The Anglo-Saxon Elite: Northumbrian Society in the Long Eighth Century(13 The Early Medieval North Atlantic)

In all of the literature on Anglo-Saxon England, rarely has the question of social class been confronted head-on. The Anglo-Saxon Elite: Northumbrian Society in the Long Eighth Century draws upon recent research into topics such as religious practice, emotions, daily life, and intellectual culture to investigate how the aristocracy of Northumbria maintained social dominance over wider society. Moreover, this monograph suggests that the crisis that brought an end to Northumbria as an independent kingdom was the product of the social contradictions produced by the ruling class as social domination developed over time. The analysis is divided into three broad parts – production, circulation, and consumption – both as a nod to Marxist historiography and also to signal a commitment to a methodology that situates the subject within a global context.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction 1. The Aristocracy’s Appearance Introduction 1. Nouns for aristocrats: labels 2. Aristocrats as warriors 3. Aristocratic Women 4. Social Mobility? The cases of Imma and Caedmon 5. The crystallization of the aristocracy: the Durham Liber Vitae Conclusion 2. Production: Classes and Class Relations Introduction 1. Concepts and Definitions 2. Why is the eighth century a ‘long’ one? 3. Forces of Production and Means of Production, at Sherburn (N. Yorks) Conclusion 3. Circulation 1. Land donation 2. Circulation, Coins and Coinage Conclusion 4. Time, History and Class through narratives Introduction 1. History and Ideological reproduction 2. Narratives, Form and Content 3. The past and its senses in Anglo-Saxon Society: the vernacular and Latin 4. Bede and his works 5. The Historia Regum Conclusion 5. Consumption: Aristocratic Eating Introduction 1. Types of evidence available 2. Fasting and Feasting 3. Flixborough Conclusion 6. The End: Death Introduction 1. Death as a form of time reckoning 2. Periods, Chronology and their meaning in Archaeology 3. Clerics, jewellery and status 4. Wills: reproduction through death 5. Rites of Death Conclusion Conclusion Index List of Figures

About the Author :
Renato Rodrigues da Silva holds a PhD from the University of Leicester. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher in medieval history at Unifesp, and part of the Ciro Cardoso Centre for Pre-capitalist Studies (CCCP-Prék).

Review :
"Renato Rodrigues da Silva’s book provides a fresh Marxist perspective on the Northumbrian aristocracy of the long eighth century, framing it as a dominant class whose strategies of power, wealth circulation, and reproduction are carefully dissected. While the use of a rigid Marxist model offers insights, it occasionally overlooks the complexities of Northumbrian society, especially the role of the ecclesiastic aristocracy." – Alban Gautier, Speculum, issue 2, 2024