Picts, Scots and Britons

Abstract

Far more than half of Britain lay beyond the area of Anglo-Saxon settlement in the fifth and sixth centuries — a very large area, of considerable geographical and economic diversity. The sources of information about it are limited and difficult to use but, although we must always be aware of the limitations of this evidence, we do have some knowledge and we do know that these parts of Britain cannot be reduced to a uniform background of wild natives.¹ Popular views of these parts at that time are invariably conditioned by two predominant images: the image of heroic society on the one hand and of a proliferation of ascetic saints on the other. In fact both images are misleading and, if anything, hinder understanding about this area of Britain during the period of Saxon settlement and consolidation from the fifth to the eighth century.