THE ANGLO-SAXON ERA449-1066

Invasion of Britain of the Germanic Tribes to The Battle of Hastings

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.

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

CELTIC HEROES AND HEROINES: A MAGICAL

WORLD

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

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

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.

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)

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 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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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 432-750, Ireland experienced a Golden Age

Irish monks founded monasteries that became sanctuaries of learning and refuge

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

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

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

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