This History presents an up-to-date, diverse and comprehensive account of writing in the early medieval period in the British Isles.

Introduction: literature in Britain and Ireland, 500-1150 Clare A. Lees; Part I. Word, Script and Image: 1. Writing in Britain and Ireland, 400-800 Julia M. H. Smith; 2. The art of writing: scripts and scribal production Julia Crick; 3. Art and writing: voice, image, object Catherine E. Karkov; 4. Of Bede's 'Five Languages and Four Nations': the earliest writing from Ireland, Scotland and Wales Máire Ní Mhaonaigh; 5. Insular Latin literature to 900 Rosalind Love; 6. Bede and the northern kingdoms S. M. Rowley; Part II. Early English Literature: 7. Across borders: Anglo-Saxon England and the Germanic world Rolf H. Bremmer, Jr; 8. English literature in the ninth century Susan Irvine; 9. The writing of history in the early Middle Ages: the Anglo-Saxon chronicle in context Renée R. Trilling; 10. The literary languages of Old English: words, styles, voices Joshua Davies; 11. Old English poetic form: genre, style, prosody Haruko Momma; 12. Beowulf: a poem in our time Gillian R. Overing; 13. Old English lyrics: a poetics of experience Kathleen Davis; 14. Literature in pieces: female sanctity and the relics of early women's writing Diane Watt; 15. Saintly lives: friendship, kinship, gender and sexuality L. M. C. Weston; 16. Sacred history and Old English religious poetry Andrew Scheil; 17. Performing Christianity: liturgical and devotional writing Christopher A. Jones; 18. Riddles, wonder and responsiveness in Anglo-Saxon literature Patricia Dailey; Part III. Latin Learning and the Literary Vernaculars: 19. In measure, and number, and weight: writing science R. M. Liuzza; 20. Legal documentation and the practice of English law Lisi Oliver; 21. Latinities, 893-1143 David Townsend; 22. The authority of English, 900-1150 Elaine Treharne; 23. Crossing the language divide: Anglo-Scandinavian language and literature Russell Poole; 24. European literature and eleventh-century England Thomas O' Donnell, Matthew Townend and Elizabeth M. Tyler; 25. Gaelic literature in Ireland and Scotland, 900-1150 Thomas Clancy; 26. Writing in Welsh to 1150: re-creating the past, shaping the future Sioned Davies.