The Anglo-Saxons Their History, Culture, Language, and Literature

Overview of Events  Ancient Britain  Roman Britain  Coming of the Anglo-Saxons – The English language begins  Anglo-Saxon Culture, Religion, and Social Order  Beginning of the literary tradition  Second Viking invasion

Ancient Britain A.D.  Inhabited by Britons and Celtic people  Farmers and hunters  Society organized into clans  Ruled by tribal chieftains elected from the class of pagan priests  Priests known as the Druids

Roman Britain 43 – 449 A.D.  43 A.D. – Romans, under Claudius’s rule, conquer Britain.  Brought their law, culture, comforts, and Latin language to the land.  The Celts become “Romanized,” tribal disputes stop, and things are fairly peaceful.  Britons were converted to Christianity with the rest of the Roman Empire in the 4 th century.  5 th century – Roman occupation ends.

Arrival of the Anglo – Saxons 5 th Century A.D.  Withdrawal of the Romans left the native Britons vulnerable.  Next 100 years – Britons were invaded by seafaring, Germanic invaders.  Three tribes known as Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.  Invasion forced natives to retreat to Wales.  Anglo-Saxon Occupational Areas Anglo-Saxon Occupational Areas  Old English Period begins in 449.

Anglo-Saxon Culture  A.S. brought legends about ancient German heroes and kings.  Warriors were celebrated in lays or songs sung at feasts by a gleeman or scop.  Lays accompanied by the harp or lyre.  Songs composed orally – for entertainment, but also kept history alive.  Kings would entertain friends in mead halls, named for the drink mead made from fermented honey.

Heorot – The Meadhall in Beowulf

Anglo-Saxon Religious Beliefs (Before Christianity)  A.S. were Pagans. Christianity of Roman times kept alive only in remote regions.  Every human life in the hands of fate.  Worshipped ancient Germanic gods: Tiu, god of war and the sky; Woden, chief of the gods; and Fria, Woden’s wife.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday

Anglo-Saxon Society  Organized into a class of warriors known as earls or thanes.  These warriors protected and were devoted to the king, who was chosen by a witan- council of elders.  There was also a class of freemen known as churls.  Slaves were known as thralls.  Women, as “peace-weavers”

Return of Christianity  All of England converted to Christianity upon the arrival of Augustine in 597 A.D.  Augustine began by converting King Ethelbert of Kent.  Rest of England soon followed.  Monasteries built.  By 731 A.D.-Christianity well-rooted

The Scribes  In monasteries, scribes produced books by hand.  Books were usually religious in nature.  Focused on saints’ lives and sermons.  There were also copies of the oral literature.  Because of these Christian scribes, Anglo-Saxon culture was recorded.  “Father of English History” – the Venerable Bede, a Northumbrian monk.

Anglo-Saxon Themes  Heroism and kingship – the relationship between kings and their thanes (warriors).  Wergild- “man price” or retribution for the death of one’s family member.  After the arrival of Christianity, their relationship with God takes on these themes.

Themes cont’d.  Wyrd- “Fate” controlled one’s destiny.  Exile- the cost of being abandoned or apart from one’s tribe and society.

The Danish Invasion  Vikings (warriors) carried their piracy to the British Isles, bringing destruction and fear.  Despite England’s efforts to defend itself, most of northern, eastern, and southern England fell to the Danes by the middle of the ninth century.  Only the Saxon kingdom of Wessex fought the Danes to a standstill.

Weapons of War

A Typical Village

Old English: Caedmon’s Hymn  Verse Early Saxon Nu sculon herigean heofonrices weard, meotodes meahte and his modgeþanc, weorc wuldorfæder, swa he wundra gehwæs, ece drihten, or onstealde. He ærest sceop eorðan bearnum heofon to hrofe, halig scyppend; þa middangeard moncynnes weard, ece drihten, æfter teode firum foldan, frea ælmihtig.

Anglo-Saxon Occupational Areas  Angles- Northern and Midland Sections – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia  Saxons- Southern sections – Wessex, Essex, Sussex  Jutes- Southeastern Province, which became the kingdom of Kent  Return R