Book
IX: The Aftermath
This
book completes the tale by tracing the beginnings
of the modern nationhood, religion and culture of
the new English and Welsh nations.
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The
extraordinary intellectual achievement of Saint
Gildas is placed within this context, and shown
to be the direct result of the revolutionary
intellectual energies unleashed by the Arthurian
revolution. His clash with St.David is analyzed
and placed in the context of events.
This chapter
re-examines the evidence for English conquest and
conversion, getting rid of a few accepted ideas
(such as the supposed importance of Aethelberht
of Kent) and proposing a number of new theories,
such as that the Celtic church, in the person of
Bishop Kentigern of Glasgow, tried hard to
reverse the Papal policy of converting the
English, and that a large number of Christians
had survived English conquest, in a very modified
form of Church with no church buildings; these
were the people who, in Kent, rushed to Augustine
to be baptized. Over all towers the figure of
Pope Gregory, saint, diplomat, and mould-breaking
revolutionary.
This argues that
the rise of Welsh as a literary language took
place a generation or two after Arthur, whose
bards still used the ancient Celtic speech, and
began among the Gododdin dynasties, from Lothian
to Gwynedd; so that, while the English nation was
taking shape in the lowlands, the Welsh nation
was also taking its modern shape.
History
of Britain, 407-597 is copyright © 2002, Fabio
P. Barbieri. Used with permission.
Comments
to: Fabio P.
Barbieri
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