A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons Audiobook By Geoffrey Hindley cover art

A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons

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A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons

By: Geoffrey Hindley
Narrated by: Eleanor David
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Starting AD 400 (around the time of their invasion of England) and running through to the 1100s (the 'Aftermath'), historian Geoffrey Hindley shows the Anglo-Saxons as formative in the history not only of England but also of Europe. The society inspired by the warrior world of the Old English poem Beowulf saw England become the world's first nation state and Europe's first country to conduct affairs in its own language, and Bede and Boniface of Wessex establish the dating convention we still use today. Including all the latest research, this is a fascinating assessment of a vital historical period.

About the author: Geoffrey Hindley is an acclaimed Medievalist. His many books include The Shaping of Europe, Saladin: a Biography, The Book of Magna Carta, and A Brief History of the Crusades.

©2013 Geoffrey Hindley (P)2013 Audible Ltd Ancient Europe Great Britain Medieval England Middle Ages Crusade

Critic reviews

"This is an excellent assessment of a vital historical epoch from one of our most respected medievalists" ( Good Book Guide, July 1, 2006)
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I love the history but this is a book where locations and generations. Move around so fast your head will spin.

Get a map.

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Eleanor Davis is excellent! the material is hard to follow though without some background on the events of and preceding 1066

Hard to follow for the uninitiated.

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Really enjoyed the history. It honestly made me wonder if this is the main source that Bernard Cornwell used for his Saxon series. So much seems lifted right from these pages.

I was amused that the reader used ancient Latin pronunciation rather than medieval, which would have been more appropriate. And why Latinize English words? “Carolingian” should use a soft ‘g’ just as if it were an English word—because it is! Also, I think she could have listened to Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf to at least get an approximation of correct Old English pronunciation. Some serious butchery there. 😂

Great overview

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Very interesting telling of a group of people who are familiar but not known in modern times

interesting

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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Possibly. If the friend had an earnest desire to learn more about Anglo-Saxon England, then yes, I would recommend it to them. I would not recommend it to someone as their first exposure to the subject matter.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Well, any good student of history knows who the Anglo-Saxon Age ends... and it's OK to blame it on the Normans.

Have you listened to any of Eleanor David’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The narration was excellent. While the narrative lagged at points, Eleanor David's narration made to possible to continue through these rather 'dry' points.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No extreme reactions to report.

Any additional comments?

All in all the book was fair to good. Geoffrey Hindley is an author with good credentials on the subject matter to be sure, which makes it disappointing that he belabored the telling of this history with chronologies and lineages to the point it becames almost painful to the listener. As a study of the period, the book is academically solid and well-researched. This last point is the reason for an overall rating of 4 stars.

A Fair Narrative Saved By Good Narration

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I know only a little about the history of Britain before the Norman conquest and now I understand why - very little is actually known. There are a few chronicles that have historical information and this is what this book tends to regurgitate.

Unfortunately this book as a result ends up being a listing of kings and their reigns with brief suggested activities they undertook while on the throne. Nothing is known for certain until after 900ish and then all the kings seemed be named Ethel this or Ethel that so it got very confusing.

I know about as much about Anglo Saxon Britain as I did before I listened to this book so I can only really recommend this book to someone who knows nothing about Anglo Saxon Britain and has a interest in learning something about it!

A very dry history of the Ethels

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The book's organization is hard to follow. I wish the author would have chosen an easier narrative to follow - it is organized both topically and chronologically, which makes it hard to follow for someone not already familiar with the subject (the target audience for this book). He covers each area geographically in a rough chronology, which makes it hard to follow when he refers to people and events in other regions that we don't learn about until later. He also spends far too much time in my opinion focusing on religious matters, including long excursions on the continent following famous Anglo-Saxon émigrés that became saints. How this helps someone understand Anglo Saxon England is beyond me - if I wanted to really understand the history of the West Indies in the colonial period, I would not look for it in a biography of Alexander Hamilton. A religious focus is somewhat understandable given that the bulk of primary source material from the period comes from religious chroniclers, but I still would have preferred more descriptions of ordinary lives and culture and local government. Counties, shires, courts are all mentioned but not very well described. A brief history should give a reader an overall sense for the key events and the lives of the people who lived it. This book did not accomplish that goal

More a Religious History

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