This study examines the inability of historians to reach any consensus regarding Britain during the fifth and sixth century ‘Dark Ages’. The first chapter examines how a preoccupation with myths of origin has affected the way in which historians have viewed written and archaeological sources since the twelfth century. It suggests that a reorientation of historians’ current conception of Britain as a single nation, to instead, consider Britain as encompassing a number of smaller regions, will in future produce a more accurate depiction of ‘Dark Age’ Britain. The second chapter provides a case study of the economic activity of East Anglia during the fifth and sixth centuries, as a means of confronting and refuting the leading theory regarding the economic activity of Western Europe during this period. It concludes that East Anglia does not conform to the current theory that all economic activity in Britain ceased in the fifth and sixth centuries.