449-1066Anglo-Saxon

Stonehenge

The earliest settlers in Britain were the Iberians.

This relatively small island has been invaded and settled many times:

Then the Celts

Then the Romans

Then the Angles and the Saxons

Then the Vikings

Then the Normans

Each of these invading forcesLeft behind a cultural identity which contributed to what is the modern English Identity.

ArchitectureLiterature

Religion

When Greek travelers visited what is now Great Britain in the fourth century B.C., they found an island settled by tall blond warriors who called themselves Celts.

Among these Celts was a group called Brythons – Britons – who left their permanent stamp in one of the names eventually adopted for the island the settled (Britain).

Their religion was a form of animism (from the Latin

meaning SPIRIT).

The Celts saw spirits everywhere – in trees, rivers, stones, ponds, fire, and thunder.

The Celts believed that these spirits or gods controlled all aspects of existence, and they had to be constantly satisfied.

The Druids

Priests called Druids acted as intermediaries between the gods and the people.

The word DRUID means “knowing the oak tree”

Oaks were sacred..the custom of kissing under mistletoe began with the druids.

They taught the transmigration of the soul …that the soul was immortal passing in death from one person to another.

The Celts

Introduced the use of iron to the rest of Europe.

Had a rich mythology

Le Morte d’Arthurby

Sir Thomas Malory

Gathered Celtic legends about a warrior and mixed them with Chivalric values of his day and published them.

Ultimately became the embodiment of British Values.

The Celtic stories are very different from the Anglo-Saxon tales that came later, although it is the Anglo-Saxon myths that we tend to study in school.

Unlike the male-dominated Anglo-Saxon stories, the Celtic legends are full of strong women, like the tall and fierce and very beautiful Queen Maeve of Connacht in Ireland.

Full of fantastic animals, passionate love affairs, and incredible adventures, the Celtic myths take you to enchanted lands where magic and the imagination rule.

The RomansBeginning with an invasion led by Julius Caesar in 55 B.C. and culminating in one organized by Emperor Claudius about 100 years later, the Celts were conquered by the Romans.

The RomansThey built a network of roads, supplied armies to prevent further invasions, and built a huge wall (Hadrian’s Wall) 73 miles long.Importance of the roads:

Connected capital cities of London, York, and WinchesterFacilitated trade, the collection of taxes, and the movement of troops

The RomansDuring Roman Rule, Christianity, which would later become a unifying force, gradually took hold under the leadership of European missionaries.

The old Celtic religion began to vanish.

The Romans began having trouble back home. By A.D. 409 they had evacuated their troops leaving everything except a central government. Britain was left a country of separate clans.

This made England ripe for invasion by non-Christian peoples from Germanic regions of continental Europe.

The Anglo-SaxonsIn the middle of the 5th century, the Angles and Saxons from Germany and the Jutes from Denmark crossed the North Sea.

The Anglo-SaxonsThe language of the Anglo-Saxons became the dominant language in the land that was to take a new name – Engla land, or England – from the Angles.The newcomers did not have an easy time of it. The Celts put up a strong resistance before retreating to Wales, in the far west of the country.

The Anglo-SaxonsAt first, Anglo-Saxon England was no more politically unified than Celtic Briton had been. The country was divided into several independent principalities, each with its own “king.”

King Alfred of Wessex (reigned from 871-899) also known as Alfred the GreatAlfred led the Anglo-Saxons against invading Danes.This united most of England

The Anglo-SaxonsThe Danes were one of the fierce Viking peoples who crossed the cold North Sea in their dragon-prowed boats in the 8th and 9th centuries. Plundering and destroying everything in their path, the Danes eventually took over and settled in parts of the northeast and central England.

The Anglo-SaxonsImportance of Christianity

Irish and Continental missionaries converted the Anglo-Saxon kings, whose subjects converted also.

Christianity provided a common faith and a common system of morality and right conduct.

It also linked England with Europe.

The Anglo-SaxonsImportance of Christianity

Monasteries became centers of learning and preserved works from the older oral tradition.

English language began replacing the Latin of the church.

The Anglo-SaxonsUnder Christianity and King Alfred, Anglo-Saxons fought to protect their people, their culture, and their church from the ravages of the Danes.

These battles settle the Wessex Kings as THE kings of England. They continued until 1066.

In 1066 William of Normandy invaded from France and conquered both the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes. So there!

The Anglo-SaxonsA two class society:Thanes and Churls

Thanes ruled and were related to the leader of the tribe.

Churls were the bondservants whose ancestors had been captured by the tribe.

The Anglo-SaxonsThe Role of Women

An upper-class woman (the wife of an earl or thane) would supervise weaving and dyeing of clothes, the slaughter of livestock, and (most important) the brewing of mead – an alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey and water. Because honey was so essential, beekeeping was an important chore.

Women in Anglo-Saxon society had rights that were greatly curtailed after the Norman invasion.

Anglo-Saxon women could inherit and hold property. Even after marriage, women controlled their own property. A man wishing to marry had to offer the woman morgengifu – a gift of money or land.

The woman herself (not her husband or family) had control over this gift and could give it away or sell it or bequeath it as she chose.

The Anglo-SaxonsImportance of Christianity

Religion also offered woman a place of importance as members of religious communities.

An abbess at this time would be in charge of large houses and monasteries.

Saint Hilda – founder of Whitby Abbey for both monks and nuns.Until destroyed by the

Vikings in 867, the abbey was the chief center of learning in the north.

A system of writing called RUNES was used as ornamentation on drinking horns, buckles, clasps, purses, and beautiful weapons such as swords.

Runes were thought to provide magical protection and were not used for lengthy communication.

Concepts of Fate and GloryWyrd

Lof

One’s fate in life.

Anglo-Saxons didn’t much believe in an afterlife. They believed immortality could

be earned through heroic action.

Fame that survives death.

PoetryIn Norse mythology, poetry was originally a sacred mead brewed from the blood of a wise god, Kvasir.

After he was murdered by dwarfs, this mead came into the possession of a giant but was then stolen by Odin, who assumed the shape of an eagle and carried it to the world of the gods.

Poetry was known as

Odin’s Theftor

Kvasir’s Blood

Despite the influence of Christianity, the old Anglo-Saxon religion with its warrior gods persisted.

A dark, fatalistic religion, it had been brought by the Anglo-Saxons from Germany and had much in common with Norse mythology.

One of the most important Norse gods was Odin

God of Death, Poetry, and Magic

The Anglo-Saxon name for Odin was ‘Woden’ (from which we get Wednesday… Woden’s Day).

The Anglo-Saxon deity named Thunor was the same as Thor, the Norse god of thunder

and lightning. His sign was the hammer and also the twisted cross we call the swastika which is found on so many Anglo-Saxon gravestones.

Thor’s Day = Thursday

The Dragon Important figure in Norse mythology which always seems to be the protector of a treasure.

To the Anglo-Saxons, the dragon was the

embodiment of evil and death.

It was associated with the Danes and their ships.

ReligionOn a whole, the religion of the Anglo-Saxons was more concerned with ethics than with mysticism.

Earthly Virtues:

BraveryLoyaltyGenerosity

Friendship

The BardsMost important to Anglo-Saxon communities was the communal Hall.

This place offered not only shelter and a place for meetings, but also provided space

for storytellers and their audiences.

Storytellers (or bards) sang of gods and heroes. These storytellers were also called SCOPS.

Scops were not considered inferior warriors. To the Anglo-Saxons, creating poetry was as

important as fighting, hunting, farming, or loving.

Why was Poetry so important to the Anglo-Saxons?Answer:

For a culture that doesn’t believe in an afterlife,

immortality was only achieved through being remembered in

songs and stories and POETRY.

How is this value placed on storytelling different in today’s society?Answer:

It was also their entertainment.

It’s NOT Different!

The Luck of the IrishBecause of rough seas isolating it, Ireland was not invaded by Germanic Invaders.

Then in 432, the whole of Celtic Ireland was converted to Christianity. By a Romanized Briton named Patricius (Saint Patrick).

The Shamrock – symbol of Ireland

From 432 to 750, while Europe and England sank into constant warfare – Ireland experienced a golden age.

Monasteries became sanctuaries of learning for refugee scholars from Europe and England.