The Birth of the Anglo-Saxons: Three Kings and a History of Britain at the Dawn of the Viking Age

“Adams argues that the rules by which Early Medieval English kings exercised power ‘are the same rules by which politicians and corporations play today.’ That, however, is only one of the many important ties between then and now.”

Archaeologist Max Adams writes books on the little-known Early European Middle Ages, describing how “power was exercised at all levels from the humblest household right up to the scepter-wielding imperium.” In The Birth of the Anglo-Saxons: Three Kings and a History of Britain at the Dawn of the Viking Age, the author looks at a legendary period in Western history, England, from the mid-600s to the early 900s.

The British Isles have been invaded or threatened with invasion many times, but its people do not today speak Latin, French, Danish, or Dutch (or German). Adams argues that the rules by which Early Medieval English kings exercised power “are the same rules by which politicians and corporations play today.” That, however, is only one of the many important ties between then and now.

The author, as an archeologist, might be more concerned with the “what,” but here tries to try to understand the “how” and the “why” without allowing the modern world’s excuse of passing judgment based on modern sensibilities. Lack of documentary evidence, however, requires the scholar to seek much from the material record.

People like King Penda “are a mere shadow on a wall” or even less. What documents that do survive are confusing, fragmentary, and prejudiced. Much must be inferred from so little, despite such rulers as Ӕỡelbald. Among his many accomplishments, “he developed London’s trading settlement into a wealthy, populous international marketplace.”

Adams might have provided at the least a basic background on the England of The Birth of the Anglo-Saxons. For the general reader without a background in the subject, this narrative can be, to the uninitiated, like watching only one random episode of the Game of Thrones.

The author, however, only uses basic military and political history and geography as a backdrop to explain life in that place and time. Just jumping into the story does add a special sense of discovery and learning as the reader progresses through the book. Adams does, however, go into detail on the “who” and “when.” A glossary would have been a big help.

Most readers would be unfamiliar with the territory of Mercia in the English Midlands, which is central to this book. In the Middle Ages, it connected all coastal areas of England to one centralized administrative power. Birth of the Anglo-Saxons chronicles the leaders' histories, battles, and kingdoms as they were known then, but mainly as a vehicle for showing the ties within that past and to our present.

These so-called Kings in The Birth of the Anglo-Saxons are described as animalistic, brutal, cruel, opportunistic, and superstitious. They lived primarily to preserve what they controlled for the next generation. Alliances, diplomacy, fate, and politics were as critical as war. One kingdom’s fate would be tied to that of another.

The author also sees the kings as bound by a strong moral code, kinship, and loyalty. They rode into battle at the head of their troops and expected to die in battle. Depending on the ever-changing circumstances, Christian missionaries and the Viking invasions complicated their rule and could be a threat or an advantage.

Adams explains that the kings were more than “leaders of their warbands and mead hall.” They were “arbitrators of disputes, judges, brokers and were heads of their own households.” Even families of ordinary people were modeled on this framework. Kings enjoyed the best their world could offer but also would abdicate to avoid assassination or death in battle.

The author describes how these lords faced numerous challenges, including unsuccessful marriages, plagues, raids by neighboring tribes, supplying armies, and battles in which the fate of a kingdom might be decided by “a weak, undisciplined shield wall” of a Medieval army. Even the best work of skilled labor was considered expedient and temporary, as was life.

The Birth of the Anglo-Saxons is written around the kings. This work is, however, an Annalise social history that uses these leaders to tell of the interconnection with all people, including the common and the religious. Crops, manufacturing, and trade proved particularly complicated. As their world became more complex and trade became more important, charters from the kings became more sophisticated.

The monasteries, famously destroyed a thousand years later, provided the continuity and stability of surplus to create a foundation for a rise in trade and government. Similarly, kings, in organizing resources for taxation, began the modern, formal structures of law and property. As Adams points out in his introduction, those beginnings survive today in how the modern world operates.

The large text and well-placed pictures accentuate this concise book's straightforward and engrossing narrative. The Birth of the Anglo-Saxons includes chronographs, a bibliography, and endnotes.