This project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and it will run for four years starting from September 2015. The Principal Investigator is Professor Paul Russell, the Co-Investigator is Dr Fiona Edmonds and the Research Associate is Dr Caroline Brett. The participants aim to investigate the links between Brittany and the Insular world (Britain and Ireland in general, but especially Cornwall and South Wales) during the earlier Middle Ages. There is scope for debate about the longevity and intensity of these maritime contacts. Was there one large migration from Britain to Brittany in the fifth century, during the so-called ‘Age of Migrations’? Or were the Atlantic connections more multi-faceted and enduring than traditional accounts suggest?
The participants will address these matters by producing a study of Brittany and its maritime links over a long time-scale, starting c. 450. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae provides a convenient end-point since it was accepted as the definitive account of the Breton migration for the rest of the Middle Ages. The research will involve an assessment of the textual evidence for Breton-Insular contacts, discussion of place- and personal names, and analysis of the ramifications of the linguistic evidence for the broader historical picture. The project conference will be held on 1-2 December 2017, and will encompass a broad range of disciplines, including archaeology. The core of the project’s work will be published as a three-author monograph, and there will also be a volume of conference proceedings.