1. FALL OF GIANTS Placing Anglo-Saxon England in Context
"He came to a path, the dwindling ruins of a road of long ago. In steep places stairs of stone had been hewn, but now they were cracked and worn, and split by the roots of trees.“
JRR Tolkien Lord of the Rings

2. ROMAN PROVINCE OF BRITANNIA 410 AD

3. 50 YEARS LATER…

4. CADBURY CASTLE, SOMERSET – THE REAL CAMELOT?

5. WHAT HAPPENED?
“All the columns were levelled with the ground by the frequent strokes of the battering-ram, all the husbandmen routed, together with their bishops, priests, and people, whilst the sword gleamed, and the flames crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to behold, in the midst of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies, covered with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if they had been squeezed together in a press; and with no chance of being buried, save in the ruins of the houses, or in the ravening bellies of wild beasts and birds”.
Gildas On the ruin and Conquest of Britain c. 480

7. THE FIRST ENGLISH

9. “ His father's warriors were wound round his heart with golden rings, bound to their prince by his father's treasure. So young men build the future, wisely open-handed in peace, protected in war; so warriors earn their fame, and wealth is shaped with a sword."
Beowulf Page 24

10. MIDDLE EARTH AND WYRD

11. MEANWHILE ON THE CONTINENT…

12. POST COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON 451
IN THE WEST: MIMESIS IN THE EAST: STASIS

14. FROM KINGDOMS TO EMPIRE
ODOACER ( ), CHIEF OF THE OSTROGOTHS, DEPOSER OF ROME, PAGAN KING OF ITALY
CLOVIS ( ), MEROVINGIAN KING OF THE FRANKS, CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY
CHARLEMAGNE ( ), CAROLINGIAN KING OF FRANKS, HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR

15. THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE IN 816: WESTERN EUROPE REUNITED – BUT FOR HOW LONG?

16. 575 AD: THE MIGRATION PHASE COMPLETED
BRITAIN
575 AD: THE MIGRATION PHASE COMPLETED
BRITAIN