Anglo-Saxons

For other uses, see Anglo-Saxon (disambiguation).

tury 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 peoples adoption of Christianity, and
was integral to the establishment of various kingdoms.
Threatened by extended Danish invasions and 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 identied 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 eects persist in the 21st century as, according to a study published in March 2015, the genetic make up 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. Assigning ethnic labels such as
Anglo-Saxon is fraught with diculties. This term
began to be used only in the 8th century to distinguish
the Germanic groups in Britain from those on the
continent.[7][lower-alpha 1] 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]

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 people who inhabited Great

Britain from the 5th century. They comprised people
from Germanic tribes who migrated to the island from
continental Europe, their descendants, and indigenous
British groups who adopted some aspects of Anglo-Saxon
culture and language. The Anglo-Saxon period denotes
the period of British history between about 450 and 1066, 1 Ethnonym
after their initial settlement and up until the Norman conquest.[1]
The Old English ethnonym Angul-Seaxan comes from
The Anglo-Saxon period includes the creation of an the Latin Angli-Saxones and became the name of the peoEnglish nation, with many of the aspects that sur- ples Bede calls Anglorum[9] and Gildas calls Saxones.[10]
vive today, including regional government of shires and Anglo-Saxon is a term that was rarely used by Anglohundreds. During this period, Christianity was re- Saxons themselves; it is not an autonym. It is likely
established and there was a owering of literature and they identied as ngli, Seaxe or, more probably, a
language. Charters and law were also established.[2] The local or tribal name such as Mierce, Cantie, Gewisse,
term Anglo-Saxon is popularly used for the language that Westseaxe, or Noranhymbre. Also, the use of Anglowas spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons in England Saxon disguises the extent to which people identied
and eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th cen- as Anglo-Scandinavian after the Viking age or the con1

EARLY ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY (410660)

quest of 1016, or as Anglo-Norman after the Norman Suebi, Frisii and Franks; they were later pushed westconquest.[11]
wards by the Huns, Avars, Slavs, Bulgars and Alans.[22]
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 rst 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.

By the year 400, southern Britain that is Britain below Hadrians 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.[23]

2.1 Migration (c.410-c.560)

Main article: Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain

The Christian church seems to have used the word Angli; The traditional narrative of this period is one of decline
for example in the story of Pope Gregory I and his remark, "Non Angli sed angeli" (not English but angels).[14]
the terms nglisc ('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 rst 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 Norhymbra imperator paganorum gubernator Brittanorumque propugnator (king of the AngloSaxons 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.
The term Engla cyningc (King of the English) is used by
thelred. King Cnut in 1021 was the rst to refer to the
land and not the people with this term: ealles Englalandes
cyningc (King of all England).[16] These titles express the
sense that the Anglo-Saxons were a Christian people with The migrations according to Bede, who wrote some 300 years
after the event; there is archeological evidence that the settlers in
a king anointed by God.[17]
England came from many of these continental locations

The indigenous Common Brittonic speakers referred to

Anglo-Saxons as Saxones or possibly Saeson (the word and fall, invasion and migration; however, Heinrich Hrke
Saeson is the modern Welsh word for 'English people'); states:
the equivalent word in Scottish Gaelic is Sasannach and
in the Irish language, Sasanach.[18] Catherine Hills sugIt is now widely accepted that the Anglogests that it is no accident, that the English call themSaxons were not just transplanted Germanic
selves by the name sanctied by the Church, as that of
invaders and settlers from the Continent,
a people chosen by God, whereas their enemies use the
but the outcome of insular interactions and
name originally applied to piratical raiders.[19]
changes.[24]

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 Vlkerwanderung[20] (migration of peoples in German). This was a period of intensied human migration in Europe from about 400 to
800.[21][lower-alpha 2] The migrants were Germanic tribes
such as the Goths, Vandals, Angles, Saxons, Lombards,

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 suered various defeats
and misfortunes, are reduced to Saxon rule. [25] 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.

2.1

Migration (c.410-c.560)

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,[26] 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 signicant number of items now in phases before
Bedes date.[27]

3
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 inection had considerable
value.[1]

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,[28] 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 identied 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 Bedes statement about the origins of the
tribes.[29]
Scholars have not reached consensus on the number of
migrants who entered Britain in this period. Heinrich
Hrke suggests that the gure is around 100,000,[30]
based on the molecular evidence. But, archaeologists
such as Christine Hills[31] and Richard Hodges[32] suggest
the number is nearer 20,000. By around 500 the AngloSaxon migrants were established in southern and eastern
Britain.[33]
What happened to the indigenous Brittonic people is
also subject to question. Heinrich Hrke and Richard
Coates[34] point out that they are invisible archaeologically and linguistically. But based on a fairly high
Anglo-Saxon gure (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 gures 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.[35] The development of AngloSaxon 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.[36]
The second process is explained through incentives. Nick
The Tribal Hidage, from an edition of Henry Spelman's GlosHigham summarized in this way:
sarium 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.[37] The archaeological evidence shows considerable continuity in the system of landscape and local
governance,[38] which was inherited from the indigenous
community. There is evidence for a fusion of culture in
this early period.[39] 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.[40][41] A number of
Cerdics alleged descendants also possessed Celtic names,
including the 'Bretwalda' Ceawlin.[42] The last man in this
dynasty to have a Brythonic name was King Caedwalla,
who died as late as 689.[43]

2.2

EARLY ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY (410660)

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.[50]
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 inuential and potent roll call of warrior elites.[51] Importantly, whatever their origin or whenever they ourished,
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.[52]
The process from warrior to cyning Old English for king
is described in Beowulf:

Development of an Anglo-Saxon society (560610)

2.3 Conversion to Christianity (590660)

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.[44] The farmer had freedom and rights
over lands, with provision of a rent or duty to an overlord
who provided only slight lordly input.[lower-alpha 3] Most of
this land was common outeld arable land (of an outeldineld system) that provided individuals with the means
to build a basis of kinship and group cultural ties.[45]
The Tribal Hidage lists thirty-ve peoples, or tribes, with
assessments in hides, which may have originally been
dened as the area of land sucient to maintain one
family.[46] The assessments in the Hidage reect the relative size of the provinces.[47] Although varying in size, all
thirty-ve 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. [lower-alpha 4] By the
end of the sixth century, larger kingdoms had become established on the south or east coasts.[49] They include the
provinces of the Jutes of Hampshire and Wight, the South

thelstan 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 inuence of

5
the monastery of Iona would grow into what Peter Brown 3 Middle
Anglo-Saxon history
has described as an unusually extensive spiritual em(660899)
pire, 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 By 660 the political map of Lowland Britain had developed with smaller territories coalescing into kingdoms,
inuence of its sister monastery Lindisfarne.[54]
from this time larger kingdoms started dominating the
In June 597 Columba died. At this time, Augustine smaller kingdoms. The development of kingdoms, with
landed on the Isle of Thanet and proceeded to King a particular king being recognised as an overlord, develthelberht's main town of Canterbury. He had been the oped out of an early loose structure that, Higham beprior of a monastery in Rome when Pope Gregory the lieves, is linked back to the original feodus.[59] The traGreat chose him in 595 to lead the Gregorian mission to ditional name for this period is the Heptarchy, which has
Britain to Christianise the Kingdom of Kent from their not been used by scholars since the early 20th century[47]
native Anglo-Saxon paganism. Kent was probably cho- as it gives the impression of a single political structure and
sen because thelberht had married a Christian princess, does not aord the opportunity to treat the history of
Bertha, daughter of Charibert I the King of Paris, who any one kingdom as a whole.[60] Simon Keynes suggests
was expected to exert some inuence over her husband. that the 8th and 9th century was period of economic and
thelberht was converted to Christianity, churches were social ourishing which created stability both below the
established, and wider-scale conversion to Christianity Thames and above the Humber. Many areas ourished
began in the kingdom. thelberhts law for Kent, the ear- and their inuence was felt across the continent, however
liest written code in any Germanic language, instituted in between the Humber and Thames, one political entity
a complex system of nes. Kent was rich, with strong grew in inuence and power and to the East these develtrade ties to the continent, and thelberht may have in- opments in Britain attracted attention.[60]
stituted royal control over trade. For the rst time following the Anglo-Saxon invasion, coins began circulating in
Kent during his reign.
3.1 Mercian supremacy (626821)
In 635 Aidan, an Irish monk from Iona chose the Isle of
Lindisfarne to establish a monastery and close to King Main article: Mercian Supremacy
Oswald's main fortress of Bamburgh. He had been at the Middle-lowland Britain was known as the place of 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 ed 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 Aidans interpreter when the latter
was preaching.[55] 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. [lower-alpha 5] and in his memory
a gospel (known as the St Cuthbert Gospel) was placed
in his con. The decorated leather bookbinding is the
oldest intact European binding.[57]
In 664, the Synod of Whitby was convened and established Roman 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.[58] The episcopal seat of Northumbria was
transferred from Lindisfarne to York. Wilfrid, chief ad- A political map of Britain c650 (the names are in modern Envocate for the Roman position, later became Bishop of glish)
Northumbria, while Colmn and the Ionan supporters,
who did not change their practices, withdrew to Iona.
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

3 MIDDLE ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY (660899)

speaking peoples and Anglo-Saxon pioneers and their

early leaders had Brythonic names, such as Penda.[61] Although Penda does not appear in Bedes 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 Winwd, 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 not only 106 kings and kingdoms by winning
set-piece battles,[62] 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.[63] In 676 thelred
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.[61]
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 aected by Mercian expansionism. The East Saxons seem to have lost control of
London, Middlesex and Hertfordshire to thelbald, although the East Saxon homelands do not seem to have
been aected, and the East Saxon dynasty continued into
the ninth century.[64] The Mercian inuence 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 Oa's
power and accordingly treated him with respect, even if
this could have been just attery.[65]

3.2

Learning and monasticism (660793)

Michael Drout calls this period the Golden Age, when

learning ourishes with a renaissance in classical knowledge. The growth and popularity of monasticism was not
an entirely internal development, with inuence from the
continent shaping Anglo-Saxon monastic life.[66] 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).[67] One of their rst 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.[68] As evidence of
their teaching, Bede reports that some of their students,

who survived to his own day were as uent 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.[69]
Aldhelm wrote in elaborate and grandiloquent and very
dicult 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.[70] During this period, the wealth
and power of the monasteries increased as elite families,
possibly out of power, turned to monastic life.[71]
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 inuential
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.[72]
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).

3.3 West Saxon hegemony and the AngloScandinavian Wars (793878)

Main articles: Viking Age and Danelaw
The 9th century saw the rise of Wessex, from the foundations laid by King Egbert in the rst 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.[73] On the day of Egberts
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.[74] In 829 Egbert went on, the chronicler reports, to conquer the kingdom of the Mercians
and everything south of the Humber.[75] It was at this
point that the chronicler chose to attach Egberts name
to Bedes list of seven overlords, adding that he was the
eighth king who was Bretwalda.[76] Simon Keynes suggests Egberts foundation of a 'bipartite' kingdom is crucial as it stretched across southern England, and it cre-

3.3

West Saxon hegemony and the Anglo-Scandinavian Wars (793878)

tinental Europe, mostly Danes and Norwegians. Due to

the plundering raids that followed, the raiders attracted
the name Viking from the Old Norse vkingr meaning
an expedition which soon became used for the raiding
activity or piracy reported in western Europe.[78] In 793,
Lindisfarne was raided and while this was not the rst 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.

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

ated a working alliance between the West Saxon dynasty

and the rulers of the Mercians.[77] In 860 the eastern and
western parts of the southern kingdom were united by
agreement between the surviving sons of King thelwulf, 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 thelred, who in other circumstances might
have been styled a king, but who under the Alfredian
regime was regarded as the 'ealdorman' of his people.

Viking raids continued until in 850, then the Chronicle

says: The heathen for the rst time remained over the
winter. The eet 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 kings thane' (ASC), and perhaps others in Northumbria in 867 and East Anglia in
870.[75] The third phase was an era of settlement; however, the 'Great Army' went wherever it could nd 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.[75] 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 peoples 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.[79]

Danish settlement continued in Mercia in 877 and East

Anglia in 87980 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 ghting
force.[75] At rst, Alfred responded by the oer of repeated tribute payments. However, after a decisive victory at Edington in 878, Alfred oered vigorous opposition. He established a chain of fortresses across the south
of England, reorganised the army, so that always half its
Anglo-Saxon-Viking Coin weight. Material is lead and weighs men were at home, and half out on service, except for
approx 36 g. Embedded with a sceat dating to 720-750 AD and those men who were to garrison the burhs (A.SC s.a.
minted in Kent. It is edged in dotted triangle pattern. Origin is 893),[75] and in 896 ordered a new type of craft to be
the Danelaw region and dates late 8th to 9th century. photo by built which could oppose the Viking longships in shalmyself
low coastal waters. When the Vikings returned from the
Continent in 892, they found they could no longer roam
The wealth of the monasteries and the success of Anglo- the country at will, for wherever they went they were opSaxon society attracted the attention of people from con-

4 LATE ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY (8991066)

posed 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.[75]

3.4

King Alfred and the rebuilding (878

899)

was Gregory the Greats Cura Pastoralis (Pastoral Care).

This is a priests 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 stel worth fty mancuses.
And I command in Gods name that no man
may take the stel 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
Greats Pastoral Care)[81]
What is presumed to be one of these "stel (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 tted 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.[83]

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 Alfreds work laid the foundations for what really makes England unique in all of medieval Europe from
around 800 until 1066.[80] What is also unique is that we
can discover some of this in Alfreds own words:

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 Greats Pastoral
Care)[81]

Thinking about how learning and culture had fallen since This set in train a growth in charters, law, theology and
the last century, he wrote:
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...So completely had wisdom fallen o in
Saxon culture.
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
I desired to live worthily as long as I lived,
from Latin into English; and I believe that there
and to leave after my life, to the men who
were not many beyond the Humber. There
should come after me, the memory of me in
were so few of them that I indeed cannot think
good works. (Preface: The Consolation of
of a single one south of the Thames when I
Philosophy by Boethius)[81]
became king. (Preface: Gregory the Greats
Pastoral Care)[81]

4 Late Anglo-Saxon history (899

Alfred knew that literature and learning, both in English

1066)
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 oce, a shepherd for his A framework for the momentous events of the 10th and
people.[82] One book that was particularly valuable to him 11th centuries is provided by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

4.2

Athelred and the return of the Scandinavians (9781016)

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 dierent 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.[84]

4.1

Reform and formation of England

(899978)

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 rst over Mercia, then into the
southern Danelaw, and nally 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.[85] This process started with Edward the Elder
who with his sister, theld, Lady of the Mercians,
initially, charters reveal, encouraged people to purchase
estates from the Danes, thereby to reassert some degree
of English inuence 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.[86] When Atheld 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.[85]

who Simon Keynes calls the towering gure in the landscape of the tenth century.[87] 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 rst
king of England.[88] thelstans legislation shows how the
king drove his ocials to do their respective duties. He
was uncompromising in his insistence on respect for the
law. However this legislation also reveals the persistent
diculties 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.[89] 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 aairs, 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 thelstans death in 939
that a unied kingdom of England began to assume its
familiar shape. However, the major political problem
for Edmund and Eadred, who succeeded thelstan, remained the diculty of subjugating the north.[90] 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.[90] By the early 970s, after a decade of
Edgars '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 diering ways of observing the
customs of one Rule and one country should bring their
holy conversation into disrepute.[91]
Athelstans court had been an intellectual incubator. In
that court were two young men named Dunstan and
thelwold who were made priests, supposedly at the insistence of Athelstan, right at the end of his reign in
939.[92] 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 rst time. In 973, Edgar received a special
second, 'imperial coronation' at Bath, and from this point
England was ruled by Edgar under the strong inuence of
Dunstan, Athelwold, and Oswald, the Bishop of Worcester.

4.2 Athelred and the return of the Scandinavians (9781016)

The reign of King thelred the Unready witnessed the

Edward the Elder was succeeded by his son thelstan, resumption of Viking raids on England, putting the coun-

10
try 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 100912, 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
101314, and (after thelreds restoration) for his son
Cnut to achieve the same in 101516. The tale of these
years incorporated in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle must be
read in its own right,[93] and set beside other material
which reects in one way or another on the conduct of
government and warfare during thelreds reign.[94] It
is this evidence which is the basis for Simon Keyness
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 thelwold 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 aairs of the kingdom appear to have prospered.[95]

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

The increasingly dicult times brought on by the Viking

attacks are reected in both lfric's and Wulfstan's
works, but most notably in Wulfstans erce rhetoric in
the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, dated to 1014.[96] 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 lfric and Wulfstan
writings,[97] which is similar to that of Gildas and Bede.
Raids were signs of God punishing his people, lfric
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 country-

4 LATE ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY (8991066)

women practiced at beer parties.[98]
In April 1016 thelred died of illness, leaving his son
and successor Edmund Ironside to defend the country.
The nal struggles were complicated by internal dissension, and especially by the treacherous acts of Ealdorman
Eadric of Mercia, who opportunistically changed sides to
Cnuts 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.[99]

4.3 Conquest England: Danes, Norwegians and Normans (10161066)

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 ramications were felt then, they would
be subsumed half a century later; and in 1066 there was
nothing to predict that the eects of Williams conquest
would be any greater or more lasting than those of Cnuts.
In this period and beyond the Ango-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 ofcial 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.[100]
At rst sight, there would seem little to debate. Cnut
appears to have adopted wholeheartedly the traditional
role of Anglo-Saxon kingship.[101] 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.[102] Eric John has remarked that for Cnut the
simple diculty of exercising so wide and so unstable an
empire made it necessary to practice a delegation of authority against every tradition of English kingship.[103]
The disappearance of the aristocratic families which had
traditionally played an active role in the governance of
the realm, coupled with Cnuts choice of thegnly advisors,
put an end to the balanced relationship between monarchy and aristocracy so carefully forged by the West Saxon

11
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 Cnuts 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 kings introduction of Norman friends. A
crisis arose in 1051 when Godwine deed the kings order to punish the men of Dover, who had resisted an attempt by Eustace of Boulogne to quarter his men on them
by force.[104] 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 Williams
cause.[104]

am mannum e him gelstan woldon, r

wear micel wl geslgen on gre healfe.
r wear ofslgen Harold kyng, Leofwine
eorl his broor, Gyr eorl his broor, fela godra manna, a Frencyscan ahton wlstowe
geweald.
Then came William, the Earl of Normandy, into Pevensey on the evening of
St.Michaels mass, and soon as his men
were ready, they built a fortress at Hastings
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.[105]

5 After the Norman Conquest

Following the conquest, the Anglo-Saxon nobility were

either exiled or joined the ranks of the peasantry.[106]
It has been estimated that only about 8 per cent of
the land was under Anglo-Saxon control by 1087.[107]
Many Anglo-Saxon nobles ed to Scotland, Ireland, and
Scandinavia.[108][109] The Byzantine Empire became a
popular destination for many Anglo-Saxon soldiers, as
the Byzantines were in need of mercenaries.[110] The
Anglo-Saxons became the predominant element in the
elite Varangian Guard, hitherto a largely North Germanic
unit, from which the emperors bodyguard was drawn
and continued to serve the empire until the early 15th
[111]
However, the population of England at home
Depiction of the Battle of Hastings (1066) on the Bayeux century.
remained largely Anglo-Saxon; for them, little changed
Tapestry
immediately except that their Anglo-Saxon lord was replaced by a Norman lord.[112]
The fall of England and the Norman Conquest is a multigenerational, multi-family succession problem caused in The chronicler Orderic Vitalis (1075 c. 1142), himself
great part by Athelreds incompetence. By the time the product of an Anglo-Norman marriage, wrote: And
William from Normandy, sensing an opportunity, landed so the English groaned aloud for their lost liberty and plothis invading force in 1066, the elite of Anglo-Saxon Eng- ted ceaselessly to nd some way of shaking o a yoke that
land had changed, although much of the culture and so- was so intolerable and unaccustomed.[113] The inhabitants of the North and Scotland never warmed to the Norciety had stayed the same.
mans following the Harrying of the North (10691070),
where William, according to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle
a com Wyllelm eorl of Normandige into
utterly ravaged and laid waste that shire.[114]
Pefnesea on Sancte Michles mssefen, sona
s hi fere wron, worhton castel t Hstingaport. is wear a Harolde cynge gecydd, he
gaderade a mycelne here, com him togenes t
re haran apuldran, Wyllelm him com ongean
on unwr, r is folc gefylced wre. Ac se
kyng eah him swie heardlice wi feaht mid

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,

12
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.[115] But this language had deep roots in AngloSaxon, 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.[116] 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
Meithhadthese last two teaching how to be a good anchoress and arguing for the goodness of virginity).[117]
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 dierent kinds
of verbs.[116]

LIFE AND SOCIETY

Anglo-Saxon king with his witan. Biblical scene in the Illustrated

Old English Hexateuch (11th century)

tracted surplus by raiding and collecting food renders

and 'prestige goods.[121] 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 rst princely graves and high-status settlements.[122]
These centres of trade and production reect the increased socio-political stratication and wider territorial
authority which allowed seventh-century elites to extract
and redistribute surpluses with far greater eectiveness
than their sixth-century predecessors would have found
possible.[123] Anglo-Saxon society, in short, looked very
dierent in 600 than it did a hundred years earlier.

The Anglo-Saxons had always been dened very closely

to the language, now this language gradually changed, and
although some people (like the famous scribe known as
the Tremulous Hand of Worcester) could read Old English in the thirteenth century. Soon afterwards, it 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 sh-based glue sitting on top By 600, the establishment of the rst Anglo-Saxon 'emof it. For Michael Drout this symbolises the end of the poria' was in prospect. There seem to have been over
Anglo-Saxons.[118]
thirty of such units, many of which were certainly controlled by kings, in the parts of Britain which the AngloSaxons controlled. Bedes use of the term imperium has
been seen as signicant in dening the status and pow6 Life and society
ers of the bretwaldas, in fact it is a word Bede used regularly as an alternative to regnum; scholars believe this
The larger narrative, seen in the history of Anglo-Saxon just meant the collection of tribute.[124] Oswius extenEngland, is the continued mixing and integration of vari- sion of overlordship over the Picts and Scots is expressed
ous disparate elements into one Anglo-Saxon people. The in terms of making them tributary. Military overlordship
outcome of this mixing and integration was a continuous could bring great short-term success and wealth, but the
re-interpretation by the Anglo-Saxons of their society and system had its disadvantages. Many of the overlords enworldview, which Heinreich Hrke calls a complex and joyed their powers for a relatively short period.[lower-alpha 6]
ethnically mixed society.[119]
Foundations had to be carefully laid to turn a tributepaying under-kingdom into a permanent acquisition, such
as Bernician absorption of Deira.[125] The smaller king6.1 Kingship and kingdoms
doms did not disappear without trace once they were incorporated into larger polities; on the contrary their terThe development of Anglo-Saxon kingship is little un- ritorial integrity was preserved when they became ealderstood but the model proposed by Yorke,[120] consid- dormanries or, depending on size, parts of ealdormanries
ered the development of kingdoms and writing down within their new kingdoms. An obvious example of this
of the oral law-codes to be linked to a progression to- tendency for later boundaries to preserve earlier arrangewards leaders providing mund and receiving recognition. ments is Sussex; the county boundary is essentially the
These leaders who developed in the sixth century, were same as that of the West Saxon shire and the Anglo-Saxon
able to seize the initiative and to establish a position of kingdom.[126] The Witan, also called Witenagemot, was
power for themselves and their successors. Anglo-Saxon the council of kings; its essential duty was to advise the
leaders, unable to tax and coerce followers instead ex- king on all matters on which he chose to ask its opin-

6.2

Religion and the church

ion. 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 disaection.

13
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 aairs 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.[132] 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.[85]

By 800 only ve Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are denitely

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
6.2
king who through his wealth won the support which would
[127]
ensure his supremacy over other kingdoms.
King Alfreds digressions in his translation of Boethius Consolation of Philosophy, provided these observations about the
resources which every king needed:

Religion and the church

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.[128]
This is the rst 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
full 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.[129] 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.[130]
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 inghting within the royal house
would emerge as the dominant kingdom in the ninth century. The nobility under the inuence of Alfred became involved with developing the cultural life of their
kingdom.[131] As the kingdom became one they brought

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 rst of King Alfreds three-fold Anglo-Saxon society

are praying men; people who work at prayer. Although
Christianity dominates the religious history of the AngloSaxons, life in the 5th/6th centuries was dominated by
'pagan' religious beliefs with a Scando-Germanic heritage.
Early Anglo-Saxon society attached great signicance to
the horse; a horse may have been an acquaintance of the
god Wodan, and/or they may have been (according to
Tacitus) condants 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.[133] Horses were prominent symbols of fertility, and there were many horse fertility cults. The
rituals associated with these include horse ghts, burials, consumption of horse meat, and horse sacrice.[134]
Hengist and Horsa, the mythical ancestors of the AngloSaxons, were associated with horses, and references to
horses are found throughout Anglo-Saxon literature.[135]
Actual horse burials in England are relatively rare and

14
may point to inuence from the continent.[136] A wellknown 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.[137] A sixthcentury grave near Lakenheath, Suolk, yielded the body
of a man next to that of a complete horse in harness,
with a bucket of food by its head.[136] Pagan AngloSaxons worshipped at a variety of dierent 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 woh. 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[138]
Bedes story of Cdmon, 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 (Streonshalch 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 Cdmon 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. Cdmon does
not destroy or ignore traditional Anglo-Saxon poetry. Instead, he converts it into something that helps the Church.
Anglo-Saxon England nds 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.[139]
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

LIFE AND SOCIETY

An 8th-century copy of the Rule of St. Benedict

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 eects of this seminar
on the curriculum of learning and study in Anglo-Saxon
England were enormous.[92] Royal power was put behind
the reforming impulses of Dunstan and Athelwold, helping them to enforce their reform ideas. This happened
rst 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 inuenced by the vernacular
eorts of Alfred. From this mixture sprung a great owering of literary production.[140]

6.3 Fighting and warfare

The second element of Alfreds society is ghting 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 oensive 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 Bedes
account of the overthrow of the Northumbrian thelfrith
by Rdwald overlord of the southern English. Rdwald
raised a large army, presumably from among the kings
who accepted his overlordship, and 'not giving him time

6.3

Fighting and warfare

to summon and assemble his whole army, Rdwald met

him with a much greater force and slew him on the Mercian border on the east bank of the river Idle'.[141] 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 Egberts stone.[142] It is not dicult 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 sucient grass for the horses. There is also
information about the mustering of eets in the eleventh
Century. From 992 to 1066 eets 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.[143]
Once they left home these armies and eets 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 tting 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 insucient 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 eld when extra soldiers were needed. The remaining two would take it in
turns to serve. They were allocated a xed 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.[144] This method of division and rotation remained in force right up to 1066. In 917, when
armies from Wessex and Mercia were in the eld from
early April until November, one division went home and
another took over. Again, in 1052 when Edwards eet
was waiting at Sandwich to intercept Godwines return,
the ships returned to London to take on new earls and
crews.[143] The importance of supply, vital to military
success, was appreciated even if it was taken for granted
and features only incidentally in the sources.[145]
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 rst importance in learning
both individual military skills and the teamwork essential for success in battle. Perhaps the games the youthful

15
Cuthbert played ('wrestling, jumping, running, and every
other exercise') had some military signicance.[146] 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 deciencies
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 Bedes 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 eld. Gillingham has shown how
few pitched battles successful Charlemagne and Richard
I chose to ght.[147]
A defensive strategy becomes more apparent in the later
part of Alfreds reign. It was built around the possession
of fortied 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 ght the
Danes to a standstill by their repeated ability to pursue
and closely besiege them in fortied camps at Nottingham, Wareham, Exeter, Chippenham, Rochester, Milton, Appledore, Thorney, Buttington, Chester and Hertford. It was only in the later part of Edward the Elders
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 fortication of sites at Witham, Buckingham, Towcester and Colchester persuaded the Danes of
the surrounding regions to submit.[148] The key to this
warfare was sieges and the control of fortied 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 theld it is clear that a sophisticated and
coordinated strategy was being applied.[149]
There was another means of dealing with military issues.
In 973 a single currency was introduced into England in
order to bring about political unication, 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 rst the raids were probing ventures by small numbers of ships crews, but soon grew
in size and eect, until the only way of dealing with the
Vikings appeared to be to pay protection money to buy
them o: And in that year [991] it was determined that
tribute should rst be paid to the Danish men because of
the great terror they were causing along the coast. The

16

rst payment was 10,000 pounds.[150] 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 aected everyone in
the Kingdom.

6.4

Settlements and working life

Panorama of the reconstructed 7th century village

The third aspect of Alfreds 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 diversication, the development of
enclosures, the beginning of the toft system, closer management of livestock, the gradual spread of the mouldboard 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 signicance in terms
of both settlement and the management of land, which
becomes very evident in the Domesday Book.[151]
The collection of buildings discovered at Yeavering,
formed part of an Anglo-Saxon royal vill or kings 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 Kings 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

LIFE AND SOCIETY

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 denition
of the wider shire of Yeavering and also a geographical
denition of the principal estate whose structures HopeTaylor excavated.[152] One characteristic that the kings
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.[153]
The rst 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 sonamed 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.[154]
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.[155] 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.[156]

6.5 Women, children and slaves

Alfreds 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 dierent 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 dierentiated 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

17
for other legal formulations such as the value of the oath monasteries, perhaps as a means of extending the circle
that they could swear in a court of law. Slaves had no of protection beyond the kin group. Laws also make prowergild, as oences against them were taken to be of- vision for orphaned children and foundlings.[161]
fences 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.[157]
7 Culture
A certain amount of social mobility is implied by regulations detailing the conditions under which a ceorl could
7.1 Architecture
become a thegn. Again these would have been subject to
local variation, but one text refers to the possession of ve
Main article: Anglo-Saxon architecture
hides of land (around 600 acres), a bell and a castle-gate,
Early Anglo-Saxon buildings in Britain were generally
a seat and a special oce in the kings hall. England had
trading connections with the continent, and a merchant
who had travelled overseas three times at his own expense
could similarly be raised to the rank of thegn. 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 AngloSaxons 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.[158]
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 oences 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.[159] Marriage comprised a contract between the
womans 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 womans 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 reected in laws stating that they should
not be forced into nunneries or second marriages against
their will. The system of primogeniture (inheritance by
the rst-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.[160] It was common for
children to be fostered, either in other households or in

Reconstruction of the Anglo-Saxon royal palace at Cheddar

around 1000

simple, not using masonry except in foundations but constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roong.
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.[162]
Only ten of the hundreds of settlement sites that have
been excavated in England from this period have revealed
masonry domestic structures and conned to a few quite
specic contexts. The usual explanation for the tendency
of AngloSaxons 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
Go, suggests[163] that the Anglo-Saxon period was dened by its use of wood, providing evidence for the care
and craftsmanship that the AngloSaxon invested into
their wooden material culture, from cups to halls, and
the concern for trees and timber in AngloSaxon place
names, literature and religion.[164] 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 'cul-

18

7 CULTURE
tural shift' that it is not possible to explain by
recourse to technological determinism.[165]

AngloSaxon building forms were very much part of this

general building tradition. Timber was 'the natural building medium of the age':[166] the very AngloSaxon word
for 'building' is 'timbe'. Unlike in the Carolingian world,
late AngloSaxon 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.[167] 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-oor (Grubenhuser) or post-hole buildings, although Helena
Hamerow suggest this distinction is less clear.[168] Even
the elite had simple buildings, with a central re and a
hole in the roof to let the smoke escape and the largest
of which rarely had more than one oor, 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 oors; a shallow
pit over which a plank oor was suspended. The pit may
have been used for storage, but more likely was lled with
straw for winter insulation. A variation on the sunken
oor design is found in towns, where the basement may
be as deep as 9 feet, suggesting a storage or work area
below a suspended oor. Another common design was
simple post framing, with heavy posts set directly into
the ground, supporting the roof. The space between the
posts was lled in with wattle and daub, or occasionally,
planks. The oors were generally packed earth, though
planks were sometimes used. Roong materials varied,
with thatch being the most common, though turf and
even wooden shingles were also used.[151]

Distinctive Anglo-Saxon pilaster strips on the tower of All Saints

Church, Earls Barton

tar; east of this a chancel arch separated o 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 inuenced 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 MonkwearmouthJarrow. These buildings had long naves and small rectangular chancels; porticus sometimes surrounded the naves.
Elaborate crypts are a feature of Wilfrids buildings. The
best preserved early Northumbrian church is Escomb
Church.[169]

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 Augustines rst cathedral had been 'repaired' or 'recovered' (recuperavit) from an existing Roman church, when in fact it
had been newly constructed from Roman materials. The From the mid-8th century to the mid-10th a number
belief was the Christian Church was Roman therefore a of important buildings survive. One group comprises
masonry church was a Roman building.
the rst evidenced aisled churches: Brixworth, the most
The building of churches in Anglo-Saxon England es- ambitious Anglo-Saxon church to survive largely intact,
sentially began with Augustine of Canterbury in Kent Wareham St Marys, and Cirencester; also the rebuildfollowing 597; for this he probably imported workmen ing of Canterbury Cathedral. These buildings may be
from Frankish Gaul. The cathedral and abbey in Can- compared with aisled churches in the Carolingian emterbury, together with churches in Kent at Minster in pire. Other lesser churches may be dated to the late eighth
Sheppey (c.664) and Reculver (669), and in Essex at the and early ninth centuries on the basis of their elaborate
Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall at Bradwell-on-Sea, de- sculptured decoration and have simple naves with side
ne the earliest type in southeast England. A simple porticus.[170] The tower of Barnack (near Peterborough)
nave without aisles provided the setting for the main al- takes the picture forward to the West Saxon reconquest

7.2

Art

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 rst 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 masoncraft.[169]
The rst fully Romanesque church in England was Edward the Confessors 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 Augustines Abbey
in Canterbury c.104861 Abbot Wulfric aimed to retain
the earlier churches while linking them with an octagonal rotunda: but the concept was still essentially PreRomanesque. Anglo-Saxon churches of all periods would
have been embellished with a range of arts,[171] including
wall-paintings, some stained glass, metalwork and statues.

7.2

Art

Main article: Anglo-Saxon 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 oshoot of provincial Roman
art, Frank, or Jute art. One style ourished from the late
5th century, and continued throughout the 6th, and is on

19
many square-headed brooches, it is characterised by chipcarved patterns based on animals and masks. A dierent
style, which gradually superseded it is dominated by serpentine beasts with interlacing bodies.[172]

Shoulder clasp (closed) from the Sutton Hoo ship-burial 1, England. British Museum.

By the later 6th century the best works from the southeast are distinguished by greater use of expensive materials, above all gold and garnets, reecting 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,[173] 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
ne brooch or buckle was a valuable status symbol and
possible tribal emblem in death as much as in life.[174]
The Staordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of AngloSaxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. Discovered in
a eld near the village of Hammerwich, near Licheld, in
Staordshire, England, it consists of over 3,500 items[175]
that are nearly all martial in character and contains no objects specic to female uses.[176][177] 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.[153]
The coming of Christianity revolutionised the visual arts,
as well as other aspects of society. Art had to full 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[173] and the Canterbury
pendant.[178] In addition to fostering metalworking skills,
Christianity stimulated stone sculpture and manuscript il-

20

7 CULTURE

lumination. 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 con (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 reect the
particular strength of the church in that kingdom during the second half of the century.[179] 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.[180] Produced in the north of England at the same
time was the Codex Amiatinus, which has been called
the nest book in the world.[181] It is certainly one of the
largest, weighing 34 kilograms.[182] 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.[183] 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.[184]
In the 8th century, Anglo-Saxon Christian art ourished
with grand decorated manuscripts and sculptures, along
with 'secular' works which bear comparable ornament,
like the Witham pins and the Coppergate helmet.[185]
The ourishing of sculpture in Mercia, occurred slightly
later than in Northumbria and is dated to the second
half of the 8th century. Some ne decorated southern
books, above all the Bible fragment, can be securely assigned to the earlier 9th century, owing to the similarity

Book of Cerne, evangelist portrait of Saint Mark

of their script to that of charters from that period; The

Book of Cerne is an early 9th century Insular or AngloSaxon 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.[186]
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 thelwulf and Queen
thelswith, which are the centre of a small corpus of ne
ninth-century metalwork.
There was demonstrable continuity in the south, even
though the Danish settlement represented a watershed in
Englands 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.[187] In
the 10th and 11th centuries, the Viking dominated areas
were characterised by stone sculpture in which the AngloSaxon tradition of cross shafts took on new forms, and a
distinctive Anglo-Scandinavian monument, the 'hogback'
tomb, was produced.[188] 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

7.3

Language

motif. Key early works are the Alfred Jewel, which has
eshy leaves engraved on the back plate; and the stole and
maniples of Bishop Frithestan of Winchester, which are
ornamented with acanthus leaves, alongside gures 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. Though manuscripts
dominate the corpus, sucient 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
reected 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 inuential in Normandy, France and Flanders
from c.1000.[189] 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 reects
England was linked in the 11th century.[190]

21
mar, it was much closer to modern German and Icelandic
than to modern English. It was fully inected with
ve 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 rst 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; nite 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 dierence 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 inuence from the local insular languages especially
Common Brittonic (the language that may have been the
majority language in Lowland Britain). 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.
7.3 Language
Recently a number of linguists have argued that many of
the grammar changes observed in English were due to a
Main article: Old English
Old English (nglisc, Anglisc, Englisc) or Anglo-Saxon Brythonic inuence. 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.[191] 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.[192]

The rst lines of the poem, the Wanderer

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 gram-

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 advan-

22
tage economically or legally.[193] 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 Mercian dialect,
since that was the dialect of London.[194]
Near the end of the Old English period the English language underwent a third foreign inuence, namely the
Scandinavian inuence 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 dierent 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.[195] The inuence 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, the verb form are, and hundreds of other
words.[196]

7 CULTURE
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
Rdwald of East Anglia and how the East Anglian primacy did not survive his death.[198] 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 oce 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.[199]

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 persons life according to their wealth and
social status. This value could also be used to set the ne
payable if a person was injured or oended 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 ne 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 pracNick Highham has provided a summary of the impor- tice), can be observed in the story, made famous in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 755, of Cynewulf and
tance of language to the Anglo-Saxon culture:
Cyneheard, in which the followers of a defeated king decided to ght to the death rather than be reconciled after
As Bede later implied, language was a key
the death of their lord.[200]
indicator of ethnicity in early England. In cirThis emphasis on social standing aected all parts of the
cumstances where freedom at law, acceptance
Anglo-Saxon world. The courts, for example did not atwith the kindred, access to patronage, and the
tempt to discover the facts in a case; instead, in any disuse of possession of weapons were all exclusive
pute it was up to each party to get as many people as
to those who could claim Germanic descent,
possible to swear to the rightness of their case; oaththen speaking Old English without Latin or
swearing. The word of a thane counted for that of six
[1]
Brittonic inection had considerable value.
ceorls.[201] It was assumed that any person of good character would be able to nd enough people to swear to his
innocence that his case would prosper. Anglo-Saxon so7.4 Kinship
ciety was also decidedly patriarchal, but women were in
Helena Hamerow has made an observation that in some ways better o than they would be in later times.
Anglo-Saxon society local and extended kin groups re- A woman could own property in her own right. She
mained...the essential unit of production throughout the could and did rule a kingdom if her husband died. She
Anglo-Saxon period. Local and extended kin groups could not be married without her consent and any perwas a key aspect of Anglo-Saxon culture. Kinship fueled sonal goods, including lands, that she brought into a marsocietal advantages, freedom and the relationships to an riage remained her own property. If she were injured or
her relatives were expected to look
elite, that allowed the Anglo-Saxons culture and language abused in her marriage
[202]
[197]
after
her
interests.
to ourish.
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

7.5

7.5

Law

23

Law

quently appealed to and relied upon in litigation. Making

grants and conrming those made by others was a maMain article: Anglo-Saxon laws
jor way in which Anglo-Saxon kings demonstrated their
The most noticeable feature of the Anglo-Saxon legal authority.[205]

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

Textus Roensis, which contains the only surviving copy of
thelberhts laws.

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.560616.[203]
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.[204]
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 conrming a grant either of land or
some other valuable right. Their prevalence in the AngloSaxon state is a sign of sophistication. They were fre-

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.[206] 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 rst 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.[207] 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 ocer, the shire reeve or sheri,
whose appointment came in later Anglo-Saxon times into
the hands of the king but had in earlier times been elective. The sheri 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.[208]
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 baili, formerly a sheris 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.[209] The AngloSaxon system put an emphasis upon compromise and arbitration: litigating parties were enjoined to settle their
dierences 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 xed how the case would be
decided: legal problems were considered to be too complex and dicult 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.[210]

24

7 CULTURE

Oath-helping involved the party undergoing proof swearing to the truth of his claim or denial and having that oath
reinforced by ve or more others, chosen either by the
party or by the court. The numbers of helpers required
and the form of their oath diered from place to place
and upon the nature of the dispute.[211] 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.[212]
The ordeal oered 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 ve 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
oated, 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 Courts 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.[210]

7.6

Literature

First page of the epic Beowulf

manuscripts that still exist. Manuscripts were not common items. They were expensive and hard to make.[213]
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 dierent
from every other one, even if they are copies of each
other, because every scribe had dierent handwriting and
made dierent errors. We can sometimes identify individual scribes from their handwriting, and we can often guess where manuscripts were written because dierent scriptoria (centres of manuscript production) wrote in
dierent styles of hand.[214]

Main article: Anglo-Saxon literature

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 signicant corpus of both
popular interest and specialist research. The manuscripts
use a modied Roman alphabet, but Anglo-Saxon runes
or futhorc are used in under 200 inscriptions on objects,
sometimes mixed with Roman letters.
There are four great poetic codices of Old English poThis literature is remarkable for being in the vernacu- etry (a codex is a book in modern format, as opposed
lar (Old English) in the early medieval period: almost to a scroll): the Junius Manuscript, the Vercelli Book,
all other written literature was in Latin at this time, but the Exeter Book, and the Nowell Codex or Beowulf
due to Alfreds programme of vernacular literacy, the oral Manuscript; most of the well known lyric poems such
traditions of Anglo-Saxon England ended up being con- as The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Deor and The Ruin are
verted into writing and preserved. We owe much of this found in the Exeter Book, while the Vercelli Book has the
preservation to the monks of the tenth century, who made Dream of the Rood,[215] some of which is also carved on
at the very least the copies of most of the literary the Ruthwell Cross. The Franks Casket also has carved

7.7

Symbolism

25

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 re of 1731, but it had
been transcribed previously.

teries 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
Bedes biographer records that he was familiar with Old
English poetry and gives a ve line lyric which he either
wrote or liked to quote the sense is unclear.

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.

7.7 Symbolism

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.[218] Thus while all Old English poetry has common features, we can also identify three strands: religious
poetry, which includes poems about specically 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 socalled 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: Cdmonian (the biblical paraphrase poems),
heroic, and Cynewulan, 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.[219]

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.[222]

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 dicult to read. Anglo-Saxons used
symbolism, not just to communicate, but as tools to aid
hreran
mid
hondum
hrimcealde
their thinking about the world. Symbols were also used
s[lower-alpha 7]
to change the world, Anglo-Saxons used symbols to differentiate between groups and people, status and role in
The line above illustrates the principle: note that there is society.[174]
a natural pause after 'hondum' and that the rst stressed The visual riddles and ambiguities of early Anglo-Saxon
syllable after that pause begins with the same sound as a animal art, for example has been seen as emphasing
stressed line from the rst half-line (the rst haline is the protective roles of animals on dress accessories,
called the a-verse and the second is the b-verse).[217]
weapons, armour and horse equipment, and its evocation

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 inuential 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 prolic and respected writers of Anglo-Saxon prose, lfric
and Wulfstan, were both homilists.[220] lfric also wrote
the 'Lives of Saints which very popular and were highly
prized.[221] Almost all surviving poetry is found in only
one manuscript copy, but there are a number of dierent
versions of some prose works, especially the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, which was apparently promulgated to monas-

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 lite.[223] 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 aliation, descent,
wealth, lite status, and age groups. This symbol continued until c.700 when it ceased to have the symbolic
power that it had before.[224] Heinrich Hrke 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.[119]

26
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.[225]
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.[226][227] 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.[228] John Hines has suggested that
the over 2000 dierent 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.[229]
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 sacrice of the tree was in
accordance with pagan virtues and the image of Christs
death was constructed in this poem with reference to an
Anglian ideology of the world tree.[230] 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.[230] Furthermore, the trees
triumph over death is celebrated by adorning the cross
with gold and jewels.

8 CONTEMPORARY MEANINGS

8 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 inuence 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
dicult. In the early Middle Ages the views of Geoffrey of Monmouth produced a personally inspired history that wasn't challenged for ve hundred years. In
the reformation, churchman 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[232] and Edward A.
Freeman[233] 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.[234] These views have inuenced
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.[235]

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 denition for the term. In contemporary Anglophone cultures outside Britain, Anglo-Saxon may be contrasted
with Celtic as a socioeconomic identier, 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 chiey to old wealthy families with mostly English ancestors. As such, WASP is not a historical label or a precise ethnological term, but rather a reference
to contemporary family-based political, nancial and cultural power e.g., The Boston Brahmin. The French often use Anglo-Saxon to refer to the combined power of
The most distinctive feature of coinage of the rst half Britain and the US today.[236]
of the 8th century is its portrayal of animals, to an extent
found in no other European coinage of the Early Middle Outside Anglophone countries, both in Europe and in
Ages. Some animals, such as lions or peacocks, would the rest of the world, the term Anglo-Saxon and its dihave been known in England only through descriptions rect translations are used to refer to the Anglophone
in texts or through images in manuscripts or on portable peoples and societies of Britain, the United States, and
objects. The animals were not merely illustrated out of other countries such as Australia, Canada and New
an interest in the natural world. Each was imbued with Zealand areas which are sometimes referred to as the
meanings and acted as a symbol which would have been Anglosphere. The term Anglo-Saxon can be used in a variety of contexts, often to identify the English-speaking
understood at the time.[231]
worlds distinctive language, culture, technology, wealth,
markets, economy, and legal systems. Variations include the German Angelsachsen, French AngloSaxon, Spanish anglosajn, Portuguese Anglo-

27
saxo, Russian "", Polish anglosaksoski,
Italian anglosassone, Catalan anglosax" and Japanese
Angurosakuson. As with the English-language use of
the term, what constitutes the Anglo-Saxon varies from
speaker to speaker.

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

11 Citations
[1] Higham, Nicholas J., and Martin J. Ryan. The AngloSaxon World. Yale University Press, 2013.
[2] Higham, Nicholas J., and Martin J. Ryan. The AngloSaxon World. Yale University Press, 2013. p. 7
[3] Richard M. Hogg, ed. The Cambridge History of the English Language: Vol 1: the Beginnings to 1066 (1992)
[4] Higham, Nicholas J., and Martin J. Ryan. The AngloSaxon World. Yale University Press, 2013. pp. 7-19
[5] Hamerow, Helena. Rural Settlements and Society in AngloSaxon England. Oxford University Press, 2012. p166
[6] Sarah Knapton (18 March 2015). Britons still live in
Anglo-Saxon tribal kingdoms, Oxford University nds.
Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
[7] Higham & Ryan 2013:7"The Anglo-Saxon World

Timeline of Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain

Modern concepts:
Anglo-Saxon economy
English people

10

Notes

[1] Throughout this article Anglo-Saxon is used for Saxon,

Angles, Jute, or Frisian unless it is specic to a point being
made; Anglo-Saxon is used when specically the culture
is meant rather than any ethnicity. But, all these terms are
interchangeably used by scholars
[2] 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.
[3] There is much evidence for loosely managed and shifting cultivation and no evidence of top down structured
landscape planning.
[4] Conrmation of this interpretation may come from Bedes
account of the battle of the river Winwd 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.[48]

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[195] Barber, Charles (2009). The English Language: A Historical Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p. 137. [214] Fulk, R. D., and Christopher M. Cain. Making Old English New: Anglo-Saxonism and the Cultural Work of Old
ISBN 978-0-521-67001-2.
English Literature. (2013).
[196] Scott Shay (30 January 2008). The history of English: a
linguistic introduction. Wardja Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0- [215] Godden, Malcolm, and Michael Lapidge, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature. Cambridge
615-16817-3. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
University Press, 1991; there is also the Paris Psalter
[197] Hamerow, Helena.
Rural Settlements and Society
(not the Paris Psalter), a metrical version of most of the
Psalms, described by its most recent specialist as a pedesin Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford University Press,
trian and unimaginative piece of poetic translation. It is
2012.p166

33

[216]
[217]
[218]
[219]

rarely read by students of Old English, and most Anglo- [232] Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism,
Saxonists make only passing reference to it. There is
18301914 by Patrick Brantlinger. Cornell University
scarcely any literary criticism written on the text, although
Press, 1990
some work has been done on its vocabulary and metre,
Poetic language and the Paris Psalter: the decay of the [233] Race and Empire in British Politics by Paul B. Rich. CUP
Archive, 1990
Old English tradition, by M. S. Grith, Anglo-Saxon
England, Volume 20, December 1991, pp 167186, DOI
[234] Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American
Racial Anglo-Saxonism by Reginald Horsman. Harvard
Anglo-Saxons.net.
University Press, 1981. (pgs. 126,273)
Bradley, S.A.J. Anglo-Saxon Poetry. New York: Every[235] Hills, Catherine. Origins of the English. Duckworth Pub,
man Paperbacks, 1995.
2003.p35
Alexander, Michael. The Earliest English Poems. 3rd rev.
[236] Eric P. Kaufmann, The decline of the WASP in the
ed. New York: Penguin Classics, 1992.
United States and Canada in Kaufmann, ed., Rethinking
Anglo Saxon Poetry. Hachette UK, 2012.
ethnicity (2004) pp 5473

[220] Sweet, Henry. An Anglo-Saxon reader in prose and verse:

with grammar, metre, notes and glossary. At the Clarendon Press, 1908.
[221] Gneuss, Helmut. lfric of Eynsham: His Life, Times,
and Writings. Vol. 34. Western Michigan Univ Medieval,
2009.
[222] Nugent, Ruth, and Howard Williams. Sighted surfaces.
Ocular Agency in early Anglo-Saxon cremation burials.
Encountering images: materialities, perceptions, relations. Stockholm studies in archaeology 57 (2012): 187
208.
[223] Hrke, Heinrich. Grave goods in early medieval burials: messages and meanings. Mortality ahead-of-print
(2014): 121.

Oppenheimer, Stephen. The Origins of the British

(2006). Constable and Robinson, London. ISBN
1-84529-158-1

12 Further reading
12.1 General
Hamerow, Helena; Hinton, David A.; Crawford,
Sally, eds. (2011), The Oxford Handbook of AngloSaxon Archaeology., Oxford: OUP, ISBN 978-019-921214-9

[224] Pader, E.J. 1982. Symbolism, social relations and the interpretation of mortuary remains. Oxford. (B.A.R. S 130)

Higham, Nicholas J.; Ryan, Martin J. (2013), The

Anglo-Saxon World, Yale University Press, ISBN
978-0-300-12534-4

[225] Guido and Welch. Indirect evidence for glass bead manufacture in early Anglo-Saxon England. In Price 2000 115
120.

Hills, Catherine (2003), Origins of the English, London: Duckworth, ISBN 0-7156-3191-8

[226] Guido, M. & M. Welch 1999. The glass beads of AngloSaxon England c. AD 400700: a preliminary visual
classication of the more denitive and diagnostic types.
Rochester: Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiqaries of London 56.
[227] Brugmann, B. 2004. Glass beads from Anglo-Saxon
graves: a study of the provenance and chronology of glass
beads from early Anglo-Saxon graves, based on visual examination. Oxford: Oxbow
[228] Owen-Crocker, Gale R. Dress in Anglo-Saxon England.
Boydell Press, 2004.
[229] John Hines (1998) The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Edix
Hill (Barrington A), Cambridgeshire. Council for British
Archaeology.
[230] North, Richard. Heathen Gods in Old English Literature.
Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 273
[231] Gannon, Anna. The iconography of early Anglo-Saxon
coinage: sixth to eighth centuries. Oxford University
Press, 2003.

Koch, John T. (2006), Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, Santa Barbara and Oxford: ABCCLIO, ISBN 1-85109-440-7
Stenton, Sir Frank M. (1987) [rst published 1943],
Anglo-Saxon England, The Oxford History of England, II (3rd ed.), OUP, ISBN 0-19-821716-1

12.2 Historical
Clark, David, and Nicholas Perkins, eds. AngloSaxon 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)

34
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.
321337, ISBN 978 90 8964 078 9
Brown, Michelle P.; Farr, Carol A., eds. (2001),
Mercia: An Anglo-Saxon Kingdom in Europe, Leicester: Leicester University Press, ISBN 0-82647765-8
Brown, Michelle, The Lindisfarne Gospels and the
Early Medieval World (2010)
Charles-Edwards, Thomas, ed. (2003), After Rome,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19924982-4
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 0-7185-11484
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)
Hrke, Heinrich (2003), Population replacement
or acculturation? An archaeological perspective on
population and migration in post-Roman Britain.,
Celtic-Englishes, Carl Winter Verlag, III (Winter):
1328, retrieved 18 January 2014
Haywood, John (1999), Dark Age Naval Power:
Frankish & Anglo-Saxon Seafaring Activity (revised
ed.), Frithgarth: Anglo-Saxon Books, ISBN 1898281-43-2

12 FURTHER READING
Higham, Nicholas (1992), Rome, Britain and the
Anglo-Saxons, London: B. A. Seaby, ISBN 185264-022-7
Higham, Nicholas (1993), The Kingdom of
Northumbria AD 3501100, 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): 36798,
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 0-415-242118
Laing, Lloyd; Laing, Jennifer (1990), Celtic Britain
and Ireland, c. 200800, New York: St. Martins
Press, ISBN 0-312-04767-3
McGrail, Sen, ed. (1988), Maritime Celts, Frisians
and Saxons, London: Council for British Archaeology (published 1990), pp. 116, ISBN 0-90678093-4
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. 400950 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. 400600, University
Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, ISBN 0271-01780-5
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, 400800,
Oxford: Oxford University Press (published 2006),
ISBN 978-0-19-921296-5

35
Wickham, Chris (2009), Kings Without States:
Britain and Ireland, 400800, The Inheritance of
Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages, 4001000, 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, Sen, Maritime
Celts, Frisians and Saxons, London: Council for
British Archaeology (published 1990), pp. 9399,
ISBN 0-906780-93-4
Yorke, Barbara (1990), Kings and Kingdoms of
Early Anglo-Saxon England, B. A. Seaby, ISBN 0415-16639-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.600800, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, ISBN 978-0-582-77292-2
Zaluckyj, Sarah, ed. (2001), Mercia: The AngloSaxon Kingdom of Central England, Little Logaston:
Logaston, ISBN 1-873827-62-8

13

External links

Photos of over 600 items found in the Anglo-Saxon

Hoard in Staordshire Sept. 2009
Anglo-Saxon gold hoard September 2009: largest
ever hoard ocially 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

36

14

14
14.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Anglo-Saxons Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxons?oldid=737004236 Contributors: NathanBeach, Sjc, Andre Engels,

Eclecticology, Mark Christensen, Enchanter, Fubar Obfusco, William Avery, Ant, DennisDaniels, Frecklefoot, Infrogmation, Llywrch,
Norm, Ixfd64, Mmorabito67, Theresa knott, G-Man, Glenn, IMSoP, Raven in Orbit, Adam Bishop, Markhurd, GulDan, Karukera, Thue,
Mksmith, Wetman, Flockmeal, David.Monniaux, David Stapleton, Robbot, Chrism, Chris 73, Jredmond, Naddy, Mirv, Merovingian, Kesuari, Kpude, Saforrest, Wikibot, Wereon, HaeB, Centrx, Jyril, Mintleaf~enwiki, Wiglaf, Tom harrison, Orangemike, Ausir, Bradeos
Graphon, Everyking, NeoJustin, Duncharris, Dsmdgold, Gilgamesh~enwiki, Macrakis, Christofurio, Dumbo1, Dainamo, Tagishsimon,
Golbez, Stevietheman, Andycjp, Geni, Gdr, Zeimusu, Pachiaammos, Antandrus, Piotrus, Daniel,levine, Eregli bob, Jossi, DragonySixtyseven, Bumm13, PFHLai, Two Bananas, Volrath50, Trilobite, Kevin Rector, Trevor MacInnis, Lacrimosus, Kate, Miborovsky, CALR,
Discospinster, Solitude, Rich Farmbrough, Guanabot, AxSkov, Cnyborg, Vsmith, Xezbeth, Arthur Holland, Dbachmann, Michael Zimmermann, Paul August, SpookyMulder, Stbalbach, Bender235, Kbh3rd, Cherry blossom tree, Mwanner, RoyBoy, Femto, Wee Jimmy,
Bobo192, Redlentil, Flxmghvgvk, Cmdrjameson, Dtremenak, Adrian~enwiki, Richi, JW1805, Man vyi, La goutte de pluie, Twobells,
Sam Korn, Ral315, Sanmartin, Schissel, Storm Rider, Alansohn, Anthony Appleyard, ThePedanticPrick, Borisblue, Atlant, Andrewpmk,
Cjthellama, Punarbhava, Sade, Gaytan, Yummifruitbat, Snowolf, Ross Burgess, Cookiemobsta, Marianocecowski, Binabik80, Saga City,
Knowledge Seeker, Deacon of Pndapetzim, Max Naylor, Kurivaim, SteinbDJ, LordAmeth, Pwqn, Stkhoo, Mahanga, A D Monroe III, Nuno
Tavares, Angr, Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ), Woohookitty, Borderer, PatGallacher, Je3000, Tckma, MONGO, Tabletop, Trevor Andersen, Bhound89, Philbarker, Laurel Bush,
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WBardwin, BD2412, Bunchofgrapes, RxS, Canderson7, Angusmclellan, Dimitrii, Koavf, Rogerd, Mfwills, Erebus555, Enzedbrit, Vary,
MarSch, E. Underwood, GregAsche, Wobble, Gringo300, Ian Pitchford, AdnanSa, Hottentot, Gurch, Jmkprime, PKM, TTTR, Spasemunki, Bgwhite, Cactus.man, TJS~enwiki, UkPaolo, The Rambling Man, Satanael, YurikBot, Borgx, Feldmarshmellon, Brandmeister (old),
Adam1213, Phantomsteve, RussBot, Pigman, Tree&Leaf, Devahn58, Nesbit, Stephenb, Gaius Cornelius, Theelf29, Salsb, Ugur Basak,
Bloodofox, Rjensen, Robchurch, Dputig07, Stevenwmccrary58, Darkfred, Kewp, Nlu, Wardog, AjaxSmack, Klokeid, Laszlo Panaex, Jason Schlumbohm, Zzuuzz, Andrew Lancaster, Closedmouth, SMcCandlish, Jake Spooky, Petri Krohn, GraemeL, Red Jay, CWenger, Firehose, Hayden120, Mais oui!, GinaDana, Spliy, Pdraic MacUidhir, Jack Upland, Katieh5584, Hereward99, CIreland, SmackBot, Britannicus, WilliamThweatt, Victor M. Vicente Selvas, JimmyGuano, Unschool, Rose Garden, Pgk, Aetheling1125, Pennywisdom2099, Jab843,
TharkunColl, IstvanWolf, Commander Keane bot, Harthacanute, Gilliam, Qtoktok, Welwitschia, Shrensh, Chris the speller, KaragouniS,
Persian Poet Gal, Rex Germanus, MK8, Rshu, BrendelSignature, RexImperium, Jerome Charles Potts, Kaid100, CMacMillan, Riphamilton, Jameswilson, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, Alphathon, JRPG, OrphanBot, Snowmanradio, Rrburke, Leoboudv, JesseRafe, Edivorce,
Pax85, Khoikhoi, Jmlk17, Kozushi, Decltype, Nakon, Murchadh, RandomP, Epf, Risker, Cyberevil, ZScarpia, SashatoBot, Vildricianus,
Nishkid64, LtPowers, Attys, SuperNova, Darkildor, SilkTork, CPMcE, Bydand, Regan123, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, Billvoltage, The Man in Question, Gizmo II, Jd123, Neddyseagoon, Eneufeld, MarkThomas, Simon Webb, Hu12, Mkoyle, DwightKingsbury,
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Nunquam Dormio, Jcbsn, WeggeBot, Musashi1600, Kanags, Mike Christie, Gogo Dodo, Travelbird, Q43, Doug Weller, DumbBOT,
Ameliorate!, Sigo, Optimist on the run, Andgaz, Garik, Walgamanus, Omicronpersei8, Talesin12, Rbanzai, Click23, FrancoGG, Malleus
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Fetchcomms, PhilKnight, FiveOnThree, Gert7, Magioladitis, WolfmanSF, Bongwarrior, VoABot II, JNW, JamesBWatson, Autumn rain,
WikieWikieWikie, rdRuadh21, Jsanstella, Berig, Robotman1974, Eoganan, BilCat, LorenzoB, Chris G, DerHexer, Mattinbgn, Enaidmawr, Seba5618, Amitchell125, FisherQueen, Kornfan71, Cli smith, MartinBot, Globe01, Paracel63, Kostisl, LinguisticDemographer,
Ombudswoman, Oaken, MacAuslan, J.delanoy, Btouburg, Mhstebbi, Michael Daly, Dispenser, Johnbod, Erik Springelkamp, LordAnubisBOT, Jayden54, Gurchzilla, ADS Archaeology, M-le-mot-dit, SiouxLookout, Trilobitealive, JSellers0, 83d40m, Juliancolton, Jamesontai,
Twinchester, KevCureton, Andy Marchbanks, Vinsfan368, VIOLENTRULER, CardinalDan, Idioma-bot, Meiskam, VolkovBot, Indubitably, Nburden, Wolfnix, Philip Trueman, TXiKiBoT, Zidonuke, BertSen, A4bot, Hqb, Rei-bot, WPCobbett, Fredpuli, Pandacomics,
Henrik, Anna Lincoln, Aday01, Clarince63, Benjaminbishop, DennyColt, LeaveSleaves, Rjm at sleepers, PDFbot, Teto98 8, S2grand,
Madhero88, Mwilso24, Wenli, Complex (de), Enigmaman, Falcon8765, Slserpent, Enviroboy, Sardaka, PeterBFZ, Romuald Wrblewski,
Boydenmb, SieBot, Mfcayley, MartinTremblay, King inn The Aesir, Gerakibot, Trigaranus, Roidhrigh, Keilana, Xenophon777, Flyer22
Reborn, Permacultura, Oda Mari, Nebulousity, Suomichris, Oxymoron83, AngelOfSadness, Otichy, Steven Crossin, Lightmouse, Ealdgyth,
PalaceGuard008, Manway, Belligero, C'est moi, TaerkastUA, Jons63, Artdemon01, Troy 07, ImageRemovalBot, Llywelyn2000, Martarius, Elassint, ClueBot, Andrew Nutter, Snigbrook, The Thing That Should Not Be, Plague of Death, Hartram, NovusTabula, Kneperle,
R000t, FileMaster, Arakunem, Zburh, TheOldJacobite, Timberframe, Woolters, CounterVandalismBot, Parkwells, Rockfang, Jadmwtpg,
TheMathemagician, Alexbot, Jusdafax, Streona, Vanisheduser12345, Arcot, Sikunit, Arjayay, Elizium23, MJDTed, Manco Capac, QASIMARA, Thingg, Darren23, Lord Cornwallis, Mattissa, Versus22, Callinus, Egmontaz, DumZiBoT, Alchemist Jack, Jovianeye, scing,
C. A. Russell, Avoided, Facts707, SilvonenBot, NellieBly, Catgirl, Notuncurious, Lovingwhatisnt, HexaChord, Yggur, Jim Sweeney, Felix Folio Secundus, Addbot, Yousou, Willking1979, J Beake, Guoguo12, Nortonius, Symac, WhoppeeSA, Holt, US1234567, Ronhjones,
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Trevor0214, Materialscientist, Hunnjazal, Limideen, Danno uk, A123a, Neurolysis, LilHelpa, Xqbot, Heathmt, Suitawqs, Capricorn42,
Poetaris, Cavila, Mononomic, Kmcdm, Grim23, Russia333, Sugimarioyer, Inferno, Lord of Penguins, Paleodigitalist, GrouchoBot,
Vonharris, Tsuchida54, SassoBot, The real Marcoman, Scratchy7929, CHJL, GhalyBot, Astatine-210, Erik9, AJCham, Kentzo, Grinofwales, Hyperboreer, Wilfridselsey, LucienBOT, Cynthia149, Salzzz, BrianAllson09, BodvarBjarki, Chard513, Citation bot 1, PigFlu
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EmausBot, John of Reading, Orphan Wiki, Fluypower, Surlydu50, Fly by Night, Anelson454545, Torturella, Tommy2010, Wikipelli,
Dcirovic, Loshane23, Baberg, Matthewcgirling, Lechonero, Everard Proudfoot, Access Denied, Bamyers99, Wayne Slam, Wabbott9, L
Kensington, DeCausa, Ewoud de Groot, Grampion76, Coolkid134, Yankeewave, DASHBotAV, Aurendil, Sp4cetiger, Mrs.tyler, TheCon-

14.2

Images

37

duqtor, Loginnigol, Frerin, Jorgecarleitao, Helpful Pixie Bot, BG19bot, Rainbowzom, George Ponderevo, Dainomite, Arminden, Nenniu,
Minsbot, Jarps01, Smasongarrison, ChrisGualtieri, Alexm1991, Dexbot, Hmainsbot1, Mogism, Thatcherfreund1, Newsailormon, Krakkos,
Mark viking, Rob984, Tango303, Iloilo Wanderer, Eagle3399, Atotalstranger, JoshuaTaylor, Anarchistdy, Green daemon, BrightonC,
Jayakumar RG, Bluma.Gelley, Biblioworm, Gamerprof, Yeowe, Loraof, Appleganza, KasparBot, WhisperedSong, Montaire, EttuBruta
and Anonymous: 816

14.2

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File:Alfred_Jewel.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Alfred_Jewel.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Richard M Buck http://www.flickr.com/tortipede/ (Tortipede (<a href='//commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/User_talk:Tortipede' title='User talk:Tortipede'>talk</a>))
File:Anglo.Saxon.migration.5th.cen.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Anglo.Saxon.migration.5th.
cen.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Based on Jones & Mattinglys Atlas of Roman Britain (ISBN 978-1-84217-06700, 1990,
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c.700, ISBN 13-978-0-521-36291-7, 2005, p. 643), and Woods The Channel from the 4th to the 7th centuries AD in Carvers Maritime
Celts, Frisians and Saxons (ISBN 978-0906780930, pp 9397). The suggestion that settlements in Britain were made from the Bessin is
from Haywood (Vron, for example, was abandoned c. 450). Original artist: my work
File:Athelstan.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Athelstan.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:
Scanned from the book The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England by David Williamson, ISBN 1855142287.
Original artist: See description
File:BLW_Silver_Anglo-Saxon_ring.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/BLW_Silver_Anglo-Saxon_
ring.jpg License: CC BY-SA 2.0 uk Contributors: Originally uploaded at http://www.britainloveswikipedia.org/ Original artist: Valerie
McGlinchey
File:Barnack_church.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Barnack_church.JPG License: CC BY-SA
3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Plucas58
File:Bayeux_Tapestry_WillelmDux.jpg
Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Bayeux_Tapestry_
WillelmDux.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: The Bayeux Tapestry Original artist: alipaiman
File:Beowulf.firstpage.jpeg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Beowulf.firstpage.jpeg License: Public domain Contributors: Originally uploaded to English Wikipedia by Jwrosenzweig. Original artist: ?
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