Lost Realms: Histories of Britain from the Romans to the Vikings

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In Lost Realms Thomas Williams uncovers the forgotten origins and untimely demise of Britain’s ancient kingdoms: lands that hover in the twilight between history and fable, whose stories hum with gods and miracles, with giants and battles and ruin.

This is absolutely not a bad thing in any way but it bears acknowledging since you are not coming away with a definitive history of Elmet, Hwicce, Lindsey, Dumnonia, Essex, Rheged, Powys, Sussex and Fortriu.This book was incredibly fascinating and I really enjoyed learning about these little kingdoms, a lot of which I’ve never heard off. My personal favourite to read about was Elmed, located in what is now West and South Yorkshire, because I’m familiar with the area! The book is occasionally verbose, but what appeals is his poetic evocation of ruined landscapes mired in the forgotten past. Thomas Williams is a historian of the early Middle Ages and a former curator at the British Museum’s Department of Coins and Medals (2017-2018).

Overall a tougher read than expected, perhaps because of the poetry within the book sometimes confusing the chronology. Though the author is a critic of Bede and Gildas as well, making me look at those authors differently and reading all the notes because of it which took some time.If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. In Lost Realms, Thomas Williams, bestselling author of Viking Britain, focuses on nine kingdoms representing every corner of the island of Britain. They style is great too, very lively, with a couple of exceptionally good jokes including one that had me swearing and posting on Bluesky. Perhaps I was expecting a history book and this a new hybrid historical genre where history and autobiography are mashed together and knowing Star Wars and Tolkein is more important than reading Geoffrey or Gildas. In riveting detail, Williams uses Britain’s ancient landscape to resurrect a lost past where lives were lived with as much vigour and joy as in any other age, where people fought and loved and toiled and suffered grief and disappointment just as cutting as our own.

The less said about the little earnest cringe about the term Anglo-Saxon which forms a coda the better. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. Drawing on Britain ' s ancient landscape and bringing together new archaeological revelations with the few precious fragments of surviving written sources, Williams spectacularly rebuilds a lost past.These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. There is irrelevant reference to poetry by Ted Hughes set in the general area, but in the eighteenth century).

This is the world of Arthur and Urien, of Picts and Britons and Saxon migrations, of magic and war, myth and miracle. Archaeological and source material driven, Williams constructs what he can with the evidence available and his vivid interpretations make you think. Often he can say little more than we don't know a lot but his presentation of the topography, local politics, cultural developments and the understanding of archaeological discoveries could not be bettered. Others, however, have been left to languish in a half-light¸ forgotten kingdoms who followed unique trajectories before they flamed out or faded away.He worked as project curator for the major international exhibition Vikings: Life and Legend (British Museum 2014) and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He was a curator of the major international exhibition Vikings: Life and Legend in 2014 and is now Curator of Early Medieval Coins at the British Museum.