Arthur's Britain
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the crossroads of history and legend stands one of Britain's most enduring mysteries — the question of whether King Arthur was real, and if so, who he truly was. Arthur's Britain by Leslie Alcock, one of Britain's most distinguished archaeologists, presents a rigorous and compelling investigation into the historical foundations of the Arthurian world, drawing on archaeological evidence, documentary sources, and landscape analysis to reconstruct post-Roman Britain between the 5th and 7th centuries AD. Alcock, who himself led the celebrated excavations at South Cadbury — long associated with the legendary Camelot — brings firsthand scholarly authority to a subject too often lost in romantic myth, grounding it firmly in the soil and stone of a turbulent, transitional age. The work argues that behind the accretion of medieval romance lies a genuine heroic age: a Britain struggling to preserve Romano-Celtic civilisation against the encroaching tide of Anglo-Saxon settlement. Alcock's prose is measured and precise, yet never dry, illuminating the fragmentary chronicles of Gildas and Nennius alongside the spade-work of modern excavation with equal clarity. Broad in scope yet meticulous in detail, Arthur's Britain remains a landmark of historical archaeology — and leaves the reader wondering just how much of the legend was, after all, the truth.
Author: Leslie Alcock
Format: Paperback
Genre: Archaeology
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the crossroads of history and legend stands one of Britain's most enduring mysteries — the question of whether King Arthur was real, and if so, who he truly was. Arthur's Britain by Leslie Alcock, one of Britain's most distinguished archaeologists, presents a rigorous and compelling investigation into the historical foundations of the Arthurian world, drawing on archaeological evidence, documentary sources, and landscape analysis to reconstruct post-Roman Britain between the 5th and 7th centuries AD. Alcock, who himself led the celebrated excavations at South Cadbury — long associated with the legendary Camelot — brings firsthand scholarly authority to a subject too often lost in romantic myth, grounding it firmly in the soil and stone of a turbulent, transitional age. The work argues that behind the accretion of medieval romance lies a genuine heroic age: a Britain struggling to preserve Romano-Celtic civilisation against the encroaching tide of Anglo-Saxon settlement. Alcock's prose is measured and precise, yet never dry, illuminating the fragmentary chronicles of Gildas and Nennius alongside the spade-work of modern excavation with equal clarity. Broad in scope yet meticulous in detail, Arthur's Britain remains a landmark of historical archaeology — and leaves the reader wondering just how much of the legend was, after all, the truth.