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IMC 2012: Sessions

Session 220: 'What is it good for?': War and Warfare in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland

Monday 9 July 2012, 14.15-15.45

Organiser:Ben Snook, Queen Mary, University of London
Moderator/Chair:Erik Niblaeus, International Consortium for Research in the Humanities, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg
Paper 220-aGive War a Chance: Just War and Conflict Resolution in 9th- and 10th-Century England
(Language: English)
Ben Snook, Queen Mary, University of London
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Military History, Philosophy, Political Thought
Paper 220-bChurch Militant, Church Triumphant?: The Wars of the Bishop-Kings of Munster in the 9th and 10th Centuries
(Language: English)
Denis Casey, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - Celtic, Military History
Paper 220-cThe Land of Hope and Glory: Assessing the Materiality of Viking-Age Conflict in England
(Language: English)
Ben Raffield, Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Archaeology - Sites, Military History
Abstract

Warfare intruded, in some way, into almost every aspect of medieval life, both sacred and secular. This session will examine attitudes towards warfare in early medieval Britain and Ireland, explore the practical realities of conflict and its aftermath, and reassess the wider dynastic, social and economic impacts of war on early medieval societies. In constructing a panoramic view of early medieval conflict, the papers offered will span the disciplines of history, philosophy, literature and archaeology. War, it will be suggested, was good for much more than 'absolutely nothing' in the early Middle Ages.