lands which it ruled directly around Dublin by building great ditches, this up-to-date and accessible survey charts the internal changes in the region. Chapters dispute the idea of an archaic society in a wide-range of areas, with a particular focus on land-use, economy, society, religion, politics and culture. This concise and accessible overview offers a fresh perspective on Ireland in the Middle Ages and overthrows many enduring stereotypes.

Medieval Ireland is often described as a backward-looking nation in which change only came about as a result of foreign invasions. By examining the wealth of under-explored evidence available, Downham challenges this popular notion and demonstrates what a culturally rich and diverse place medieval Ireland was. Starting in the fifth century, when St Patrick arrived on the island, and ending in the fifteenth century, with the efforts of the English government to defend the lands which it ruled directly around Dublin by building great ditches, this up-to-date and accessible survey charts the internal changes in the region. Chapters dispute the idea of an archaic society in a wide-range of areas, with a particular focus on land-use, economy, society, religion, politics and culture. This concise and accessible overview offers a fresh perspective on Ireland in the Middle Ages and overthrows many enduring stereotypes.

Medieval Ireland is often described as a backward-looking nation in which change only came about as a result of foreign invasions. By examining the wealth of under-explored evidence available, Downham challenges this popular notion and demonstrates what a culturally rich and diverse place medieval Ireland was. Starting in the fifth century, when St Patrick arrived on the island, and ending in the fifteenth century, with the efforts of the English government to defend the lands which it ruled directly around Dublin by building great ditches, this up-to-date and accessible survey charts the internal changes in the region. Chapters dispute the idea of an archaic society in a wide-range of areas, with a particular focus on land-use, economy, society, religion, politics and culture. This concise and accessible overview offers a fresh perspective on Ireland in the Middle Ages and overthrows many enduring stereotypes.

Viking Connections is an edited collection representing the most recent scholarship in the interdisciplinary study of the Viking Age. The 32 papers arise from the Nineteenth Viking Congress which took place in Wales and North-West England in July 2022. They focus on new research from across the Viking World encompassing Archaeology, History, Literature, Language, Place-names, Numismatics, and the History of Art. Themes include Irish Sea connections as well wider connections across the Viking World. There is also a Congress diary. The title Viking Connections expresses the importance of international networks and long-distance patterns of contact, which underlie both the Viking Age itself and our contemporary community of interdisciplinary scholarship. Contributors include senior academics, early career researchers, and museum and heritage professionals.The picture that emerges from this volume is of the Viking Age as a vibrant and complex period of movement and change. Highlights include James Graham-Campbell's survey of the metallic wealth of the Isle of Man, Mark Redknap's comprehensive account of Viking Age finds in Wales, Orri Vésteinsson's investigation of the effects that the introduction of large amounts of silver had on Viking Age society, Elizabeth Pierce's study that tracks the tenth- to twelfth-century Scandinavian presence in eastern Scotland whose evidence suggests substantial trading activity, Søren Sindbæk's demonstration of how radiocarbon calibration curves, when applied to the fine-meshed stratigraphy of Ribe, suggest a new chronological framework for the beginning of the Viking Age, and Christian Cooijmans' exploration of the idea of viking camps as not just military barracks, but sites where all aspects of everyday life went on, and which formed the basis of the whole viking phenomenon.

Who were the Vikings? Were they the deadly marauders of popular repute - pitiless sea-wolves who voyaged across the Norwegian Sea to prey on the richer pickings of others? Or did they sail beyond their ancestral lands for reasons other than plunder and pillage? From the late 700s, the sleek silhouette of the Viking longship stealthily insinuated the inland waterways of continental Europe and Anglo-Saxon Britain. This outpouring of raiders and traders then spread across the world, from Newfoundland to Turkey - and the Viking Diaspora influenced the course of history for five centuries. Many questions about Viking origins and intent remain unanswered. Clare Downham here explores the boundaries where myth ends and truth begins. In seeking to explain why the Vikings left Scandinavia, she examines new advances in ship-building technology and economic and political competition in their homelands. Moving beyond stereotypical perceptions, the author also reveals those less familiar areas of Viking activity, such as relations with Saami, Slavs and Arabs. Encompassing migration and identity, culture, religion and mythology, this lively survey will have strong appeal to students and general readers alike.