The Roman Empire, from the 5th to the 10th centuries, had ceased to directly influence events in Europe. The peoples whom the Romans derogatorily referred to as barbarians impose themselves. The Christian religion, which had arisen in a distant region of the Empire, gradually becomes dominant. One might think that this ancient world, at the crossroads of paganism and Christianity, no longer exists. However, after so many centuries, it is still here today.

The spirit of this era hovers among peoples who create. Some of them steer the course on the map of the world. Our acquaintance with the archetypes of their civilization is a touch of the soil in which our roots are sunk, a connection with the vital force that shaped our history.

We have opened a window into the web of the Early Middle Ages through the oldest surviving epic of the time in Europe, the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf. From the balcony of its garden, we will gaze upon the streets and winding alleys, the stairs and dead ends of the centuries on which the foundations of medieval West were laid, from which our civilization emerged.

(From the blurb on the back cover of the book)