The warlike ideal
p. 22 Millennium 1
Warlike Ideal
Key Points
1. Warlike ideal – widespread in Anglo-Saxon culture
a. The king had to be the best in all activities essential to the survival of AngloSaxon society. He had to be able
• sail a ship
• train a horse
• swim
• run
• fight without fear.
He had to be:
• ready to die in battle
• generous towards his fellow lords giving them part of the spoils of war.
b. The king’s fellow lords had to be:
• as brave as their sovereign
• loyal towards him
• ready to give their lives for him
c. Women didn’t play any important role in Anglo-Saxon society:
• never mentioned in any official document unless:
• the monarch’s wives or daughters
Cult of fame
a. The king aimed at immortality by:
• doing heroic deeds.
• Scops sang about them in their songs and poems moving from court to court.
Conversion to Christianity
•
597 A.D.: St Augustine of Canterbury sent on a mission by Pope Gregory I.
•
St Augustine St Augustine converted Anglo-Saxon courts.
•
Unknown and humble monks from Wales and Ireland converted Anglo-Saxon
population.
Consequences of Christian conversion
•
introduction of written literature – in Latin
•
churches and monasteries – important cultural centres for the:
• illumination of manuscripts
• the preservation of paintings, sculptures and works of art.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1.
What did the ‘warlike ideal’ imply?

2.
What role did women have in Germanic society?

3.
Women had to submit to men completely.
What can you say about the scop?

4.
It implied that the king had to be better than anyone else in doing things both in
everyday life and in battle; he had to be valiant and ready to die in battle. The king
strove not only after simple success, but after enduring fame. This could be achieved
only through glorious deeds later sung by a poet, a scop.
A scop was an Anglo-Saxon poet who recited his poems aloud from memory and
moved from court to court.
What was the poetic genre of Anglo –Saxon literature? Why? Which
specimen has survived?
 The poetic genre was the epic, because it sang of heroic deeds. A specimen of AngloSaxon epic is “Beowulf”. (= long poem about gods and great men and women) written
in the 8th century in Old English, about a man called Beowulf who kills powerful
frightening creatures and becomes a king.
STUDY QUESTIONS
5.
When and how did Christianity spread over England?

6.
Christianity spread quickly all over England, after the arrival St Augustine of
Canterbury in 597. By the second half of the 7th century England was for the greater
part a Christian country.
What effect did this have on literature and art?

The new religion brought along Latin and the idea of written literature. Anglo-Saxon
writers such as the Venerable Bede, a monk from Northumbria, achieved continental
fame. Churches and monasteries played a pivotal role in the world of art: they were
essential for the illumination of manuscripts, sculptures, painting and architecture.