Gildas's 'De Excidio Britanniae' is the prime source of our
knowledge of post-Roman Britain, but because it is such an isolated
text, for which we have no obvious historical, geographical or
cultural background, it is a work which raises more questions than
answers. Much effort has been expended on extracting historical
facts from 'De excidio', but Gildas did not set out to write
history as we understand it. The common approach of the
contributors to this volume is to look at tha author and his text
on their own terms, for themselves rather than for the items of
evidence which we can get out of them. Who was Gildas, and what was
his position in society? What was his intellectual background -
what he had learnt of Latin and Christian culture through his
education, and what did he know of British language and literary
traditions? What audience was he adressing? All these questions can
be given some kind of answer by a close study of the text of the
'De excidio'. But there is also important evidence from Continental
sources on early fifth-centyry Britain, and from Irish sources on
Gildas's own repuation and career. This is a volume which no
student of post-Roman Britain can afford to ignore; it does not
attempt to present clear-cut conclusions or optimistic certainties,
but establishes a basis on which further research can be carried
out.
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