Aaron, Tessa and Teig
(The Year 1000, D. Danziger & R. Lacey, Little
Brown and Company, UK, 1998)
“Women who possessed sufficient strength of character were able to claim
power and exercise authority in the England of the year 1000” (p. 25, Lacey
and Danziger)
“Beowulf was unusual for being written down, which makes it particularly
precious evidence – like the Julius Work Calendar” (p. 27, Lacey and
Danziger).
“The sketching of this apparently routing agricultural process was heavy with
meaning, since the purpose of the pruning is to direct the growth energies of a
plant into the channels desired by the cultivator…demonstrating mans ability
to create a profitable working partnership with God’s bushes, vines, and trees”
(p. 28, Lacey and Danziger)
3 Tribes:
• Angles
• Saxons
• Jutes
• These tribesman
were:
“warriors eager for
fame”
and
“proud war smiths”
“A tongue of extreme strength,
simplicity and richness which has
proved to be the primary foundation of
how millions all over the globe today
speak and think and frame their
ideas.”(p. 28, Lacey and Danziger)
“We shall fight on the
beaches; we shall fight on
the landing grounds; we
shall fight in the fields
and the streets; we shall
fight in the hills; we shall
never surrender” –
Winston Churchill
“One small step for a man, one giant leap
for mankind” – Neil Armstrong
• Englishmen who lived in
‘Danelaw’ with the Vikings
found it, at times, hard to
interact.
“By the year 1000, a hybrid language had
been stirred together by the integration of
the two great waves of invaders, and a
common tongue existed that was at least
roughly understood in every corner of the
country.” (p. 34, Lacey and Danziger)
“Language helped and reflected
political unification. By a canny
combination of marriage
alliances and battle…” (p. 34,
Lacey and Danziger)
•Valentines day is the only saints feast day
that is celebrated all around the world.
•Very few details exist in regards to St
Valentius’ life.
St. Valentinus was a priest
martyred by the Romans in
the 3rd Century A.D.
 1) Repelled the Vikings and saved the English language
and people from destruction.
 2) Made significant advancements in education.
 3) Created the foundation for what Common Law is
today.
• Key texts translated: Latin → English
I. Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care
II. Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy
III. Augustine’s The Soliloquies
IV. Gregory the Great’s Dialogues
V. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English
People
VI. Orosius’s History against the Pagans
VII. The First Fifty Prose Psalms
“We should translate certain books
which are necessary for all men to
know into the language we can all
understand, and also arrange it...so
that all the youth of free men now
among the English people...are able
to read English writing as well.” –
Alfred the Great
• ‘Doom Book’ or 'Code of Alfred’
• Laws mainly biblically based
with some secular laws
• Laws made in this code still
persist today
• Alfred’s successors were able to
continually amend and develop
this law
“If anyone steals another's
ox, and slays or sells it —
let him repay twofold for
what it was worth.”- Code of
Alfred
“No woman or maiden shall
ever be forced to marry one
whom she dislikes, nor be
sold for money.” – Code of
Alfred
“With his name, England now associates her metropolis,
her fleet, her literature, her laws, her first foreign
relations, and her first efforts at education. Alfred is, in
one sentence, the embodiment of her civilization.”
- Frederick Y. Powell
‘What was the Anglo Saxon Chronicle and why is it such an
important piece of historical evidence?’
 Series of records in Old English (890 AD-1154 AD)
 Detailed lives and times of English People
 Written in timeline format
 Scribes-monks
Without it, there would be no record of English history
from departure of Roman’s to the Norman Conquest
2) It was written in Old English as opposed to Latin
3) Shows the evolution of the English language over time
1)
 Sourced information from the Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History
 Contains the original and authentic testimony of contemporary writers
to the most important transactions of the English forefathers
 Embraced a variety of subjects pertaining to English life
 Included examples of poetry
“Nowhere else is a regular and chronological panorama of a people,
described in rapid succession, by different writers, and through many
ages, in their own vernacular language.” –The Avalon Project, Yale Law
School
 Written in Old English as opposed to Latin (language
of the day)
 Very unusual
 King Alfred pushed revival of learning and culture-use
English as a written language
 Shift from Old English to Middle English (around 1100 AD)
 Words of Kinship (German influence) : faeder, modor, brothor, sweostor, and
dohtor
 25 names with their inflections like mon, men (man, men)

Two demonstratives: se, seo, thaet (that) and thes, theos (this) but there were
no (‘a’ or ‘the’) articles
 Middle English far closer to Modern English:
 Unique qualities + what it tells/shows us about
England and the evolution of language = extremely
important historical text
“Today, 9 of the manuscripts survive in whole or in part,
though none of them are the original version, nor are
they all of equal historical value.”
 2006, Early Anglo-Saxon village- artist impression, available at:
http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/asset63548-.html
 Tobin, Beowulf, available at:
http://www.lordalford.com/oldenglish/beowulf/beowulf-tobin-1-900.jpg
 Tobin, Queen Wealtheow Pledges Beowulf, available at:
http://robertarood.wordpress.com/2007/11/22/beowulf-again-and-always/
 11th Century, Anglo-Saxon Farming, available at: http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/asset70506.html
 Yousuf Karsh, 1941, Winston Churchill, available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Winston_Churchill_1941_photo_by_Yousuf_
Karsh.jpg
 NASA, 1969, Moon Landing, available at: http://www.abc.nl/blog/?tag=moon-landings
 British Museum, 1994, Map of Britain c890, available at: http://www.merewilts-heritage.info/saxon.htm
 Prete M., St. Valentino, available at: http://www.pylgeralmanak.nl/?pagina_id=128
(Aaron)
Barbara Yorke, 1999, Alfred the Great: The Most Perfect Man in History? Available at: http://www.historytoday.com/barbara-yorke/alfred-great-mostperfect-man-history, Accessed 10 August 12
Britannia Historical Documents, 2006, The Peace of Wedmore, Available at: http://britannia.com/history/docs/danelaw.html, Accessed 10 August 12
Campbell, Dr. William F., 2008, Alfred the Great: The Traditions of Western Civilization, In Louisiana State University
Erich W Guthrie, 2000, King Alfred's Literacy Program, Available at: http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/1001Guthrie.htm, Accessed 09
August 12
Giles, J.A., 2000, Asser Annals of the Reign of Alfred the Great, Ontario: Medieval Latin Series Cambridge
Hooper, Nicholas Hooper; Bennett, Matthew (1996). The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press
Kevin Knight, 2009, Alfred the Great, Available at: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01309d.htm, Accessed 11 August 12
King Alfred the Great, 9th Century, Code of Alfred, England
M. Lapidge and M. Winterbottom, 1991, 871: "Great Heathen Army" invades Wessex Battles of Reading, Ashdown, Basing, Meretun, Available
at: http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=871-899. Accessed 10 August 12
Octavia Randolph, 1998, Your Legal Rights Under Ælfred, King of Wessex, Available at: http://www.octavia.net/text/alfredlaw.htm, Accessed 10 August
12
Rev. Prof. Dr. F.N. Lee, 2000, KING ALFRED THE GREATAND OUR COMMON LAW, Department of Church History, Queensland Presbyterian
Theological Seminary
Royal Family History, 2005, King Alfred the Great, Available at: http://www.britroyals.com/kings.asp?id=alfred. Accessed 11 August 12
Various authors, 9th-11th Century, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, England
(Tessa) Bragg, Melvyn 2004, The Adventure of English: 00 AD to 2000, The Biography of a Language, Sceptre Publishing, England
Brepols Publishers, Reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, http://www.brepols.net/pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503523941-1, 2012
Brittania, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/asintro2.html, 2007
Carson-Newman College, Old English v. Middle English, http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/OE_vs_ME.pdf, 2003
Delahoyde, Michael, Washington State University, Anglo-Saxon Culture, http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/medieval/anglo-saxon.html (no
date)
Killings, Douglas, The Online Medieval and Classical Library, The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, http://omacl.org/Anglo/, 1996
McWhorter, John, 2008, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English, Gotham Publishing, United Kingdom
Official Website of the British Monarchy, Alfred ‘The Great’,
http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensofEngland/TheAnglo-Saxonkings/AlfredtheGreat.aspx>, 2012
Pyles, Thomas 1964, The Origins and Development of the English Language, Harcourt, Brace and World INC, USA
Saraswati, Prakashanand, The Development of the English Language,
http://www.encyclopediaofauthentichinduism.org/articles/24_the_development_of.htm, 1999