The AngloSaxon World

1
The Anglo-Saxon World
2
The Anglo-Saxon Homeland
3
The Anglo-Saxon Invasion

• 410 AD The Romans leave Britain
• 449 AD Hengest and Horsa arrive, invited by
  KingVortigern to be his allies against the Picts
• Hengest and Horsa defeat the Picts and then turn
  on Vortigern, beginning the invasion
• Thus goes the legend, but the invaders actually
  came as early as the 3rd century
• Major groups Angles (Denmark), Saxons (Germany)
  and Jutes (Jutland and Rhineland)
• By the mid-5th century, Germanic kings controlled
  much of Britain, particularly the eastern sections

4
King Alfred

• Ruled from 871-899 as King of Wessex, later King
  of England
• Ordered the keeping of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
• Arranged for the books most needful for all men
  to know to be translated from Latin into English
• In 878, after being driven back onto the Island
  of Athelney in Somerset, raised an army and
  defeated the Vikings led by King Guthrum
• As a result, England was divided into Alfreds
  kingdom in the south and east and the Danelaw in
  the north and west.

5
Religion among the Anglo-Saxons

• Pre-Roman Celtic origins
• supreme goddess was Nerthus, the earth mother,
  surrounded by pantheon of goddesses (Frea,
  Esotre, Rheda)
• Early Anglo-Saxon religion
• Supreme god was Woden (from Viking roots)
• The Wild Hunt souls of dead warriors ride to
  Valhalla to join Wodens host of champions
• Frey was an important god, symbolized by a boar
• Shrines in natural places rather than churches or
  temples
• Christianity
• Absorbed earlier customs and beliefs and began
  the process of Christianizing both life and
  literature

6
Anglo-Saxon Cultural Beliefs

• Comitatus (The lord-thane relationship, governed
  by protection and loyalty)
• Wergild (the price of a man)
• Wyrd (fate)
• Immortality (fame)
• Gift Giving (binding loyalty)
• Fragility of human life (constant warfare
  threatening natural forces)

7
Beowulf

• Oldest long poem composed in English
• Tale told by a scop (singer-poet)
• Entertainer
• Historian
• Set in 6th century Denmark and Sweden
• Great emphasis on use of real people and settings
• Dating by real events mentioned, Beowulf fought
  Grendel and his mother about 520 AD his fight
  with the dragon would have taken place toward the
  end of that century

8

• Rich ship burials were recorded in Sweden as
  early as the sixth century, and the Sutton Hoo
  burials were about a century later, about the
  time the story of Beowulf was first being told in
  England.

A 1904 image shows the Oseberg Viking ship after
its recovery in southern Norway. Scientists say
DNA tests could yield new information about a
queen and another woman whose remains were found
in the ship.
9
Who wrote Beowulf?

• Author unknown, probably a Christian monk working
  with older versions of the story
• Only manuscript dated 1000 AD
• Probably composed in 7th or 8th centuries, while
  memories of Germanic tales and traditions still
  alive
• East Anglia, where ship burials were found,
  likely to be the place of composition