Best history of Europe during the Dark Ages?

I have no real idea, but if I wanted to find that out, I would look at the BBC website history pages and go from there.
No doubt Hobitbob, Walter and Setanta will come on and give you more useful and erudite answers.
Good luck.

Had a quick look. This seems to be Britain and Ireland only, but interesting nonetheless:

http://www.postroman.info/links.html

McT

The area you are interested in is largely a specialist area, and you would probably find most works on the subject rather dry. The era has been one in which not very much "popular" or generalist history has been written. More effort has been put into "historical fiction."

There is a couple who do studies of the middle ages, who have produced two books (and i couldn't find my copies just now . . . probably lent and forgotten, or grew legs . . .) which might interest you, Life in a Medieval Village and Life in a Medieval Castle--and i may have the titles slightly wrong, but you should be able to google it.

A Dutch woman, Helle Haasse, wrote one of the best novels i've read from that period, the title of which has been translated as In a Dark Wood Wandering. I greatly enjoyed, and if my friend will ever return it, will read if for the third time. Barbara Tuchmann's A Distant Mirror is quite a good read, as well--although it has come in for a lot of criticism from specialists.

None of my reading in that era has been very contemporary, so i've not much else to offer. I also tend to read the "dry" type of history, and usually don't recommend those titles.

Tartarin

I'm rather sure, you mean the Middle Ages.
A look at the sites of ORB could give some references
What Every Medievalist Should Know

A good German site (including English links):
History Medieval Era





At least here in Europe, this is very different, since the Middle Ages are very popular here = there a lot of popular (= not wrong, but ... ehem .. popular) litterature about that, societies, specialized in the Middieval Ages, lots of local fetes in "Medieval Style" (today, two within 20 miles from us) ...

Might be that this is what you call "local fiction" :wink:

A website, locating (German) (privat) internet societies with websites
Mittelalterliche Vereine im Internet

Walter there was an era we call the Dark Ages, where a lot of the history is not well documented, prior to the Middle Ages.

My knowledge of historical dates re the dark ages is not good - well non existent if we are honest! wasn't it after the Romans left?????

if so, there is a series of 3 novels by Mary Stewart about King Arthur/Merlin that were quite interesting - I'm sorry but i can't remember the titles. Her historical research is good, so though the storyline is ficitional, the background, clothing, religion, happenings etc are well researched and good It is set in the time when the Romans had left Britain and there are small kingdoms feuding etc There are still Roman things in use but English ways are taking over

Thanks for all suggestions!

I put "Dark Ages" in quotes because I think that's a bad description of an interesting time! The implication is that it was a nasty, dark era. In fact it's "dark" to most of us because we don't know much about it. There are some generalist books -- I have one. I'm really looking for a one or two books, one of which would provide what Set calls "dry" reading and another which I'd call more "visual." I'm with you, Set, on the dry stuff. Generally more nourishing and sustaining.

The geographical area I'm particularly interested in (but not exclusively) includes southern France, Rome north, and all of Spain. The latter is well covered already in a variety of really good books (I lived there, so I'm familiar with it). Interested in northern and eastern Europe only laterally -- same for Britain. Linguistic anthropology is fascinating to me, and that's a good -- great! -- area for it!

Vivien, you're right about that part of history being inadequately documented -- that of course makes the subject even more interesting. That's why I'm aware that there have been historians over the past couple of decades who have concentrated in this area. Sheesh -- wish now I'd kept track of them!

Not medieval. Plenty material there!!

I can not only recommend a book about the period but give it away to anyone who is interested. Hannah Green's "Little Saint." About a village (Conques -- about halfway between Aurillac and Rodez, in the Aveyron), their saint (Sainte Foi) and her history (4th century), it's the story of a woman went to the village and lived there, gradually uncovering the saint's story and the history. So it's largely about the author and her spiritual journey which is less interesting to me than the history of the region...

BY "Dark Ages" most people mean late antiquity or early medieval ( roughly 400-900c.e.)
For the general reader:
Richard Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversions: From Paganism to Christianity Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1999.
Richard Fletcher, Blood Feud: Murder and Revenge in Anglo Saxon England, Oxford, 2003.
Peter Brown, Authority and the Sacred:Aspects of the Christianization of the Roman World , Cambridge, 1997.
Jaques LeGoff, Medieval Civilization, 400-1400 Oxford, 1970.
Patrick Geary, Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World, Oxford, 1990.
John Bury,The Invasions of Europe by the Barbarians New York, Norton, 2000.

This should last you about a week.

Forgot one of the better ones:
Judith Herrin,The Formation of Christendom Princeton, 1998.

Thanks, everybody, for the topic and replies.

Many thanks, Hobit, for that list! That's terrific -- really helpful!

Barbarians... hmmm

One incredible historical novel--a murder mystery no less!--set in a fourteenth century abbey is The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco.

Eco expounds the ideas of nominalism and semiotics therein.

Er...Eco's piece is set in the early Fourteenth Century. Its an excellent work, but not in the time period she was asking for.

Well, at least we European historians don't call it such [any more]: actually, that time is quite good documented - although not be written sources.


Really good selection, hobithob!

Been there, done that (Eco), and enjoyed it. But it was a Chinese dinner book -- anyone else remember it that way?

And anyone else feel passionately about romanesque churches?

I do! - But that's not "dark ages" ages either, it's medieval!

Early, though, before god started demanding flying buttresses and the like, Walter. It may be that the most fascinating parts of history -- and art -- are the transitional stages between "eras."

I'll tell you another area which should be coupled with what we've been talking about: Byzantium.

You can find romanesque churches late as 12th/13th century, Tartarin!

Byzantium is not really what I'm keen on (although the only Byzantium chapel north of the Alps is very close to us [building up started exactly 1000]).

Aristeides Papadakis, who was on my MA comitee is a Byzantinist. he has two very good books:
The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy New York, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1994.
Crisis in Byzantium: The Filioque Controversy in the Patriarchate of Gregory II of Cyprus New York, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1997.
They may be a bit specialized , however.

Not a big fan of the Romanesque. I quite like the Northern/International Gothic.