Anglo-Saxon Period
449-1066 AD
Anglo-Saxon
Settlements around the
year 600
Temple of Aquae Sulis
at Bath
Kingston Brooch
Found by Reverend
Bryan Faussett in 1771
Now at the Liverpool
City Museum
Anglo-Saxon helmet
from the 7th century
From Sutton Hoo
Reconstructed from
hundreds of iron
fragments
Sutton Hoo
Large ship used as
burial tomb for a
King of East Anglia,
perhaps King
Raedwald in 625
Excavated in 1939 in
Sussex
Old English Verse - “Wulf &
Eadwacer”
Wulf, min Wulf
wena me thine
seoce gedygan
thine seldcymas
“Wulf & Eadwacer”
/
x
/
v
Wulf, min Wulf
/
x x/ x
v
seoce gedygan
/x x /x
wena me thine
/ x /
x x
thine seldcymas
Wulf, my Wulf,
it was wanting you
That made me sick, your seldom coming,
(Michael Alexander translation)
From Beowulf
//
whose HEAD was a STOREhouse //
whose TOUNGue GAVE
//
Or a FELLOW of the KING'S
of the STORied VERSE
GOLD to the LANGuage
“The poem usually called 'The Ruin' is to be found on f.124
of the Exeter Book, except for its first seven words which
form the last line of the preceding folio. The last twelve
pages of this codex have been mutilated by fire, apparently
by a brand which fell upon the book when it was face down,
destroying many lines of the text. About one quarter of the
poem here considered is thus irrevocably lost; what
remains is excessively puzzling. The fragment abounds in
hapax legomena, scribal errors and ambiguities. The poem
itself is a ruin.”
- "The Ruin," Stephen Herber, Modern Language Notes
54.1 (January 1939), 37.
The opening lines of “The
Wanderer” from the Exeter Book
Often the lone-dweller
God’s comfort finds,
Creator’s kindness;
though he,
heart-troubled,
through ocean roads
long rows
with hands
(Clifford Truesdell translation)
From Beowulf, lines 863-873
At times the war-band broke into a gallop,
letting their chestnut horses race
whenever they found the going good
on those well-known tracks. Meanwhile, a thane
of the king’s household, a carrier of tales,
a traditional singer deeply schooled
in the lore of the past, linked a new theme
to a strict meter. The man started
to recite with skill, rehearsing Beowulf’s
triumphs and feats in well-fashioned lines,
entwining his words.
“The Ruin”
Well-wrought this wall: Wierds broke it.
The stronghold burst....
Snapped rooftrees, towers fallen,
The work of the Giants, the stonesmiths,
Mouldereth.
Rime scoureth gatetowers
rime on mortar.
Shattered the showershields, roofs ruined,
age under-ate them.
And the wielders & wrights?
Earthgrip holds them – gone, long gone,
Fast in gravesgrip while fifty fathers
And sons have passed.
“The Ruin”
Wall stood,
grey lichen, red stone, kings fell often,
stood under storms, high arch crashed –
stands yet the wallstone, hacked by weapons,
by files grim-ground...
...shone the old skilled work
...sank to loam-crust.
Mood quickened mind, and a mind of wit,
cunning in rings, bound bravely the wallbase
with iron, a wonder.
Bright were the buildings, halls where springs ran,
high, horngabled, much throng-noise;
these many meadhalls men filled
with loud cheerfulness: Wierd changed that.
“The Ruin”
Came days of pestilence, on all sides men fell dead,
death fetched off the flower of the people;
where they stood to fight, waste places
and on the acropolis, ruins.
Hosts who would build again
shrank to the earth. Therefore are these courts dreary
and that red arch twisteth tiles.
wryeth from roof-ridge, reacheth groundwards...
Broken blocks...
There once many a man
mood-glad, goldbright, of gleams garnished,
flushed with wine-pride, flashing war-gear,
gazed on wrought gemstones, on gold, on silver,
on wealth held and hoarded, on light-filled amber,
on this bright burg of broad dominion
“The Ruin”
Stood stone houses; wide streams welled
hot from source, and a wall all caught
in its bright bosom, that the baths were
hot at hall’s hearth; that was fitting...
.........
Thence hot streams, loosed, ran over hoar stone
unto the ring-tank....
... It is a kingly thing
... city ...
(Micheal Alexander translation)
Reconstructed Mead Hall
from “The Seafarer”
About myself I can utter a truth-song,
tell journeys--how I in toil-days
torment-time often endured,
abode and still do bitter breast-care,
sought in my ship many a care-hall,
horrible waves' rolling, where narrow night-watch
often has kept me at the ship's stem
when it dashes by cliffs. Pinched by the cold
were my feet, bound by frost's
frozen fetters, where those cares sighed
hot about heart; hunger within tore
the mind of the sea-weary one. That man knows
not,
Sources
Anglo-Saxon Period: http://www.odinsvolk.ca/dragon.htm
Anglo Saxon and Viking Invasions: http://www.historyonthenet.com/shop/anglosaxon-viking-invasions-a3-p-1132.html
Anglo-Saxon Settlements around the year 600: http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/english/fajardo/teaching/ENG340
/axenl.jpg
Temple of Aquae Sulis at Bath: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Bath_england_roman_bath.JPG
Kingston Brooch: http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/ujg/fibula18.jpg
Anglo-Saxon Helmet: http://library.marist.edu/faculty-webpages/morreale/RMProjects/Fall_2007/Donoghue/hoo_
helmet-2.jpg
Sutton Hoo: http://web.missouri.edu/~rls555/SCA/research/ships/sutton_hole.gif
Pages from the Exeter Book: http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/exeter_book_and_wanderer.htm
Reconstructed Mead Hall: http://www.heorot.dk/heorot.jpg