Presentation on Anglo Saxon Period

Name : Naimur RahmanReg : 16116026

BA (Hons) in English UNIVERSITY OF ASIA

PACIFIC

ContentThe Anglo-Saxon EraAnglo-Saxon ReligionAnglo-Saxon languageAnglo-Saxon SocietyAnglo-Saxon Literature

The Anglo-Saxon Period

449-1066

The Anglo-Saxon Era43CE Romans invade Britain.

Encountered the Celts.Romans build roads, villas, huge buildings, and forts.Introduced Christianity.

• 420CE Romans leave.• 450CE Jutes from Denmark, and the Angles and Saxons

from Northern Germany invade England.– Germanic tribes.– Anglo-Saxons push out Celts

Continued597CE Anglo-Saxons become Christian• 787CE Viking raids begin• 871-899CE King Alfred the Great becomes King of

England.– Established education systems, rebuilt monasteries.– Fought Danes and forced them from Wessex.– Unified Anglo-Saxons under one king to resist the Viking

invasions. Danes ruled in the North, Anglo-Saxons in the South.

Continued• 1066CE Norman Conquest by William the Conqueror.

– From Norman French.– Defeated Danes and Anglo-Saxons.– Officially ended Anglo-Saxon era and brought about the

beginning of the Medieval Period.

Anglo-Saxon ReligionEarly Anglo-Saxon religion was a pagan belief system based

on Germanic mythology. Remnants of these gods remain in the English names for the days of the week: Tuesday - Tiw(god of war), Wednesday - Woden (god of the dead), Thursday – Thor (god of thunder) and Friday - Fréo(goddess of love). In AD 597,St. Augustine was sent to England by Pope Gregory (the head of the Roman Christian church) to convert the Saxons to Christianity. Augustine landed in Kent and converted King Aethelbert of Kent and his court to Christianity and founded a monastery at Canterbury. Christianity gradually spread across England replacing the Anglo-Saxon pagan religion.

Anglo-Saxon languageOld English was the language spoken until the Norman

Conquest of AD 1066 when, influenced by the Anglo-Norman language spoken by the ruling class, it gradually changed into Middle English. Before literacy in Old English or Latin became widespread, Runes were used for inscriptions. Anglo-Saxon literature included epic poetry, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicle sand riddles. Famous works include the poem Beowulf and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle– a collection of writing important for early English history.

Anglo-Saxon Society• Anglo-Saxon society.

– Lived in tribal groups with a high class of warriors.– Kings emerged as society developed.

• Spoke Old English. This was the language that Beowulf was written in.

• Became Christian but still valued heroic ideals and traditional heroes.

• Their culture valued human contact, family, virtue, and a good story. They feared humiliation and loneliness in their lives. In addition, the Anglo-Saxons desired richness, power, and appreciated heroic actions of warriors.

Anglo-Saxon LiteratureAnglo-Saxon literature began as an oral tradition.

Stories, poems, and songs were all told aloud and passed from generation to generation orally through minstrels (also called scops).

Poems traditionally had a strong beat, alliteration, and no rhyme.