Anglo-Saxon World View Anglo-Saxon World View and Key Themesand Key Themes

What is World View?What is World View?

• How a person/group of people feels about and interacts with the world, nature, and God

• Anglo-Saxon worldview- grim, negative- they lived harsh lives full of war and hard work

• Saw nature as the enemy; no concept of happy afterlife or loving God

WYRDWYRD

• Anglo-Saxon concept of FATE.

• They believed their lives were ruled by FATE (or wyrd).

LOFLOF

• Because the Anglo-Saxons did not believe in an afterlife, they sought immortality through a concept called LOF (or FAME)

COMITATUSCOMITATUS

• Again, because life was so harsh, they made life meaningful through relationships with one another and the king.

• Comitatus means COMPANIONSHIP- loyalty and love to your kinsmen, friends, and king

What made life worth living?What made life worth living?

• LOF (FAME)- for the afterlife

• COMITATUS (COMPANIONSHIP)- for now

• MEAD HALL- the king lived in a great hall called the mead hall where warriors would gather and tell stories and drink mead

SCOPSSCOPS

• Pronounced SHOPES

• Storytellers and poets

• Entertainers

ConversionConversion

• St. Augustine and St. Patrick are two famous missionaries who brought Christianity to Great Britain.

• Christianity offered a happy afterlife, a loving God, and ideas like forgiveness and hope that their religion had not.

• Celtic Cross= Pagan Celtic Sundial+Christian Cross

Make a chart listing the differences Make a chart listing the differences in Pagan and Christian Valuesin Pagan and Christian Values

Pagan vs. ChristianPagan vs. Christian

• Monsters and supernatural beings

• Lof (Fame)• Warrior- Physical Strength• Courage• Pride (Heroic Boasts)• Revenge (Weregild)• Riches/Gold• Loyalty• Signs, Superstition, Wyrd

(fate)• Valhalla• Sacrifice

• “The Almighty”

• Love• Compassion• Humility- “the meek shall

inherit the earth”• Forgiveness “love your

enemies”• Riches are in heaven, not on

earth• Sacrifice• Heaven

Characteristics of WritingCharacteristics of Writing

• Kenning- a metaphorical two word compound

• Caesura- a pause in the middle of a line

• Alliteration- repetition of initial consonant sounds

Reasons for these CharacteristicsReasons for these Characteristics

• Euphony= pleasing to the ear; it sounds good!!

• Memory= rhythm and repetition help it make things easier to remember- the scops had to tell all of their stories from memory so caesura and alliteration helped