'Rowing through the storm': the ocean and early medieval Iona

Thesis

This is the first comprehensive study of the relationship between early medieval Iona and the ocean, showing how the ocean impacted every level of Ionan life: physical, social, cultural, and economic. The environmental context of the medieval monastery forces historians to rethink some fundamental presumptions held about the early community. I argue that greater attention should be given to the ocean’s ability to challenge and isolate the monks of Iona, and to a more local understanding of the medieval monastery and of the wider medieval world.

The Introduction sets out the scope of this study. It offers an overview of the early history of Iona, laying out the structure, method, and historiographical context of this thesis. Chapter One treats the ocean’s role in the climate of Iona. The behaviour of the ocean shifted with the climatic changes of the first millennium AD, undercutting the agricultural sustainability of Iona. As is shown in Chapter Two, the ocean’s ability to connect was one means of overcoming Iona’s limited agricultural sustainability; but the sea should be understood primarily as a local method of delivering the needs of Iona, less as a tool for inter-regional or global mobility. While many authors influenced how Iona’s monks understood the ocean culturally, as Chapter Three argues, it was the local oceanscape that defined the Ionan appreciation of the sea in their literature. Chapter Four compares the Ionan experience of island monasticism to the example of Lérins, as well as Irish and British patterns of insular monasticism, showing the commonalities in addition to Iona’s unique economic response to its environment and geography. In the Conclusions, I discuss some intersections with historiographical perspectives. I review how the ocean challenged the monks of Iona, but also how they derived meaning from those challenges.

Authors: Macaulay, JA

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-wxmdk7ryj
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: medieval Scotland; Columba; Iona; ocean; Adomnán
• Subjects: Scottish History; Medieval History; Environmental History