1. Invasion of Britain of the Germanic Tribes to The Battle of Hastings
The anglo-saxon era
Invasion of Britain of the Germanic Tribes to The Battle of Hastings

2. Anglo-Saxon Period
Since the time of the Magna Carta (1215), the English were creating a political system “by and for the people”
America would not be what it is today without the legacy of English common law and its emphasis on personal rights and freedoms, English parliamentary government, English literature and the English language.

3. Anglo-Saxon Period
Many of our language, literature and law concepts are in place due to the Anglo-Saxon period of British history.
England, a small and isolated country, was first invaded and settled by the Iberians, then the Celts, the Romans, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, the Vikings and the Normans

4. Celtic Heroes and Heroines: A Magical World
Highly developed religion and legal system that specified individual rights—brought iron work to the rest of Europe

5. Celtic Heroes and Heroines: A Magical World
The name Britain comes from a group of Celts called the Brythons
Celtic religion was called Animism (from the latin word for “spirit”)—Celts saw spirits everywhere
Druids (Celtic priests) were intermediaries between the gods and people
Gods and spirits must always be kept happy as a result ritual dances and even human sacrifices were sometimes practiced
Stonehenge in Salisbury Plain in Whitshire may have been used by Druids for religious rites
Druid means “knowing the oak tree”-considered the trees and the mistletoe (dung twig)on them sacred-believed in transmigration(soul passes from one person to another in death)—Bonfire comes from bone fire—druid sacrifices

6. Celtic Heroes and Heroines: A Magical World
Celtic mythology influenced English and Irish writers
Malory in the 15th Century gathered Celtic legends about a warrior named Arthur—Le Morte d’Arthur
Arthur is the embodiment of English values
In the 20th Century, William Butler Yeats used Celtic myths in an attempt to make the Irish aware of their lost heroic past

7. Celtic Heroes and Heroines: A Magical World
Celtic myths are full of strong women, unlike the male dominated Anglo-Saxon literature
Queen Maeve of Connacht: Irish story about a queen leading her troops into battle over the ownership of a white bull
Celtic myths take the reader to enchanted lands where magic and imagination ruled.
Stories “leapt into sunlight”

8. The Romans: The Great Administrators
55 BC—Julius Caesar led an invasion into Britain
100 years later and invasion organized by Claudius finally defeated the Britons
The Roman occupation prevented further invasions for several hundred years
Romans built a network of roads (some still used today)
Romans built a defensive wall (Hadrian’s wall, 73 miles)
Caesar’s description of Britons (pg. 7)

9. Romans: The Great Administrators
Christianity gradually took hold under the leadership of European missionaries—old Celtic religion began to vanish
By 409AD, the Romans returned home to battle barbarians leaving behind the infrastructure but no strong central government
Without the Romans, Britain was a country of separate clans, resulting in weakness and making it ripe for invasion
The Romans left behind architecture and a system of roads. Stonehenge page 7.

10. The Anglo-Saxons Sweep Ashore
In the middle of the 5th Century, Angles and Saxons came from Germany, and the Jutes came from Denmark
The Anglo-Saxon language became the dominant language in the new land-- Engla land (England)
Celts fought hard before retreating to Wales in the west—traces of culture remained (”once and future king” King Arthur)
At first the country was still divided into its own principalities each with its own king
If it weren’t for the Anglo-Saxons we would all be speaking Latin. Roman historian Tacticus described Germanic tribes of the North including the Angles as loving freedom, have chaste women, and a lack of public extravagance… morals which mostly live on even today.

11. The Anglo-Saxons Sweep Ashore
Under King Alfred the Great , England became a nation
He unified the clans in order to fight off the invading Danes (Vikings)
Christianity provided a common faith and common system of morality and right conduct
Christianity also linked England to the rest of Europe
Christianity spread largely due to Irish and continental missionaries—most important St. Augustine
Vikings were known to plunder and destroy all in their path—Alfred the only “Great” because he saved the kingdoms of England from Danes and created a cohesive English society known as the “Father of English Prose” founded the first English Public Schools

12. The Anglo-Saxons Sweep Ashore
The Anglo-Saxons continued to fight to protect their people, their culture and their church
Eventually, both the Anglo-Saxons AND the Danes were defeated in 1066 by William, Duke of Normandy (William the Conqueror)
The Battle of Hastings (last battle in the Norman Conquest)

13. Anglo-Saxon Life: The Warm Hall, the Cold World
The Anglo-Saxons were not barbarians but their lives were not filled with learning, the arts or luxurious living
WARFARE was the order of the day
Law and order was the responsibility of the leader or any given group or clan
King was absolute ruler but still consulted with witan (wise men)
Fame, success, and survival were gained through loyalty to the leader, especially during war
Success was measured in gifts from the leader
Loyalty grew out of need to protect the group from terrors in the wilderness
Two classes Thanes or earls who ruled and were related to the leader of the tribe and churls or bondservants whose ancestors had been captured by the tribe
Strict laws stressed obligaiton to others

14. Anglo-Saxon Life: The Warm Hall, the Cold World
Most Anglo-Saxons lived close to their animals in single family homesteads
These wooden buildings surrounded a communal court (mead hall) or a warm, fire-lit chieftain’s hall
This community arrangement contributed to a sense of security but also to the close relationship between leaders and followers
It also encouraged community discussion and rule by consensus
Chieftains were bound to his followers until death. If the lord was killed, is warriors had the duty to avenge his death or die beside him

15. Women in Anglo-Saxon Culture
Women had rights in Anglo-Saxon society that were curtailed after the Norman Conquest
Women inherited and held property, even after marriage
Men were required to give a women a substantial gift before marriage: morgengifu or “morning-gift”
Women became powerful abbesses in the religious community
Hild, the abbess of Whitby, accumulated an immense library and turned Whitby into a center of learning

16. The Anglo-Saxon Religion: Gods for Warriors
Despite the influence of Christianity, the old Anglo-Saxon religion with warrior gods persisted
Dark, fatalistic religion had come with the Anglo-Saxons from Germany and had much in common with Norse or Scandinavian mythology
Wyrd was used by the Anglo-Saxons to represent one’s fate in life
Lof-fame that survives death could be earned through heroic actions
Anglo-Saxon Earthly Values: Bravery, Loyalty, Generosity, Friendship
No afterlife
They did not believe in afterlife FATALISTIC--the acceptance of all things and events as inevitable;submission to fate

17. The Anglo-Saxon Religion: Gods for Warriors
Norse
ANGLO-sAXON
Odin-god of death, poetry and magic
Thunor (Thor)-god of thunder and lightning
Woden (Woden’s Day =Wednesday)
Thor (Thor’s Day=Thursday)

18. The Anglo-Saxon Religion: Gods for Warriors
The dragon-protector of treasure; seen as “death devourer” and guardian of the burial mound
Anglo-Saxon religion seems to have been more concerned with ethics than with mysticism—with the earthly virtues of bravery, loyalty, generosity, and friendship

19. The Bards: Singing of Gods and Heroes
Communal Hall or Mead Hall provided the arena for storytellers and audiences
Storytellers were called bards or scops and sang to the strumming of a harp
To the Anglo-Saxons creating poetry was as important as fighting, hunting, farming or loving
Much of the literature was mournful or elegiac—focus on the fact that life is hard and ends in death
Poetry was the only was to be immortal ELEGIAC--expressing sorrow or lamentation

20. A Light from Ireland
Because Ireland was isolated and surrounded by wild seas, it was not overrun by the Germanic invaders
Celtic Ireland was converted to Christianity in 432 by a Romanized Briton named Patrick
From , Ireland experienced a Golden Age
Irish monks founded monasteries that became sanctuaries of learning and refuge
Patrick used the shamrock (which became the national flower and symbol of Ireland) to explain the Holy Trinity

21. The Christian Monasteries: The Ink froze
Bards, poets, scops provided one element of hope: the possibility that heroic deeds might be enshrined in society’s memory
Christianity was another element of hope
Monasteries served as centers of learning and preserved the Latin and Greek classics as well as great works of popular literature, such as Beowulf
Scriptorium: writing room where monks would copy manuscripts by hand

22. The Christian Monasteries: The Ink froze
Latin was the language of the church and educated until King Alfred
Because of King Alfred (Father of English Prose), English became a respected language thus bringing recognition to great works of literature in Old English
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was commissioned by King Alfred and was a lengthy running history of the early days of England

23. Timeline Highlights 1300BC Gilgamesh epic written down
55 BC Julius Caesar invades Britain
50Ad Londinium (present day London) founded by Romans—regained prominence with Alfred in 866
499 Angles, Saxons and Jutes invade
Late 500s Books are printed in China
597 St. Augustine(first Archbishop) converts Anglo-Saxon King Ethelbert and establishes monastery at Canterbury
670 Caedmon, the earliest English Christian poet
730 The Venerable Bede write Ecclesiastical History of the English People know as the father of English history
760 Monks begin Book of Kells manuscript of the Latin Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
793 Vikings invade beginning a century of war
871 Alfred the Great becomes king
975 The Exeter Book a collection of English poetry is first copied
1066 William the Conqueror defeats the Anglo-Saxons

24. Graphic Highlights
Map of British Isles: be able to identify Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, France, London, Thames River
United Kingdom =Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland
p.4 Hadrian’s Wall Photograph
p. 5 Bayeux Tapestry—20inches high and 230 feet long, commissioned by William the Conqueror to depict The Battle of Hastings
p. 10 Anglo-Saxon Village Photograph
p. 7 Stonehenge Photograph and description by Julius Caesar