Anglo-Saxons

Page with Chi Rho monogram from the Gospel of Matthew in the Lindisfarne
Gospels c. 700, possibly created by Eadfrith of Lindisfarne in memory of
Cuthbert

The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited

Great Britain from the 5th century, and the direct ancestors
of the majority of the modern British people. They comprise
people from Germanic tribes who migrated to the island
from continental Europe, their descendants, and indigenous
British groups who adopted many aspects of Anglo-Saxon
culture and language; the cultural foundations laid by the
Anglo-Saxons are the foundation of the modern English
legal system and of many aspects of English society; the
modern English language owes over half its words –
including the most common words of everyday speech – to
the language of the Anglo-Saxons. Historically, the Anglo-
Saxon period denotes the period in Britain between about
450 and 1066, after their initial settlement and up until the
Norman conquest.[1] The early Anglo-Saxon period includes
the creation of an English nation, with many of the aspects
that survive today, including regional government of shires
and hundreds. During this period, Christianity was
established and there was a flowering of literature and
language. Charters and law were also established.[2] The
term Anglo-Saxon is popularly used for the language that
was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons in England and
eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and
the mid-12th century. In scholarly use, it is more commonly
called Old English.[3]

The history of the Anglo-Saxons is the history of a cultural

identity. It developed from divergent groups in association
with the people's adoption of Christianity, and was integral
to the establishment of various kingdoms. Threatened by
extended Danish invasions and military occupation of
eastern England, this identity was re-established; it
dominated until after the Norman Conquest.[4] The visible
Anglo-Saxon culture can be seen in the material culture of
buildings, dress styles, illuminated texts and grave goods.
Behind the symbolic nature of these cultural emblems, there
are strong elements of tribal and lordship ties. The elite
declared themselves as kings who developed burhs, and
identified their roles and peoples in Biblical terms. Above all,
as Helena Hamerow has observed, "local and extended kin
groups remained...the essential unit of production
throughout the Anglo-Saxon period."[5] The effects persist in
the 21st century as, according to a study published in March
2015, the genetic makeup of British populations today
shows divisions of the tribal political units of the early
Anglo-Saxon period.[6]

Use of the term Anglo-Saxon assumes that the words

Angles, Saxons or Anglo-Saxon have the same meaning in all
the sources. This term began to be used only in the 8th
century to distinguish "Germanic" groups in Britain from
those on the continent (Old Saxony in Northern Germany).
[7][a] Catherine Hills summarised the views of many modern
scholars in her observation that attitudes towards Anglo-
Saxons, and hence the interpretation of their culture and
history, have been "more contingent on contemporary
political and religious theology as on any kind of
evidence."[8]

Ethnonym
The Old English ethnonym "Angul-Seaxan" comes from the
Latin Angli-Saxones and became the name of the peoples
Bede calls Anglorum[9] and Gildas calls Saxones.[10] Anglo-
Saxon is a term that was rarely used by Anglo-Saxons
themselves; it is not an autonym. It is likely they identified
as ængli, Seaxe or, more probably, a local or tribal name
such as Mierce, Cantie, Gewisse, Westseaxe, or
Norþanhymbre. Also, the use of Anglo-Saxon disguises the
extent to which people identified as Anglo-Scandinavian
after the Viking age, or as Anglo-Norman after the Norman
conquest in 1066.[11]

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 first 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.

The Christian church seems to have used the word Angli; for
example in the story of Pope Gregory I and his remark, "Non
Angli sed angeli" (not English but angels).[14] The terms
ænglisc ('the language') and Angelcynn ('the people') were
also used by West Saxon King Alfred to refer to the people;
in doing so he was following established practice.[15] The
first use of the term Anglo-Saxon amongst the insular
sources is in the titles for Athelstan: Angelsaxonum
Denorumque gloriosissimus rex (most glorious king of the
Anglo-Saxons and of the Danes) and rex Angulsexna and
Norþhymbra imperator paganorum gubernator
Brittanorumque propugnator (king of the Anglo-Saxons and
emperor of the Northumbrians, governor of the pagans, and
defender of the Britons). At other times he uses the term rex
Anglorum (king of the English), which presumably meant
both Anglo-Saxons and Danes. Alfred the Great used
Anglosaxonum Rex.[16] The term Engla cyningc (King of the
English) is used by Æthelred. King Cnut in 1021 was the first
to refer to the land and not the people with this term: ealles
Englalandes cyningc (King of all England).[17] These titles
express the sense that the Anglo-Saxons were a Christian
people with a king anointed by God.[18]

The indigenous Common Brittonic speakers referred to

Anglo-Saxons as Saxones or possibly Saeson (the word
Saeson is the modern Welsh word for 'English people'); the
equivalent word in Scottish Gaelic is Sasannach and in the
Irish language, Sasanach.[19] Catherine Hills suggests that it
is no accident, "that the English call themselves by the
name sanctified by the Church, as that of a people chosen
by God, whereas their enemies use the name originally
applied to piratical raiders".[20]

Early Anglo-Saxon history (410–660)

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 Völkerwanderung[21] ("migration of peoples" in
German). This was a period of intensified human migration
in Europe from about 400 to 800.[22][b] The migrants were
Germanic tribes such as the Goths, Vandals, Angles,
Saxons, Lombards, Suebi, Frisii, and Franks; they were later
pushed westwards by the Huns, Avars, Slavs, Bulgars, and
Alans.[23] The migrants to Britain might also have included
the Huns and Rugini.[24]:123–124

By the year 400, southern Britain – that is Britain below

Hadrian's 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".[25]

Migration (410–560)

The migrations according to Bede, who wrote some 300 years after the event;
there is archeological evidence that the settlers in England came from many
of these continental locations

The traditional narrative of this period is one of decline and

fall, invasion and migration; however, the archaeologist[26]
Heinrich Härke stated in 2011:

It is now widely accepted that the Anglo-Saxons were

not just transplanted Germanic invaders and settlers
from the Continent, but the outcome of insular
interactions and changes.[27]

Writing c. 540 Gildas mentions that, sometime in the 5th

century, a council of leaders in Britain agreed that some
land in the east of southern Britain would be given to the
Saxons on the basis of a treaty, a foedus, by which the
Saxons would defend the Britons against attacks from the
Picts and Scoti in exchange for food supplies. The most
contemporaneous textual evidence is the Chronica Gallica
of 452 which records for the year 441: "The British
provinces, which to this time had suffered various defeats
and misfortunes, are reduced to Saxon rule."[28] This is an
earlier date than that of 451 for the "coming of the Saxons"
used by Bede in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum,
written around 731. It has been argued that Bede
misinterpreted his (scanty) sources, and that the
chronological references in the Historia Britonnum yield a
plausible date of around 428.[29]

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,[30] 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
significant number of items now in phases before Bede's
date.[31]

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,[32] 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 identified
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 Bede's statement about the origins of the
tribes.[33]
Scholars have not reached consensus on the number of
migrants who entered Britain in this period. Heinrich Härke
suggests that the figure is around 100,000,[34] based on the
molecular evidence. But, archaeologists such as Christine
Hills[35] and Richard Hodges[36] suggest the number is
nearer 20,000. By around 500 the Anglo-Saxon migrants
were established in southern and eastern Britain.[37]

What happened to the indigenous Brittonic people is also

subject to question. Heinrich Härke and Richard Coates[38]
point out that they are invisible archaeologically and
linguistically. But based on a fairly high Anglo-Saxon figure
(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 figures 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".[39] The development of
Anglo-Saxon 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.[40]

The second process is explained through incentives. Nick

Higham summarized in this way:
 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 in�ection had considerable
value.[1]

The Tribal Hidage, from an edition of Henry Spelman's Glossarium

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.[41] The
archaeological evidence shows considerable continuity in
the system of landscape and local governance,[42] which
was inherited from the indigenous community. There is
evidence for a fusion of culture in this early period.[43]
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.[44][45] A number of Cerdic's alleged descendants also
possessed Celtic names, including the 'Bretwalda'
Ceawlin.[46] The last man in this dynasty to have a Brythonic
name was King Caedwalla, who died as late as 689.[47]

Development of an Anglo-Saxon society (560–610)

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.[48] The farmer had freedom and rights over
lands, with provision of a rent or duty to an overlord who
provided only slight lordly input.[c] Most of this land was
common outfield arable land (of an outfield-infield system)
that provided individuals with the means to build a basis of
kinship and group cultural ties.[49]

The Tribal Hidage lists thirty-five peoples, or tribes, with

assessments in hides, which may have originally been
defined as the area of land sufficient to maintain one
family.[50] The assessments in the Hidage reflect the relative
size of the provinces.[51] Although varying in size, all thirty-
five 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. [d] By the end of the
sixth century, larger kingdoms had become established on
the south or east coasts.[53] They include the provinces of
the Jutes of Hampshire and Wight, the South Saxons, Kent,
the East Saxons, East Angles, Lindsey and (north of the
Humber) Deira and Bernicia. Several of these kingdoms may
have had as their initial focus a territory based on a former
Roman civitas.[54]
By the end of the sixth century, the leaders of these
communities were styling themselves kings, though it
should not be assumed that all of them were Germanic in
origin. The Bretwalda concept is taken as evidence of a
number of early Anglo-Saxon elite families. What Bede
seems to imply in his Bretwalda is the ability of leaders to
extract tribute, overawe and/or protect the small regions,
which may well have been relatively short-lived in any one
instance. Ostensibly "Anglo-Saxon" dynasties variously
replaced one another in this role in a discontinuous but
influential and potent roll call of warrior elites.[55]
Importantly, whatever their origin or whenever they
flourished, these dynasties established their claim to
lordship through their links to extended kin ties. As Helen
Peake jokingly points out, "they all just happened to be
related back to Woden".[56]

The process from warrior to cyning – Old English for king –

is described in Beowulf:
Old English Modern English (as tra

Oft Scyld Scéfing – sceaþena þréatum There was Shield She

monegum maégþum – meodosetla oftéah• A wrecker of mead-be
egsode Eorle – syððan aérest wearð This terror of the hall-
féasceaft funde – hé þæs frófre gebád• A foundling to start w
wéox under wolcnum – weorðmyndum þáh As his powers waxed
oð þæt him aéghwylc – þára ymbsittendra In the end each clan o
ofer hronráde – hýran scolde, Beyond the whale-roa
gomban gyldan – þæt wæs gód cyning. And begin to pay tribu

Conversion to Christianity (590–660)

Æthelstan presenting a gospel book to (the long-dead) St Cuthbert (934);

Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 183, fol. 1v

In 565, Columba, a monk from Ireland who studied at the

monastic school of Moville under St. Finnian, reached Iona
as a self-imposed exile. The influence of the monastery of
Iona would grow into what Peter Brown has described as an
"unusually extensive spiritual empire," 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 influence of its sister
monastery Lindisfarne."[58]

In June 597 Columba died. At this time, Augustine landed

on the Isle of Thanet and proceeded to King Æthelberht's
main town of Canterbury. He had been the prior of a
monastery in Rome when Pope Gregory the Great chose
him in 595 to lead the Gregorian mission to Britain to
Christianise the Kingdom of Kent from their native Anglo-
Saxon paganism. Kent was probably chosen because
Æthelberht had married a Christian princess, Bertha,
daughter of Charibert I the King of Paris, who was expected
to exert some influence over her husband. Æthelberht was
converted to Christianity, churches were established, and
wider-scale conversion to Christianity began in the
kingdom. Æthelberht's law for Kent, the earliest written code
in any Germanic language, instituted a complex system of
fines. Kent was rich, with strong trade ties to the continent,
and Æthelberht may have instituted royal control over trade.
For the first time following the Anglo-Saxon invasion, coins
began circulating in Kent during his reign.

In 635 Aidan, an Irish monk from Iona, chose the Isle of

Lindisfarne to establish a monastery which was close to
King Oswald's main fortress of Bamburgh. He had been at
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
fled 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 Aidan's interpreter when the latter was
preaching.[59] 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, [e] and in his memory a gospel (known as the St
Cuthbert Gospel) was placed in his coffin. The decorated
leather bookbinding is the oldest intact European
binding.[61]

In 664, the Synod of Whitby was convened and established

Roman practice as opposed to Irish 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."[62] The episcopal seat of
Northumbria was transferred from Lindisfarne to York.
Wilfrid, chief advocate for the Roman position, later became
Bishop of Northumbria, while Colmán and the Ionan
supporters, who did not change their practices, withdrew to
Iona.
Middle Anglo-Saxon history (660–899)
By 660 the political map of Lowland Britain had developed
with smaller territories coalescing into kingdoms, and from
this time larger kingdoms started dominating the smaller
kingdoms. The development of kingdoms, with a particular
king being recognised as an overlord, developed out of an
early loose structure that, Higham believes, is linked back to
the original feodus.[63] The traditional name for this period is
the Heptarchy, which has not been used by scholars since
the early 20th century[51] as it gives the impression of a
single political structure and does not afford the
"opportunity to treat the history of any one kingdom as a
whole".[64] Simon Keynes suggests that the 8th and 9th
century was period of economic and social flourishing
which created stability both below the Thames and above
the Humber. Many areas flourished and their influence was
felt across the continent, however in between the Humber
and Thames, one political entity grew in influence and
power and to the East these developments in Britain
attracted attention.[64]

Mercian supremacy (626–821)

A political map of Britain circa 650 (the names are in modern English)

Middle-lowland Britain was known as the place of the

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 speaking
peoples and "Anglo-Saxon" pioneers and their early leaders
had Brythonic names, such as Penda.[65] Although Penda
does not appear in Bede's list of great overlords it would
appear from what Bede says elsewhere that he was
dominant over the southern kingdoms. At the time of the
battle of the river Winwæd, thirty duces regii (royal generals)
fought on his behalf. Although there are many gaps in the
evidence, it is clear that the seventh-century Mercian kings
were formidable rulers who were able to exercise a wide-
ranging overlordship from their Midland base.

Mercian military success was the basis of their power; it

succeeded against not only 106 kings and kingdoms by
winning set-piece battles,[66] but by ruthlessly ravaging any
area foolish enough to withhold tribute. There are a number
of casual references scattered throughout the Bede's
history to this aspect of Mercian military policy. Penda is
found ravaging Northumbria as far north as Bamburgh and
only a miraculous intervention from Aidan prevents the
complete destruction of the settlement.[67] In 676 Æthelred
conducted a similar ravaging in Kent and caused such
damage in the Rochester diocese that two successive
bishops gave up their position because of lack of funds.[65]
In these accounts there is a rare glimpse of the realities of
early Anglo-Saxon overlordship and how a widespread
overlordship could be established in a relatively short
period. By the middle of the 8th century, other kingdoms of
southern Britain were also affected by Mercian
expansionism. The East Saxons seem to have lost control
of London, Middlesex and Hertfordshire to Æthelbald,
although the East Saxon homelands do not seem to have
been affected, and the East Saxon dynasty continued into
the ninth century.[68] The Mercian influence and reputation
reached its peak when, in the late 8th century, the most
powerful European ruler of the age, the Frankish king
Charlemagne, recognised the Mercian King Offa's power
and accordingly treated him with respect, even if this could
have been just flattery.[69]

Learning and monasticism (660–793)

Map of Britain in 802

Michael Drout calls this period the "Golden Age", when

learning flourishes with a renaissance in classical
knowledge. The growth and popularity of monasticism was
not an entirely internal development, with influence from the
continent shaping Anglo-Saxon monastic life.[70] In 669
Theodore, a Greek-speaking monk originally from Tarsus in
Asia Minor, arrived in Britain to become the eighth
Archbishop of Canterbury. He was joined the following year
by his colleague Hadrian, a Latin-speaking African by origin
and former abbot of a monastery in Campania (near
Naples).[71] One of their first tasks at Canterbury was the
establishment of a school; and according to Bede (writing
some sixty years later), they soon "attracted a crowd of
students into whose minds they daily poured the streams of
wholesome learning".[72] As evidence of their teaching, Bede
reports that some of their students, who survived to his own
day were as fluent in Greek and Latin as in their native
language. Bede does not mention Aldhelm in this
connection; but we know from a letter addressed by
Aldhelm to Hadrian that he too must be numbered among
their students.[73]

Aldhelm wrote in elaborate and grandiloquent and very

difficult Latin, which became the dominant style for
centuries. Michael Drout states "Aldhelm wrote Latin
hexameters better than anyone before in England (and
possibly better than anyone since, or at least up until
Milton). His work showed that scholars in England, at the
very edge of Europe, could be as learned and sophisticated
as any writers in Europe."[74] During this period, the wealth
and power of the monasteries increased as elite families,
possibly out of power, turned to monastic life.[75]

Anglo-Saxon monasticism developed the unusual institution

of the "double monastery", a house of monks and a house
of nuns, living next to each other, sharing a church but never
mixing, and living separate lives of celibacy. These double
monasteries were presided over by abbesses, some of the
most powerful and influential women in Europe. Double
monasteries which were built on strategic sites near rivers
and coasts, accumulated immense wealth and power over
multiple generations (their inheritances were not divided)
and became centers of art and learning.[76]

While Aldhelm was doing his work in Malmesbury, far from

him, up in the North of England, Bede was writing a large
quantity of books, gaining a reputation in Europe and
showing that the English could write history and theology,
and do astronomical computation (for the dates of Easter,
among other things).

West Saxon hegemony and the Anglo-Scandinavian

Wars (793–878)

The Oseberg ship prow, Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway.

The 9th century saw the rise of Wessex, from the

foundations laid by King Egbert in the first quarter of the
century to the achievements of King Alfred the Great in its
closing decades. The outlines of the story are told in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, though the annals represent a West
Saxon point of view.[77] On the day of Egbert's succession to
the kingdom of Wessex, in 802, a Mercian ealdorman from
the province of the Hwicce had crossed the border at
Kempsford, with the intention of mounting a raid into
northern Wiltshire; the Mercian force was met by the local
ealdorman, "and the people of Wiltshire had the victory".[78]
In 829 Egbert went on, the chronicler reports, to conquer
"the kingdom of the Mercians and everything south of the
Humber".[79] It was at this point that the chronicler chose to
attach Egbert's name to Bede's list of seven overlords,
adding that "he was the eighth king who was Bretwalda".[80]
Simon Keynes suggests Egbert's foundation of a 'bipartite'
kingdom is crucial as it stretched across southern England,
and it created a working alliance between the West Saxon
dynasty and the rulers of the Mercians.[81] In 860 the
eastern and western parts of the southern kingdom were
united by agreement between the surviving sons of King
Æthelwulf, though the union was not maintained without
some opposition from within the dynasty; and in the late
870s King Alfred gained the submission of the Mercians
under their ruler Æthelred, who in other circumstances
might have been styled a king, but who under the Alfredian
regime was regarded as the 'ealdorman' of his people.

Anglo-Saxon-Viking Coin weight. Material is lead and weighs approx 36 g.

Embedded with a sceat dating to 720–750 AD and minted in Kent. It is edged
in dotted triangle pattern. Origin is the Danelaw region and dates late 8th to
9th century.

The wealth of the monasteries and the success of Anglo-

Saxon society attracted the attention of people from
continental Europe, mostly Danes and Norwegians. Due to
the plundering raids that followed, the raiders attracted the
name Viking – from the Old Norse víkingr meaning an
expedition – which soon became used for the raiding
activity or piracy reported in western Europe.[82] In 793,
Lindisfarne was raided and while this was not the first raid
of its type it was the most prominent. A year later Jarrow,
the monastery where Bede wrote, was attacked; in 795 Iona;
and in 804 the nunnery at Lyminge Kent was granted refuge
inside the walls of Canterbury. Sometime around 800, a
Reeve from Portland in Wessex was killed when he mistook
some raiders for ordinary traders.

Viking raids continued until in 850, then the Chronicle says:

"The heathen for the first time remained over the winter".
The fleet does not appear to have stayed long in England,
but it started a trend which others subsequently followed. In
particular, the army which arrived in 865 remained over
many winters, and part of it later settled what became
known as the Danelaw. This was the "Great Army", a term
used by the Chronicle in England and by Adrevald of Fleury
on the Continent. The invaders were able not only to exploit
the feuds between and within the various kingdoms, but to
appoint puppet kings, Ceolwulf in Mercia in 873, 'a foolish
king's thane' (ASC), and perhaps others in Northumbria in
867 and East Anglia in 870.[79] The third phase was an era
of settlement; however, the 'Great Army' went wherever it
could find the richest pickings, crossing the Channel when
faced with resolute opposition, as in England in 878, or with
famine, as on the Continent in 892.[79] By this stage the
Vikings were assuming ever increasing importance as
catalysts of social and political change. They constituted
the common enemy, making the English the more
conscious of a national identity which overrode deeper
distinctions; they could be perceived as an instrument of
divine punishment for the people's sins, raising awareness
of a collective Christian identity; and by 'conquering' the
kingdoms of the East Angles, the Northumbrians and the
Mercians they created a vacuum in the leadership of the
English people.[83]

Danish settlement continued in Mercia in 877 and East

Anglia in 879—80 and 896. The rest of the army meanwhile
continued to harry and plunder on both sides of the
Channel, with new recruits evidently arriving to swell its
ranks, for it clearly continued to be a formidable fighting
force.[79] At first, Alfred responded by the offer of repeated
tribute payments. However, after a decisive victory at
Edington in 878, Alfred offered vigorous opposition. He
established a chain of fortresses across the south of
England, reorganised the army, "so that always half its men
were at home, and half out on service, except for those men
who were to garrison the burhs" (A.SC s.a. 893),[79] and in
896 ordered a new type of craft to be built which could
oppose the Viking longships in shallow coastal waters.
When the Vikings returned from the Continent in 892, they
found they could no longer roam the country at will, for
wherever they went they were opposed 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.[79]

King Alfred and the rebuilding (878–899)

A royal gift, the Alfred Jewel

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 Alfred's work laid the foundations for what really
makes England unique in all of medieval Europe from
around 800 until 1066.[84] What is also unique is that we can
discover some of this in Alfred's own words:

Thinking about how learning and culture had fallen since the
last century, he wrote:

...So completely had wisdom fallen o� in 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 from Latin into
English; and I believe that there were not many
beyond the Humber. There were so few of them that
I indeed cannot think of a single one south of the
Thames when I became king. (Preface: "Gregory the
Great's Pastoral Care")[85]

Alfred knew that literature and learning, both in English and

in Latin, were very important, but the state of learning was
not good when Alfred came to the throne. Alfred saw
kingship as a priestly office, a shepherd for his people.[86]
One book that was particularly valuable to him was Gregory
the Great's Cura Pastoralis (Pastoral Care). This is a priest's
guide on how to care for people. Alfred took this book as his
own guide on how to be a good king to his people; hence, a
good king to Alfred increases literacy. Alfred translated this
book himself and explains in the preface:

...When I had learned it I translated it into English,

just as I had understood it, and as I could most
meaningfully render it. And I will send one to each
bishopric in my kingdom, and in each will be an
æstel worth �fty mancuses. And I command in God's
name that no man may take the æstel from the book
 nor the book from the church. It is unknown how
long there may be such learned bishops as, thanks to
God, are nearly everywhere.(Preface: "Gregory the
Great's Pastoral Care")[85]

What is presumed to be one of these "æstel" (the word only

appears in this one text) is the gold, rock crystal and enamel
Alfred Jewel, discovered in 1693, which is assumed to have
been fitted with a small rod and used as a pointer when
reading. Alfred provided functional patronage, linked to a
social programme of vernacular literacy in England, which
was unprecedented.[87]

Therefore it seems better to me, if it seems so to you,

that we also translate certain books ...and bring it
about ...if we have the peace, that all the youth of
free men who now are in England, those who have
the means that they may apply themselves to it, be
set to learning, while they may not be set to any
other use, until the time when they can well read
English writings. (Preface: "Gregory the Great's
Pastoral Care")[85]

This set in train a growth in charters, law, theology and

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-Saxon culture.

I desired to live worthily as long as I lived, and to

leave after my life, to the men who should come
after me, the memory of me in good works. (Preface:
"The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius")[85]

Late Anglo-Saxon history (899–1066)

A framework for the momentous events of the 10th and
11th centuries is provided by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
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 different 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".[88]

Reform and formation of England (899–978)

Silver brooch imitating a coin of Edward the Elder, c. 920, found in Rome,
Italy. British Museum.

During the course of the 10th century, the West Saxon kings
extended their power first over Mercia, then into the
southern Danelaw, and finally over Northumbria, thereby
imposing a semblance of political unity on peoples, who
nonetheless would remain conscious of their respective
customs and their separate pasts. The prestige, and indeed
the pretensions, of the monarchy increased, the institutions
of government strengthened, and kings and their agents
sought in various ways to establish social order.[89] This
process started with Edward the Elder – who with his sister,
Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, initially, charters reveal,
encouraged people to purchase estates from the Danes,
thereby to reassert some degree of English influence in
territory which had fallen under Danish control. David
Dumville suggests that Edward may have extended this
policy by rewarding his supporters with grants of land in the
territories newly conquered from the Danes, and that any
charters issued in respect of such grants have not
survived.[90] When Athelflæd died, Mercia was absorbed by
Wessex. From that point on there was no contest for the
throne, so the house of Wessex became the ruling house of
England.[89]

Edward the Elder was succeeded by his son Æthelstan, who

Simon Keynes calls the "towering figure in the landscape of
the tenth century".[91] 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 first king of England.[92]
Æthelstan's legislation shows how the king drove his
officials to do their respective duties. He was
uncompromising in his insistence on respect for the law.
However this legislation also reveals the persistent
difficulties 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.[93] 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 affairs, 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 Æthelstan's death in 939 that a
unified kingdom of England began to assume its familiar
shape. However, the major political problem for Edmund
and Eadred, who succeeded Æthelstan, remained the
difficulty of subjugating the north.[94] 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".[94] By
the early 970s, after a decade of Edgar's '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 differing ways
of observing the customs of one Rule and one country
should bring their holy conversation into disrepute".[95]

Athelstan's court had been an intellectual incubator. In that

court were two young men named Dunstan and Æthelwold
who were made priests, supposedly at the insistence of
Athelstan, right at the end of his reign in 939.[96] 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 first time.
In 973, Edgar received a special second, 'imperial
coronation' at Bath, and from this point England was ruled
by Edgar under the strong influence of Dunstan, Athelwold,
and Oswald, the Bishop of Worcester.
Athelred and the return of the Scandinavians
(978–1016)

The reign of King Æthelred the Unready witnessed the

resumption of Viking raids on England, putting the country
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 1009–12, 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 1013–14, and (after
Æthelred's restoration) for his son Cnut to achieve the same
in 1015–16. The tale of these years incorporated in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle must be read in its own right,[97] and
set beside other material which reflects in one way or
another on the conduct of government and warfare during
Æthelred's reign.[98] It is this evidence which is the basis for
Simon Keynes's 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 Æthelwold 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 affairs of the kingdom appear to
have prospered.[99]

Cnut's 'Quatrefoil' type penny with the legend "CNUT REX ANGLORU[M]"
(Cnut, King of the English), struck in London by the moneyer Edwin.

The increasingly difficult times brought on by the Viking

attacks are reflected in both Ælfric's and Wulfstan's works,
but most notably in Wulfstan's fierce rhetoric in the Sermo
Lupi ad Anglos, dated to 1014.[100] Malcolm Godden
suggests that ordinary people saw the return of the Vikings,
as the imminent "expectation of the apocalypse", and this
was given voice in Ælfric and Wulfstan writings,[101] which is
similar to that of Gildas and Bede. Raids were signs of God
punishing his people, Ælfric refers to people adopting the
customs of the Danish and exhorts people not to abandon
the native customs on behalf of the Danish ones, and then
requests a 'brother Edward', to try to put an end to a
'shameful habit' of drinking and eating in the outhouse,
which some of the countrywomen practised at beer
parties.[102]
In April 1016 Æthelred died of illness, leaving his son and
successor Edmund Ironside to defend the country. The final
struggles were complicated by internal dissension, and
especially by the treacherous acts of Ealdorman Eadric of
Mercia, who opportunistically changed sides to Cnut's party.
After the defeat of the English in the battle of Assandun in
October 1016, Edmund and Cnut agreed to divide the
kingdom so that Edmund would rule Wessex and Cnut
Mercia, but Edmund died soon after his defeat in November
1016, making it possible for Cnut to seize power over all
England.[103]

Conquest England: Danes, Norwegians and Normans

(1016–1066)

In the 11th century, there were three conquests and some

Anglo-Saxon people would live through it: one in the
aftermath of the conquest of Cnut in 1016; the second after
the unsuccessful attempt of battle of Stamford Bridge in
1066; the third after that of William of Normandy in 1066.
The consequences of each conquest can only be assessed
with hindsight. In 1016, no-one was to know that whatever
cultural ramifications were felt then, they would be
subsumed half a century later; and in 1066 there was
nothing to predict that the effects of William's conquest
would be any greater or more lasting than those of Cnut's.

In this period and beyond the Anglo-Saxon culture is

changing. Politically and chronologically, the texts of this
period are not 'Anglo-Saxon'; linguistically, those written in
English (as opposed to Latin or French, the other official
written languages of the period) are moving away from the
late West Saxon standard that is called 'Old English'. Yet
neither are they 'Middle English'; moreover, as Treharne
explains, for around three-quarters of this period, "there is
barely any 'original' writing in English at all". These factors
have led to a gap in scholarship implying a discontinuity
either side of the Norman Conquest, however this
assumption is being challenged.[104]

At first sight, there would seem little to debate. Cnut

appears to have adopted wholeheartedly the traditional role
of Anglo-Saxon kingship.[105] However an examination of
the laws, homilies, wills, and charters dating from this
period suggests that as a result of widespread aristocratic
death and the fact that Cnut did not systematically
introduce a new landholding class, major and permanent
alterations occurred in the Saxon social and political
structures.[106] Eric John has remarked that for Cnut "the
simple difficulty of exercising so wide and so unstable an
empire made it necessary to practise a delegation of
authority against every tradition of English kingship".[107]
The disappearance of the aristocratic families which had
traditionally played an active role in the governance of the
realm, coupled with Cnut's choice of thegnly advisors, put
an end to the balanced relationship between monarchy and
aristocracy so carefully forged by the West Saxon 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 Cnut's 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 king's introduction of Norman friends. A
crisis arose in 1051 when Godwine defied the king's order to
punish the men of Dover, who had resisted an attempt by
Eustace of Boulogne to quarter his men on them by
force.[108] 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 William's cause.[108]
Depiction of the Battle of Hastings (1066) on the Bayeux Tapestry

The fall of England and the Norman Conquest is a multi-

generational, multi-family succession problem caused in
great part by Athelred's incompetence. By the time William
from Normandy, sensing an opportunity, landed his invading
force in 1066, the elite of Anglo-Saxon England had
changed, although much of the culture and society had
stayed the same.

Ða com Wyllelm eorl of Normandige into Pefnesea

on Sancte Michæles mæsseæfen, sona þæs hi fere
wæron, worhton castel æt Hæstingaport. Þis wearð
þa Harolde cynge gecydd, he gaderade þa mycelne
here, com him togenes æt þære haran apuldran,
Wyllelm him com ongean on unwær, ær þis folc
gefylced wære. Ac se kyng þeah him swiðe heardlice
wið feaht mid þam mannum þe him gelæstan
woldon, þær wearð micel wæl geslægen on ægðre
healfe. Ðær wearð ofslægen Harold kyng, Leofwine
eorl his broðor, Gyrð eorl his broðor, fela godra
 manna, þa Frencyscan ahton wælstowe geweald.

Then came William, the Earl of Normandy, into

Pevensey on the evening of St.Michael's mass, and
soon as his men were ready, they built a fortress at
Hasting's port. This was told to King Harold, and he
gathered then a great army and come towards them
at the Hoary Apple Tree, and William came upon
him unawares before his folk were ready. But the
king nevertheless withstood him very strongly with
�ghting with those men who would follow him, and
there was a great slaughter on either side. Then
Harald the King was slain, and Leofwine the Earl,
his brother, and Gyrth, and many good men, and the
Frenchmen held the place of slaughter.[109]

After the Norman Conquest

Following the conquest, the Anglo-Saxon nobility were
either exiled or joined the ranks of the peasantry.[110] It has
been estimated that only about 8 per cent of the land was
under Anglo-Saxon control by 1087.[111] Many Anglo-Saxon
nobles fled to Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia.[112][113]
The Byzantine Empire became a popular destination for
many Anglo-Saxon soldiers, as it was in need of
mercenaries.[114] The Anglo-Saxons became the
predominant element in the elite Varangian Guard, hitherto a
largely North Germanic unit, from which the emperor's
bodyguard was drawn and continued to serve the empire
until the early 15th century.[115] However, the population of
England at home remained largely Anglo-Saxon; for them,
little changed immediately except that their Anglo-Saxon
lord was replaced by a Norman lord.[116]

The chronicler Orderic Vitalis (1075 – c. 1142), himself the

product of an Anglo-Norman marriage, wrote: "And so the
English groaned aloud for their lost liberty and plotted
ceaselessly to find some way of shaking off a yoke that was
so intolerable and unaccustomed".[117] The inhabitants of
the North and Scotland never warmed to the Normans
following the Harrying of the North (1069–1070), where
William, according to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle utterly
"ravaged and laid waste that shire".[118]

Many Anglo-Saxon people needed to learn Norman French

to communicate with their rulers, but it is clear that among
themselves they kept speaking Old English, which meant
that England was in an interesting tri-lingual situation:
Anglo-Saxon for the common people, Latin for the Church,
and Norman French for the administrators, 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.[119] But this
language had deep roots in Anglo-Saxon, 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.[120] 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 Meithhad—these last two teaching how to
be a good anchoress and arguing for the goodness of
virginity).[121] 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
different kinds of verbs.[120]

The Germanic language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons, Old

English, had always been a central mark of their cultural
identity. With the passing of time, however, and particularly
following the Norman conquest of England, this language
changed significantly, and although some people (for
example the famous scribe known as the Tremulous Hand
of Worcester) could still read Old English in the thirteenth
century, it soon became impossible for people to read Old
English, and the texts became useless. The precious Exeter
Book, for example, seems to have been used to press gold
leaf and at one point had a pot of fish-based glue sitting on
top of it. For Michael Drout this symbolises the end of the
Anglo-Saxons.[122]

Life and society

The larger narrative, seen in the history of Anglo-Saxon
England, is the continued mixing and integration of various
disparate elements into one Anglo-Saxon people. The
outcome of this mixing and integration was a continuous re-
interpretation by the Anglo-Saxons of their society and
worldview, which Heinreich Härke calls a "complex and
ethnically mixed society".[123]

Kingship and kingdoms

Anglo-Saxon king with his witan. Biblical scene in the Illustrated Old English
Hexateuch (11th century)

The development of Anglo-Saxon kingship is little

understood but the model proposed by Yorke,[124]
considered the development of kingdoms and writing down
of the oral law-codes to be linked to a progression towards
leaders providing mund and receiving recognition. These
leaders who developed in the sixth century, were able to
seize the initiative and to establish a position of power for
themselves and their successors. Anglo-Saxon leaders,
unable to tax and coerce followers instead extracted
surplus by raiding and collecting food renders and 'prestige
goods'.[125] The later sixth century saw the end of a 'prestige
goods' economy, as evidenced by the decline of
accompanied burial, and the appearance of the first princely
graves and high-status settlements.[126] These centres of
trade and production reflect the increased socio-political
stratification and wider territorial authority which allowed
seventh-century elites to extract and redistribute surpluses
with far greater effectiveness than their sixth-century
predecessors would have found possible.[127] Anglo-Saxon
society, in short, looked very different in 600 than it did a
hundred years earlier.

By 600, the establishment of the first Anglo-Saxon 'emporia'

was in prospect. There seem to have been over thirty of
such units, many of which were certainly controlled by
kings, in the parts of Britain which the Anglo-Saxons
controlled. Bede's use of the term imperium has been seen
as significant in defining the status and powers of the
bretwaldas, in fact it is a word Bede used regularly as an
alternative to regnum; scholars believe this just meant the
collection of tribute.[128] Oswiu's extension of overlordship
over the Picts and Scots is expressed in terms of making
them tributary. Military overlordship could bring great short-
term success and wealth, but the system had its
disadvantages. Many of the overlords enjoyed their powers
for a relatively short period.[f] Foundations had to be
carefully laid to turn a tribute-paying under-kingdom into a
permanent acquisition, such as Bernician absorption of
Deira.[129] The smaller kingdoms did not disappear without
trace once they were incorporated into larger polities; on the
contrary their territorial integrity was preserved when they
became ealdormanries or, depending on size, parts of
ealdormanries within their new kingdoms. An obvious
example of this tendency for later boundaries to preserve
earlier arrangements is Sussex; the county boundary is
essentially the same as that of the West Saxon shire and
the Anglo-Saxon kingdom.[130] The Witan, also called
Witenagemot, was the council of kings; its essential duty
was to advise the king on all matters on which he chose to
ask its opinion. It attested his grants of land to churches or
laymen, consented to his issue of new laws or new
statements of ancient custom, and helped him deal with
rebels and persons suspected of disaffection.

By 800 only five Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are definitely known

to have been still in existence, and a number of British
kingdoms in the west of the country had disappeared as
well. The major kingdoms had grown through absorbing
smaller principalities and the means through which they did
it and the character their kingdoms acquired as a result are
one of the major themes of the Middle Saxon period.
Beowulf, for all its heroic content, clearly makes the point
that economic and military success were intimately linked.
A 'good' king was a generous king who through his wealth
won the support which would ensure his supremacy over
other kingdoms.[131] King Alfred's digressions in his
translation of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, provided
these observations about the resources which every king
needed:

In the case of the king, the resources and tools with

which to rule are that he have his land fully manned:
he must have praying men, �ghting men and working
men. You know also that without these tools no king
may make his ability known. Another aspect of his
resources is that he must have the means of support
for his tools, the three classes of men. These, then,
are their means of support: land to live on, gifts,
weapons, food, ale, clothing and whatever else is
necessary for each of the three classes of men.[132]

This is the first written appearance of the division of society

into the 'three orders'; the 'working men' provided the raw
materials to support the other two classes. The advent of
Christianity saw the introduction of new concepts of land
tenure. The role of churchmen was analogous with that of
the warriors waging heavenly warfare. However what Alfred
was alluding to was that in order for a king to fulfil his
responsibilities towards his people, particularly those
concerned with defence, he had the right to make
considerable exactions from the landowners and people of
his kingdom.[133] The need to endow the church resulted in
the permanent alienation of stocks of land which had
previously only been granted out on a temporary basis and
introduced the concept of a new type of hereditary land
which could be freely alienated and was free of any family
claims.[134]

Probably no one living in the eighth century would have

predicted that the great Mercian empire would be destroyed
and that the West Saxons with their poor track record for
feuds and infighting within the royal house would emerge as
the dominant kingdom in the ninth century. The nobility
under the influence of Alfred became involved with
developing the cultural life of their kingdom.[135] As the
kingdom became one they brought 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 affairs 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.[136] 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.[89]

Religion and the church

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.

The first of King Alfred's three-fold Anglo-Saxon society are

praying men; people who work at prayer. Although
Christianity dominates the religious history of the Anglo-
Saxons, life in the 5th/6th centuries was dominated by
'pagan' religious beliefs with a Scando-Germanic heritage.

Early Anglo-Saxon society attached great significance to the

horse; a horse may have been an acquaintance of the god
Wodan, and/or they may have been (according to Tacitus)
confidants of the gods. Horses were closely associated
with gods, especially Odin and Freyr. Horses played a
central role in funerary practices as well as in other
rituals.[137] Horses were prominent symbols of fertility, and
there were many horse fertility cults. The rituals associated
with these include horse fights, burials, consumption of
horse meat, and horse sacrifice.[138] Hengist and Horsa, the
mythical ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons, were associated
with horses,[139] and references to horses are found
throughout Anglo-Saxon literature.[140] Actual horse burials
in England are relatively rare and "may point to influence
from the continent".[141] A well-known 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.[142] A sixth-century grave near Lakenheath,
Suffolk, yielded the body of a man next to that of a
"complete horse in harness, with a bucket of food by its
head."[141] Pagan Anglo-Saxons worshipped at a variety of
different 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 wēoh.
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"[143]

Bede's story of Cædmon, 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 (Streonæshalch – 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 Cædmon 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. Cædmon does not
destroy or ignore traditional Anglo-Saxon poetry. Instead, he
converts it into something that helps the Church. Anglo-
Saxon England finds 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.[144]
An 8th-century copy of the Rule of St. Benedict

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 effects of this seminar on the
curriculum of learning and study in Anglo-Saxon England
were enormous.[96] Royal power was put behind the
reforming impulses of Dunstan and Athelwold, helping them
to enforce their reform ideas. This happened first 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 influenced by the vernacular efforts of
Alfred. From this mixture sprung a great flowering of literary
production.[145]

Fighting and warfare

The second element of Alfred's society is fighting men. The

subject of war and the Anglo-Saxons is a curiously
neglected one, however, it is an important element of the
Anglo-Saxon society.

Firstly, the mustering of armies. For both offensive and

defensive war, and whether armies consisted essentially of
household bands, as seems to have been characteristic of
the earlier period, or were recruited on a territorial basis,
soldiers had to be summoned. The mustering of an army,
annually at times, occupied an important place in Frankish
history, both military and constitutional. The English
kingdoms appear to have known no institution similar to
this. The earliest reference is Bede's account of the
overthrow of the Northumbrian Æthelfrith by Rædwald
overlord of the southern English. Rædwald raised a large
army, presumably from among the kings who accepted his
overlordship, and 'not giving him time to summon and
assemble his whole army, Rædwald met him with a much
greater force and slew him on the Mercian border on the
east bank of the river Idle'.[146] There is a more detailed
account of raising an army in 878, when the Danes made a
surprise attack on Alfred at Chippenham after Twelfth
Night. Alfred retreated to Athelney 'after Easter' and then
seven weeks after Easter mustered an army at "Egbert's
stone".[147] It is not difficult to imagine that Alfred sent out
word to the ealdormen of Somerset, Wiltshire and
Hampshire, and to the reeves, to call his men to arms. This
may explain the delay, and it is probably no more than
coincidence that the army mustered at the beginning of
May, a time when there would have been sufficient grass for
the horses. There is also information about the mustering of
fleets in the eleventh Century. From 992 to 1066 fleets were
assembled at London, or returned to the city at the end of
their service, on several occasions. Where they took up
Station depended on the quarter from which a threat was
expected: Sandwich if invasion was expected from the
north, or the Isle of Wight if it was from Normandy.[148]
Replica of the Sutton Hoo helmet

Once they left home these armies and fleets had to be

supplied, not only with food and clothing for the men but
also forage for the horses which gave them mobility and
were fitting to their Station. Yet if armies of the seventh and
eighth centuries were accompanied by servants and a
supply train of lesser free men, Alfred found these
arrangements insufficient to defeat the Vikings. One of his
reforms, if he was responsible for them, was to divide his
military resources into three. One part manned the burhs
and found the permanent garrisons which would make it
impossible for the Danes to overrun Wessex, although they
would also take to the field when extra soldiers were
needed. The remaining two would take it in turns to serve.
They were allocated a fixed term of Service and brought the
necessary provisions with them. This arrangement did not
always function perfectly. On one occasion a division on
Service went home in the middle of blockading a Danish
army on Thorney Island, its provisions consumed and its
term expired, before the king came to relieve them.[149] This
method of division and rotation remained in force right up
to 1066. In 917, when armies from Wessex and Mercia were
in the field from early April until November, one division
went home and another took over. Again, in 1052 when
Edward's fleet was waiting at Sandwich to intercept
Godwine's return, the ships returned to London to take on
new earls and crews.[148] The importance of supply, vital to
military success, was appreciated even if it was taken for
granted and features only incidentally in the sources.[150]

Military training and strategy are two important matters on

which the sources are more than usually silent. There are no
references in literature or laws to men training, and so it is
necessary to fall back on inference. For the noble warrior,
his childhood was of first importance in learning both
individual military skills and the teamwork essential for
success in battle. Perhaps the games the youthful Cuthbert
played ('wrestling, jumping, running, and every other
exercise') had some military significance.[151] 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 deficiencies 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 Bede's 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 field.
Gillingham has shown how few pitched battles successful
Charlemagne and Richard I chose to fight.[152]

A defensive strategy becomes more apparent in the later

part of Alfred's reign. It was built around the possession of
fortified 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 fight the Danes to a
standstill by their repeated ability to pursue and closely
besiege them in fortified camps at Nottingham, Wareham,
Exeter, Chippenham, Rochester, Milton, Appledore, Thorney,
Buttington, Chester and Hertford. It was only in the later
part of Edward the Elder's 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 fortification of sites at
Witham, Buckingham, Towcester and Colchester persuaded
the Danes of the surrounding regions to submit.[153] The key
to this warfare was sieges and the control of fortified
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 Æthelflæd it is
clear that a sophisticated and coordinated strategy was
being applied.[154]

There was another means of dealing with military issues. In

973 a single currency was introduced into England in order
to bring about political unification, 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 first
the raids were probing ventures by small numbers of ships'
crews, but soon grew in size and effect, until the only way of
dealing with the Vikings appeared to be to pay protection
money to buy them off: "And in that year [991] it was
determined that tribute should first be paid to the Danish
men because of the great terror they were causing along the
coast. The first payment was 10,000 pounds."[155] The
payment of Danegeld had to be underwritten by a huge
balance of payments surplus; this could only be achieved by
stimulating exports and cutting imports, itself
accomplished through currency devaluation. This affected
everyone in the Kingdom.

Settlements and working life

Panorama of the reconstructed 7th century village

The third aspect of Alfred's society is the working man.

Helena Hamerow suggest the prevailing model of working
life and settlement, particularly for the early period, as one
of shifting settlement and building tribal kinship. The mid-
Saxon period saw diversification, the development of
enclosures, the beginning of the toft system, closer
management of livestock, the gradual spread of the mould-
board plough, 'informally regular plots' and a greater
permanence, with further settlement consolidation
thereafter foreshadowing post-Conquest villages. The later
periods saw a proliferation of 'service features' including
barns, mills and latrines, most markedly on high-status
sites. Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period as Helena
Hamerow suggests: "local and extended kin groups
remained...the essential unit of production". This is very
noticeable in the early period. However, by the tenth and
eleventh centuries, the rise of the manor and its
significance in terms of both settlement and the
management of land, which becomes very evident in the
Domesday Book.[156]
The collection of buildings discovered at Yeavering, formed
part of an Anglo-Saxon royal vill or king's tun. These 'tun'
consisted of a series of buildings designed to provide short-
term accommodation for the king and his household. It is
thought that the king would have travelled throughout his
land dispensing justice and authority and collecting rents
from his various estates. Such visits would be periodic and
it is likely that he would visit each royal villa only once or
twice a year. The Latin term villa regia which Bede used of
the site suggests an estate centre as the functional heart of
a territory held in the King's demesne. The territory is the
land whose surplus production is taken into the centre as
food-render to support the king and his retinue on their
periodic visits as part of a progress around the kingdom.
This territorial 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
definition of the wider shire of Yeavering and also a
geographical definition of the principal estate whose
structures Hope-Taylor excavated.[157] One characteristic
that the king's 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.[158]

The first 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 so-
named 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.[159]

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.[160] 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.[161]

Women, children and slaves

Alfred's view of his society overlooks certain classes of

people. The main division in Anglo-Saxon society was
between slave and free. Both groups were hierarchically
structured, with several classes of freemen and many types
of slaves. These varied at different times and in different
areas, but the most prominent ranks within free society
were the king, the nobleman or thegn, and the ordinary
freeman or ceorl. They were differentiated primarily by the
value of their wergild or 'man price', which was not only the
amount payable in compensation for homicide (see above,
section 2), but was also used as the basis for other legal
formulations such as the value of the oath that they could
swear in a court of law. Slaves had no wergild, as offences
against them were taken to be offences 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.[162]

A certain amount of social mobility is implied by regulations

detailing the conditions under which a ceorl could become a
thegn. Again these would have been subject to local
variation, but one text refers to the possession of five hides
of land (around 600 acres), a bell and a castle-gate, a seat
and a special office in the king's hall. In the context of the
control of boroughs, Frank Stenton noted that, according to
an 11th-century source, "a merchant who had carried out
three voyages at his own charge [had also been] regarded
as of thegnly status."[163] 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 Anglo-Saxons 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.[164]

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 offences 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.[165] Marriage comprised a contract between the
woman's 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 woman's 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 reflected in laws stating that they
should not be forced into nunneries or second marriages
against their will. The system of primogeniture (inheritance
by the first-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.[166] It was common for
children to be fostered, either in other households or in
monasteries, perhaps as a means of extending the circle of
protection beyond the kin group. Laws also make provision
for orphaned children and foundlings.[167]

Culture
Architecture

Reconstruction of the Anglo-Saxon royal palace at Cheddar around 1000

Early Anglo-Saxon buildings in Britain were generally simple,

not using masonry except in foundations but constructed
mainly using timber with thatch for roofing. 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.[168]

Only ten of the hundreds of settlement sites that have been

excavated in England from this period have revealed
masonry domestic structures and confined to a few quite
specific contexts. The usual explanation for the tendency of
Anglo–Saxons 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 Goff, suggests[169]
that the Anglo-Saxon period was defined by its use of wood,
providing evidence for the care and craftsmanship that the
Anglo–Saxon invested into their wooden material culture,
from cups to halls, and the concern for trees and timber in
Anglo–Saxon place–names, literature and religion.[170]
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 'cultural shift' that it is not possible to
explain by recourse to technological
determinism.[171]

Anglo–Saxon building forms were very much part of this

general building tradition. Timber was 'the natural building
medium of the age':[172] the very Anglo–Saxon word for
'building' is 'timbe'. Unlike in the Carolingian world, late
Anglo–Saxon royal halls continued to be of timber in the
manner of Yeavering centuries before, even though the king
could clearly have mustered the resources to build in
stone.[173] Their preference must have been a conscious
choice, perhaps an expression of 'deeply–embedded
Germanic identity' on the part of the Anglo–Saxon royalty.

The major rural buildings were sunken-floor (Grubenhäuser)

or post-hole buildings, although Helena Hamerow suggest
this distinction is less clear.[174] Even the elite had simple
buildings, with a central fire and a hole in the roof to let the
smoke escape and the largest of which rarely had more
than one floor, and one room. Buildings vary widely in size,
most were square or rectangular, though some round
houses have been found. Frequently these buildings have
sunken floors; a shallow pit over which a plank floor was
suspended. The pit may have been used for storage, but
more likely was filled with straw for winter insulation. A
variation on the sunken floor design is found in towns,
where the "basement" may be as deep as 9 feet, suggesting
a storage or work area below a suspended floor. Another
common design was simple post framing, with heavy posts
set directly into the ground, supporting the roof. The space
between the posts was filled in with wattle and daub, or
occasionally, planks. The floors were generally packed
earth, though planks were sometimes used. Roofing
materials varied, with thatch being the most common,
though turf and even wooden shingles were also used.[156]

Distin
Earls
Stone could be used, and was used, to build churches. Bede
makes it clear in both his Ecclesiastical History and his
Historiam Abbatum that the masonry construction of
churches, including his own at Jarrow, was undertaken
morem Romanorum, 'in the manner of the Romans,' in
explicit contrast to existing traditions of timber
construction. Even at Canterbury, Bede believed that St
Augustine's first cathedral had been 'repaired' or 'recovered'
(recuperavit) from an existing Roman church, when in fact it
had been newly constructed from Roman materials. The
belief was "the Christian Church was Roman therefore a
masonry church was a Roman building".

The building of churches in Anglo-Saxon England essentially

began with Augustine of Canterbury in Kent following 597;
for this he probably imported workmen from Frankish Gaul.
The cathedral and abbey in Canterbury, together with
churches in Kent at Minster in Sheppey (c.664) and Reculver
(669), and in Essex at the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall at
Bradwell-on-Sea, define the earliest type in southeast
England. A simple nave without aisles provided the setting
for the main altar; east of this a chancel arch separated off
the apse for use by the clergy. Flanking the apse and east
end of the nave were side chambers serving as sacristies;
further porticus might continue along the nave to provide
for burials and other purposes. In Northumbria the early
development of Christianity was influenced by the Irish
mission, important churches being built in timber. Masonry
churches became prominent from the late 7th century with
the foundations of Wilfrid at Ripon and Hexham, and of
Benedict Biscop at Monkwearmouth-Jarrow. These
buildings had long naves and small rectangular chancels;
porticus sometimes surrounded the naves. Elaborate crypts
are a feature of Wilfrid's buildings. The best preserved early
Northumbrian church is Escomb Church.[175]

From the mid-8th century to the mid-10th a number of

important buildings survive. One group comprises the first
evidenced aisled churches: Brixworth, the most ambitious
Anglo-Saxon church to survive largely intact, Wareham St
Mary's, and Cirencester; also the rebuilding of Canterbury
Cathedral. These buildings may be compared with aisled
churches in the Carolingian empire. Other lesser churches
may be dated to the late eighth and early ninth centuries on
the basis of their elaborate sculptured decoration and have
simple naves with side porticus.[176] The tower of Barnack
(near Peterborough) takes the picture forward to the West
Saxon reconquest in the early 10th century, when decorative
features that were to be characteristic of Late Anglo-Saxon
architecture were already developed, such as narrow raised
bands of stone ('pilaster strips') to surround archways and
to articulate wall surfaces, as at Barton-upon-Humber and
Earls Barton. In plan, however, the churches remained
essentially conservative.

From, the monastic revival of the second half of the tenth

century only a few documented buildings survive or have
been excavated, for example: the abbeys of Glastonbury;
Old Minster, Winchester; Romsey; Cholsey; and
Peterborough Cathedral. The majority of churches that have
been described as Anglo-Saxon fall into the period between
the late 10th century and the early 12th. During this period
many settlements were first provided with stone churches,
but timber also continued to be used; the best wooden
survival is Greensted Church in Essex, no earlier than the
9th century, and no doubt typical of many parish churches.
On the Continent during the eleventh century was developed
a group of interrelated Romanesque styles, associated with
the rebuilding of many churches on a grand scale, made
possible by a general advance in architectural technology
and mason-craft.[175]

The first fully Romanesque church in England was Edward

the Confessor's rebuilding of Westminster Abbey (c.1050s
and following), while the main development of the style only
followed the Norman Conquest. However, at Stow Minster
the crossing piers of the early 1050s are clearly 'proto-
Romanesque'. A more decorative interpretation of
Romanesque in lesser churches can be dated only
somewhere between the mid and late 11th century, e.g.
Hadstock (Essex), Clayton and Sompting (Sussex); this style
continued towards the end of the century as at Milborne
Port (Somerset). At St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury
c.1048–61 Abbot Wulfric aimed to retain the earlier
churches while linking them with an octagonal rotunda: but
the concept was still essentially Pre-Romanesque. Anglo-
Saxon churches of all periods would have been embellished
with a range of arts,[177] including wall-paintings, some
stained glass, metalwork and statues.

Brixworth, Northants: Sompting Church, Sussex,

St Peter-in-the-Wall, Essex: A simple monastery founded c. 690, Barnack, Peterborough: Lower with the only Anglo-Saxon
nave church of the early style c. 650 one of the largest churches tower c. 970 – spire is later Rhenish helm tower to
to survive relatively intact survive, c. 1050

Art

Early Anglo-Saxon art, as it survives, is seen mostly in

decorated jewellery, like brooches, buckles, beads and wrist-
clasps, some of outstanding quality. Characteristic of the
5th century is the quoit brooch with motifs based on
crouching animals, as seen on the silver quoit brooch from
Sarre, Kent. While the origins of this style are disputed, it is
either an offshoot of provincial Roman art, Frank, or Jute
art. One style flourished from the late 5th century, and
continued throughout the 6th, and is on many square-
headed brooches, it is characterised by chip-carved patterns
based on animals and masks. A different style, which
gradually superseded it is dominated by serpentine beasts
with interlacing bodies.[178]
Shoulder clasp (closed) from the Sutton Hoo ship-burial 1, England. British
Museum.

By the later 6th century the best works from the south-east
are distinguished by greater use of expensive materials,
above all gold and garnets, reflecting 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,[179]
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 fine brooch or buckle was a
valuable status symbol and possible tribal emblem – in
death as much as in life.[180]

The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon

gold and silver metalwork yet found. Discovered in a field
near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, in
Staffordshire, England, it consists of over 3,500 items[181]
that are nearly all martial in character and contains no
objects specific to female uses.[182][183] 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.[158]

The coming of Christianity revolutionised the visual arts, as

well as other aspects of society. Art had to fulfil 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[179] and the Canterbury
pendant.[184] In addition to fostering metalworking skills,
Christianity stimulated stone sculpture and manuscript
illumination. In these Germanic motifs, such as interlace
and animal ornament along with Celtic spiral patterns, are
juxtaposed with Christian imagery and Mediterranean
decoration, notably vine-scroll. The Ruthwell Cross,
Bewcastle Cross and Easby Cross are leading Northumbrian
examples of the Anglo-Saxon version of the Celtic high
cross, generally with a slimmer shaft.

The jamb of the doorway at Monkwearmouth, carved with a

pair of lacertine beasts, probably dates from the 680s; the
golden, garnet-adorned pectoral cross of St Cuthbert was
presumably made before 687; while his wooden inner coffin
(incised with Christ and the Evangelists' symbols, the Virgin
and Child, archangels and apostles), the Lindisfarne
Gospels, and the Codex Amiatinus all date from c.700. The
fact that these works are all from Northumbria might be
held to reflect the particular strength of the church in that
kingdom during the second half of the century.[185] Works
from the south were more restrained in their ornamentation
than are those from Northumbria.

Lindisfarne was a very important centre of book production,

along with Ripon and Monkwearmouth-Jarrow. The
Lindisfarne Gospels might be the single most beautiful
book produced in the Middle Ages, and the Echternach
Gospels and (probably) the Book of Durrow are other
products of Lindisfarne. A Latin gospel book, the
Lindisfarne Gospels are richly illuminated and decorated in
an Insular style that blends not only Irish and Western
Mediterranean elements but, incorporates imagery from the
Eastern Mediterranean, including Coptic Christianity as
well.[186] Produced in the north of England at the same time
was the Codex Amiatinus, which has been called "the finest
book in the world."[187] It is certainly one of the largest,
weighing 34 kilograms.[188] It is a pandect, which was rare in
the Middle Ages: all the books of the Bible in one volume.
The Codex Amiatinus was produced at Monkwearmouth-
Jarrow in 692 under the direction of Abbot Ceolfrith. Bede
probably had something to do with it. The production of the
Codex shows the riches of the north of England at this time.
We have records of the monastery needing a new grant of
land to raise two thousand more cattle to get the calf skins
to make the vellum to make the manuscript.[189] The Codex
Amiatinus was meant to be a gift to the Pope, and Ceolfrith
was taking it to Rome when he died on the way. The copy
ended up in Florence, where it still is today – a ninth-century
copy of this book is even today the personal Bible of the
Pope.[190]

Book of Cerne, evangelist portrait of Saint Mark

In the 8th century, Anglo-Saxon Christian art flourished with

grand decorated manuscripts and sculptures, along with
'secular' works which bear comparable ornament, like the
Witham pins and the Coppergate helmet.[191] The
flourishing of sculpture in Mercia, occurred slightly later
than in Northumbria and is dated to the second half of the
8th century. Some fine decorated southern books, above all
the Bible fragment, can be securely assigned to the earlier
9th century, owing to the similarity of their script to that of
charters from that period; The Book of Cerne is an early 9th
century Insular or Anglo-Saxon Latin personal prayer book
with Old English components. This manuscript was
decorated and embellished with four painted full-page
miniatures, major and minor letters, continuing panels, and
litterae notibiliores.[192] Further decorated motifs used in
these manuscripts, such as hunched, triangular beasts, also
appear on objects from the Trewhiddle hoard (buried in the
870s) and on the rings which bear the names of King
Æthelwulf and Queen Æthelswith, which are the centre of a
small corpus of fine ninth-century metalwork.

There was demonstrable continuity in the south, even

though the Danish settlement represented a watershed in
England's artistic tradition. Wars and pillaging removed or
destroyed much Anglo-Saxon art, while the settlement
introduced new Scandinavian craftsmen and patrons. The
result was to accentuate the pre-existing distinction
between the art of the north and that of the south.[193] In the
10th and 11th centuries, the Viking dominated areas were
characterised by stone sculpture in which the Anglo-Saxon
tradition of cross shafts took on new forms, and a
distinctive Anglo-Scandinavian monument, the 'hogback'
tomb, was produced.[194] The decorative motifs used on
these northern carvings (as on items of personal
adornment or everyday use) echo Scandinavian styles. The
Wessexan hegemony and the monastic reform movement
appear to have been the catalysts for the rebirth of art in
southern England from the end of the 9th century. Here
artists responded primarily to continental art; foliage
supplanting interlace as the preferred decorative motif. Key
early works are the Alfred Jewel, which has fleshy leaves
engraved on the back plate; and the stole and maniples of
Bishop Frithestan of Winchester, which are ornamented with
acanthus leaves, alongside figures 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. Although manuscripts
dominate the corpus, sufficient 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 reflected 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 influential
in Normandy, France and Flanders from c.1000.[195] 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 reflects England was linked in the 11th
century.[196]

Sutton Hoo purse-lid c. Codex Aureus of Canterbury Ruthwell Cross Trewhiddle style on silver ring St Oswald's Priory
620 c.750 c.750 c.775–850 Cross c.890

Language

The first lines of the poem, the Wanderer

Old English (Ænglisc, Anglisc, Englisc) or Anglo-Saxon 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 grammar, it was much closer to
modern German and Icelandic than to modern English. It
was fully inflected with five 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 first 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; finite 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 difference 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

influence from the local insular languages, especially
Common Brittonic (the language that may have been the
majority language in Lowland Britain, although it's also
possible that British Latin had already replaced it in this
region). 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. Recently a number of linguists have
argued that many of the grammar changes observed in
English were due to a Brittonic influence (see Brittonicisms
in English). 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.[197] 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".[198]

What survives through writing represents primarily the

register of Anglo-Saxon, and this is most often in the West
Saxon dialect. Little is known about the everyday spoken
language of people living in the migration period. Old
English is a contact language and it is hard to reconstruct
the pidgin used in this period from the written language
found in the West Saxon literature of some 400 years later.
Two general theories are proposed regarding why people
changed their language to Old English (or an early form of
such): either, a person or household changed so as to serve
an elite; or, a person or household changed through choice
as it provided some advantage economically or legally.[199]
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 Anglian dialect, since
that was the dialect of London.[200]

Near the end of the Old English period the English language
underwent a third foreign influence, namely the
Scandinavian influence 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 different 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.[201] The influence
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 and hundreds of other
words.[202]

Nick Higham has provided a summary of the importance of

language to the Anglo-Saxon culture:

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 of possession of weapons
were all exclusive to those who could claim
Germanic descent, then speaking Old English without
Latin or Brittonic in�ection had considerable
value.[1]

Kinship

Helena Hamerow has made an observation that in Anglo-

Saxon society "local and extended kin groups remained...the
essential unit of production throughout the Anglo-Saxon
period". "Local and extended kin groups" was a key aspect
of Anglo-Saxon culture. Kinship fueled societal advantages,
freedom and the relationships to an elite, that allowed the
Anglo-Saxons' culture and language to flourish.[203]

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 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 Rædwald
of East Anglia and how the East Anglian primacy did not
survive his death.[204] 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 office 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.[205]

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
person's life according to their wealth and social status.
This value could also be used to set the fine payable if a
person was injured or offended 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 fine 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 practice), can be observed in the story,
made famous in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 755, of
Cynewulf and Cyneheard, in which the followers of a
defeated king decided to fight to the death rather than be
reconciled after the death of their lord.[206]

This emphasis on social standing affected all parts of the

Anglo-Saxon world. The courts, for example did not attempt
to discover the facts in a case; instead, in any dispute it was
up to each party to get as many people as possible to swear
to the rightness of their case; "oath-swearing". The word of
a thane counted for that of six ceorls.[207] It was assumed
that any person of good character would be able to find
enough people to swear to his innocence that his case
would prosper. Anglo-Saxon society was also decidedly
patriarchal, but women were in some ways better off than
they would be in later times. A woman could own property
in her own right. She could and did rule a kingdom if her
husband died. She could not be married without her
consent and any personal goods, including lands, that she
brought into a marriage remained her own property. If she
were injured or abused in her marriage her relatives were
expected to look after her interests.[208]

Law

The initial page of Rochester Cathedral Library, MS A.3.5, the Textus

Roffensis, which contains the only surviving copy of Æthelberht's laws.

The most noticeable feature of the Anglo-Saxon legal

system is the apparent prevalence of legislation in the form
of law codes. The early Anglo-Saxons were organised in
various small kingdoms often corresponding to later shires
or counties. The kings of these small kingdoms issued
written Laws, one of earliest of which is that attributed to
Ethelbert, king of Kent, ca.560–616.[209] The Anglo-Saxon
law codes follow a pattern found in continental Europe
where other groups of the former Roman empire
encountered government dependent upon written sources
of law and hastened to display the claims of their own
native traditions by reducing them to writing. These legal
systems should not be thought of as operating like modern
legislation, rather they are educational and political tools
designed to demonstrate standards of good conduct rather
than act as criteria for subsequent legal judgment.[210]

Although not themselves sources of law, Anglo-Saxon

charters are a most valuable historical source for tracing
the actual legal practices of the various Anglo-Saxon
communities. A charter was a written document from a king
or other authority confirming a grant either of land or some
other valuable right. Their prevalence in the Anglo-Saxon
state is a sign of sophistication. They were frequently
appealed to and relied upon in litigation. Making grants and
confirming those made by others was a major way in which
Anglo-Saxon kings demonstrated their authority.[211]

The royal council or witan played a central but limited role in

the Anglo-Saxon period. The main feature of the system
was its high degree of decentralisation. The interference by
the king through his granting of charters and the activity of
his witan in litigation are exceptions rather than the rule in
Anglo-Saxon times.[212] The most important court in the
later Anglo-Saxon period was the Shire Court. It is of
interest that many shires (such as Kent and Sussex) were in
the early days of the Anglo-Saxon settlement the centre of
small independent kingdoms. As the kings first of Mercia
and then of Wessex slowly extended their authority over the
whole of England they left the Shire Courts with overall
responsibility for the administration of law.[213] The Shire
met in one or more traditional places, earlier in the open air
and then later in a Moot or meeting hall. The meeting of the
Shire Court was presided over by an officer, the shire reeve
or sheriff, whose appointment came in later Anglo-Saxon
times into the hands of the king but had in earlier times
been elective. The sheriff was not the judge of the court,
merely its president. The judges of the court were all those
who had the right and duty of attending the court, the
suitors. These were originally all free male inhabitants of
the neighbourhood but, over time, suit of court became an
obligation attached to particular holdings of land. The
sessions of a Shire Court resembled more closely those of
a modern local administrative body than a modern court. It
could and did act judicially but this was not its prime
function. In the Shire Court, charters and writs would be
read out for all to hear.[214]

Below the level of the shire each county was divided into
areas known as hundreds (or wapentakes in the north of
England). These were original groups of families rather than
geographical areas. The Hundred Court was a smaller
version of the shire, presided over by the hundred bailiff,
formerly a sheriff's appointment, but over the years many
hundreds fell into the private hands of a local large
landowner. We are not well-informed about Hundred Court
business, which must have been a mix of the administrative
and judicial, but they remained in some areas an important
forum for the settlement of local disputes well into the post-
Conquest period.[215] The Anglo-Saxon system put an
emphasis upon compromise and arbitration: litigating
parties were enjoined to settle their differences if at all
possible. If they persisted in bringing a case for decision
before a Shire Court then it could be determined there. The
suitors of the court would pronounce a judgment which
fixed how the case would be decided: legal problems were
considered to be too complex and difficult for mere human
decision and so proof or demonstration of the right would
depend upon some irrational, non-human criterion. The
normal methods of proof were oath-helping or the
ordeal.[216]

Oath-helping involved the party undergoing proof swearing

to the truth of his claim or denial and having that oath
reinforced by five or more others, chosen either by the party
or by the court. The numbers of helpers required and the
form of their oath differed from place to place and upon the
nature of the dispute.[217] 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.[218]

The ordeal offered 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 five 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 floated,
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 Court's 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.[216]
Literature

First page of the epic Beowulf

Old English literary works include genres such as epic

poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal
works, chronicles, mainly the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, riddles
and others. In all there are about 400 surviving manuscripts
from the period, a significant corpus of both popular
interest and specialist research. The manuscripts use a
modified Roman alphabet, but Anglo-Saxon runes or futhorc
are used in under 200 inscriptions on objects, sometimes
mixed with Roman letters.

This literature is remarkable for being in the vernacular (Old

English) in the early medieval period: almost all other
written literature was in Latin at this time, but due to Alfred's
programme of vernacular literacy, the oral traditions of
Anglo-Saxon England ended up being converted into writing
and preserved. We owe much of this preservation to the
monks of the tenth century, who made – at the very least –
the copies of most of the literary manuscripts that still
exist. Manuscripts were not common items. They were
expensive and hard to make.[219] 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 different from every other one, even if they are
copies of each other, because every scribe had different
handwriting and made different errors. We can sometimes
identify individual scribes from their handwriting, and we
can often guess where manuscripts were written because
different scriptoria (centres of manuscript production)
wrote in different styles of hand.[220]

There are four great poetic codices of Old English poetry (a

codex is a book in modern format, as opposed to a scroll):
the Junius Manuscript, the Vercelli Book, the Exeter Book,
and the Nowell Codex or Beowulf Manuscript; most of the
well-known lyric poems such as The Wanderer, The Seafarer,
Deor and The Ruin are found in the Exeter Book, while the
Vercelli Book has the Dream of the Rood,[221] some of which
is also carved on the Ruthwell Cross. The Franks Casket
also has carved 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 fire of 1731, but it
had been transcribed previously.

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.

hreran mid hondum    hrimcealde sæ[g]

The line above illustrates the principle: note that there is a

natural pause after 'hondum' and that the first stressed
syllable after that pause begins with the same sound as a
stressed line from the first half-line (the first halfline is
called the a-verse and the second is the b-verse).[223]

There is very strong evidence that Anglo-Saxon poetry has

deep roots in oral tradition, but, keeping with the cultural
practices we have seen elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon culture,
there was a blending between tradition and new
learning.[224] Thus while all Old English poetry has common
features, we can also identify three strands: religious poetry,
which includes poems about specifically Christian topics,
such as the cross and the saints; Heroic or epic poetry, such
as Beowulf, which is about heroes, warfare, monsters, and
the Germanic past; and poetry about "smaller" topics,
including introspective poems (the so-called elegies),
"wisdom" poems (which communicate both traditional and
Christian wisdom), and riddles. For a long time all Anglo-
Saxon poetry was divided into three groups: Cædmonian
(the biblical paraphrase poems), heroic, and "Cynewulfian,"
named after Cynewulf, one of the only named poets in
Anglo-Saxon.The most famous works from this period
include the epic poem Beowulf, which has achieved national
epic status in Britain.[225]

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 influential 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 prolific and respected
writers of Anglo-Saxon prose, Ælfric and Wulfstan, were
both homilists.[226] Ælfric also wrote the 'Lives of Saints'
which very popular and were highly prized.[227] Almost all
surviving poetry is found in only one manuscript copy, but
there are a number of different versions of some prose
works, especially the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was
apparently promulgated to monasteries 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 Bede's biographer records that
he was familiar with Old English poetry and gives a five line
lyric which he either wrote or liked to quote – the sense is
unclear.

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 difficult to read. Anglo-Saxons used symbolism, not
just to communicate, but as tools to aid their thinking about
the world. Symbols were also used to change the world,
Anglo-Saxons used symbols to differentiate between
groups and people, status and role in society.[180]

The visual riddles and ambiguities of early Anglo-Saxon

animal art, for example has been seen as emphasing the
protective roles of animals on dress accessories, weapons,
armour and horse equipment, and its evocation of pre-
Christian mythological themes. However Howard Williams
and Ruth Nugent have suggest that the number of artefact
categories that have animals or eyes; from pots to combs,
buckets to weaponry was to make artefacts 'see' by
impressing and punching circular and lentoid shapes onto
them. This symbolism of making the object seems to be
more than decoration.[228]

Conventional interpretations of the symbolism of grave

goods revolved around religion (equipment for the
hereafter), legal concepts (inalienable possessions) and
social structure (status display, ostentatious destruction of
wealth). There was multiplicity of messages and variability
of meanings characterised the deposition of objects in
Anglo-Saxon graves. In Early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, 47%
of male adults and 9% of all juveniles were buried with
weapons, some of which were very young. The proportion
of adult weapon burials is much too high to suggest that
they all represent a social élite.[229] The usual assumption is
that these are 'warrior burials', and this term is used
throughout the archaeological and historical literature.
However, a systematic comparison of burials with and
without weapons, using archaeological and skeletal data,
suggests that this assumption is much too simplistic and
even misleading. Anglo-Saxon weapon burial rite involved a
complex ritual symbolism: it was multi-dimensional,
displaying ethnic affiliation, descent, wealth, élite status,
and age groups. This symbol continued until c.700 when it
ceased to have the symbolic power that it had before.[230]
Heinrich Härke suggests this change was due to the
changing structure of society and especially in ethnicity and
assimilation implying the lowering of ethnic boundaries in
the Anglo-Saxon settlement areas of England, towards a
common culture.[123]

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.[231] 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.[232][233] 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.[234] John Hines has
suggested that the over 2000 different 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.[235]

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 sacrifice of the tree was in accordance
with pagan virtues and "the image of Christ's death was
constructed in this poem with reference to an Anglian
ideology of the world tree".[236] 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".[236] Furthermore, the tree's triumph over death is
celebrated by adorning the cross with gold and jewels.

The most distinctive feature of coinage of the first half of

the 8th century is its portrayal of animals, to an extent found
in no other European coinage of the Early Middle Ages.
Some animals, such as lions or peacocks, would have been
known in England only through descriptions in texts or
through images in manuscripts or on portable objects. The
animals were not merely illustrated out of an interest in the
natural world. Each was imbued with meanings and acted
as a symbol which would have been understood at the
time.[237]

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 influence 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
difficult. In the early Middle Ages the views of Geoffrey of
Monmouth produced a personally inspired history that
wasn't challenged for five hundred years. In the
Reformation, churchmen 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[238] and Edward A. Freeman[239] 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.[240] These views have influenced 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."[241]

The term Anglo-Saxon is sometimes used to refer to

peoples descended or associated in some way with the
English ethnic group, but there is no universal definition for
the term. In contemporary Anglophone cultures outside
Britain, "Anglo-Saxon" may be contrasted with "Celtic" as a
socioeconomic identifier, invoking or reinforcing historical
prejudices against non-English British immigrants. "White
Anglo-Saxon Protestant", i.e. WASP, is a term especially
popular in the United States that refers chiefly to old
wealthy families with mostly English ancestors. As such,
WASP is not a historical label or a precise ethnological term,
but rather a (often derogatory) reference to contemporary
family-based political, financial and cultural power— e.g.,
The Boston Brahmin. The French often use "Anglo-Saxon" to
refer to the combined power of Britain and the US today.[242]

Outside Anglophone countries, both in Europe and in the

rest of the world, the term Anglo-Saxon and its direct
translations are used to refer to the Anglophone peoples
and societies of Britain, the United States, and other
countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand –
areas which are sometimes referred to as the Anglosphere.
The term Anglo-Saxon can be used in a variety of contexts,
often to identify the English-speaking world's distinctive
language, culture, technology, wealth, markets, economy,
and legal systems. Variations include the German
"Angelsachsen", French "Anglo-Saxon", Spanish "anglosajón",
Portuguese "Anglo-saxão", Russian "англосаксы", Polish
"anglosaksoński", Italian "anglosassone", Catalan
"anglosaxó" and Japanese "Angurosakuson". As with the
English-language use of the term, what constitutes the
"Anglo-Saxon" varies from speaker to speaker.

In modern parlance Anglo-Saxon is increasingly used to

define a set of economic belief and systems rooted in
anglophone countries. Characteristics of this model include
low levels of regulation and taxes, and the public sector
providing very few services. It can also mean strong private
property rights, contract enforcement, and overall ease of
doing business as well as low barriers to free trade. The
Anglo-Saxon model is seen distinctly and competes versus
other recognized economic models like continental
bureaucracy or Chinese socialist model of central
control.[243]

See also
Anglo-Frisian
Anglo-Saxon dress
 Anglo-Saxon military organization
Frisia
States in Medieval Britain
Timeline of Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain

Modern concepts:

Anglo-Saxon economy
English people

Notes
a. Throughout this article Anglo-Saxon is used for Saxon,
Angles, Jute, or Frisian unless it is specific to a point being
made; "Anglo-Saxon" is used when specifically the culture is
meant rather than any ethnicity. But, all these terms are
interchangeably used by scholars.
b. The delimiting dates vary; often cited are 410, date of the
Sack of Rome by Alaric I; and 751, the accession of Pippin the
Short and the establishment of the Carolingian dynasty.
c. There is much evidence for loosely managed and shifting
cultivation and no evidence of "top down" structured
landscape planning.
d. Confirmation of this interpretation may come from Bede's
account of the battle of the river Winwæd of 655, where it is
said that Penda of Mercia, overlord of all the southern
kingdoms, was able to call upon thirty contingents, each led
by duces regii – royal commanders.[52]
e. From its reference to "Aldfrith, who now reigns peacefully"
it must date to between 685 and 704.[60]
f. Oswiu of Northumbria (642–70) only won authority over
the southern kingdoms after he defeated Penda at the battle
of the Winwæd in 655 and must have lost it again soon after
Wulfhere regained control in Mercia in 658.
g. Example from the Wanderer[222]

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archaeology of rural communities in Northwest Europe,
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175. Wilkinson, David John, and Alan McWhirr. Cirencester
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178. Suzuki, Seiichi. The Quoit Brooch Style and Anglo-Saxon
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179. Adams, Noël. "Rethinking the Sutton Hoo Shoulder
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184. Mills, Allan A. "The Canterbury Pendant: A Saxon
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185. Leslie Webster, Janet Backhouse, and Marion Archibald.
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187. Bruce-Mitford, Rupert Leo Scott. The art of the Codex
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192. Brown 1996, pp. 70, 73.
193. Reynolds, Andrew, and Webster, Leslie. "Early Medieval
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Medieval Archaeology 55.1 (2011): 163–191.
195. Janet Backhouse, Derek Howard Turner, and Leslie
Webster, eds. The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art, 966–1066.
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196. Grape, Wolfgang. The Bayeux tapestry: monument to a
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197. McWhorter, John. 2008. Our Magnificent Bastard
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198. Higham, N. 1992. Rome, Britain and the Anglo-Saxons.
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199. Killie, Kristin. "Old English–Late British language contact
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Historical Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p. 137.
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202. Scott Shay (30 January 2008). The history of English: a
linguistic introduction . Wardja Press. p. 86.
ISBN 978-0-615-16817-3. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
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students of Old English, and most Anglo-Saxonists make only
passing reference to it. There is scarcely any literary criticism
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233. Brugmann, B. 2004. Glass beads from Anglo-Saxon
graves: a study of the provenance and chronology of glass
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Archaeology.
236. North, Richard. Heathen Gods in Old English Literature .
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237. Gannon, Anna. The iconography of early Anglo-Saxon
coinage: sixth to eighth centuries. Oxford University Press,
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238. Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism,
1830–1914 by Patrick Brantlinger. Cornell University Press,
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239. Race and Empire in British Politics by Paul B. Rich. CUP
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Racial Anglo-Saxonism by Reginald Horsman. Harvard
University Press, 1981. (pgs. 126,273)
241. Hills, Catherine. Origins of the English. Duckworth Pub,
2003.p35
242. Eric P. Kaufmann, "The decline of the WASP in the
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Constable and Robinson, London. ISBN 1-84529-158-1

Further reading
General

Hamerow, Helena; Hinton, David A.; Crawford, Sally, eds. (2011),

The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology., Oxford: OUP,
ISBN 978-0-19-921214-9
Higham, Nicholas J.; Ryan, Martin J. (2013), The Anglo-Saxon
World, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-12534-4
Hills, Catherine (2003), Origins of the English, London:
Duckworth, ISBN 0-7156-3191-8
Koch, John T. (2006), Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia,
Santa Barbara and Oxford: ABC-CLIO, ISBN 1-85109-440-7
Stenton, Sir Frank M. (1987) [first published 1943], Anglo-Saxon
England, The Oxford History of England, II (3rd ed.), OUP,
ISBN 0-19-821716-1

Historical

Clark, David, and Nicholas Perkins, eds. Anglo-Saxon 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)
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. 321–337, ISBN 978 90 8964 078 9, archived from the
original on 2017-08-30, retrieved 2017-05-31
Brown, Michelle P.; Farr, Carol A., eds. (2001), Mercia: An Anglo-
Saxon Kingdom in Europe, Leicester: Leicester University Press,
ISBN 0-8264-7765-8
Brown, Michelle, The Lindisfarne Gospels and the Early Medieval
World (2010)
Charles-Edwards, Thomas, ed. (2003), After Rome, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-924982-4
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 0-7185-1148-4
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)
Härke, Heinrich (2003), "Population replacement or
acculturation? An archaeological perspective on population and
migration in post-Roman Britain." , Celtic-Englishes, Carl Winter
Verlag, III (Winter): 13–28, retrieved 18 January 2014
Haywood, John (1999), Dark Age Naval Power: Frankish & Anglo-
Saxon Seafaring Activity (revised ed.), Frithgarth: Anglo-Saxon
Books, ISBN 1-898281-43-2
Higham, Nicholas (1992), Rome, Britain and the Anglo-Saxons,
London: B. A. Seaby, ISBN 1-85264-022-7
Higham, Nicholas (1993), The Kingdom of Northumbria AD
350–1100, 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): 367–98,
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 0-415-24211-8
Laing, Lloyd; Laing, Jennifer (1990), Celtic Britain and Ireland, c.
200–800, New York: St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-04767-3
McGrail, Seàn, ed. (1988), Maritime Celts, Frisians and Saxons,
London: Council for British Archaeology (published 1990),
pp. 1–16, ISBN 0-906780-93-4
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. 400–950 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. 400–600, University Park: Pennsylvania State
University Press, ISBN 0-271-01780-5
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, 400–800, Oxford: Oxford University Press
(published 2006), ISBN 978-0-19-921296-5
Wickham, Chris (2009), "Kings Without States: Britain and
Ireland, 400–800", The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark
Ages, 400–1000, 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, Seàn, Maritime Celts, Frisians and Saxons,
London: Council for British Archaeology (published 1990),
pp. 93–99, ISBN 0-906780-93-4
Yorke, Barbara (1990), Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon
England, B. A. Seaby, ISBN 0-415-16639-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.600–800, Harlow:
Pearson Education Limited, ISBN 978-0-582-77292-2
Zaluckyj, Sarah, ed. (2001), Mercia: The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of
Central England, Little Logaston: Logaston, ISBN 1-873827-62-8

External links
Photos of over 600 items found in the Anglo-Saxon
Hoard in Staffordshire Sept. 2009
Anglo-Saxon gold hoard September 2009: largest ever
hoard officially declared treasure
Huge Anglo-Saxon gold hoard found , BBC News, with
photos.
Fides Angliarum Regum: the faith of the English kings
Anglo-Saxon Origins: The Reality of the Myth by Malcolm
Todd
An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary
Simon Keynes' bibliography of Anglo-Saxon topics
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anglo-
Saxons&oldid=880086928"

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