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COMPARISON BETWEEN ANGLO-SAXONS AND CELTS
121
Anglo-Saxons and Celts
3D s.a.
Anna Nordio-Elisa Mariotti
November 2018
Social Classes of Celts
Social classes
Celtic society was set up with five basic classes. However, a person could rise from the lowest class to the largest class, or move in the other direction.
Celtic society was set up with five basic classes. However, a person could rise from the lowest class to the largest class, or move in the other direction.
Non-freemen
Non-freemen
The lowest class was what was called the "non-freemen." These were lawbreakers, deserters from battle, hostages, and prisoners of war. Non -freemen were expected to work off their debt, and make contributions to the welfare of the entire tribe. Contrary to Roman custom, Celts did not believe in the keeping of slaves, because of the belief that one person couldn't own another. Rather, they held people for ransom, even for years at a time.
Tribesman
Tribesman
The second grade of Celtic society was the tribesman. Some of them hired themselves out as herders, or field workers but they had little political influence. The others were the tribesman that worked their own land and these people were the basis of the Celtic tribe. This part of Celtic society was the group that paid the taxes, elected officials to their assemblies, and provided the largest part of the military when needed. The craftsmen were also a part of this section.
Elected officials
Elected officials
The group above the tribesmen was the one of the elected officials . These were the group that carried out the administrative duties of the tribes. This group collected taxes, maintained roads and bridges, the public mills and fishing equipment; the tribal hospital, orphanage, and other aspects of the public good; to organize the army, and keep it supplied. They also made certain that the farmers were well supplied.
Professional classes
Professional classes
The professional classes were the next stratum of the society. This included the druids (from the Greek word for “Oak”=drus. Trees and sacred forests were important ingredients in the religious life of Celts), the bards, and the lawyers and doctors. The druids were trained in druidic colleges, with the training often lasting for as long as twenty years. The druids not only functioned as the religious of the Celtic society, they also were the philosophers, doctors, magistrates, and judges of the group. They could stop inter-tribal warfare, because their authority was greater than the chieftains. Equal to the druids in status were the bards. The bards were the minstrels, storytellers, and oral tradition teachers of the Celts. Their training was almost as extensive and long as the druids. This was mostly because Celtic traditions were oral, and required the learning of the many tales and stories.
Chieftains
Chieftains
The last layer of Celtic society were the chieftains. The chiefs were elected by the tribe in general. There was no such concept as that of primogeniture, the rights of the first born, to maintain the hereditary title of the position. The Celtic chiefs were not lawmakers, as much as administrators, having to answer to the will of the people. Chiefs could be male or female, although the election of a woman as chieftain was rare.
Anglo-Saxons family life
Anglo-Saxons family life
The father was the head of the family in Anglo-Saxon England, and the spear propped up by the door symbolised his role as protector. In fact, the father’s side of the family was called the ‘sperehealf’, while the mother’s side was called the ‘spinelhealf’.
The father was the head of the family in Anglo-Saxon England, and the spear propped up by the door symbolised his role as protector. In fact, the father’s side of the family was called the ‘sperehealf’, while the mother’s side was called the ‘spinelhealf’. The spindle summed up her role in the family, and possessions found in men’s and women’s graves confirm this. It may have been that the father was expected to be quite strict, and even a little distant from his children. The mother’s brother (‘eam’) may have been a more caring and friendly male relative, though he only visited from time to time. Old English has many more words for different family relatives than modern English, which shows how important the idea of ‘family’ was for them. If you weren’t very good at remembering all the complexities, though, you could call any relative ‘brōðor’ or ‘sweostor’.You might have ‘stēop-‘ relatives, if your own parents were dead, or ‘fōster-‘ parents, if your real parents had given you away for some reason.
Title
Title
Social Classes of Anglo-Saxons
Social Classes
The society of the Anglo-Saxons was divided into six social classes and as for the Celts also for them a person's social class may change over a lifetime. The society was a monarchy.
The society of the Anglo-Saxons was divided into six social classes and as for the Celts also for them a person's social class may change over a lifetime. The society was a monarchy.
The society of the Anglo-Saxons was divided into six social classes and as for the Celts also for them a person's social class may change over a lifetime. The society was a monarchy.
Kings
The king was lord over his kingdom, providing protection through war or diplomacy for his people. It was through war more than any other activity (such as trade), that the Anglo-saxons accrued their wealth and a victorious king was expected to be generous with his spoils. Gifts of land and other forms of material wealth like silver, weapons and jewellery had to be shared amongst his supporters and followers, otherwise a miserly king would find himself alone on the battlefield and his friends pledging themselves to his enemy.The right to rule could of course be handed down from father to son but there were many instances where brothers, uncles and cousins, even distant cousins, could lay claim to the throne. A new king had to be approved by the witan, a council of community leaders who acted as advisors to the king. If they approved then he would be coronated, however if the candidate did not meet with their approval they could choose a more worthy man from the royal family. They also had the power to force their king to abdicate in favour of another however this happened rarely.
Kings
Aeldormen
Aeldormen
Beneath the king were the aeldormen, roughly equivalent to the earls and dukes of later periods. Obviously the king could not be at all places at once controlling and protecting his people, which is where the aeldormen come in. More often than not an aeldorman was a member of the kings household who was depended upon to control a shire or district for him. Sometimes these men were the king’s male relatives or trusted friends but the title was not hereditary and could be removed and given to another at the king’s pleasure. This may come about if the aeldorman became too wealthy and influential. An aeldorman after all was in a basic sense a small scale king with his own kingdom or shire of loyal workers and fighters. If he was a good and just lord who was often victorious in battle and shared his war winnings with his people, he could become richer and more influential than the king.
Thanes
Below the Aeldormen were the thanes, roughly equivalent to the later medieval knight. The word thane literally means ‘one who serves another’, and in the earliest of Anglo-saxon history they started off as the king’s body guard and in some instances were even the predecessors of the aeldormen. These men would stick by their lord’s side, eating and sleeping in the halls with the lord and his family. It was a position of great pride and priveledge with many poems and stories from the era celebrating the great bond between a lord and his fighting men. Often times this ideal of serving ones lord was so great that to not seek vengeance on your lord’s killer was a disgrace, as was the very act of surviving him in battle.
Thanes
Ceorl
If you were not part of the aristocratic set, and let’s face it many of us will come under this next group, then you were a peasant worker known as a ceorl (churl). These were freemen who worked the land or else provided a service or trade such as metal working, carpentry, weaving etc.
Ceorl
Peasants
The peasants are regarded as the modern day labourers and farmers, just below the geneatas. They were also free men who owned and farmed, however their rent was paid through service on the lord’s land. A peasants was expected to render at least one day a week on his lords land. Once this was done he would be paid by the lord’s reeve or other servant with a sheaf wheat or corn as a bonus. Other duties may include coastguard duty and services incidental to the lord’s hunting activities.
Peasants
Slaves
Slaves
And of course on the lowest rung of the social ladder were the slaves, also called theows. These were people who had no freedoms, owned no land, could not fight in the fyrd, and served every whim of their masters.
There were a number of ways in which one became a slave, the most obvious of which was through the misfortune of birth. In such a society dominated by raiding and warfare, the losers were often enslaved by the victors as well. As a slave the child would now expect to be feed and clothed by his master, something that before his family struggled to provide. It was not the most ideal situation but it meant survival.
And of course there were always routes out of slavery as well. If the family saved enough or came across good times again they had the chance to ransom back their family members. If the debt was their own then they could also be freed once the amount of the debt had been rendered through his service as a slave. There were many ways through which a slave could earn his freedom, thereby becoming a gebur and continuing his way back through the system.
Celtic family life
The term "family" is a bit misleading because the Celts practiced a peculiar form of child raising; they didn't raise the kids by themselves, but children were actually raised by foster parents.
Celtic family life
The basic unit of Celtic life was the clan, a sort of extended family. The term "family" is a bit misleading because the Celts practiced a peculiar form of child raising: they didn't raise their kids by themselves, but children were actually raised by foster parents. The children lived at home with their parents until they were about 7 years old. Then the were placed in foster-families (the foster-father was often the brother of the birth-mother). The parents had to pay for this and girls were more expensive than boys, even if the girls stayed with their foster-parents until the age of 14, while the boys stayed until they were 17. In the foster-homes children learned the skills they would need for life. For boys from the warrior class it was important to excel in warfare skills.
SOURCES
ANGLO-SAXONS
https://regia.org/research/history/Saxons1.htm
https://ahgray.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/anglo-saxon-social-ladder-from-kings-to-slaves/
http://www.tha-engliscan-gesithas.org.uk/education/anglo-saxon-families
CELTS
http://www.ivargault.com/kelterne/celts.html
http://www.angelfire.com/wi/THECELTS/CelticSociety.html
https://www.britainexpress.com/History/Celtic_Britain.htm