Summary In recent years numerous advances in archaeological and historical studies have enhanced our understanding of the form and function of settlements and strongholds in the landscapes of early medieval England. Until now, this groundbreaking work has not been matched in studies of early English literature, where no concerted effort has been made to investigate how these findings can inform our understanding of their representation in texts - and vice versa. This study shows that literary works offer considerable insight into the ways their authors, readers, and other audiences thought and felt about the constructed places and spaces in which they lived their lives. Covering a broad range of evidence from the end of Roman rule to the Conquest, it is the first study of its kind to offer an interdisciplinary account of the relationship between the built environment as it appears in the material record, and in a range of textual productions. Settlements and Strongholds interrogates correlations and disjunctions between the stories found in the soil and in written works of various kinds, focusing on vernacular texts and Latin works that informed their development. It argues for a deeper appreciation of the relationship between imaginative works and the material contexts in which they were created, revealing the parallel development of ideas and concepts that were fundamental in shaping early medieval England. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations Chapter 1. Introduction: Texts and Landscapes in Early Medieval England Texts Materials Contexts Chapter 2. Ruin Mythologies The Desolation of Britain Origin Mythologies Roman Buildings in the Exeter Book Elegies Roman Buildings in Andreas Rural Settlements in Early-Saxon England Loci Amoeni in the Vernacular Tradition Conclusion Chapter 3. Settlements Before the 'Viking Age' Rebuilding Christendom in the Ruins of Rome Cosmic Halls in Beowulf and Cædmon's Hymn Minster Authority: Cædmon in the Historia Ecclesiastica Building the English Church in De Templo Structuring the Everyday in the Exeter Book Elegies W?cs in Old English Poetry? Burhs in Middle-Saxon England Conclusion Chapter 4. Settlements, Strongholds, and the Alfredian Reinvention Reclaiming the Urban Landscape in Andreas The Archaeology of the Burghal Hidage Society, Settlements, and the 'Alfredian' Translations Society, Settlements, and Asser's Vita Alfredi Conclusion Chapter 5. Spiritual Strongholds in Late-Saxon England Bethulia as Burh in the Old English Judith Cities of Good and Evil in Elene, Juliana, and Daniel Ælfric, Wulfstan, and the Building of Christendom The Anglo-Norman City in Durham Conclusion Chapter 6. Afterword Of Time and the City Earth, Wood, Stone Structures of Community Works Cited Index