The most recommended Anglo Saxon books

More than any other source, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s book is responsible for our modern fascination with King Arthur. I read this for the first time at school and have returned to it again and again.

Written in Latin in the twelfth century, Monmouth claimed to have access to secret books that no other author had read–I found that intriguing all by itself. When he wrote, three of his exact contemporaries were also writing works on King Arthur, and there seems to have been a literary ‘Arthur business’ in the 1130s–why? (It was a period of great disruption in England, and she may have needed a new savior!). Although he goes way beyond the realms of history, I still find Geoffrey charming and inspiring.

I'd been anticipating the sequel to HILD and it didn't disappoint. In the distant world of 7th century Britain (evoked with worldbuilding as rich and strange as any fantasy novel), politics turns to war, and suffering, sacrifice, and struggle follow. Griffith’s exquisite prose immersed me in her vivid, beautiful, brutal world.

This book covers the entirety of the history of the Anglo-Saxons in their own words. Like Bede’s History, it suffers from bias, depending on the scribe writing each section and what kingdom they inhabited, but it is a fascinating year-by-year account of the rise and fall of kings and clergy, and of the battles and natural phenomena faced by the people of early medieval Britain.

Ishiguro is a master at combining both amazing world-building and dynamic and controlled prose. The Buried Giant is a master class in both! But that’s what one expects by a Nobel Prize winning author of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go. But let’s be specific in our praise.

First, let’s take a closer look at the world-building. When a writer chooses a world to populate, he/she steps into the “known/new” dilemma. This is the conundrum of what is out there, what would be derivative, what would be cliché or such a well-trodden path that to use it would ruin my career – and all of this juxtaposed to: what is something new I can say? Well, Ishiguro decides on Arthurian Legend.

That choice alone is so daunting for most writers that they don’t even consider it. Ishiguro not only considers it, dives deep into it, and… show more.

The Viking and Anglo-Saxon age is very popular in historical fiction at the moment, but Matthew Harffy’s new novel, his best yet, takes us away from the familiar environment of north-eastern Europe to explore the world of al-Andalus—Muslim Spain—instead. 

Through the eyes of Hunlaf and his crew, we get to journey through a fabulous and exotic landscape, but the momentum of the storytelling never flags. What I find most impressive is the way that Harffy uses a propulsive action-led plot as a vehicle to explore an amazingly rich and colourful historic environment and to portray a fascinating encounter between very different cultures.

This book is the best introduction there is to early Christian Anglo-Saxon England.

Mayr-Harting is an excellent scholar and a beautiful writer – in addition to being a superb lecturer and, indeed, an incredibly kind and generous human being. All of these qualities shine through in this wonderful book, which repays frequent reading – even by established academics.

Mayr-Harting’s treatment of sources is sensitive, and his commentary is always perceptive. This volume provides both narrative and some analysis, giving not only a general overview but also an introduction to the key people and issues that will take readers’ understanding of – and appreciation for – the period far beyond the preliminary.

Don’t let anyone ever put you off any book until you have tried it for yourself. Beowulf might sound ‘too hard’ or ‘too old’ for children, but not a bit of it. Heaney breathes new life into an old tale, making this a sparkling, dangerous, and compelling book. It’s no wonder he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The introduction may not be right for bedtime, but do read it some other time.

Shakespeare’s Dog is the craziest Shakespearean book I’ve ever read. Not only is the young Stratford Shakespeare’s tale told by his dog, Hooker ̶ the dog speaks a kind of faux-Shakespearean: full of Elizabethan-esque vocabulary and syntax, Anglo-Saxon bawdry, new-coined usages of common words (“the wind flummoxed”; “I knelled the truth”).  Moreover, Rooke must really know his dogs. Because the dog-viewpoint (a frustrated Shakespeare “bites his toenails”) seems right on the money. The struggle of a prodigy youth and his prodigy dog to escape the tawdry, shallow, raucous banality of provincial small-town life is told with vividness, wit, and pathos.

This book provides a very accessible introduction to the early history of England up to the Norman invasion.

Instead of looking at particular topics or themes, the book focuses on the great people of this period and dives deep into history in an attempt to construct the stories behind these famous names. But this book isn’t just about king and queens, it also provides lots of detail about the lives of the peasantry and how the various power struggles affected them.

This intriguing novel tells the story of a young Christian monk, Brand, who is sent to find and learn from a Saxon shaman/sorcerer, Wulf. The shaman turns Brand’s life upside down, introducing him to a strange, mysterious, and magical world that Brand never imagined existed. Written like a modern spiritual quest, but set in Anglo-Saxon England, the novel is an ingenious combination of old and new, inspired by charms and healings in a thousand-year-old manuscript in the British Library.