ENG IV - Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Other Invaders

Anglo-Saxon Culture

• They strongly believed in fate ( called Wyrd)

• Believed accumulated treasures amount to success

• Fame and fortune zealously sought after

• Loyalty to one’s leader crucial

• Importance of pagan, Germanic, and Christian ideals to people whose lives were often hard and uncertain

• Fierce, hardy life of warrior and seamen

• Strength, courage, leadership abilities appreciated

• Boisterous yet elaborately ritualized customs of the mead-hall

• Expected the hero to boast

ANGLO SAXON STORIES

• Stories were old and passed down for years via an oral culture
• Monks and clerics finally wrote the stories down (with a some big changes)
• Stories were passed around by traveling scops (old English poet)

• Anglo-Saxon literature shares common themes and ideals of conduct. Many reflect societies of loyalty, strength, and courage; and consider fame and glory the noblest end of a warrior.

Elements of Anglo-Saxon Poetry

• Chant-like effect of the four-beat line

• Alliteration (“Then the grim man in green gathers his strength”)

• Caesura-pause or break in a line of poetry (“Oft to the wanderer weary of exile”)

• Kenning-metaphorical phrase used instead of a name (“battle-blade” and “ring-giver”)

• Epithet-description name to characterize something (“keen-edge sword”)

• Hyperbole-exaggeration

Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Other Invaders

"Songs of Ancient Heroes"

Tribal Life

• Each tribe had a king.
• The country was not unified. (Alfred the Great did consolidate a great deal around 886.)
• Life centered around the king and his warriors
• During the Anglo-Saxon period, Christianity began to be spread. (Monasteries and convents were established.)
• After Alfred the Great united the country, the rule passed along through central power. Edward the Confessor was the last strong king.
• When he died, Harold II inherited and was not a strong king. This led him to be vulnerable to attack from the Normans. William the Conqueror claimed the throne and subsequently ended the Anglo-Saxon era of British history.

"HORRIBLE HISTORIES:

SAXON INVASION INVASION INVASION"

Angles, Saxons and Jutes

These Germanic tribes invaded in 449. The people left vulnerable from the Roman withdrawal basically gave up. (Actually the Fresians were also with them, but no one talks about that tribe…poor Fresians…

Roman Decline

• Picts were attacking from Northern Scotland. They were a tribal people associated with piracy and raiding.
• Anglo-Saxons fought on the coast.
• AND... the French (early Normans) came in from the east...

When Rome came under attack in 410, an order arrived to send troops to Rome; by 425 A.D., they were not a power anymore.

The Anglo-Saxon Period

Roman Influence

The relatively small group of islands now known as Great Britain have been invaded and settled many times: first by ancient people we call the Iberians, then by the Celts (kelts), the Romans, the Angles and Saxons, the Vikings, and the Normans. Whatever we think of as British today owes something to each of these invaders. The language of the Anglo-Saxons gave this land its name-- Angleland, Engla land, or England. During this period a distinct form of English literature developed and helped to define the English national character.

Claimed in 55 BC by Julius Caesar but occupied around 43 AD.

• Straight roads
• Sewers
• Running water
• Baths
• City planning
• Urban development

1000 BC

11111

A warrior class emerges, farming communities emerge, and a social order begins to form.

In your notes, jot down what you think life would be like in a culture with a “warrior” class as a social class.

4000 BC

Evidence, such as pottery in burial chambers and village debris, establishes several small permanent settlements in England.

Druids

(around 500 BC)

• A very tribal
• Governed by group of wise men (selected for their experience)
• Druid priests believed in magic and used signs to advise the witan (the council of wise men)
• They established more permanent settlements
• Stories were recited to preserve the history in addition to art
• The culture still produced warriors

Between 3000 BC and 1500 BC

BRITISH HISTORICAL EVENTS

449 AD: Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invade Britain

537 AD: King Arthur dies at the Battle of Camlann

597 AD: St. Augustine converts Anglo-Saxon King Ethelbert and establishes monastery at Canterbury.

793 AD: Vikings invade Britain, beginning of a century of invasions.

1066 AD: Normans invade England and defeat the Saxons; William the Conqueror becomes English King

Tombs and graves reflect some groups with extensive rituals, but other groups practiced “corpse exposure” instead.

Stones circles were created. The purpose seems unclear, but the circles are well planned and still exist

ENGLISH IV

Manning