Hey y'all,
I'm Breton and I'm looking to learn more about the History of my home region. I know the times between when the Romans took leave ca. 4th-5th centuries and the 10th century are supposed to be 'dark' i.e. there is a severe lack of reliable written sources and it's difficult to know much about what happened then.
Still, I would like to know as much as possible. I have in my possession interesting old books like La Bretagne des saints et des rois which are mostly chronicles and old-style, narrative hagiographies and commentaries thereof. I'd like some more 'modern' historiographical takes on the history of Brittany -- something like Bloch would have written should he have cared about the matter (or someone from the Annales school, or cultural history, or even a comparative toponymy approach between Britain and Brittany, etc.)
I can read in English, French and German (who knows). Ironically I cannot read Breton.
Does someone have some pointers for me? :)
Many thanks
Have a very pleasant day!
TGLAF
Hi, I can certainly get you started in any case, as long as you're not averse to getting into academic books in English (ironically, I havn't really come across much in French on Brittany, although that may be because I havn't been looking for it). Julia Smith Province and Empire: Brittany and the Carolingians is the basic study from Brittany from the 8th to 10th centuries. Wendy Davies' Small Worlds is a fantastic, detailed little social history of the area around the monastery of Redon in south-eastern Brittany in the 9th century which has been very influential beyond Breton history. The other things to check out would be the relevant regional chapters in the New Cambridge Medieval History, volumes II and III, which are always solid on political narratives and chock full of further reading. Going through the bibliographies and citations of all these works will provide a lot more detailed books you could follow up on for a more localised perspective. If you wish to go a little bit later, chronologically, you could also try Judith Everard's Brittany and the Angevins for the 12th century.
Hopefully that's enough to get your started, although I'm afraid you'll have to wait for someone else to come along to advise you about reading before the Carolingian period.