Sun Dancing: A Medieval Vision - Softcover

Geoffrey Moorhouse

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1848890044 ISBN 13: 9781848890046

Publisher: The Collins Press, 2009

Synopsis

The Great Skellig or Skellig Micheal fascinates all who visit it. Off Ireland s southwest coast, inhospitable and uninhabited today, Skellig Michael was home to a monastic community from the sixth to the thirteenth century. Many have wondered about the life of the monks on the rock centuries ago. In this remarkable feat of imagination and reconstruction Geoffrey Moorhouse shows how this community worshipped and survived from c500 to 1200AD. The book is in two parts: the first describes the austere life of the monks in fiction format beginning with their arrival on the island, withdrawing from the world to a life of prayer and fasting, hardship and danger. Subsequent scenes depict the dangers, aspects of Celtic spirituality, a Viking raid, and spiritual crises. Finally, the abbot and his aging disciples abandon the island following a severe storm. Moorhouse got inside the minds and world of the monks. The second part is a collection of short essays setting out the evidence for the detail in the first part, and describes the many features of medieval monastic life. Topics covered include the conversion of the Irish to Christianity, Celtic monasticism, lives of early saints and scholars, wildlife and more recent history of the Skelligs. The title Sun Dancing refers to the belief that the sun dances for joy at dawn on Easter Sunday.

About this title

Review:

A wonderfully imaginative book. --The Times

Fascinating...an audacious achievement. --Guardian

Hugely impressive history of monastic life. --Sunday Tribune

About the Author:

Geoffrey Moorhouse is one of the best writers of our time (The Times), a brilliant historian (Daily Telegraph) and a writer whose gifts are beyond category (Independent on Sunday). He is the award-winning author of eighteen books. In 1982 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His To the Frontier won the Thomas Cook Award for the best travel book of its year in 1984. He lives in a hill village in North Yorkshire.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Collins Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1848890044
• ISBN 13: 9781848890046
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 258