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ME4756   Historia Brittonum: Inventing the Past in Ninth-Century Wales

Academic year(s): 2017-2018

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 60

ECTS credits : 30

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: Full Year

Availability restrictions: Available only to students in the second year of the Honours programme.

Planned timetable: 9.30 am - 12.30 pm Wed

Historia Brittonum was written in North Wales in the 820s. It purports to tell the story of the Britons from earliest times until some point in the 680s. In this Special Subject we shall be looking at the text itself and the context of its production and examining its sources and analogues - including the reworking of known Late Antique sources, some of the earliest versions of the origin legends of the Britons, the Irish, the Picts and the English and various hagiographical and historiographical motifs. The module will look at the modern reception of the text as well as the author's motivations and methodologies and will form a lens through which students can view the construction of histories in the early middle ages.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in the Second Year of the Honours Programme

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 1 x 3-hour seminar, plus 1 office hour.

Scheduled learning hours: 63

Guided independent study hours: 537

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: 2 x 3-hour Written Examinations = 60, Coursework = 40%

As defined by QAA
Written examinations : 60%
Practical examinations : 0%
Coursework: 40%

Re-assessment: New coursework: 1 x source exercise (2,000 - 2,500 words) and 1 x 4,000 - 5,000-word essay = 100%

Personnel

Module teaching staff: Dr A Woolf