5.

The Anglo-Saxon heritage

The Anglo-Saxons were the people who settled in England after the Romans left. They came
from parts of what is now Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. There were roughly 2 million
Anglo-Saxons, which, despite being a huge number, is actually very tiny for a population - if you
consider that the current population of England is around 55 million.

Originally, the Anglo-Saxon language was written with a variant of the Runic alphabet;
however, as Christianity spread in England, the Latin alphabet was eventually adopted. The most
important literary work in Anglo-Saxon was the epic poem Beowulf. No one knows who
wrote Beowulf, but many scholars believe that the story was influenced by contact with the Vikings.
Other works in Anglo-Saxon include a series of chronicles, hagiographies (lives of saints), short poems,
and hymns. Historically, Latin served as the international language of the educated classes, and several
Latin texts survive from the Anglo-Saxon period.

The Anglo-Saxon people followed a polytheistic religion, which was similar to the Viking
religion. One of their main gods was Woden. The English language and culture still retain many
aspects of Anglo-Saxon religion. For example, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are named
after Anglo-Saxon gods. In the 6th century, Pope Gregory sent Augustine of Canterbury to convert
Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, which was successful. Monasteries in Anglo-Saxon England were
centres of scholarship and wealth but were vulnerable to Viking raiders, with the first Viking raid on
England at the Lindisfarne monastery.

Anglo-Saxon art mixed Christian and pagan elements. In addition to a splendid, well-preserved
mask, there were several gold artefacts indicating that the Anglo-Saxon people had advanced
knowledge of metallurgy. Anglo-Saxon swords show that this culture was aware of how to build
advanced weaponry.

Most of the buildings created by the Anglo-Saxon people were made of wood. They did not
have the architectural knowledge of the Romans, and monumental stone architecture from this period
was relatively rare. However, some stone churches and monasteries from the Anglo-Saxon period do
remain. The Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall in Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex, England, is one of the few
churches from the Anglo-Saxon period that survive relatively intact.

Edward the Confessor was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. After his death, William the
Bastard (Duke of Normandy) invaded England to claim the throne, even though his claim was rather
tenuous as he was illegitimate and only distantly related to Edward. In 1066, William led Norman
forces, who were Viking descendants, to conquer the Anglo-Saxon people of England.