1. Bards, Scops, Minstrals, and Poets
Along with shelter and a place for council meetings, the communal hall (or mead hall) was a place to gather to hear stories told.

2. In Anglo Saxon society, the bard, who sung of gods and heroes, was as respected as a warrior.

3. “…creating poetry was as important as fighting, hunting, farming, or loving.”

4. Playing to the tunes of a harp, poets sang mournful heroic tales that appealed to a people plagued by war, disease, and old age.

5. You lived in your people’s memory.
Since the Anglo Saxons did not believe in an afterlife, your fame, carried on through the bard’s poetry, was a warrior’s only hope to outlive death.
You lived in your people’s memory.

6. Ireland’s Golden Age (432-750)
Unlike the Anglo Saxon’s who were constantly at war during the 5th century, the Celts were enjoying a time of peace.
Ireland’s wild, ice-cold waters defended them against invading Vikings.

7. Patricius
In 432, all of Ireland was converted to Christianity by a Romanized Briton named Patricius. As a teenager, he had been captured, enslaved by Irish slave traders, and was forced to spend six (6) years as a sheepherder.

8. After escaping and become a Catholic bishop, he returned to Ireland, the very same people who had held him as a slave, to bring them Christianity.

9. Monasteries help Ireland, “burn and gleam in the darkness.”
During this Golden Age, while Britain and Europe are engaged in war,
“Irish monks founded monateries that became sanctuaries of learning for refugee scholars from Europe and England.”

10. Anglo Saxon pagan beliefs and Christianity existed side-by-side.
Monasteries served as centers of learning.
Monks preserved classics in Latin and Greek, but also wrote down popular Anglo Saxon literature like Beowulf.

11. Scriptoriums were writing rooms developed for the monks
Scriptoriums were writing rooms developed for the monks. Each day, they would spend the daylight copying manuscripts by hand.

12. These rooms were actually outdoor walkways covered by “walls” made of oiled paper or glass. However, in the winter, these were little protection, and therefore, the ink often froze.

13. “Monks wrote on sheepskin ‘paper’ with a quill pen for the entire day copying manuscripts, all while obeying a rule of silence.”

14. Latin, at this time, was the only language accepted in “serious” study.
This ends with Alfred’s reign, when he commissions the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a long history of England.
This caused the English language to gain some respect, so monks began to copy English stories and poetry.

15. Tradition
A prospective husband had to offer a woman a substantial gift called the “morning gift” (morgengifu).
The woman (not her family or husband) had personal control over this gift, she could give it away, sell it, or bequeath it as she chose.

16. Women Had Rights!
Anglo-Saxon culture sounds as if it would be an inhospitable place for women, but women had rights in this society
They could own and inherit property, even after marriage.
These rights were sharply
curtailed after the
Norman Conquest
in 1066.

17. Religion
Christianity offered opportunities for women, who joined religious communities, and some women became powerful abbesses.
These abbesses, usually women from noble families, were in charge of large double houses.
Abbess-a woman who is the superior of a convent of nuns.

18. Library
Hild, the abbess of Whitby, was one of the most famous of these women.
Hild accumulated an immense library and turned Whitby into a center of learning.

19. Despite Christianity, the old Anglo-Saxon religion remained strong
Despite Christianity, the old Anglo-Saxon religion remained strong. It drew many of its deities and rites from Scandinavian or Norse mythology.
It was a dark,
fatalistic religion.

20. The religion of Anglo-Saxons seems to have been more concerned with ethics than with mysticism—with the earthy virtues of bravery, loyalty, generosity, and friendship.

21. One of the most important gods was Odin, the god of death, poetry and magic. (The Anglo-Saxon name for Odin was Woden (from which we have
Wednesday,
“Woden’s day” .)

22. Odin, god of both poetry and death, played an important role in the lives of people who produced great poetry and who also maintained a somber,
brooding
outlook on life.

23. Thor, or Thunor, was the god of thunder and lightning
Thor, or Thunor, was the god of thunder and lightning. (Thor’s name survives in
Thursday,
“Thor’s day.”)

24. Another significant figure in Anglo-Saxon mythology is the dragon, protector of a treasure. the fiery dragon was both a personification of “death the devourer” and as the guardian of the grave mound. (Beowulf)

25. Thor’s sign was the hammer and possibly the twisted cross that we call the swastika.