Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Traditions
- 2 Deserts and Forests in the Ocean
- 3 Almost Beyond the World
- 4 Realms in Abeyance
- 5 Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
- 6 A Thousand Furlongs of Sea
- Epilogue: The Tempest's Many Beginnings
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Almost Beyond the World
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Traditions
- 2 Deserts and Forests in the Ocean
- 3 Almost Beyond the World
- 4 Realms in Abeyance
- 5 Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
- 6 A Thousand Furlongs of Sea
- Epilogue: The Tempest's Many Beginnings
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Who knows, after all, how far this great sea extends, onto which sailors do not dare to sail, and, up till now, have not attempted to do so, and which surrounds Britain with furious waves and which reaches even further places that are not even accessible in legends.
Ambrose (c. 340–97), Hexaemeron 3, 3, 15 (after Basil of Caesarea)At the farthest reaches of the world often occur new marvels and wonders, as though Nature plays with greater freedom secretly at the edges of the world than she does openly and nearer us in the middle of it.
Ranulph Higden (1299–1363/64), PolychroniconBritain at the ‘Laste Clif of Occean’
For Gildas, things could only get worse. Disintegration and the slow but steady decline of Romano-British civilisation into chaos form the main themes of his On the Ruin of Britain, which was composed in the first half of the sixth century. In many ways, he cannot be blamed. After the Romans had abandoned Britannia, their cultural inheritance began to deteriorate and, with time, established British civilisation was confronted by pagan newcomers. As if this were not punishment enough, it was in times such as these that the inhabitants of the British Isles were paying the price for their frontline position in Christian geography. Drawing on Roman sources, Gildas asserts that Britain lies at the very end of the world, surrounded by an uncrossable ring of sea:
Brittannia insula in extremo ferme orbis limite circium occidentemque versus divina, ut dicitur, statera totius ponderatrice librata ab Africo boriali propensius tensa axi …, quae arcuatis oceani sinibus ambiuntur, tenes, cuius diffusiore et, ut ita dicam, intransmeabili undique circulo.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Sea and Medieval English Literature , pp. 72 - 99Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007