The Anglo-Saxons, 449-1066
-America depends on Great Britain, even though GB had monarchy and former empire
-while most of world suffered under tyranny, English from time of Magna Carta in 1215 were creating pol
system “by and for the people”; English common law emphasizes personal rights and freedom; English
parliamentary govt, lit, and language
-“English” owes something to all invaders of GB: Iberians, Celts, Romans, Angles and Saxons, Vikings,
and Normans
-England= origin of a legal and political system that many others have imitated;
English traditions and language reshaped by island’s invaders
The Celtic Heroes and Heroines: A Magical World
-when Greeks visited GB, Celts were settled there; group called Brythons among the Celts
-religion of Celts was a form of animism (“spirit”); saw spirits everywhere in nature that controlled all
aspects of existence and had to be satisfied
-Priests called Druids were intermediaries bt gods and people
-Stonehenge used for religious rites having to do with lunar and solar cycles
-mythology of Celts influence Eng and Irish writers today: Sir Thomas Malory got legends about warrior
Arthur and combined with chivalric legends from the Continent
-William Butler Yeats used myths in his poetry and plays to make Irish aware of lost heroic past
-while A-S stories are male-dominated, Celtic legends have strong women, like Queen Maeve in Ireland;
led troops to battle over ownership of white herd bull; Celtic stories full of fantastic animals, passionate
love affairs, and adventures; very magical
The Romans: The Great Administrators; +400 years in GB
-Boadicea, queen of Briton tribe, led Britons to retaliation against Romans
-Romans took over w Julius Caesar and emperor Claudius (Britons overthrown); armies and organization
prevented further serious invasions
-built roads, great defensive wall, and Christianity took hold under European missionaries
-Romans had trouble at home and evacuated troops from Brit
-Non-Ch peoples from the Germanic regions of Continental Europe invaded
The Anglo-Saxons Sweep Ashore
-Angles and Saxons from Germany and Jutes from Denmark; language of A-S became dominant in
ENGLAND
-Celts put up strong resistsance before retreated into Wales in far west; chieftain Arthur was a heroic
Celtic leader
-A-S England just as unified as Celtic Brit; divided into independent principalities, each with its own
“king”; when Alfred the Great led A-S against the invading Danes (Vikings who eventually took over and
settled in NE and central England), England became a nation
-Ch provided common faith and system of morality; also linked England to Europe
-Under Ch and Alfred, A-S fought against Danes, but defeated in 1066 by William, Duke of Normandy,
and invading Normans from NW France
-A-S society developed from kinship groups led by a strong chief
-The people farmed, maintained local govts, and created fine crafts, esp metalwork
-Ch eventually replaced old warrior religion, linking England to Continental Europe
-Monasteries were centers of learning and preserved works from older oral tradition
-English—not just the Church’s Latin—gained respect as a written language
A-S Life: The Warm Hall, the Cold World
-In Sutton Hoo, ship-grave and treasure trove discovered; reminds us of king Beowulf’s burial ground
-A-S not barbarians; warfare was the order of the day; law and order were responsibility of the leader of
any given group; success and survival gained through loyalty to leader; success measured in gifts from
leader; Beowulf makes his name and gains riches by defeating monsters who try to destroy King Hrothgar
-A-S life dominated by need to protect clan and home against enemies; lived close to their animals;
single-family homesteads surrounded communal court or warm chieftain’s hall; cluster protected by
wooden stockade fence
Women in A-S Culture
-women’s rights restricted with Norman Conquest in 1066
-women inherited and held property
-Ch offered opps for women also; some from noble families became abbesses in charge of double houses
-Hild= famous abbess of Whitby- turned Whitby into center of learning
The A-S Religion: Gods for Warriors
-old A-S rel with warrior gods- + Ch- dark, fatalistic religion
-A-S name for god of death, poetry, and Magic (Odin) Woden
-deity Thunor same as Thor, Norse god of thunder and lightning; symbols= hammer and swastika
-dragon= protector of treasure
-religion more concerned with ethics than mysticism
Coifi chief priest to King Edwin- if new Ch has brought more knowledge of past and future (cold), we
should follow it (warm)
The Bards: Singing of Gods and Heroes
-bards (called scops) were not inferior to warriors bc creating poetry was as important as fighting or
anything else; sang to harp
-storytellers told of heroic tales reflecting people under threat of war, disease, or old age
-A-S lit is mournful; stress transience of a cold, dark, and wintry life
-for non-Ch A-S’s, only fame and its reverberation in poetry could provide defense against death bc no
hope in afterlife
-Fame in the bard’s mournful poetry—and a place in the community’s memory—was a hero’s only
consolation against death
A Light from Ireland
-Ireland not overrun by Germanic invaders;
-432, Celtic Ireland converted to Ch by Romanized Briton named Patricius (returned to convert his former
captors); Ireland experienced a Golden Age of Ch while Europe and England fought
The Christian Monasteries: The Ink Froze
-2 hopes: bards provided possibility that heroic deeds might be enshrined in society’s memory;
monasteries preserved great works of pop lit, like Beowulf
-Monks assigned to scriptorium where copied manuscripts by hand; ink would freeze in winter
-Latin was language of serious study in England until King Alfred
-English began to gain respect bc of King Alfred and his A-S Chronicle, a running history of England;
then, Old English stories and poetry preserved by monks was recognized as great literature