Anglo/Saxon England

400-1066

England during the Anglo-Saxon time period, 400-1066 A.D.

History• From the 1st-5th centuries, England was a province of the

Roman Empire and was named Britannia.

• In the 5th Century, the Roman legions withdrew, leaving the island vulnerable to the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.

• These Anglo-Saxon invaders spoke an early form of Old English.

• Britons became Christians in the fourth century after the Roman invasion. Before Christianity, there had been no books.

• The first extended written specimen of the Old English language is a code of laws promulgated by the first English Christian King.

• The Anglo-Saxon invaders brought a tradition of oral poetry, particularly alliterative, Germanic heroic poetry.

• Few texts were written down that did not pertain to the Church (Abrams)

Frankish Saxon

According to the Venerable Bede (see later slide), the Germanic invaders and settlers who began to arrive in 5th century Britain included Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, and Danes (Abrams).

Sutton HooOne of the most fabulous discoveries of the twentieth century was the burial site of a 7th century Anglo-Saxon king. The burial site is located on an estate near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England called Sutton Hoo (Holtz, “Welcome to the Sutton Hoo Room”).

In the burial site were found 41 items of solid gold, which are now held in the British Museum (Holtz,

“Welcome to the Beowulf Room”).

Boar’s crest and helmet, as mentioned in Beowulf.

Daily LifeThe world of the Anglo-Saxons was predominately harsh. Kinship was the basis for the tribe, which was ruled by a chieftain. He surrounded himself with a band of retainers, whom he lead in battle. They were obligated to uphold the “heroic code,” fighting for him and avenging him if he was killed (Abrams).

Warfare

Armour

Shields

Spears

Helmets

King Alfred, The GreatKing Alfred the Great, whose reign lasted from 871-899, defended Anglo-Saxon England from Viking raids, formulated a code of laws, and fostered a rebirth of religious and scholarly activity (Roberts).

Viking Invasioncirca 900 A. D

Jorvik Viking Center, York, England

The first Viking, or Norse, raids of England began around 787. The Normans, or Norsemen, took possession of England after the decisive Battle of Hastings in 1066 (Abrams).

Old English Literature

• “Caedmon’s Hymn”

• “The Dream of the Rood”

• Beowulf

• The Battle of Maldon

The Venerable Bedeca. 673-735

Father of English History

The Venerable Bede, as he has become known, became a novice in the church at age 7 and spent the rest of his life in monasteries. He achieved an international reputation as one of the greatest scholars of his age. His best known work is the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731, which includes “Caedmon’s Hymn.” (“The Venerable Bede”).

The Ruthwell CrossThe Ruthwell Cross was carved by skilled Northumbrian sculptors in the early 8th century and now stands in a small church in the town of Ruthwell in south-west Scotland. It is seventeen feet four inches tall and serves as the high cross for the church.  The cross is richly decorated with Christian symbols, the two faces carved with a series of panels, each one illustrating a scene from the Gospels and accompanied by Latin text. It is undoubtedly the most important sculptural survival from Anglo-Saxon Britain and arguably from early medieval Europe.  What makes the Cross so valuable as an artifact is its blend of elaborate ornamentation and inscriptions in both Latin letters and Anglo-Saxon runes; as well, the Cross preserves in those runes lines from a later Anglo-Saxon poem, “The Dream of the Rood” (Bruce). 

Photo by Alexander M. Bruce

RunesRunes are an alphabetic script used by the peoples of Northern Europe from the first century c.e. until well into the Middle Ages. The primary characteristic which distinguishes a runic alphabet from other alphabets is that each letter, or rune, has a meaning. The first three runes, "fehu", "uruz", and "þurisaz" are actual words in the Germanic language, meaning "cattle", "aurochs", and "giant", respectively (Smith).

BeowulfThe finest surviving long poem in Old English was probably composed orally in the 8th century. We still do not know the name of its author, and it was not titled until 1805. It was the first great English work in the oral, epic mode (Trapp).

The Battle of Maldon

Viking cloak pinhttp://www.airflow.net/maldon/maldon01.htm

Works CitedAbrams, et al, eds.. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1. New York:

Norton, 2000.

Bruce, Alexander M. “About the Ruthwell Cross.” Rood and Ruthwell: The Poem and the Cross. 4 Jan. 2004. Florida Southern University. <http://www.flsouthern.edu/eng/abruce/rood/CROSS.HTM>.

Holtz, Stephen, Robert Bartusik, and James Sigona. “Welcome to the Beowulf Room.” School of Computer Science and Information Systems Webpage. Pace University. 18 May 2004 <http://csis.pace.edu/grendel/projs4a/be1.htm>.

Holtz, Stephen, Robert Bartusik, and James Sigona. “Welcome to the Sutton Hoo Room.” School of Computer Science and Information Systems Webpage. Pace University. 18 May 2004 <http://csis.pace.edu/grendel/projs4a/sutton.htm>.

Roberts, Ken. “King Alfred The Great.” The Mirror Website. 27 Oct. 1997. 20 Aug. 2003 <http://www.mirror.org/people/ken.roberts/king.alfred.html>.

Smith, Jennifer. “What Are Runes?” The Runic Journey. 16 Dec. 2002. 20 Aug. 2003 <http://www.tarahill.com/runes>.

Trapp, J. B. Medieval English Literature. New York: Oxford University Press. 1973.

“The Venerable Bede: Father of English History.” St. Bede’s Episcopal Church Webpage. 2001. 18 May 2004 <http://www.stbedes.org/bede.htm>.

Williamson, Roland. “The Saxons.” Regia Anglorum Publications. 31 Mar. 2003. 20 August 2003 <http://www.regia.org/Saxon1htm>.