The AngloSaxons 4501066 AD Lessons of Immortality

1
The Anglo-Saxons 450-1066 ADLessons of
Immortality

• English III British Literature
• Mr. Macaluso

2
Elsewhere in the world

• England isolated from other advanced
  civilizations
• Rome balanced government
• China printing press 400 years before England
• Japan philosophy
• England ransacked by the Romans, Anglo-Saxons,
  Vikings, and Normans all before 1070

3
The Anglo-Saxons

• The Celts, known as Britons, had been living in
  Britannia when Rome conquered them around 155
  B.C. by Emperor Claudius
• 450 Rome begins to fall
• Why?
• stretched thin, invasions from Germanic tribes,
  seize England over decades of fighting

4

• Angles and Saxons N. Germany
• Jutes and Frisians Denmark
• Britain becomes Angle-land ? Engla-land
• Celts pushed to Ireland and Scotland (myths, King
  Arthur stories)
• ? their culture, religion begins to fade

5
1066!!

• 14 Oct 1066 King Edward dies with no heir,
  William the Conqueror comes from Normandy, France
  with 7000 men and 3000 horses and conquers all of
  England in The Battle of Hastings
• William unites all of the Germanic Tribes and the
  invading Danes

6
Who were the Anglo-Saxons?

• Plunderers, Farmers, Craftsmen
• Women had some rights
• Warrior-oriented society
• Pagan Customs
• Great Mead Hall
• Two most important citizens
• The Warrior
• The Poet or Scop

7
Who were they?

• Strongest relationship between LORD and THANE (or
  warrior, knight, soldier)
• Thane vows loyalty, Lord rewards with treasure
• Nations made through kinship, not geography
• The Witan Kings counsel
• Elects the king (usually the eldest son)
• Most important men of the community
• Cycle of Violence avenge the deaths of kin
• Werguild instead of fighting, man-price demand
• Wyrd fate/destiny bravery can overcome this
• Blood vengeance is a sacred duty

8
Some Important People
9
Bede the Venerable

• 673 735
• Monk and Scholar
• Responsible for our knowledge of England before
  the 8th century
• Ecclesiastical History shows how the Church
  brought unity to England by telling the story of
  the conversion to Christianity and of the
  English Church

10
Alfred the Great

• 871-899
• Only English monarch to earn that title
• Defended England from the Vikings
• England becomes a nation
• Improved army and navy
• Built walls and defenses

11
Alfred the Great

• Peace time accomplishments as well
• Founded schools, emphasized education
• Made English the official language
• Established the A-S Chronicle
• Established a legal code

12

• We must bring it to pass, if we have the peace,
  that all the youth now in England, born of free
  men who have the means that they can apply to it,
  may be devoted to learning until such time as
  they can read well what is written in England.
• -- King Alfred, letter to his bishops, c. 890

13

• With Alfred begins the reign of Wessex Kings

14
Edward the Confessor
15
Edward the Confessor

• Stable and prosperous reign
• Great-great-great grandson of Alfred
• Cannonized 100 years after death
• Built Westminster Abbey
• Son of a Saxon king and the daughter of a duke of
  Normandy
• Accounts of miracles after death
• Preserved body
• Englands first national Saint

16
Succession
17
Christianity

• 600 AD conversion from Paganism to Christianity
• St. Augustine - first Archbishop of Canterbury
• Brought them contact with Mediterranean world,
  linking them to Europe, and thus introducing them
  to writing
• Monasteries were center of writing and
  illustrations
• A force of unity and peace common faith and
  system of morality

18
Beowulf

• The oldest Epic poem in the English language
• Events of story take place in 550 AD
• Composed in 750 AD
• Written in 1000 AD in Old English
• ? 10th century manuscript of 8th century
  composition of 6th century events ?
• Significance?
• Sutton Hoo Treasure of Suffolk, England

19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
(No Transcript)
23
Beowulf

• Conflict of Christian and Pagan
• Writers were fascinated by their pagan culture
  and by the conflict between the heroic code and a
  religion that teaches that we should forgive
  those who trespass against us and that all they
  that take the sword shall perish with the sword

24
Beowulf

• In other words, the stories handed down by oral
  tradition were from the pagan past, but the monks
  who wrote them infused their own Christian
  elements
• Does contain some datable facts
• Deals not with Englishmen, but their Germanic
  forebears the Danes and Geats

25
Beowulf

• 2 Tribes
• The Danes of Denmark
• King Hrothgar and Queen Welthow
• Mead Hall - Herot
• The setting for most of the story
• Terrorized by the brutal, man-eating monster,
  Grendel
• The Geats of S. Sweden
• King Higlac
• Beowulf his thane and nephew
• Travels to Denmark with 14 men to save the Danes

26
Beowulf

• What to look for and note when you read
• The heroes and the monsters
• And their values
• The allegorical elements
• The role of the female
• The Christian v. Pagan conflict
• Characteristics of the Epic