The Anglo Saxons Period: 449-1066 and Language

Anglo-Saxon Period Time Line- Centuries of Invasion600-50 BCE Celts of Britain

600-50 BCE Celts

55 BCE Romans (led by Julius Caesar) invaded and drove the Celts to the west and north

409 CE Romans left. Celt rule again.

449 CE Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded.

800 CE Danes and Vikings invaded.

1066 CE French warriors called Normans defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings.

Centuries of Invasion• Celts gradually

infiltrated Britain over the course of the centuries between about 500 and 100 B.C. There was probably never an organized Celtic invasion

• The Celts were a group of peoples loosely tied by similar language, religion, and cultural expression. They were not centrally governed,

The Celtic Heroes• All the Britons dye

their bodies with blue color, and this gives them a more terrifying appearance in battle. They wear their hair long, and shave the whole of their bodies except the head and upper lip.

Celts• A magical world. The religion was a form of animism,

from the Latin word “spirit”. They saw spirits everywhere (rivers, trees, stones, ponds,etc.) They worshiped nature and their priests were called Druids.

• Legends are full of strong women, fantastic animals, passionate love affairs, and fabulous adventures.

• This mythology influence English and Irish writers to this day.

• There was little influence left of the Celtic languages after the invasions of many more groups.

• Arthur was a Celtic war chief that was defeated by the Anglo-Saxons.

                                             

Stonehenge

Some think that Stonehenge was used by the Druids for religious rites having to do

with the lunar and solar cycles.

The Romans: The Great Administrators

• In 55 BCE an invasion was led by Julius Caesar.

Administrative Genius

• Armies that prevented invasions.

• Built a network of roads and walls.

• Provided a centralized government with rules, laws, consequences, etc.

• Brought trade with the rest of Europe.

• Christianity would become a unifying force.

• Old Celtic religions began to vanish.

By 409, they had evacuated their troops from Britain, leaving roads,

walls, villas, and great public baths, but no central government. Without

Roman control, Britain was weak, and that made the island ripe for a series of successful invasions by non-Christian people from the Germanic regions of Continental Europe. There was little

influence on the language.

The Anglo-Saxons and the Jutes

• Around 449, in the middle of the fifth century, invaders come from Germany and Denmark across the North Sea.

Anglo-Saxon influences

• They drove the native Britons to the north and to the west and settled the greater portion of Britain.

• They were pagan.

• Their language was dominant. That language is Old English.

• The land became known as “Anglo-land”.

Weapons

Warrior Gods

• Religion had many commonalities with Norse/Scandinavian mythology.

• Belief in many gods. God of death, poetry, and magic was Woden (Wednesday).

• God of thunder and lightning was Thunor (Thursday).

• On the whole the Anglo-Saxons were more concerned with ethics than with mysticism

• Virtues of bravery, loyalty, generosity, and friendship and belief in wyrd (fate)

• Offered little hope (like harsh life)

Tomb Ship of Anglo-Saxon Leader: Dated to: 620ish, Dimensions: 27 m long and 4.5 m wide at its widest spot (about 85 feet by 15 feet), Excavated: in 1939 in Sussex

– In about 625 a King of East Anglia, possibly King Raedwald, was buried near the present-day village of Sutton Hoo. His tomb was a large wooden ship 27 m long and 4.5 m wide at its widest spot (about 85 feet by 15 feet). The ship had been sailed upriver and then dragged overland and then into a pit dug at the burial spot. The ship was then covered with a large mound of soil. Elaborate burial goods included coins, weapons, armor, which miraculously escaped grave robbers. All organic goods, including the corpse (if one was interred there at all), disintegrated in the acidic soil

Artifacts from Sutton Hoo

Shoulder Clasp and Sceptre

King Alfred of Wessex (871-899)

• Unified the English and under his rule learning and culture flourished. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a record of English history, was initiated.

• Led the Anglo-Saxons in a unified army against invading Vikings. The reemergence of Christianity in Britain from the continental missionaries and the Irish monasteries also helped unite Britain.

Christianity

• Ireland isolated

• 432 converted to Christianity by Romanized Briton Patricius

• Formed sanctuaries of learning

• Language preserved through Latin

Christianity opened up a new Christianity opened up a new possibility-that the suffering of possibility-that the suffering of this world was a prelude to eternal this world was a prelude to eternal happiness of heaven. From 300 happiness of heaven. From 300 Christianity spread over islands. Christianity spread over islands. In 597 a Roman missionary In 597 a Roman missionary named Augustine arrived and named Augustine arrived and established a monastery at established a monastery at Canterbury. By 690 all of Britain Canterbury. By 690 all of Britain

was nominally Christianwas nominally Christian..

• Monasteries became centers of intellectual, literary, artistic and social activity. At a time when schools and libraries were unknown, monasteries offered opportunity for education. Imported books from Continent which were then copied. Works written in Latin and later in Old English.

• When the Vikings invaded in late 8th and 9th centuries, they threatened to obliterate all traces of cultural refinement.

Venerable Bede

• Earliest recorded history of the English people came from clergy in the monasteries. Greatest monk was the Venerable Bede who records poems from Caedmon, a monk. Writes in Latin.

• Author of A History of the English Church and People

The Norman Invasion• 1042 Edward the Confessor

(Alfred’s descendant) took throne. He had no children

• French cousin, William, duke of Normandy, claimed Edward told him the throne would be his. Invaded (Norman Conquest) and Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066-ended Anglo-Saxon dominance. The Battle of Hastings in 1066 establishes William as king and unifies England

• Official language of the court was French

The Norman Conquest ended Anglo-Saxon dominance in England.. Losing their land to the

conqueror, noble families sank into peasantry and a new class of privileged Normans took their place.

The Scops• The communal hall provided space for storytellers.• The bards or scops were on the same level as warriors.• Creating poetry was as important as fighting, hunting,

farming, or loving. Taught history, moral sermons, & entertainment.

• Recited poetic stories (oral tradition) Reminded listeners they were helpless in hands of fate and all would end in death. With no hope for an afterlife, only an epic poem could provide a measure of immortality.

• Later written down by Christian monks.• The greatest Anglo-Saxon epic is Beowulf. Oral art form.

Reflections of Common Life

• The Exeter Book: contains Anglo-Saxon lyrics and 90 riddles

• Poems show everyday reality: wretchedness of cold, loss, death and brutality

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