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The AngloSaxon Period 450-1066 A.D.
AKA
& Emergent Period – kingdoms emerging from
Rome’s control
& Old English – before the modern Britain
& the Dark Ages – time of regression from Rome’s
influence, breakdown of society
& This was a time of bloody conflicts, ignorance, violence and barbarism.
& Life was difficult and the literature reflected this.
& England has had many invaders, each leaving their stamp on what we think of as “England” today.
&The Celts
&The Romans
&The Anglo-Saxons
Let’s step back for a moment . . .
& The first person to ever have written about England may have been the Roman General Julius Caesar, who is 55 B.C. attempted to conquer the British Isles.
& Put off by the Celtic warriors, he quickly claimed a victory and returned to Rome.
& Thus leaving the Celts (and their neighbors to the north and west the Picts and Geats) in peace.
The Celtic Heroes: A Magical World
& (around 300 BC) the
island of Britain was
inhabited by tall blond
warriors who called
themselves Celts
& a group of these warriors,
called Brythons, left their
permanent stamp on
Britain
Religion of the Celts
& Animism – the Celts saw spirits everywhere, in rivers, trees, stones, ponds, fire, and thunder. These spirits were all around and needed to satisfied constantly.
& Priests, called Druids, acted as intermediaries between the gods and the people.
& Ritualistic dances, human sacrifices and religious rites having to do with the lunar and solar cycles were performed.
Celtic stories
& Their legends focus on and are full of strong
women (very different from Anglo-Saxon
legends that focus on strong men and women
faded into background).
& Celtic stories leap into sunlight after battle, no
matter how much blood was spilled.
& Full of fantastic animals, passionate love affairs,
and fabulous adventures
The Romans: The
Great Administrators
& Beginning with an invasion led by Julius Caesar in 55 BC and culminating in one organized by the Emperor Claudius about a hundred years later, the Britons (the Celts) were finally conquered by the legions of Rome.
& Rome brought organization to Britain – armies that prevented further invasions, networks of roads, and a great defensive wall seventy-three miles long.
remains of Hadrian’s Wall
Religion of the Romans
& Rome brought
Christianity, and soon
the old Celtic religion
began to vanish.
& Christianity became a
unifying force
But, Rome pulled out . . .
& The Romans were having trouble in Rome.
& By 409 AD, they had evacuated their troops
from Britain, leaving roads, walls, villas, and
public baths, but no central government.
& Without Roman control, Britain was a country
of separate clans.
& separation led to weakness, weakness led to
vulnerability to other conquering nations
The Anglo-Saxons
Sweep Ashore& In the middle of the fifth century (~450
AD), the attack came from the north, from the Angles and Saxons from Germany and Jutes from Denmark.
& The Anglo-Saxon language became the dominant language in this land, thus a new name – Angle-Land, or England.
& The Celts did put up a brave fight but finally retreated into Cornwall and Wales in the far west of the country and Scotland in the north.
King Alfred of Wessex
& At first the domination of the Anglo-Saxon was no more politically unified than Celtic Britain had been.
& Each independent principality was divided and had its own “king.”
& It wasn’t until Alfred of Wessex, or Alfred the Great, led the Anglo-Saxons against the invading Vikings from Norway and Denmark that England became in any true sense a nation.
King Alfred (continued)
& The Viking people of the north were plundering
and destroying everything in their path.
& At first their aim was to hit and run, to get what
they could. Later they realized that England’s
winters were easier than their harsh, icy ones.
& The Danish invaders set up camps and
eventually gained control of parts of the country.
King Alfred (continued)& But, there was still some instability in England. It is possible that
without the help of Christian monks and missionaries converting Anglo-Saxon kings, and, thus, their subjects, there would not have been a unification of England.
& Under King Alfred and Christianity, the Anglo-Saxons fought to protect their land and way of life from the Danes.
& His children, Ethelfleda, a brilliant military leader and strategist, and her brother Edward, carried on King Alfred’s fight against the Danes.
& The battle continued until both the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes were defeated in 1066 by William, Duke of Normandy, and his invading force of Normans from northwestern France.
The Norman Conquest & In 1042 a descendent of Alfred’s took the throne,
the deeply religious Edward the Confessor.
& Edward died and left the throne childless.
& William, Duke of Normandy, declared that
Edward had sworn an oath making the heir.
& When a counsel of nobles and church officials
chose an English earl, Harold, to succeed
Edward, William invaded England.
& At the Battle of Hastings in 1066, Harold was killed and
William the Conqueror was crowned king on Christmas
Day. Thus ending the Anglo-Saxon time period.
Daily life of Anglo-Saxons& Warfare was the order of the day.
& People were fiercely loyal to their individual clans and leaders.
& Fame and success were gained only through loyalty to the leader.
& They tended to live close to their animals in single-family wooden-
buildings that surrounded a warm-lit communal hall, or mead hall.
& In the dark, death-shadowed world of the Anglo-Saxons, the bards
gave one element of hope: the possibility that heroic deeds would be
remembered in the society’s songs and oral poems.
Anglo-Saxon Religion & The Anglo-Saxon religion was very dark, honoring
warrior gods. & Woden – god of death, poetry and magic
& Thunor – god of thunder and lightning
& Religion focused on the fact that life was hard and the way to be remembered after death was to fight gloriously in battle.
& Their religion focused on a strong belief in wyrd, or fate, and they saved any admiration for heroic warriors whose fate it was to prevail in battle.
& On the whole the religion was more concerned with ethics than mysticism. Focused on the earthly virtues of bravery, loyalty, generosity, and friendship.
Scops or Bards& In the great mead halls of the lords and nobles,
Anglo-Saxons would gather to celebrate and listen to the scops, or professional singing poets, as they brought epic poems to life.
& These poems were more than just simple entertainment. They were history lessons, moral sermons, and pep talks all rolled into one.
& With no hope of an afterlife, only an epic poem could provide a measure of immortality.
& These poems were strictly oral art forms.
Spread of Christianity
& In 597 a Roman missionary named Augustine
arrived in the kingdom of Kent, where he
established a monastery at Canterbury.
& From there Christianity spread, and all of
England was at least nominally Christian (some
still held to the pagan beliefs.
The Christian Monasteries& Monasteries served as centers of learning.
& They are responsible for preserving the earlier Greek
and Latin works, but also local works and epic poems
like Beowulf.
& In the scriptorium, or writing room, Monks spent their
days hand copying texts. (Printing is still 800 years
away.)
& Latin remained the “serious” language of learning until
the time of King Alfred.
& He instituted the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a lengthy
running history of England. Because of these efforts,
English gained respect as language of culture.