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Anglo Saxons PDF
Anglo Saxons PDF
quest of 1016, or as Anglo-Norman after the Norman Suebi, Frisii and Franks; they were later pushed westconquest.[11]
wards by the Huns, Avars, Slavs, Bulgars and Alans.[22]
The earliest historical references using this term are from
outside Britain, referring to piratical Germanic raiders,
'Saxones who attacked the shores of Britain and Gaul in
the 3rd century AD. Procopius states that Britain was settled by three races: the Angiloi, Frisones, and Britons.[12]
The term Angli Saxones seems to have rst been used in
continental writing of the 8th century; Paul the Deacon
uses it to distinguish the English Saxons from the continental Saxons (Ealdseaxe, literally, 'old Saxons).[13] The
name therefore seemed to mean English Saxons.
By the year 400, southern Britain that is Britain below Hadrians Wall was a peripheral part of the western Roman Empire, occasionally lost to rebellion or invasion, but until then always eventually recovered. Around
410, Britain slipped beyond direct imperial control into a
phase which has generally been termed sub-Roman.[23]
The early Anglo-Saxon period covers the history of medieval Britain that starts from the end of Roman rule.
It is a period widely known in European history as the
Migration Period, also the Vlkerwanderung[20] (migration of peoples in German). This was a period of intensied human migration in Europe from about 400 to
800.[21][lower-alpha 2] The migrants were Germanic tribes
such as the Goths, Vandals, Angles, Saxons, Lombards,
2.1
Migration (c.410-c.560)
Gildas recounts how a war broke out between the Saxons and the local population Higham calls it the War
of the Saxon Federates which ended shortly after the
siege at 'Mons Badonicus. The Saxons go back to their
eastern home. Gildas calls the peace a grievous divorce
with the barbarians. The price of peace, Nick Higham
argues,[26] is a better treaty for the Saxons, giving them
the ability to receive tribute from people across the lowlands of Britain. The archaeological evidence agrees with
this earlier timescale. In particular, the work of Catherine Hills and Sam Lucy on the evidence of Spong Hill has
moved the chronology for the settlement earlier than 450,
with a signicant number of items now in phases before
Bedes date.[27]
3
As Bede later implied, language was a key
indicator of ethnicity in early England. In circumstances where freedom at law, acceptance
with the kindred, access to patronage, and the
use and possession of weapons were all exclusive to those who could claim Germanic
descent, then speaking Old English without
Latin or Brittonic inection had considerable
value.[1]
This vision of the Anglo-Saxons exercising extensive political and military power at an early date remains contested. The most developed vision of a continuation in
sub-Roman Britain, with control over its own political and
military destiny for well over a century, is that of Kenneth
Dark,[28] who suggests that the sub-Roman elite survived
in culture, politics and military power up to c. 570. However, Nick Higham seems to agree with Bede, who identied three phases of settlement: an exploration phase,
when mercenaries came to protect the resident population; a migration phase, which was substantial as implied
by the statement that Anglus was deserted; and an establishment phase, in which Anglo-Saxons started to control
areas, implied in Bedes statement about the origins of the
tribes.[29]
Scholars have not reached consensus on the number of
migrants who entered Britain in this period. Heinrich
Hrke suggests that the gure is around 100,000,[30]
based on the molecular evidence. But, archaeologists
such as Christine Hills[31] and Richard Hodges[32] suggest
the number is nearer 20,000. By around 500 the AngloSaxon migrants were established in southern and eastern
Britain.[33]
What happened to the indigenous Brittonic people is
also subject to question. Heinrich Hrke and Richard
Coates[34] point out that they are invisible archaeologically and linguistically. But based on a fairly high
Anglo-Saxon gure (200,000) and a low Brythonic one
(800,000), Brythonic people are likely to have outnumbered Anglo-Saxons by at least four to one. The interpretation of such gures is that while culturally, the
later Anglo-Saxons and English did emerge as remarkably un-British, . . . their genetic, biological make-up
is none the less likely to have been substantially, indeed
predominantly, British.[35] The development of AngloSaxon culture is described by two processes. One is similar to culture changes observed in Russia, North Africa
and parts of the Islamic world, where a powerful minority
culture becomes, over a rather short period, adopted by a
settled majority.[36]
The second process is explained through incentives. Nick
The Tribal Hidage, from an edition of Henry Spelman's GlosHigham summarized in this way:
sarium Archaiologicum
By the middle of the 6th century, some Brythonic people in the lowlands of Britain had moved across the sea
to form Brittany, and some had moved west, but the majority were abandoning their past language and culture
and adopting the new culture of the Anglo-Saxons. As
they adopted this language and culture, the barriers began to dissolve between peoples, who had earlier lived
parallel lives.[37] The archaeological evidence shows considerable continuity in the system of landscape and local
governance,[38] which was inherited from the indigenous
community. There is evidence for a fusion of culture in
this early period.[39] Brythonic names appear in the lists
of Anglo-Saxon elite. The Wessex royal line was traditionally founded by a man named Cerdic, an undoubtedly
Celtic name ultimately derived from Caratacus. This may
indicate that Cerdic was a native Briton, and that his dynasty became anglicised over time.[40][41] A number of
Cerdics alleged descendants also possessed Celtic names,
including the 'Bretwalda' Ceawlin.[42] The last man in this
dynasty to have a Brythonic name was King Caedwalla,
who died as late as 689.[43]
2.2
In the last half of the 6th century, four structures contributed to the development of society; they were the position and freedoms of the ceorl, the smaller tribal areas coalescing into larger kingdoms, the elite developing
from warriors to kings, and Irish monasticism developing
under Finnian (who had consulted Gildas) and his pupil
Columba.
The Anglo-Saxon farms of this period are often falsely
supposed to be peasant farms. However, a ceorl, who
was the lowest ranking freeman in early Anglo-Saxon society, was not a peasant but an arms-owning male with the
support of a kindred, access to law and the wergild; situated at the apex of an extended household working at least
one hide of land.[44] The farmer had freedom and rights
over lands, with provision of a rent or duty to an overlord
who provided only slight lordly input.[lower-alpha 3] Most of
this land was common outeld arable land (of an outeldineld system) that provided individuals with the means
to build a basis of kinship and group cultural ties.[45]
The Tribal Hidage lists thirty-ve peoples, or tribes, with
assessments in hides, which may have originally been
dened as the area of land sucient to maintain one
family.[46] The assessments in the Hidage reect the relative size of the provinces.[47] Although varying in size, all
thirty-ve peoples of the Tribal Hidage were of the same
status, in that they were areas which were ruled by their
own elite family (or royal houses), and so were assessed
independently for payment of tribute. [lower-alpha 4] By the
end of the sixth century, larger kingdoms had become established on the south or east coasts.[49] They include the
provinces of the Jutes of Hampshire and Wight, the South
5
the monastery of Iona would grow into what Peter Brown 3 Middle
Anglo-Saxon history
has described as an unusually extensive spiritual em(660899)
pire, which stretched from western Scotland deep to the
southwest into the heart of Ireland and, to the southeast,
it reached down throughout northern Britain, through the By 660 the political map of Lowland Britain had developed with smaller territories coalescing into kingdoms,
inuence of its sister monastery Lindisfarne.[54]
from this time larger kingdoms started dominating the
In June 597 Columba died. At this time, Augustine smaller kingdoms. The development of kingdoms, with
landed on the Isle of Thanet and proceeded to King a particular king being recognised as an overlord, develthelberht's main town of Canterbury. He had been the oped out of an early loose structure that, Higham beprior of a monastery in Rome when Pope Gregory the lieves, is linked back to the original feodus.[59] The traGreat chose him in 595 to lead the Gregorian mission to ditional name for this period is the Heptarchy, which has
Britain to Christianise the Kingdom of Kent from their not been used by scholars since the early 20th century[47]
native Anglo-Saxon paganism. Kent was probably cho- as it gives the impression of a single political structure and
sen because thelberht had married a Christian princess, does not aord the opportunity to treat the history of
Bertha, daughter of Charibert I the King of Paris, who any one kingdom as a whole.[60] Simon Keynes suggests
was expected to exert some inuence over her husband. that the 8th and 9th century was period of economic and
thelberht was converted to Christianity, churches were social ourishing which created stability both below the
established, and wider-scale conversion to Christianity Thames and above the Humber. Many areas ourished
began in the kingdom. thelberhts law for Kent, the ear- and their inuence was felt across the continent, however
liest written code in any Germanic language, instituted in between the Humber and Thames, one political entity
a complex system of nes. Kent was rich, with strong grew in inuence and power and to the East these develtrade ties to the continent, and thelberht may have in- opments in Britain attracted attention.[60]
stituted royal control over trade. For the rst time following the Anglo-Saxon invasion, coins began circulating in
Kent during his reign.
3.1 Mercian supremacy (626821)
In 635 Aidan, an Irish monk from Iona chose the Isle of
Lindisfarne to establish a monastery and close to King Main article: Mercian Supremacy
Oswald's main fortress of Bamburgh. He had been at the Middle-lowland Britain was known as the place of the
monastery in Iona when Oswald asked to be sent a mission to Christianise the Kingdom of Northumbria from
their native Anglo-Saxon paganism. Oswald had probably chosen Iona because after his father had been killed
he had ed into south-west Scotland and had encountered Christianity, and had returned determined to make
Northumbria Christian. Aidan achieved great success in
spreading the Christian faith, and since Aidan could not
speak English and Oswald had learned Irish during his
exile, Oswald acted as Aidans interpreter when the latter
was preaching.[55] Later, Northumberland's patron saint,
Saint Cuthbert, was an abbot of the monastery, and then
Bishop of Lindisfarne. An anonymous life of Cuthbert
written at Lindisfarne is the oldest extant piece of English historical writing. [lower-alpha 5] and in his memory
a gospel (known as the St Cuthbert Gospel) was placed
in his con. The decorated leather bookbinding is the
oldest intact European binding.[57]
In 664, the Synod of Whitby was convened and established Roman practice (in style of tonsure and dates of
Easter) as the norm in Northumbria, and thus brought
the Northumbrian church into the mainstream of Roman culture.[58] The episcopal seat of Northumbria was
transferred from Lindisfarne to York. Wilfrid, chief ad- A political map of Britain c650 (the names are in modern Envocate for the Roman position, later became Bishop of glish)
Northumbria, while Colmn and the Ionan supporters,
who did not change their practices, withdrew to Iona.
Mierce, the border or frontier folk, in Latin Mercia. Mercia was a diverse area of tribal groups, as shown by the
Tribal Hidage; the peoples were a mixture of Brythonic
3.2
3.3
posed by a local army. After four years, the Scandinavians therefore split up, some to settle in Northumbria
and East Anglia, the remainder to try their luck again on
the Continent.[75]
3.4
More important to Alfred than his military and political victories were his religion, his love of learning, and
his spread of writing throughout England. Simon Keynes
suggests Alfreds work laid the foundations for what really makes England unique in all of medieval Europe from
around 800 until 1066.[80] What is also unique is that we
can discover some of this in Alfreds own words:
Thinking about how learning and culture had fallen since This set in train a growth in charters, law, theology and
the last century, he wrote:
learning. Alfred thus laid the foundation for the great accomplishments of the tenth century and did much to make
the vernacular was more important than Latin in Anglo...So completely had wisdom fallen o in
Saxon culture.
England that there were very few on this side
of the Humber who could understand their rituals in English, or indeed could translate a letter
I desired to live worthily as long as I lived,
from Latin into English; and I believe that there
and to leave after my life, to the men who
were not many beyond the Humber. There
should come after me, the memory of me in
were so few of them that I indeed cannot think
good works. (Preface: The Consolation of
of a single one south of the Thames when I
Philosophy by Boethius)[81]
became king. (Preface: Gregory the Greats
Pastoral Care)[81]
4.2
However charters, law-codes and coins supply detailed information on various aspects of royal government, and the
surviving works of Anglo-Latin and vernacular literature,
as well as the numerous manuscripts written in the 10th
century, testify in their dierent ways to the vitality of
ecclesiastical culture. Yet as Simon Keynes suggests it
does not follow that the 10th century is better understood
than more sparsely documented periods.[84]
4.1
who Simon Keynes calls the towering gure in the landscape of the tenth century.[87] His victory over a coalition of his enemies Constantine, King of the Scots,
Owain ap Dyfnwal, King of the Cumbrians, and Olaf
Guthfrithson, King of Dublin at the battle of Brunanburh, celebrated by a famous poem in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, opened the way for him to be hailed as the rst
king of England.[88] thelstans legislation shows how the
king drove his ocials to do their respective duties. He
was uncompromising in his insistence on respect for the
law. However this legislation also reveals the persistent
diculties which confronted the king and his councillors in bringing a troublesome people under some form of
control. His claim to be king of the English was by no
means widely recognised.[89] The situation was complex:
the Hiberno-Norse rulers of Dublin still coveted their interests in the Danish kingdom of York; terms had to be
made with the Scots, who had the capacity not merely
to interfere in Northumbrian aairs, but also to block a
line of communication between Dublin and York; and the
inhabitants of northern Northumbria were considered a
law unto themselves. It was only after twenty years of
crucial developments following thelstans death in 939
that a unied kingdom of England began to assume its
familiar shape. However, the major political problem
for Edmund and Eadred, who succeeded thelstan, remained the diculty of subjugating the north.[90] In 959
Edgar is said to have succeeded to the kingdom both in
Wessex and in Mercia and in Northumbria, and he was
then 16 years old (ASC, version 'B', 'C'), and is called
the Peacemaker.[90] By the early 970s, after a decade of
Edgars 'peace', it may have seemed that the kingdom of
England was indeed made whole. In his formal address
to the gathering at Winchester the king urged his bishops, abbots and abbesses to be of one mind as regards
monastic usage . . . lest diering ways of observing the
customs of one Rule and one country should bring their
holy conversation into disrepute.[91]
Athelstans court had been an intellectual incubator. In
that court were two young men named Dunstan and
thelwold who were made priests, supposedly at the insistence of Athelstan, right at the end of his reign in
939.[92] Between 970 and 973 a council was held, under
the aegis of Edgar, where a set of rules were devised that
would be applicable throughout England. This put all the
monks and nuns in England under one set of detailed customs for the rst time. In 973, Edgar received a special
second, 'imperial coronation' at Bath, and from this point
England was ruled by Edgar under the strong inuence of
Dunstan, Athelwold, and Oswald, the Bishop of Worcester.
10
try and its leadership under strains as severe as they were
long sustained. Raids began on a relatively small scale
in the 980s, but became far more serious in the 990s,
and brought the people to their knees in 100912, when
a large part of the country was devastated by the army
of Thorkell the Tall. It remained for Swein Forkbeard,
king of Denmark, to conquer the kingdom of England in
101314, and (after thelreds restoration) for his son
Cnut to achieve the same in 101516. The tale of these
years incorporated in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle must be
read in its own right,[93] and set beside other material
which reects in one way or another on the conduct of
government and warfare during thelreds reign.[94] It
is this evidence which is the basis for Simon Keyness
view that the king lacked the strength, judgement and
resolve to give adequate leadership to his people in a
time of grave national crisis; who soon found out that
he could rely on little but the treachery of his military
commanders; and who, throughout his reign, tasted nothing but the ignominy of defeat. The raids exposed tensions and weaknesses which went deep into the fabric of
the late Anglo-Saxon state and it is apparent that events
proceeded against a background more complex than the
chronicler probably knew. It seems, for example, that the
death of Bishop thelwold in 984 had precipitated further reaction against certain ecclesiastical interests; that
by 993 the king had come to regret the error of his ways,
leading to a period when the internal aairs of the kingdom appear to have prospered.[95]
Cnuts 'Quatrefoil' type penny with the legend CNUT REX ANGLORU[M]" (Cnut, King of the English), struck in London by
the moneyer Edwin.
11
Kings.
Edward became king in 1042, and given his upbringing
might have been considered a Norman by those who lived
across the English Channel. Following Cnuts reforms,
excessive power was concentrated in the hands of the rival houses of Leofric of Mercia and Godwine of Wessex. Problems also came for Edward from the resentment
caused by the kings introduction of Norman friends. A
crisis arose in 1051 when Godwine deed the kings order to punish the men of Dover, who had resisted an attempt by Eustace of Boulogne to quarter his men on them
by force.[104] The support of Earl Leofric and Earl Siward enabled Edward to secure the outlawry of Godwine
and his sons; and William of Normandy paid Edward a
visit during which Edward may have promised William
succession to the English throne, although this Norman
claim may have been mere propaganda. Godwine and his
sons came back the following year with a strong force,
and the magnates were not prepared to engage them in
civil war but forced the king to make terms. Some unpopular Normans were driven out, including Archbishop
Robert, whose archbishopric was given to Stigand; this
act supplied an excuse for the Papal support of Williams
cause.[104]
12
the nobility, and the law courts. In this time, and due to
the cultural shock of the Conquest, Anglo-Saxon began to
change very rapidly, and by 1200 or so, it was no longer
Anglo-Saxon English, but what scholars call early Middle
English.[115] But this language had deep roots in AngloSaxon, which was being spoken a lot later than 1066. Research in the early twentieth century, and still continuing
today, has shown that a form of Anglo-Saxon was still being spoken, and not merely among uneducated peasants,
into the thirteenth century in the West Midlands.[116] This
was J.R.R. Tolkien's major scholarly discovery when he
studied a group of texts written in early Middle English
called the Katherine Group, because they include the Life
of St. Katherine (also, the Life of St. Margaret, the Life
and the Passion of St. Juliana, Ancrene Wisse, and Hali
Meithhadthese last two teaching how to be a good anchoress and arguing for the goodness of virginity).[117]
Tolkien noticed that a subtle distinction preserved in these
texts indicated that Old English had continued to be spoken far longer than anyone had supposed. In Old English there is a distinction between two dierent kinds
of verbs.[116]
6.2
13
the monastic and spiritual life of the kingdom under one
rule and stricter control. However the Anglo-Saxons believed in 'luck' as a random element in the aairs of man
and so would probably have agreed that there is a limit
to the extent one can understand why one kingdom failed
while another succeeded.[132] They also believed in 'destiny' and interpreted the fate of the kingdom of England
with Biblical and Carolingian ideology, with parallels, between the Israelites, the great European empires and the
Anglo-Saxons. Danish and Norman conquests were just
the manner in which God punished his sinful people and
the fate of great empires.[85]
The right half of the front panel of the seventh century Franks
Casket, depicting the pan-Germanic legend of Weyland Smith
also Weyland The Smith, which was apparently also a part of
Anglo-Saxon pagan mythology.
14
may point to inuence from the continent.[136] A wellknown Anglo-Saxon horse burial (from the sixth/seventh
century) is Mound 17 at Sutton Hoo, a few yards from
the more famous ship burial in Mound 1.[137] A sixthcentury grave near Lakenheath, Suolk, yielded the body
of a man next to that of a complete horse in harness,
with a bucket of food by its head.[136] Pagan AngloSaxons worshipped at a variety of dierent sites across
their landscape, some of which were apparently specially
built temples and others that were natural geographical
features such as sacred trees, hilltops or wells. According to place name evidence, these sites of worship were
known alternately as either hearg or as woh. Almost no
poem from before the Norman Conquest, no matter how
Christian its theme, is not steeped in pagan symbolism
and their integration into the new faith goes beyond the
literary sources. Thus, as Lethbridge reminds us, to say,
'this is a monument erected in Christian times and therefore the symbolism on it must be Christian,' is an unrealistic approach. The rites of the older faith, now regarded
as superstition, are practised all over the country today.
It did not mean that people were not Christian; but that
they could see a lot of sense in the old beliefs also[138]
Bedes story of Cdmon, the cowherd who became the
'Father of English Poetry' represents the real heart of
the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons from paganism to
Christianity. Bede wrote, "[t]here was in the Monastery
of this Abbess (Streonshalch now known as Whitby
Abbey) a certain brother particularly remarkable for the
Grace of God, who was wont to make religious verses, so
that whatever was interpreted to him out of scripture, he
soon after put the same into poetical expressions of much
sweetness and humility in Old English, which was his native language. By his verse the minds of many were often
excited to despise the world, and to aspire to heaven. The
story of Cdmon illustrates the blending of Christian and
Germanic, Latin and oral tradition, monasteries and double monasteries, pre-existing customs and new learning,
popular and elite, that characterizes the Conversion period of Anglo-Saxon history and culture. Cdmon does
not destroy or ignore traditional Anglo-Saxon poetry. Instead, he converts it into something that helps the Church.
Anglo-Saxon England nds ways to synthesize the religion of the Church with the existing northern customs
and practices. Thus the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons
was not just their switching from one practice to another,
but making something new out of their old inheritance
and their new belief and learning.[139]
Monasticism, and not just the church, was at the centre
of Anglo Saxon Christian life. Western monasticism, as a
whole, had been evolving since the time of the desert fathers, but, in the seventh century, monasticism in England
confronted a dilemma that brought to question the truest
representation of the Christian faith. The two monastic
traditions were the Celtic and the Roman, and a decision
was made to adopt the Roman tradition. Monasteria seem
to describe all religious congregations other than those of
the Bishop.
In the 10th century, Dunstan brought Athelwold to Glastonbury, where the two of them set up a monastery on
Benedictine lines. For a number of years this was the
only monastery in England that strictly followed the Benedictine Rule and observed complete monastic discipline.
What Mechthild Gretsch calls an Aldhelm Seminar developed at Glastonbury, and the eects of this seminar
on the curriculum of learning and study in Anglo-Saxon
England were enormous.[92] Royal power was put behind
the reforming impulses of Dunstan and Athelwold, helping them to enforce their reform ideas. This happened
rst at the Old Minster in Winchester, before the reformers built new foundations and refoundations at Thorney,
Peterborough, and Ely, among other places. Benedictine
Monasticism spread throughout England, these became
centers of learning again, run by people trained in Glastonbury, with one rule, the works of Aldhelm at the center of their curricula but also inuenced by the vernacular
eorts of Alfred. From this mixture sprung a great owering of literary production.[140]
6.3
15
Cuthbert played ('wrestling, jumping, running, and every
other exercise') had some military signicance.[146] Turning to strategy, of the period before Alfred the evidence
gives the Impression that Anglo-Saxon armies fought battles frequently. If this is not solely due to the deciencies
of the sources, it would make England a special case. Battle was risky and best avoided unless all the factors were
on your side. But if you were in a position so advantageous that you were willing to take the chance, it is likely
that your enemy would be in such a weak position that
he would avoid battle and pay tribute. Unless, of course,
he was Bedes Oswald and trusted in God. Anyway, battle put the princes lives at risk, as is demonstrated by the
Northumbrian and Mercian overlordships brought to an
end by a defeat in the eld. Gillingham has shown how
few pitched battles successful Charlemagne and Richard
I chose to ght.[147]
A defensive strategy becomes more apparent in the later
part of Alfreds reign. It was built around the possession
of fortied places and the close pursuit of the Danes to harass them and impede their preferred occupation of plundering. Alfred and his lieutenants were able to ght the
Danes to a standstill by their repeated ability to pursue
and closely besiege them in fortied camps at Nottingham, Wareham, Exeter, Chippenham, Rochester, Milton, Appledore, Thorney, Buttington, Chester and Hertford. It was only in the later part of Edward the Elders
reign that we see a type of war which a twelfth Century
soldier would have recognised. In this phase of the war
the West Saxons conquered land by building and holding burhs from which to threaten and dominate Danish
territory. The fortication of sites at Witham, Buckingham, Towcester and Colchester persuaded the Danes of
the surrounding regions to submit.[148] The key to this
warfare was sieges and the control of fortied places. It is
clear that the new fortresses had permanent garrisons, and
that they were supported by the inhabitants of the existing
burhs when danger threatened. This is brought out most
clearly in the description of the campaigns of 917 in the
Chronicle, but throughout the conquest of the Danelaw by
Edward and theld it is clear that a sophisticated and
coordinated strategy was being applied.[149]
There was another means of dealing with military issues.
In 973 a single currency was introduced into England in
order to bring about political unication, but by concentrating bullion production at many coastal mints, the new
rulers of England created a honey-pot which attracted
a new wave of Viking invasions, which came close to
breaking up the kingdom of the English. From 980 onwards the Anglo -Saxon Chronicle records renewed raiding against England . At rst the raids were probing ventures by small numbers of ships crews, but soon grew
in size and eect, until the only way of dealing with the
Vikings appeared to be to pay protection money to buy
them o: And in that year [991] it was determined that
tribute should rst be paid to the Danish men because of
the great terror they were causing along the coast. The
16
6.4
model, known as a multiple estate or shire has been developed in a range of studies and Colm O'Brien, in applying
this to Yeavering has proposed a geographical denition
of the wider shire of Yeavering and also a geographical
denition of the principal estate whose structures HopeTaylor excavated.[152] One characteristic that the kings
tun shared with some other groups of places is that it was
a point of public assembly. People came together not
only to give the king and his entourage board and lodging;
they 'attended upon the king' in order to have disputes settled, cases appealed, lands granted, gifts given, appointments made, laws promulgated, policy debated, and ambassadors heard and replied to. People also assembled for
other reasons, such as to hold fairs and to trade.[153]
The rst creations of towns are linked to a system of specialism at individual settlements, which is evidenced in
studying place-names. Sutterton, 'shoe-makers tun' (in
the area of the Danelaw such places are Sutterby) was sonamed because local circumstances allowed the growth of
a craft recognised by the people of surrounding places.
Similarly with Sapperton, the 'soap-makers tun. While
Boultham, the 'meadow with burdock plants, may well
have developed a specialism in the production of burrs for
wool-carding, since meadows with burdock merely growing in them must have been relatively numerous. From
places named for their services or location within a single district, a category of which the most obvious perhaps are the Eastons and Westons, it is possible to move
outwards to glimpse component settlements within larger
economic units. Names betray some role within a system
of seasonal pasture, Winderton in Warwickshire is the
winter tun and various Somertons are self-explanatory.
Hardwicks are dairy farms and Swinhopes the valleys
where pigs were pastured.[154]
Settlement patterns as well as village plans in England
fall into two great categories: scattered farms and homesteads in upland and woodland Britain, nucleated villages
across a swathe of central England.[155] The chronology
of nucleated villages is much debated and not yet clear.
Yet there is strong evidence to support the view that nucleation occurred in the tenth century or perhaps the
ninth, and was a development parallel to the growth of
towns.[156]
17
for other legal formulations such as the value of the oath monasteries, perhaps as a means of extending the circle
that they could swear in a court of law. Slaves had no of protection beyond the kin group. Laws also make prowergild, as oences against them were taken to be of- vision for orphaned children and foundlings.[161]
fences against their owners, but the earliest laws set out a
detailed scale of penalties depending both on the type of
slave and the rank of owner.[157]
7 Culture
A certain amount of social mobility is implied by regulations detailing the conditions under which a ceorl could
7.1 Architecture
become a thegn. Again these would have been subject to
local variation, but one text refers to the possession of ve
Main article: Anglo-Saxon architecture
hides of land (around 600 acres), a bell and a castle-gate,
Early Anglo-Saxon buildings in Britain were generally
a seat and a special oce in the kings hall. England had
trading connections with the continent, and a merchant
who had travelled overseas three times at his own expense
could similarly be raised to the rank of thegn. Loss of status could also occur, as with penal slavery, which could be
imposed not only on the perpetrator of a crime but on his
wife and family. Some slaves may have been members
of the native British population conquered by the AngloSaxons when they arrived from the continent; others may
have been captured in wars between the early kingdoms,
or have sold themselves for food in times of famine. However, slavery was not always permanent, and slaves who
had gained their freedom would become part of an underclass of freedmen below the rank of ceorl.[158]
Anglo-Saxon women appear to have enjoyed considerable independence, whether as abbesses of the great
'double monasteries of monks and nuns founded during
the seventh and eighth centuries, as major land-holders
recorded in Domesday Book (1086), or as ordinary members of society. They could act as principals in legal
transactions, were entitled to the same wergild as men of
the same class, and were considered 'oath-worthy', with
the right to defend themselves on oath against false accusations or claims. Sexual and other oences against
them were penalised heavily. There is evidence that even
married women could own property independently, and
some surviving wills are in the joint names of husband
and wife.[159] Marriage comprised a contract between the
womans family and the prospective bridegroom, who was
required to pay a 'bride-price' in advance of the wedding
and a 'morning gift' following its consummation. The latter became the womans personal property, but the former
may have been paid to her relatives, at least during the
early period. Widows were in a particularly favourable
position, with inheritance rights, custody of their children
and authority over dependants. However, a degree of vulnerability may be reected in laws stating that they should
not be forced into nunneries or second marriages against
their will. The system of primogeniture (inheritance by
the rst-born male) was not introduced to England until
after the Norman Conquest, so Anglo-Saxon siblings
girls as well as boys were more equal in terms of status.
The age of majority was usually either ten or twelve, when
a child could legally take charge of inherited property, or
be held responsible for a crime.[160] It was common for
children to be fostered, either in other households or in
simple, not using masonry except in foundations but constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roong.
Generally preferring not to settle within the old Roman
cities, the Anglo-Saxons built small towns near their centres of agriculture, at fords in rivers or sited to serve as
ports. In each town, a main hall was in the centre, provided with a central hearth.[162]
Only ten of the hundreds of settlement sites that have
been excavated in England from this period have revealed
masonry domestic structures and conned to a few quite
specic contexts. The usual explanation for the tendency
of AngloSaxons to build in timber is one of technological inferiority or incompetence. However it is now accepted that technology and materials were part of conscious choices indivisible from their social meaning. Le
Go, suggests[163] that the Anglo-Saxon period was dened by its use of wood, providing evidence for the care
and craftsmanship that the AngloSaxon invested into
their wooden material culture, from cups to halls, and
the concern for trees and timber in AngloSaxon place
names, literature and religion.[164] Michael Shapland suggests:
The stone buildings imposed on England
by the Romans would have been 'startling' and
'exceptional', and following the collapse of Roman society in the fth century there was a
widespread return to timber building, a 'cul-
18
7 CULTURE
tural shift' that it is not possible to explain by
recourse to technological determinism.[165]
7.2
Art
7.2
Art
19
many square-headed brooches, it is characterised by chipcarved patterns based on animals and masks. A dierent
style, which gradually superseded it is dominated by serpentine beasts with interlacing bodies.[172]
Shoulder clasp (closed) from the Sutton Hoo ship-burial 1, England. British Museum.
By the later 6th century the best works from the southeast are distinguished by greater use of expensive materials, above all gold and garnets, reecting the growing
prosperity of a more organised society which had greater
access to imported precious materials, as seen in the
buckle from the Taplow burial and the jewellery from that
at Sutton Hoo,[173] c.600 and c.625 respectively. The possible symbolism of the decorative elements like interlace
and beast forms that were used in these early works remains unclear, it is clear. These objects were the products of a society that invested its modest surpluses in personal display, who fostered craftsmen and jewellers of a
high standard, and a society where the possession of a
ne brooch or buckle was a valuable status symbol and
possible tribal emblem in death as much as in life.[174]
The Staordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of AngloSaxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. Discovered in
a eld near the village of Hammerwich, near Licheld, in
Staordshire, England, it consists of over 3,500 items[175]
that are nearly all martial in character and contains no objects specic to female uses.[176][177] It demonstrates that
considerable quantities of high-grade goldsmiths work
were in circulation among the elite during the 7th century. It also shows that, superb though individual pieces
may be in terms of craftsmanship, the value of such items
as currency and their potential roles as tribute or the spoils
of war could, in a warrior society, outweigh appreciation
of their integrity and artistry.[153]
The coming of Christianity revolutionised the visual arts,
as well as other aspects of society. Art had to full new
functions, and whereas pagan art was abstract, Christianity required images clearly representing subjects. The
transition between the Christian and pagan traditions
is occasionally apparent in 7th century works; examples include the Crundale buckle[173] and the Canterbury
pendant.[178] In addition to fostering metalworking skills,
Christianity stimulated stone sculpture and manuscript il-
20
7 CULTURE
7.3
Language
motif. Key early works are the Alfred Jewel, which has
eshy leaves engraved on the back plate; and the stole and
maniples of Bishop Frithestan of Winchester, which are
ornamented with acanthus leaves, alongside gures that
bear the stamp of Byzantine art. The surviving evidence
points to Winchester and Canterbury as the leading centres of manuscript art in the second half of the 10th century: they developed colourful paintings with lavish foliate borders, and coloured line drawings.
By the early 11th century, these two traditions had fused
and had spread to other centres. Though manuscripts
dominate the corpus, sucient architectural sculpture,
ivory carving and metalwork survives to show that the
same styles were current in secular art, and became
widespread in the south at parochial level. The wealth of
England in the later tenth and eleventh century is clearly
reected in the lavish use of gold in manuscript art as
well as for vessels, textiles and statues (now known only
from descriptions). Widely admired, southern English art
was highly inuential in Normandy, France and Flanders
from c.1000.[189] Indeed, keen to possess it, or recover
its materials, the Normans appropriated it in large quantities in the wake of the Conquest. The Bayeux Tapestry,
probably designed by a Canterbury artist for Bishop Odo
of Bayeux, is arguably the swansong of Anglo-Saxon art.
Surveying nearly 600 years of continuous change, three
common strands stand out: lavish colour and rich materials; an interplay between abstract ornament and representational subject matter; and a fusion of art styles reects
England was linked in the 11th century.[190]
21
mar, it was much closer to modern German and Icelandic
than to modern English. It was fully inected with
ve grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, genitive,
dative, and instrumental), three grammatical numbers
(singular, plural, and dual) and three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). The dual forms
occurred in the rst and second persons only and referred
to groups of two.
Some of the characteristics of the language were: adjectives, pronouns and (sometimes) participles that agreed
with their antecedent nouns in case, number and gender; nite verbs that agreed with their subject in person and number; and nouns that came in numerous
declensions (with deep parallels in Latin, Ancient Greek
and Sanskrit). Verbs came in nine main conjugations
(seven strong and two weak), each with numerous subtypes, as well as a few additional smaller conjugations and
a handful of irregular verbs. The main dierence from
other ancient Indo-European languages, such as Latin, is
that verbs can be conjugated in only two tenses (vs. the six
tenses really tense/aspect combinations of Latin),
and have no synthetic passive voice (although it did still
exist in Gothic). Gender in nouns was grammatical, as
opposed to the natural gender that prevails in modern English.
Many linguists believe that Old English received little inuence from the local insular languages especially
Common Brittonic (the language that may have been the
majority language in Lowland Britain). Linguists such
as Richard Coates have suggested there could not have
been meaningful contact between the languages, which is
reasonable argued from the small amount of loanwords.
7.3 Language
Recently a number of linguists have argued that many of
the grammar changes observed in English were due to a
Main article: Old English
Old English (nglisc, Anglisc, Englisc) or Anglo-Saxon Brythonic inuence. John McWhorter suggests that the
language changes seen later in English were always there
in vernacular speech and this was not written, especially
since those who did the writing were educated individuals that most likely spoke a standard form of Old English.
The speech of an illiterate ceorl, on the other hand, can
not be reconstructed.[191] The progressive nature of this
language acquisition, and the 'retrospective reworking' of
kinship ties to the dominant group led, ultimately, to the
myths which tied the entire society to immigration as an
explanation of their origins in Britain.[192]
is the early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southern
and eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. Old English is a West
Germanic language closely related to Old Frisian and
Old Saxon. It had a grammar similar in many ways to
Classical Latin. In most respects, including its gram-
22
tage economically or legally.[193] Over time, Old English
developed into four major dialects: Northumbrian, spoken north of the river Humber; Mercian, spoken in the
Midlands; Kentish, spoken in Kent in the far southeastern part of the island; and West Saxon, spoken in the
southwest. All of these dialects have direct descendants
in modern England, and American regional dialects also
have their roots in the dialects of Old English. Standard
Modern English (if there is such a thing), or at least modern English spelling, owes most to the Mercian dialect,
since that was the dialect of London.[194]
Near the end of the Old English period the English language underwent a third foreign inuence, namely the
Scandinavian inuence of Old Norse. In addition to a
great many place names, these consist mainly of items
of basic vocabulary, and words concerned with particular administrative aspects of the Danelaw (that is, the
area of land under Viking control, which included extensive holdings all along the eastern coast of England and
Scotland). The Scandinavians spoke Old Norse, a language related to Old English in that both derived from
the same ancestral Proto-Germanic language. It is very
common for the intermixing of speakers of dierent dialects, such as those that occur during times of political
unrest, to result in a mixed language, and one theory holds
that exactly such a mixture of Old Norse and Old English
is thought to have accelerated the decline of case endings
in Old English.[195] The inuence of Old Norse on the
lexicon of the English language has been profound: responsible for such basic vocabulary items as sky, leg, the
pronoun they, the verb form are, and hundreds of other
words.[196]
7 CULTURE
or loyalty to a cause. This explains why dynasties waxed
and waned so quickly, a kingdom was only as strong as
its leader-king. There was no underlying administration
or bureaucracy to maintain any gains beyond the lifetime
of a leader. An example of this was the leadership of
Rdwald of East Anglia and how the East Anglian primacy did not survive his death.[198] Kings could not, except in exceptional circumstances, make new laws. Their
role instead was to uphold and clarify previous custom
and to assure his subjects that he would uphold their ancient privileges, laws, and customs. Although the person
of the king as a leader could be exalted, the oce of kingship was not in any sense as powerful or as invested with
authority as it was to become. One of the tools kings used
was to tie themselves closely to the new Christian church;
through the practice of having a church leader anoint and
crown the king; God and king were joined in peoples
minds.[199]
The ties of kinship meant that the relatives of a murdered person were obliged to exact vengeance for his or
her death. This led to bloody and extensive feuds. As a
way out of this deadly and futile custom the system of
'wergilds was instituted. The 'wergild' set a monetary
value on each persons life according to their wealth and
social status. This value could also be used to set the ne
payable if a person was injured or oended against. Robbing a thane called for a higher penalty than robbing a
ceorl. On the other hand, a thane who thieved could pay
a higher ne than a ceorl who did likewise. Men were
willing to die for the lord and to support their 'comitatus;
their warrior band. Evidence of this behavior (though it
may be more a literary ideal than an actual social pracNick Highham has provided a summary of the impor- tice), can be observed in the story, made famous in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 755, of Cynewulf and
tance of language to the Anglo-Saxon culture:
Cyneheard, in which the followers of a defeated king decided to ght to the death rather than be reconciled after
As Bede later implied, language was a key
the death of their lord.[200]
indicator of ethnicity in early England. In cirThis emphasis on social standing aected all parts of the
cumstances where freedom at law, acceptance
Anglo-Saxon world. The courts, for example did not atwith the kindred, access to patronage, and the
tempt to discover the facts in a case; instead, in any disuse of possession of weapons were all exclusive
pute it was up to each party to get as many people as
to those who could claim Germanic descent,
possible to swear to the rightness of their case; oaththen speaking Old English without Latin or
swearing. The word of a thane counted for that of six
[1]
Brittonic inection had considerable value.
ceorls.[201] It was assumed that any person of good character would be able to nd enough people to swear to his
innocence that his case would prosper. Anglo-Saxon so7.4 Kinship
ciety was also decidedly patriarchal, but women were in
Helena Hamerow has made an observation that in some ways better o than they would be in later times.
Anglo-Saxon society local and extended kin groups re- A woman could own property in her own right. She
mained...the essential unit of production throughout the could and did rule a kingdom if her husband died. She
Anglo-Saxon period. Local and extended kin groups could not be married without her consent and any perwas a key aspect of Anglo-Saxon culture. Kinship fueled sonal goods, including lands, that she brought into a marsocietal advantages, freedom and the relationships to an riage remained her own property. If she were injured or
her relatives were expected to look
elite, that allowed the Anglo-Saxons culture and language abused in her marriage
[202]
[197]
after
her
interests.
to ourish.
The ties of loyalty to a lord, were to the person of a lord,
not to his station; there was no real concept of patriotism
7.5
7.5
Law
23
Law
24
7 CULTURE
Oath-helping involved the party undergoing proof swearing to the truth of his claim or denial and having that oath
reinforced by ve or more others, chosen either by the
party or by the court. The numbers of helpers required
and the form of their oath diered from place to place
and upon the nature of the dispute.[211] If either the party
or any of the helpers failed in the oath, either refusing to
take it or sometimes even making an error in the required
formula, the proof failed and the case was adjudged to the
other side. It appears surprising to moderns that so important a matter might be settled by one and his friends
falsely swearing an oath. In a society in which each was
known to his neighbour and in which religious emphasis
was placed upon the sanctity of an oath, the system was
probably more satisfactory. As 'wager of law' it remained
a way of determining cases in the common law until its
abolition in the 19th century.[212]
The ordeal oered an alternative for those unable or unwilling to swear an oath. The two most common methods
were the ordeal by hot iron and by cold water. The former consisted in carrying a red-hot iron for ve paces: the
wound was immediately bound up and if, on unbinding,
it was found to be festering the case was lost. In the ordeal by water the victim, usually an accused person, was
cast bound into water: if he sunk he was innocent, if he
oated, guilty. Although for perhaps understandable reasons the ordeals became associated with trials in criminal
matters they were in essence tests of the truth of a claim
or denial of a party and appropriate for trying any legal
issue. The allocation of a mode of proof and who should
bear it was the substance of the Shire Courts judgment
or doom and perhaps followed known customary rules of
which we have no knowledge. Some measure of discretion must have existed in the determining of the outcome
of an ordeal by hot iron but result of the cold water and
the oath-helping would have been obvious to all.[210]
7.6
Literature
manuscripts that still exist. Manuscripts were not common items. They were expensive and hard to make.[213]
First, cows or sheep had to be slaughtered and their skins
tanned. Then people had to decide to use this leather for
manuscripts rather than for any of the other things leather
can be used for. The leather was then scraped, stretched,
and cut into sheets, which were sewn into books. Then
inks had to be made from oak galls and other ingredients, and the books had to be hand written by monks
using quill pens. Every manuscript is slightly dierent
from every other one, even if they are copies of each
other, because every scribe had dierent handwriting and
made dierent errors. We can sometimes identify individual scribes from their handwriting, and we can often guess where manuscripts were written because dierent scriptoria (centres of manuscript production) wrote in
dierent styles of hand.[214]
7.7
Symbolism
25
riddles, a popular form with the Anglo-Saxons. Old English secular poetry is mostly characterized by a somewhat gloomy and introspective cast of mind, and the grim
determination found in The Battle of Maldon, recounting
an action against the Vikings in 991. This is from a book
that was lost in the Cotton Library re of 1731, but it had
been transcribed previously.
teries by the royal court. Anglo-Saxon clergy also continued to write in Latin, the language of Bede's works,
monastic chronicles, and theological writing, although
Bedes biographer records that he was familiar with Old
English poetry and gives a ve line lyric which he either
wrote or liked to quote the sense is unclear.
Rather than being organized around rhyme, the poetic line in Anglo-Saxon is organised around alliteration,
the repetition of stressed sounds, any repeated stressed
sound, vowel or consonant, could be used. Anglo-Saxon
lines are made up of two half-lines (in old-fashioned
scholarship, these are called hemistiches) divided by a
breath-pause or caesura. There must be at least one of
the alliterating sounds on each side of the caesura.
7.7 Symbolism
Symbolism was an essential element to Anglo-Saxon culture. Julian D. Richards suggested that in societies with
strong oral traditions, material culture is used to store
and pass on information and stand instead of literature
in those cultures. This symbolism is less logical than literature and more dicult to read. Anglo-Saxons used
symbolism, not just to communicate, but as tools to aid
hreran
mid
hondum
hrimcealde
their thinking about the world. Symbols were also used
s[lower-alpha 7]
to change the world, Anglo-Saxons used symbols to differentiate between groups and people, status and role in
The line above illustrates the principle: note that there is society.[174]
a natural pause after 'hondum' and that the rst stressed The visual riddles and ambiguities of early Anglo-Saxon
syllable after that pause begins with the same sound as a animal art, for example has been seen as emphasing
stressed line from the rst half-line (the rst haline is the protective roles of animals on dress accessories,
called the a-verse and the second is the b-verse).[217]
weapons, armour and horse equipment, and its evocation
There are about 30,000 surviving lines of Old English poetry and about ten times that much prose, and the majority of both is religious. The prose was inuential and
obviously very important to the Anglo-Saxons and more
important than the poetry to those who came after the
Anglo-Saxons. Homilies are sermons, lessons to be given
on moral and doctrinal matters, and the two most prolic and respected writers of Anglo-Saxon prose, lfric
and Wulfstan, were both homilists.[220] lfric also wrote
the 'Lives of Saints which very popular and were highly
prized.[221] Almost all surviving poetry is found in only
one manuscript copy, but there are a number of dierent
versions of some prose works, especially the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, which was apparently promulgated to monas-
26
The word bead comes from the Anglo Saxon words bidden (to pray) and bede (prayer). The vast majority of
early Anglo-Saxon female graves contain beads, which
are often found in large numbers in the area of the neck
and chest. Beads are also sometimes found in male burials, with large beads often associated with prestigious
weapons. A variety of materials other than glass were
available for Anglo-Saxon beads including; amber, rock
crystal, amethyst, bone, shells, coral and even metal.[225]
These beads are usually considered to have a social or
ritual function. Anglo-Saxon glass beads show a wide
variety of bead manufacturing techniques, sizes, shapes,
colours and decorations. Various studies have been carried out investigating the distribution and chronological
change of bead types.[226][227] The crystal beads which
appear on bead strings in the pagan Anglo-Saxon period
seems to have gone through various changes in meaning
in the Christian period, which Gale Owen-Crocker suggests was linked to symbolism of the Virgin Mary, and
hence to intercession.[228] John Hines has suggested that
the over 2000 dierent types of beads found at Lakenheath show that the beads symbolise identity, roles, status
and micro cultures within the tribal landscape of the early
Anglo-Saxon world.[229]
Symbolism continued to have a hold on the minds of
Anglo-Saxon people into the Christian eras. The interiors
of churches would have glowed with colour, and the walls
of the halls were painted with decorative scenes from the
imagination telling stories of monsters and heroes like
those in the poem Beowulf. Although nothing much is
left of the wall paintings, evidence of their pictorial art is
found in Bibles and Psalters, in illuminated manuscripts.
The poem, 'The Dream of the Rood', is an example how
symbolism of trees was fused into Christian symbolism.
Richard North suggests that the sacrice of the tree was in
accordance with pagan virtues and the image of Christs
death was constructed in this poem with reference to an
Anglian ideology of the world tree.[230] North suggests
that the author of The Dream of the Rood uses the language of the myth of Ingui in order to present the Passion to his newly Christianized countrymen as a story
from their native tradition.[230] Furthermore, the trees
triumph over death is celebrated by adorning the cross
with gold and jewels.
8 CONTEMPORARY MEANINGS
8 Contemporary meanings
Anglo-Saxon in linguistics is still used as a term for
the original West Germanic component of the modern
English language, which was later expanded and developed through the inuence of Old Norse and Norman
French, though linguists now more often refer to it as Old
English.
Throughout the history of the Anglo-Saxons studies producing a dispassionate narrative of the people has been
dicult. In the early Middle Ages the views of Geoffrey of Monmouth produced a personally inspired history that wasn't challenged for ve hundred years. In
the reformation, churchman looking for signs of an English church reinterpreted Anglo-Saxon Christianity. In
the 19th century the term Anglo-Saxon was broadly used
in philology, and is sometimes so used at present. In Victorian Britain, some writers such as Robert Knox, James
Anthony Froude, Charles Kingsley[232] and Edward A.
Freeman[233] used the term Anglo-Saxon to justify racism
and imperialism, claiming that the Anglo-Saxon ancestry of the English made them racially superior to the
colonised peoples. Similar racist ideas were advocated in
the 19th-century United States by Samuel George Morton
and George Fitzhugh.[234] These views have inuenced
how versions of early English history are embedded in
the sub-conscious of people re-emerging in school textbooks and television programmes and still very congenial
to some strands of political thinking.[235]
27
saxo, Russian "", Polish anglosaksoski,
Italian anglosassone, Catalan anglosax" and Japanese
Angurosakuson. As with the English-language use of
the term, what constitutes the Anglo-Saxon varies from
speaker to speaker.
See also
Anglo-Frisian
Anglo-Saxon dress
Anglo-Saxon military organization
Frisia
States in Medieval Britain
11 Citations
[1] Higham, Nicholas J., and Martin J. Ryan. The AngloSaxon World. Yale University Press, 2013.
[2] Higham, Nicholas J., and Martin J. Ryan. The AngloSaxon World. Yale University Press, 2013. p. 7
[3] Richard M. Hogg, ed. The Cambridge History of the English Language: Vol 1: the Beginnings to 1066 (1992)
[4] Higham, Nicholas J., and Martin J. Ryan. The AngloSaxon World. Yale University Press, 2013. pp. 7-19
[5] Hamerow, Helena. Rural Settlements and Society in AngloSaxon England. Oxford University Press, 2012. p166
[6] Sarah Knapton (18 March 2015). Britons still live in
Anglo-Saxon tribal kingdoms, Oxford University nds.
Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
[7] Higham & Ryan 2013:7"The Anglo-Saxon World
10
Notes
[5] From its reference to Aldfrith, who now reigns peacefully it must date to between 685 and 704.[56]
28
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[30] Hrke, Heinrich. Anglo-Saxon Immigration and Ethnogenesis. Medieval Archaeology 55.1 (2011): 128.
[50] Gerrard, James. The Ruin of Roman Britain: An Archaeological Perspective. Cambridge University Press, 2013.
[32] Hedges, Robert. Anglo-Saxon Migration and the Molecular Evidence. Eds. H. Hamerow, D. A. Hinton, and S.
Crawford. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.pp 81
83
[33] Brooks, Nicholas. The formation of the Mercian Kingdom. The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (1989):
159170.
[34] Coates, Richard. Invisible Britons: The view from linguistics. Paper circulated in connection with the conference Britons and Saxons, 1416 April. University of
Sussex Linguistics and English Language Department.
(2004)
[60] Keynes, Simon. England, 700900. The New Cambridge Medieval History 2 (1995): 1842.
[61] Yorke, Barbara. Kings and kingdoms of early AngloSaxon England. Routledge, 2002: p101
[62] Yorke, Barbara. Kings and kingdoms of early AngloSaxon England. Routledge, 2002: p103
[63] Scharer, Anton. The writing of history at King Alfreds
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[64] Yorke, B A E 1985: 'The kingdom of the East Saxons.'
Anglo-Saxon England 14, 136
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[66] Drout, Michael DC. Imitating fathers: tradition, inheritance, and the reproduction of culture in Anglo-Saxon
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[67] Lendinara, Patrizia. The world of Anglo-Saxon learning. The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature (1991): 264281.
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[72] Godfrey, John. The Double Monastery in Early English
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[73] Dumville, David N., Simon Keynes, and Susan Irvine, eds.
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E. Vol. 7. Ds Brewer, 2004.
[74] Swanton, Michael (1996). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-92129-5.
[75] Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
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[95] White, Stephen D. Timothy Reuter, ed., The New Cambridge Medieval History, 3: C. 900c. 1024. Cambridge,
Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. xxv.
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[77] Keynes, Simon. Mercia and Wessex in the ninth century. Mercia. An Anglo-Saxon Kingdom in Europe,
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(2001): 310328.
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117.
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ethnicity (2004) pp 5473
12 Further reading
12.1 General
Hamerow, Helena; Hinton, David A.; Crawford,
Sally, eds. (2011), The Oxford Handbook of AngloSaxon Archaeology., Oxford: OUP, ISBN 978-019-921214-9
[224] Pader, E.J. 1982. Symbolism, social relations and the interpretation of mortuary remains. Oxford. (B.A.R. S 130)
[225] Guido and Welch. Indirect evidence for glass bead manufacture in early Anglo-Saxon England. In Price 2000 115
120.
Hills, Catherine (2003), Origins of the English, London: Duckworth, ISBN 0-7156-3191-8
[226] Guido, M. & M. Welch 1999. The glass beads of AngloSaxon England c. AD 400700: a preliminary visual
classication of the more denitive and diagnostic types.
Rochester: Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiqaries of London 56.
[227] Brugmann, B. 2004. Glass beads from Anglo-Saxon
graves: a study of the provenance and chronology of glass
beads from early Anglo-Saxon graves, based on visual examination. Oxford: Oxbow
[228] Owen-Crocker, Gale R. Dress in Anglo-Saxon England.
Boydell Press, 2004.
[229] John Hines (1998) The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Edix
Hill (Barrington A), Cambridgeshire. Council for British
Archaeology.
[230] North, Richard. Heathen Gods in Old English Literature.
Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 273
[231] Gannon, Anna. The iconography of early Anglo-Saxon
coinage: sixth to eighth centuries. Oxford University
Press, 2003.
Koch, John T. (2006), Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, Santa Barbara and Oxford: ABCCLIO, ISBN 1-85109-440-7
Stenton, Sir Frank M. (1987) [rst published 1943],
Anglo-Saxon England, The Oxford History of England, II (3rd ed.), OUP, ISBN 0-19-821716-1
12.2 Historical
Clark, David, and Nicholas Perkins, eds. AngloSaxon Culture and the Modern Imagination (2010)
F.M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd edition,
(Oxford: University Press, 1971)
J. Campbell et al., The Anglo-Saxons, (London:
Penguin, 1991)
E. James, Britain in the First Millennium, (London:
Arnold, 2001)
34
M. Lapidge et al., The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of
Anglo-Saxon England, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999)
Donald Henson, The Origins of the Anglo-Saxons,
(Anglo-Saxon Books, 2006)
Bazelmans, Jos (2009), The early-medieval use of
ethnic names from classical antiquity: The case of
the Frisians, in Derks, Ton; Roymans, Nico, Ethnic Constructs in Antiquity: The Role of Power and
Tradition, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University, pp.
321337, ISBN 978 90 8964 078 9
Brown, Michelle P.; Farr, Carol A., eds. (2001),
Mercia: An Anglo-Saxon Kingdom in Europe, Leicester: Leicester University Press, ISBN 0-82647765-8
Brown, Michelle, The Lindisfarne Gospels and the
Early Medieval World (2010)
Charles-Edwards, Thomas, ed. (2003), After Rome,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19924982-4
Dodwell, C. R., Anglo-Saxon Art, A New Perspective, 1982, Manchester UP, ISBN 0-7190-0926-X
Dornier, Ann, ed. (1977), Mercian Studies, Leicester: Leicester University Press, ISBN 0-7185-11484
Elton, Charles Isaac (1882), Origins of English History, London: Bernard Quaritch
Frere, Sheppard Sunderland (1987), Britannia: A
History of Roman Britain (3rd, revised ed.), London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 0-7102-1215-1
Giles, John Allen, ed. (1841), The Works of
Gildas, The Works of Gildas and Nennius, London:
James Bohn
Giles, John Allen, ed. (1843a), Ecclesiastical History, Books I, II and III, The Miscellaneous Works
of Venerable Bede, II, London: Whittaker and Co.
(published 1843)
Giles, John Allen, ed. (1843b), Ecclesiastical History, Books IV and V, The Miscellaneous Works
of Venerable Bede, III, London: Whittaker and Co.
(published 1843)
Hrke, Heinrich (2003), Population replacement
or acculturation? An archaeological perspective on
population and migration in post-Roman Britain.,
Celtic-Englishes, Carl Winter Verlag, III (Winter):
1328, retrieved 18 January 2014
Haywood, John (1999), Dark Age Naval Power:
Frankish & Anglo-Saxon Seafaring Activity (revised
ed.), Frithgarth: Anglo-Saxon Books, ISBN 1898281-43-2
12 FURTHER READING
Higham, Nicholas (1992), Rome, Britain and the
Anglo-Saxons, London: B. A. Seaby, ISBN 185264-022-7
Higham, Nicholas (1993), The Kingdom of
Northumbria AD 3501100, Phoenix Mill: Alan
Sutton Publishing, ISBN 0-86299-730-5
Jones, Barri; Mattingly, David (1990), An Atlas of
Roman Britain, Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers
(published 2007), ISBN 978-1-84217-067-0
Jones, Michael E.; Casey, John (1988), The Gallic Chronicle Restored: a Chronology for the
Anglo-Saxon Invasions and the End of Roman
Britain, Britannia, The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, XIX (November): 36798,
doi:10.2307/526206, retrieved 6 January 2014
Karkov, Catherine E., The Art of Anglo-Saxon England, 2011, Boydell Press, ISBN 1-84383-628-9,
ISBN 978-1-84383-628-5
Kirby, D. P. (2000), The Earliest English Kings (Revised ed.), London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-242118
Laing, Lloyd; Laing, Jennifer (1990), Celtic Britain
and Ireland, c. 200800, New York: St. Martins
Press, ISBN 0-312-04767-3
McGrail, Sen, ed. (1988), Maritime Celts, Frisians
and Saxons, London: Council for British Archaeology (published 1990), pp. 116, ISBN 0-90678093-4
Mattingly, David (2006), An Imperial Possession:
Britain in the Roman Empire, London: Penguin
Books (published 2007), ISBN 978-0-14-014822-0
Pryor, Francis (2004), Britain AD, London: Harper
Perennial (published 2005), ISBN 0 00 718187 6
Russo, Daniel G. (1998), Town Origins and Development in Early England, c. 400950 A.D., Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-313-30079-0
Snyder, Christopher A. (1998), An Age of Tyrants:
Britain and the Britons A.D. 400600, University
Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, ISBN 0271-01780-5
Snyder, Christopher A. (2003), The Britons,
Malden: Blackwell Publishing (published 2005),
ISBN 978-0-631-22260-6
Webster, Leslie, Anglo-Saxon Art, 2012, British
Museum Press, ISBN 978-0-7141-2809-2
Wickham, Chris (2005), Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400800,
Oxford: Oxford University Press (published 2006),
ISBN 978-0-19-921296-5
35
Wickham, Chris (2009), Kings Without States:
Britain and Ireland, 400800, The Inheritance of
Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages, 4001000, London: Penguin Books (published 2010), pp. 150
169, ISBN 978-0-14-311742-1
Wilson, David M.; Anglo-Saxon: Art From The Seventh Century To The Norman Conquest, Thames and
Hudson (US edn. Overlook Press), 1984.
Wood, Ian (1984), The end of Roman Britain:
Continental evidence and parallels, in Lapidge, M.,
Gildas: New Approaches, Woodbridge: Boydell, p.
19
Wood, Ian (1988), The Channel from the 4th to
the 7th centuries AD, in McGrail, Sen, Maritime
Celts, Frisians and Saxons, London: Council for
British Archaeology (published 1990), pp. 9399,
ISBN 0-906780-93-4
Yorke, Barbara (1990), Kings and Kingdoms of
Early Anglo-Saxon England, B. A. Seaby, ISBN 0415-16639-X
Yorke, Barbara (1995), Wessex in the Early Middle
Ages, London: Leicester University Press, ISBN 0
7185 1856 X
Yorke, Barbara (2006), Robbins, Keith, ed., The
Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain c.600800, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, ISBN 978-0-582-77292-2
Zaluckyj, Sarah, ed. (2001), Mercia: The AngloSaxon Kingdom of Central England, Little Logaston:
Logaston, ISBN 1-873827-62-8
13
External links
36
14
14
14.1
14.2
Images
37
duqtor, Loginnigol, Frerin, Jorgecarleitao, Helpful Pixie Bot, BG19bot, Rainbowzom, George Ponderevo, Dainomite, Arminden, Nenniu,
Minsbot, Jarps01, Smasongarrison, ChrisGualtieri, Alexm1991, Dexbot, Hmainsbot1, Mogism, Thatcherfreund1, Newsailormon, Krakkos,
Mark viking, Rob984, Tango303, Iloilo Wanderer, Eagle3399, Atotalstranger, JoshuaTaylor, Anarchistdy, Green daemon, BrightonC,
Jayakumar RG, Bluma.Gelley, Biblioworm, Gamerprof, Yeowe, Loraof, Appleganza, KasparBot, WhisperedSong, Montaire, EttuBruta
and Anonymous: 816
14.2
Images
File:Alfred_Jewel.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Alfred_Jewel.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Richard M Buck http://www.flickr.com/tortipede/ (Tortipede (<a href='//commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/User_talk:Tortipede' title='User talk:Tortipede'>talk</a>))
File:Anglo.Saxon.migration.5th.cen.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Anglo.Saxon.migration.5th.
cen.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Based on Jones & Mattinglys Atlas of Roman Britain (ISBN 978-1-84217-06700, 1990,
reprinted 2007, pp. 317, 318), Haywoods Dark Age Naval Power (ISBN 1-898281-43-2, 1999, cemeteries on pp. 8486, 121, region of
Romanisation on p. 151), Lebecqs The Northern Seas (fth to eighth centuries) (in The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol I c.500
c.700, ISBN 13-978-0-521-36291-7, 2005, p. 643), and Woods The Channel from the 4th to the 7th centuries AD in Carvers Maritime
Celts, Frisians and Saxons (ISBN 978-0906780930, pp 9397). The suggestion that settlements in Britain were made from the Bessin is
from Haywood (Vron, for example, was abandoned c. 450). Original artist: my work
File:Athelstan.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Athelstan.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:
Scanned from the book The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England by David Williamson, ISBN 1855142287.
Original artist: See description
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