This collection of biographies celebrates twenty-eight outstanding scholars, women and men, all late Fellows of the British Academy, who pioneered and developed the study of the early British Isles in the period 400-1100. The range of expertise covered includes language and literature (Old English; medieval Irish and Welsh; Scandinavian), history (Scandinavian; Anglo-Saxon, including the study of diplomatic and place-names), archaeology, art history and palaeography. The memoirs also reveal the personalities of these individuals, and each is accompanied by a photographic portrait.