The Anglo-Saxons
Their History, Culture, Language,
and Literature
Ancient Britain 2000 - 43 A.D.
 Inhabited
by Britons and Celtic people
 Farmers and hunters
 Society organized into clans
 Ruled by tribal chieftains elected from the class of
pagan priests
 Priests known as the Druids
Roman Britain 43 – 449 A.D.
43 A.D. – Romans, under Claudius’s rule, conquer
Britain.
 Brought their law, culture, comforts, and Latin language
to the land.
 The Celts become “Romanized,” tribal disputes stop, and
things are fairly peaceful.
 Britons were converted to Christianity with the rest of the
Roman Empire in the 4th century.
 5th century(410 AD) – Roman occupation ends.

Arrival of the Anglo – Saxons
5th Century A.D.
Withdrawal of the Romans left the native Britons
vulnerable.
 Next 100 years – Britons were invaded by seafaring,
Germanic invaders.
 Three tribes known as Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (were
originally hired by Celts and Britons as mercenaries to
drive out the Romans).
 Invasion forced natives to retreat to Wales.
 Old English Period begins in 449.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/anglosaxons/invasion/index.shtml
Anglo-Saxon Culture
A.S. brought legends about ancient German heroes and
kings.
 Warriors were celebrated in lays or songs sung at feasts by
a gleeman or scop.
 Lays accompanied by the harp or lyre.
 Songs composed orally – for entertainment, but also kept
history alive.
 Kings would entertain friends in mead halls, named for the
drink mead made from fermented honey.

Heorot – The Meadhall in Beowulf
Anglo-Saxon
Themes
and kingship – the relationship between
kings and their thanes (warriors).
 Wergild- “man price” or retribution for the death
of one’s family member.
 Heroism
 After
the arrival of Christianity, their relationship with
God takes on these themes.
Themes cont’d.
 Wyrd-
 Exile-
“Fate” controlled one’s destiny.
the cost of being abandoned or apart from
one’s tribe and society.
Anglo-Saxon Religious Beliefs
(Before Christianity)
A.S. were Pagans. Christianity of Roman times kept
alive only in remote regions.
 Every human life in the hands of fate (Old English: wyrd).
 Worshipped ancient Germanic gods: Tiu, god of war and
the sky; Woden, chief of the gods; and Fria, Woden’s
wife.


Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday
Anglo-Saxon Society
Organized into a class of warriors known as earls or
thanes.
 These warriors protected and were devoted to the king,
who was chosen by a witancouncil of elders.
 There was also a class of freemen known
as churls.
 Slaves were known as thralls.
 Women, as “peace-weavers”

King
Witan
(chose king)
Thanes (nobles)
Churls (freemen)
Thralls (slaves)
**Women known as peaceweavers.
Weapons of War
A Typical Village
Return of Christianity
 All
of England converted to Christianity upon the
arrival of Augustine in 597 A.D.
 Augustine began by converting King Ethelbert of
Kent.
 Rest of England soon followed.
 Monasteries built.
 By 731 A.D.-Christianity well-rooted
The Scribes
 In
monasteries, scribes produced books by hand.
 Books were usually religious in nature.
 Focused on saints’ lives and sermons.
 There were also copies of the oral literature.
 Because of these Christian scribes, Anglo-Saxon
culture was recorded.
 “Father of English History” – the Venerable Bede,
a Northumbrian monk.
The Danish Invasion
 8th
century (700s AD) Vikings (warriors) carried
their piracy to the British Isles, bringing
destruction and fear.
 Despite England’s efforts to defend itself, most of
northern, eastern, and southern England fell to the
Danes by the middle of the ninth century.
 Only
the Saxon kingdom of Wessex fought the Danes
to a standstill.
Norman Invasion
 1066
AD Normans Invade
 King
Edward had promised the throne to his French
cousin William I (William the Conqueror), but when he
died, the throne was given to Harold.
 Battle of Hastings: William I invaded and killed
Harold.
 Bayeux Tapestry (depiction of events)
Bede and “Caedmon’s Hymn”
 Bede
 Monk/Historian
 Composed
“Caedmon’s Hymn” around 658-680 AD
 One of the oldest manuscripts
 Written in Old English
 Christian themes
Old English: Caedmon’s Hymn

Verse Early Saxon
Nu sculon herigean heofonrices weard,
meotodes meahte and his modgeþanc,
weorc wuldorfæder, swa he wundra gehwæs,
ece drihten, or onstealde.
He ærest sceop eorðan bearnum
heofon to hrofe, halig scyppend;
þa middangeard moncynnes weard,
ece drihten, æfter teode
firum foldan, frea ælmihtig.
Now [we] must honour
the guardian of heaven,
the might of the architect,
and his purpose,
the work of the father of
glory
— as he, the eternal lord,
established
the beginning of wonders.
He, the holy creator,
first created heaven as a
roof
for the children of men.
Then the guardian of
mankind
the eternal lord,
the lord almighty
afterwards appointed
the middle earth,
the lands, for men.
English Words
Our 100 most common words use in Modern English
today are derived from Old English. Our basic
sentence building words such as the, is, and you are
derived from Old English (McCrum 45).
Riddles
Not only did the English enjoy the stories told to
them by the scops, but they also enjoyed
“innuendoes and word-play” (McCrum 47).
One of the most famous Old English word-play
books is
The Exeter Book of Riddles (McCrum 47).
Try to figure the riddle on the next slide.
Riddle #69 from
The Exeter Book of Riddles
“On the way a miracle:
water becomes bone.”
The answer is ice.
Epic
Hero a great leader who identifies with certain people
 Setting broad and includes upper/lower worlds
 Hero does great deeds in battle and/or undertakes an
extraordinary quest
 Supernatural elements occur when gods or other beings
take part in the action and hero possesses supernatural
strength
 Story told in heightened language (poem)

Beowulf
Unknown author
 Set in 500s AD (known because of one datable fact in
poem—a raid that occurred in 520 AD)
 Composed around 8-10th centuries and passed down orally
 Written down possibly in 10th century
 Original manuscript destroyed in fire in 1731, causing loss
of sections
 Mostly Christian themes, but some Pagan—question over
whether composer was Christian or whether ideas were
later added

People and Places in Beowulf

Beowulf: a Geat, son of Edgetho and
nephew of Higlac, king of the Geats.
Higlac is both Beowulf’s feudal lord and
his uncle.

Grendel: man-eating monster who lives
at the bottom of a foul mere, or mountain
lake. His name might be related to the
Old Norse grindill, meaning “storm,” or
grenja, “to bellow.”

Herot: golden guest hall built by King
Hrothgar, the Danish ruler.

Hrothgar: king of the Danes, builder of
Herot. He had once befriended
Beowulf’s father. Hrothgar’s name
might mean “glory spear” or “spear of
triumph.”

Grendel’s Mom: lives at the bottom of
the lake with her son

Unferth: one of Hrothgar’s courtiers,
reputed to be a skilled warrior. His
sword, called Hrunting, is used by
Beowulf in a later battle.

Welthow: Hrothgar’s wife, queen of the
Danes.
 Wiglaf:
a Geat warrior,
one of Beowulf’s select
band, and the only one
to help him in his final
fight with the dragon.
Wiglaf might be related
to Beowulf.
Beowulf’s
final nemesis, angry
over a stolen cup
 Dragon: