The AngloSaxon

1
The Anglo-Saxon Medieval Periods

• Language Arts IV
• Sheryl Walker

2
Timeline of Invasions

• Celts
• Romans 55 B.C.-407 A.D.
• Anglo-Saxons 449 A.D
• Vikings 793
• Normans 1066 (know this date)

3
Celts

• Consisted of two groups
• Brytons (Britons)
• Gaels
• Farmers and hunters
• Druid religion
• Old King Cole and King Arthur are Celtic figures

4
Celts, part 2

• Tried to fight off the Romans
• In areas of Scotland, they painted themselves
  blue and ran naked into battle

5
Romans

• Built roads, waterways
• Many towns ending in castor or chester are
  sites of Roman outposts
• Introduced Christianity
• Period of stability for more than 300 years

6
Angles, Saxons, Jutes

• Deep-sea fisherman and farmers
• Society organized into tribes, or witans
• Worshipped pagan gods
• Spoke Cornish, Welsh, Irish, and Scottish Gaelic
• Society portrayed in The Wanderer and Beowulf

7
Taming of the Anglo-Saxons

• 597 St. Augustine arrives
• Converts King Ethelbert
• By 650, most of England converted
• Schools at monasteries established
• Scribes complete elaborate manuscripts
• The Venerable Bede writes A History of the
  English Church and People

8
Vikings

• Late 700s
• Danish invasion strikes terror From the fury of
  the Northmen, O Lord, deliver us.
• Danelaw is established by mid 800s in north,
  east, and central England

9
Alfred the Great

• In 871, Saxon king Alfred the Great takes Wessex
  throne and signs treaty with the Norse
• Encourages learninghas Bedes History translated
  from Latin
• Begins keeping written records in Old English

10
End of the period-1066

• Edward the Confessor dies William and Harold
  fight Battle of Hastings for throne.
• William the Conqueror, a Norman, wins, concluding
  the Anglo-Saxon period

11
Literary terms and traditions

• Oral tradition
• Scops Gleemen-professional minstrels
  assistants
• Alliteration and caesuras--mid-line pauses used
  to aid memory
• Runes-primitive letters brought to Britain by
  Anglo-Saxons, used until Latin superseded them

12
More literary terms traditions

• Caedmon Cynewulf-only known poets from this
  time period
• Beowulf (author unknown)-major piece of
  literature from time period
• Modern translation of Beowulf by Irish poet
  Seamus Heaney won major English literary award
  recently

13
Anglo-Saxon beliefs

• Wyrd ever-present sense of ominous fate
• Weregild (man-price)tradition of compensating
  a family of someone killed
• Mead hallvital gathering place for witans
  represents heart of community
• Strength, generosity, bravery, and arrogance were
  valued leadership qualities (think professional
  wrestling)

14
Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo is a group of low grassy burial mounds
in SE Suffolk, England. In 1939 excavations
brought to light the richest burial ever
discovered in Britain, an Anglo-Saxon ship
containing the treasure of one of the earliest
English Kings, Rædwald, King of East Anglia.
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Drinking horns for mead
16
Prow of ship excavated at Sutton Hoo
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These rings have rune engravings.
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Anglo-Saxon weaponry
19
Who were the earliest known inhabitants of
Britain?
Which society is portrayed in Beowulf and The
Wanderer?
20
Which was not valued by Anglo-Saxons?
Which date brings the Anglo-Saxon period to an
end?
21
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