The Anglo-Saxons and How They Got That Way
Here are the links about the Prittlewell finds.
A few of the Sutton Hoo treasures can be seen here. You can probably find more with google.
Lecture notes from Tuesday's class on Anglo-Saxon history:
According to legend, the Anglo-Saxons were invited by the Celtic king, Vortigern, who was being harassed by the Picts. The Anglo-Saxons, led by Hengist and Horsa, showed up and decided they’d just take the land themselves.
We have this story only from Bede. He’s a historian who wrote in 730 about early English history. We know him chiefly for this, the author of the Historia Ecclesiastica, although contemporaries knew him as an expert on chronology (he largely popularized dating from the birth of Christ).
At any rate, a slew of Germanic invaders showed up and colonized. This interaction did not end up in a host of Celtic words entering English, for whatever reason. The AS were pagan when they came and displaced the Christianized Celts. The conversion of the AS came from two directions—Ireland and Rome.
Serious attempts were made at conversion starting in 597. St. Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory the Great to convert the people. Supposedly Greg had seen some AS slaves for sale in the marketplace in Rome and was saddened by the thought that all these people weren’t being saved. He punned, supposedly on their names (angli/angeli), the name of their king (aelle / alleluia), and the name of their kingdom (deiria / de ira). Again, we have this from Bede.
As conversion took place, the Anglo-Saxons began using their native styles of poetry and oral recitation to relate Christian stories. This is the main thrust of the story of Caedmon, a cowherd at the abbey of Whitby under the supervision of Abbess Hild. Caedmon received divine inspiration in a dream and after that was able to compose verse in the heroic style about Biblical stories.
Early Anglo-Saxon literature mentions spectacular treasures, the truth of which was confirmed by the finds at Sutton Hoo (see link above).
"Anglo-Saxon England" is a misnomer. For most of the period between 450 and 1066, there was no unified political state. Even after all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were under one king, the kingdom was not identical to modern-day England.
In the late 8th century, Vikings from Denmark began raiding monasteries. By the ninth century they were trying to invade in earnest. They moved down from a strong base around York, until the only kingdom still under the Anglo-Saxon rulers was Wessex.
However, the king of Wessex, Alfred the Great, managed to hold them off. After the battle of Eddington in 878, he and the Vikings drew up a treaty that left him the southern part of Britian (Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, and Kent) and allowed the Vikings Northumbria. Whew! Otherwise, English might sound very different.
A few of the Sutton Hoo treasures can be seen here. You can probably find more with google.
Lecture notes from Tuesday's class on Anglo-Saxon history:
According to legend, the Anglo-Saxons were invited by the Celtic king, Vortigern, who was being harassed by the Picts. The Anglo-Saxons, led by Hengist and Horsa, showed up and decided they’d just take the land themselves.
We have this story only from Bede. He’s a historian who wrote in 730 about early English history. We know him chiefly for this, the author of the Historia Ecclesiastica, although contemporaries knew him as an expert on chronology (he largely popularized dating from the birth of Christ).
At any rate, a slew of Germanic invaders showed up and colonized. This interaction did not end up in a host of Celtic words entering English, for whatever reason. The AS were pagan when they came and displaced the Christianized Celts. The conversion of the AS came from two directions—Ireland and Rome.
Serious attempts were made at conversion starting in 597. St. Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory the Great to convert the people. Supposedly Greg had seen some AS slaves for sale in the marketplace in Rome and was saddened by the thought that all these people weren’t being saved. He punned, supposedly on their names (angli/angeli), the name of their king (aelle / alleluia), and the name of their kingdom (deiria / de ira). Again, we have this from Bede.
As conversion took place, the Anglo-Saxons began using their native styles of poetry and oral recitation to relate Christian stories. This is the main thrust of the story of Caedmon, a cowherd at the abbey of Whitby under the supervision of Abbess Hild. Caedmon received divine inspiration in a dream and after that was able to compose verse in the heroic style about Biblical stories.
Early Anglo-Saxon literature mentions spectacular treasures, the truth of which was confirmed by the finds at Sutton Hoo (see link above).
"Anglo-Saxon England" is a misnomer. For most of the period between 450 and 1066, there was no unified political state. Even after all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were under one king, the kingdom was not identical to modern-day England.
In the late 8th century, Vikings from Denmark began raiding monasteries. By the ninth century they were trying to invade in earnest. They moved down from a strong base around York, until the only kingdom still under the Anglo-Saxon rulers was Wessex.
However, the king of Wessex, Alfred the Great, managed to hold them off. After the battle of Eddington in 878, he and the Vikings drew up a treaty that left him the southern part of Britian (Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, and Kent) and allowed the Vikings Northumbria. Whew! Otherwise, English might sound very different.
posted by Rebecca Brackmann at
8:33 AM
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