Lecture no.

1
ENGLAND BEFORE THE ENGLISH

Britain is an island; therefore, Britain's history has

been closely connected with the sea which, most times
through history, has been saved by the insular country.
Hence the Celtic feeling for nature:
 the love of the savage weather
 the passion of the furious sea
 the love of nature for its own sake 1

Britain’s prehistory

According to historical evidence, Britain has not always

been an island. It became one only after the end of the
last ice age. Regarding the first evidence of human life,
there are a few stone tools, dating from one of the
warmer periods, about 250,000 BC. These simple objects
are relevant to the existence of two different kinds of
inhabitants: the earlier group whose tools resembled the
stone ones found across the north European plain as far as Russia; on the other hand, the second group with their
tools made of a central core of flint, was representative for the people spread from Africa to Europe. On British soil,
in Yorkshire and Wales, hand axes made in this way have been found widely.
However, the ice advanced again and Britain became hardly habitable until another milder period, probably
around 50,000 BC. During this time, a new type of human being seems to have arrived, who was the ancestor of the
modern British. These people looked like the modern British, but they were probably smaller and had a life span of
only about thirty years.
Around 10,000 BC, as the Ice Age was approaching its end, Britain was inhabited by small groups of hunters,
gatherers and fishers (they seemed to have followed herds of deer which provided them with food and clothing). By
about 5000 BC Britain had finally become an island, and had also become heavily forested. Unfortunately, for the
wanderer-hunter culture this was a disaster, since the deer and other animals on which they lived largely died out.
About 3000 BC Neolithic (or New Stone Age) people crossed the narrow sea from Europe in small round
boats of bent wood covered with animal skins. Each could carry one or two people. These people kept animals and
grew corn crops, and knew how to make pottery. Most of them must have come from either the Iberian (Spanish)
peninsula or even the North African coast. Appearance-wise, they were small, dark, and long-headed people, and
may be the forefathers of dark-haired inhabitants of Wales and Cornwall today. They settled in the western parts of
Britain and Ireland, from Cornwall at the southwest end of Britain all the way to the far north.
These were the first of several waves of invaders before the first arrival of the Romans in 55 BC. 2
The great “public works” of this time, which needed a huge organisation of labour, tell us a little of how
prehistoric Britain was developing. The earlier of these works were great “barrows”, or burial mounds, made of earth
or stone. Most of these barrows are found on the chalk uplands of south Britain. Today these uplands have poor soil
and few trees, but they were not like that then. They were airy woodlands that could easily be cleared for farming,
and as a result were the most easily habitable part of the countryside.
Regarding the remaining monuments, there are some worth mentioning. By far the most spectacular, both
then and now, was Stonehenge, which was built in separate stages over a period of more than a thousand years. The
precise purposes of Stonehenge remain a mystery, but during the second phase of building, after about 2400 BC,
huge bluestones were brought to the site from south Wales. This could only have been achieved because the
political authority of the area surrounding Stonehenge was acknowledged over a very large area, indeed probably
over the whole of the British Isles. The movement of these bluestones was an event of paramount importance
whose story was passed on from generation to generation.
Stonehenge was almost certainly a sort of capital, to which the chiefs of other groups came from all over
Britain. Certainly, earth or stone henges were built in many parts of Britain, as far as the Orkney Islands north of
Scotland, and as far south as Cornwall.

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 Stonehenge is the most powerful monument of Britain's prehistory.
Its purpose is still not properly understood. Those who built
Stonehenge knew how to cut and move very large pieces of stone,
and place horizontal stone beams across the upright pillars. They
also had the authority to control large numbers of workers, and to
fetch some of them from distant parts of Wales. 3

What is really interesting from this historical period, too, is that

power seems to have shifted to the Thames valley and southeast
Britain. Except for short periods, political and economic power has
remained in the southeast ever since. Hill-forts replaced henges as
the centres of local power, and most of these were found in the
southeast, suggesting that the land successfully supported more people here than elsewhere.
There was another reason for the shift of power eastwards: the finding of a number of better-designed
bronze swords in the Thames valley which suggests that the local people had more advanced metalworking skills.
Many of these swords have been found in river beds, almost certainly thrown in for religious reasons. Interestingly
enough, this custom may be the origin of the story of the legendary King Arthur's sword, which was given to him
from out of the water and which was thrown back into the water when he died. 4

The Celts

Around 700 BC, another wave of invading peoples began to arrive. Many of them were tall, and fair-haired
or red-haired and blue-eyed. These were the Celts, who probably came from central Europe or further east, from
southern Russia, and had moved slowly westwards in earlier centuries. The Celts were technically advanced due to
their knowledge of working with iron and making better weapons than the people who used bronze. There is a slight
possibility that because of their arrival many of the older inhabitants moved westwards into Wales, Scotland and
Ireland. The Celts began to control all the lowland areas of Britain, and were joined by new arrivals from the
European mainland. They continued to arrive in one wave after another over the next seven hundred years.
Mention should be made that the Celts are important in British history because they are the ancestors of
many of the people in Highland Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Cornwall today. The Iberian people of Wales and
Cornwall took on the new Celtic culture. Celtic languages, which have been continuously used in some areas since
that time, are still spoken.
The recent knowledge of the Celts is slight. What it is known is that the Celts were organised into different
tribes, and tribal chiefs were chosen from each family or tribe, sometimes as the result of fighting matches between
individuals, and sometimes by election. The Celts were skilful in ironwork and, although growing wheat in the south
and oats further north, they mainly lived on hunting, fishing, herding, bee keeping and, above all, fighting. They
remained tribesmen or clansmen bound together by sentimental ties of kinship which were strong in terms of
human relations but made an obstacle to the development of larger societies 5.

The Stanwick horse mask shows the fine artistic work of Celtic metalworkers in about
50 AD. The simple lines and lack of detail have a very powerful effect.

More advanced ploughing methods that were gradually introduced made it

possible for them to farm heavier soils. However, they continued to use, and build, hill-
forts. However, they were highly successful farmers, growing enough food for a much
larger population.
According to the Romans, the Celtic men wore shirts and breeches (knee-length
trousers), and striped or checked cloaks fastened by a pin. It is possible that the Scottish
tartan and dress developed from this “striped cloak”. The Celts were also “very careful
about cleanliness and neatness”, as one Roman wrote. “Neither man nor woman,” he
went on, “however poor, was seen either ragged or dirty.”
The Celtic tribes were ruled over by a warrior class, of which the priests, or
Druids, seem to have been particularly important members. These Druids could not read
or write, but they memorised all the religious teachings, the tribal laws, history, medicine and other knowledge
necessary in Celtic society. The Druids from different tribes all over Britain probably met once a year. They had no
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temples, but they met in sacred groves of trees, on certain hills, by rivers or by river sources. We know little of their
kind of worship except that at times it included human sacrifice.
During the Celtic period women may have had more independence than they had again for hundreds of
years. When the Romans invaded Britain two of the largest tribes were ruled by women who fought from their
chariots. The most powerful Celt to stand up to the Romans was a woman, Boadicea. She had become queen of her
tribe when her husband had died. She was tall, with long red hair, and had a frightening appearance. In 61 AD, she
led her tribe against the Romans. She nearly drove them from Britain, and she destroyed London, the Roman capital,
before she was defeated. Roman writers commented on the courage and strength of women in battle, thus leaving
an impression of a measure of equality between the sexes among the richer Celts. 6

THE ROMANS’ COLONIZATION

The great Roman Emperor Julius Caesar brought an army across the sea from France to Britain. Therefore,
for four hundred years, England was part of the Roman Empire. When the Romans first arrived, they found many
different groups of people, each with its own king. Even though these peoples did not think of themselves as
‘British’, the Romans called them ‘Britons’. 7
Etymologically speaking, the name “Britain” comes from the Greco-Roman word “Pretani”, designating the
inhabitants of Britain; unfortunately, the Romans mispronounced it, which led to the island being called “Britannia”.
The Romans had invaded because the Celts of Britain were collaborating with the Celts of Gaul against them,
by supplying them with food, and allowing them to hide in Britain. There was also another reason. The Celts used
cattle to pull their ploughs and this meant that richer, heavier land could be farmed. Consequently, under the Celts
Britain became an important food producer because of its mild climate. It now exported corn and animals, as well as
hunting dogs and slaves, to the European mainland. Additionally, the Romans could make use of British food for their
own army fighting the Gauls.
In exchange, the Romans brought the skills of reading and writing to Britain. The written word was of
utmost importance for spreading ideas and for establishing power. As early as AD 80, as one Roman at the time
noted, the governor Agricola “trained the sons of chiefs in the liberal arts. The result was that the people who used
to reject Latin began to use it in speech and writing. “ While the Celtic peasantry remained illiterate and only Celtic-
speaking, a number of town dwellers spoke Latin and Greek with ease, and the richer landowners in the country
almost certainly used Latin. But Latin completely disappeared both in its spoken and written forms when the Anglo-
Saxons invaded Britain in the fifth century AD. Britain was probably more literate under the Romans than it was to be
again until the fifteenth century.
Strangely enough, Julius Caesar first came to Britain in 55 BC, but it was not until almost a century later, in
AD 43, that a Roman army actually occupied Britain. The Romans had little difficulty in conquering the island, apart
from Boadicea's revolt, because they had a better trained army and because the Celtic tribes used to fight among
themselves. According to the Romans, the Celts were war-mad, “high spirited and quick for battle”, a description
some would still give the Scots, Irish and Welsh today.
The Romans established a Romano-British culture across the southern half of Britain. This part of Britain was
inside the empire. Unfortunately, the Romans could not conquer “Caledonia”, as they called Scotland, although they
spent over a century trying to do so. Eventually, they built a strong wall along the northern border, named after the
Emperor Hadrian who planned it. At the time, Hadrian's wall was simply intended to keep out raiders from the north,
but it also marked the border between the two later countries, England and Scotland.
Roman control over Britain came to an end as the empire began to collapse. The first signs were the attacks
by Celts of Caledonia in AD 367. The Roman legions found it more and more difficult to stop the raiders from crossing
Hadrian's wall. The same was happening on the European mainland as Germanic groups, Saxons and Franks, began
to raid the coast of Gaul. In AD 409 Rome pulled its last soldiers out of Britain and the Romano-British, the
Romanised Celts, were left to fight alone against the Scots, the Irish and Saxon raiders from Germany.

Roman life

As previously mentioned, the Romans brought all their learning and organisational abilities, which were
passed on to many of the Celtic tribes. As was often the case, Rome did not exterminate the peoples it conquered,
but rather it forged alliances.8

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 The most obvious characteristic of Roman Britain was its towns, which were the basis of Roman
administration and civilisation. Many developed out of Celtic settlements, military camps or market centres. At first
Roman towns had no walls. Then, probably almost every town was given walls.
The Romans left behind in Britain about twenty large towns of about 5,000 inhabitants, and almost one
hundred smaller ones. Many of these towns were at first army camps, and the Latin word for camp, castra, has
remained part of many town names to this day (with the ending chester, caster or cester): Gloucester, Leicester,
Doncaster, Winchester, Chester, Lancaster and many others besides. These towns were built with stone as well as
wood, and had planned streets, markets and shops. Some buildings had central heating. They were connected by
roads which were so well built that they survived when later roads broke up. These roads continued to be used long
after the Romans left, and became the main roads of modern Britain. Six of these Roman roads met in London, a
capital city of about 20,000 people.
London was twice the size of Paris, and possibly the most important trading centre of northern Europe,
because southeast Britain produced so much corn for export. 9
The consequences of the Roman occupation marked the evolution of the Celtic Britons who were absorbed
into Roman society. The Romanization was also responsible for the following:
 Latin was spoken/read/written
 Intermarriages took place
 Paved roads were built
 The Britons started to live like the Romans.
 They wore Roman clothes and went to the theatre and the baths. Many could read and write it too.
 In the later years of Roman rule they became Christian.
Literature-wise, the Romans left no marks on the literary spirituality of the people which was coming into
being. Although lasting for almost five centuries the relation between them and the Picts (another name for the
Scots because they used to paint their faces) never changed into anything but relations between oppressors and
victims10.
Nowadays, in many places around Britain one can still see the straight roads, strong walls and fine houses
that the Romans built.

The Anglo-Saxon Invasion - The Angles and the Saxons

After the Roman period, a group of pagan/Teutonic/Germanic people from Northern Europe (present-day
Germany and Denmark) began a series of invasions on Britain. They were represented by the Anglo-Saxons tribes:
the Angles,
the Saxons, who brought along Germanic languages.
the Jutes (these tribes spoke different dialects of a language which modern-day
scholars call West Germanic – this language is considered the direct
ancestor of modern English and modern German 11)

The Anglo-Saxon invaders, who came to Britain in the latter part of the 5 th century AD and eventually
established their kingdoms there, were the founders of what we can properly call English culture and English
literature. They gave England its name, its language, and its links with “Germania,” that great body of
Teutonic peoples whose migrations disrupted the Roman Empire and utterly changed the face of Europe.
Some four hundred years before they arrived in Britain, the Roman historian Tacitus had given his account of
the Germanic peoples and how they looked to his civilized Roman eyes; […] we can nevertheless trace in his
account something of the qualities of these people […]. To the Romans, they were “barbarians,” appearing
out of nowhere to endanger, with their primitive vigour and alien ways of thought, both the political
structure of the Empire and the ideological structure of Greco-Roman thought 12.

According to the historian Bede, they came “from three very powerful nations of the Germans: that is, from
the Saxons, Angles, and the Jutes.” We know something about the Saxons, who appear to have come from the low
country south of Denmark and east of Holland, the modern Holstein. The Angles appear to have lived in modern
Jutland and the neighbouring islands before they appeared in Britain, while the Jutes, whose origin is the most
obscure of the three, perhaps came from the country east of the lower Rhine and perhaps, though less probably,
from Jutland. The cultural differences between the three groups are of comparatively little moment: their language
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was essentially the same, though with important dialectical differences; and they all considered themselves part of
“Germania”13.
In those times, the land of nowadays England was covered by thick forests; lurking in the dark there were
savages and beasts waiting for their prey. In this landscape, there were tribes of peoples today commonly known as
the Anglo-Saxons14. The same term is also used to define the language of England from the 7 th to the 12th centuries.
The Anglo-Saxon was spoken in four dialects: Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, and West Saxon. The latter,
according to Moore is the dialect of most of the best-known literature from this time 15.
The Angles and the Saxons destroyed everything in their path, and the Roman way of life disappeared from
Britain. Many Britons moved west to escape the invaders. By the 7 th century, groups of Britons were in control of
present-day Scotland, Wales and Cornwall, but Angles and Saxons ruled the rest of Britain. People started to call this
area ‘Angle-land’. Later its name became ‘England’. 16 Nonetheless, the Celts still preserved their language, bearing
the linguistic marks of its previous Latin influence.

The Saxon Invasion

The wealth of Britain by the fourth century, the result of its mild climate and centuries of peace, was a
temptation to the greedy. At first the Germanic tribes only raided Britain, but after AD 430 they began to settle. The
newcomers were warlike and illiterate. The British owe their knowledge of this period mainly to an English monk
named Bede, who lived three hundred years later. His story of events in his Ecclesiastical History of the English
People has been proved generally correct by archaeological evidence.
Bede claims that the invaders came from three powerful Germanic tribes, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes. The
Jutes settled mainly in Kent and along the south coast, and were soon considered no different from the Angles and
Saxons. The Angles settled in the east, and in the north Midlands, while the Saxons settled between the Jutes and
the Angles in a band of land from the Thames Estuary westwards. The Anglo-Saxon migrations gave the larger part of
Britain its new name, England, “the land of the Angles”.

The British Celts fought the raiders and

settlers from Germany as well as they could.
However, during the next hundred years they were
slowly pushed westwards, driven into the mountains
in the far west, which the Saxons called “Weallas”, or
“Wales”, meaning “the land of the foreigners”. Some
Celts were driven into Cornwall, where they later
accepted the rule of Saxon lords. In the north, other
Celts were driven into the lowlands of the country
which became known as Scotland. Some Celts stayed
behind, and many became slaves of the Saxons.
Hardly anything is left of Celtic language or culture in
England, except for the names of some rivers,
Thames, Mersey, Severn and Avon, and two large
cities, London and Leeds. Therefore, new place-
names appeared on the map.

The Anglo-Saxon invasions and the kingdoms they

established

The first of these show that the earliest Saxon villages, like the Celtic ones, were family villages. The ending
-ing meant folk or family, thus “Reading” is the place of the family of Rada, “Hastings” of the family of Hasta. Ham
means farm, ton means settlement. Birmingham, Nottingham or Southampton, for example, are Saxon place-names.
Because the Anglo-Saxon kings often established settlements, Kingston is a frequent place-name.
The Anglo-Saxons established a number of kingdoms, some of which still exist in county or regional names to
this day: Essex (East Saxons), Sussex (South Saxons), Wessex (West Saxons), Middlesex (probably a kingdom of
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Middle Saxons), East Anglia (East Angles). By the middle of the seventh century the three largest kingdoms, those of
Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, were the most powerful.

Government and Society

The Saxons created institutions which made the English state strong for the next 500 years. One of these
institutions was the King's Council, called the Witan. The Witan probably grew out of informal groups of senior
warriors and churchmen. By the 10th century the Witan was a formal body, issuing laws and charters. It was not at
all democratic, and the king could decide to ignore the Witan's advice. But he knew that it might be dangerous to do
so. For the Witan's authority was based on its right to choose kings, and to agree the use of the king's laws. Without
its support, the king's own authority was in danger. The Witan established a system which remained an important
part of the king's method of government. Even today, the king or queen has a Privy Council, a group of advisers on
the affairs of state.
Anglo-Saxon technology changed the shape of English agriculture by introducing a far heavier plough which
was better able to plough in long straight lines across the field. It was particularly useful for cultivating heavier soils.
But it required six or eight oxen to pull it, and it was difficult to turn. This heavier plough led to changes in land
ownership and organisation.
At first the lords, or aldermen, were simply local officials. But by the beginning of the eleventh century they
were warlords, and were often called by a new Danish name, earls. Both words, alderman and earl, remain with the
English people today: aldermen are elected officers in local government, and earls are high ranking nobles. It was the
beginning of a class system, made up of king, lords, soldiers and workers on the land/churls. One other important
class developed during the Saxon period, the men of learning. These came from the Christian Church. 17
The Anglo-Saxons were hierarchically organized into:
– earls - the ruling noble class who claimed kingship to the very founders of the tribe (rom.
nobili)
– churls, who were the earls’ faithful servants who traced their ancestry in former prisoners of
war (rom. șerfi).

EARLS
 The central figure of the earl class was the warrior
 Their ruler, the king, was at the same time the exemplary warrior of the tribe who ruled absolutely
 The king was taking council from an assembly of elders, the Witan (“wise men”)

CHURLS
The churls did all the agricultural work, the hunting, the fishing, the weaving and all the metal work needed
for times of peace or war. A churl was committed to serving his earl (lord) for life. In what women were concerned,
they held a relatively higher place in society than in the centuries to come.

By employing a practice known as Interpretatio Germanica (“Germanic Interpretation”) during the Roman
Empire period, the Germanic peoples adopted the Roman weekly calendar, and replaced the names of Roman gods
with their own. Latin dies Iovi (“day of Jupiter”) was converted into “Thor’s day”, from which stems modern English
“Thursday” and all other Germanic weekday cognates.

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 For instance,
 Wednesday…day of Woden/Wodin,
father of the gods
 Thursday…day of Thor, god of war
and thunder

The strength of Anglo-Saxon culture is

obvious even today. Days of the week were
named after Germanic gods: Tig (Tuesday),
Wodin (Wednesday), Thor (Thursday), Frei
(Friday).
Woden – father of the gods

The Advent of Christianity to British Soil

We cannot know how or when Christianity first reached Britain, but it was certainly well before the early
fourth century AD. In the last hundred years of Roman government Christianity became firmly established across
Britain, both in Roman-controlled areas and beyond. However, the Anglo-Saxons belonged to an older Germanic
religion, and they drove the Celts into the west and north. In the Celtic areas Christianity continued to spread,
bringing paganism to an end. The map of Wales shows a number of place-names beginning or ending with llan,
meaning the site of a small Celtic monastery around which a village or town grew.
In 597 Pope Gregory the Great sent a monk, Augustine, to re-establish Christianity in England. He went to
Canterbury, the capital of the king of Kent. He did so because the king's wife came from Europe and was already
Christian. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 601. He was very successful. Several ruling families
in England accepted Christianity. But Augustine and his group of monks was not that successful with the ordinary
people.
It was the Celtic Church which brought Christianity to the ordinary people of Britain. The Celtic bishops went
out from their monasteries of Wales, Ireland and Scotland, walking from village to village teaching Christianity. In
spite of the differences between Anglo-Saxons and Celts, these bishops seem to have been readily accepted in
Anglo-Saxon areas. The bishops from the Roman Church lived at the courts of the kings, which they made centres of
Church power across England. The two Christian Churches, Celtic and Roman, could hardly have been more different
in character. One was most interested in the hearts of ordinary people, the other was interested in authority and
organisation.
England had become Christian very quickly. By 660 only Sussex and the Isle of Wight had not accepted the
new faith. Saxon kings helped the Church to grow, but the Church also increased the power of kings. Bishops gave
kings their support, which made it harder for royal power to be questioned, since the Kings had “God's approval”. In
addition, when kings arranged for their sons to be crowned as their successors, they made sure that this was done at
a Christian ceremony led by a bishop. It was good political propaganda, because it suggested that kings were chosen
not only by people but also by God. However, the value of Church approval was all the greater because of the
uncertainty of the royal succession. An eldest son did not automatically become king, as kings were chosen from
among the members of the royal family, and any member who had enough soldiers might try for the throne.
There were other ways in which the Church increased the power of the English state. It established
monasteries, or minsters, for example Westminster, which were places of learning and education. These
monasteries trained the men who could read and write, so that they had the necessary skills for the growth of royal
and Church authority. The king who made most use of the Church was Alfred, the great king who ruled Wessex from
871 -899. He used the literate men of the Church to help establish a system of law, to educate the people and to
write down important matters. He started the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the most important source, together with
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, for understanding the historical period.
The Anglo-Saxon kings also preferred the Roman Church to the Celtic Church for economic reasons. Villages
and towns grew around the monasteries and increased local trade. Many bishops and monks in England were from
the Frankish lands (France and Germany) and elsewhere; therefore, they were invited by English rulers who wished
to benefit from closer Church and economic contact with Europe's vital trade routes. In this way close contact with
many parts of Europe was encouraged. In addition, they all used Latin, the written language of Rome, and this
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boosted English trade with the continent. Increased literacy itself helped trade. Anglo-Saxon England became well
known in Europe for its exports of woollen goods, cheese, hunting dogs, pottery and metal goods. It imported wine,
fish, pepper, jewellery and wheel-made pottery.18
During the next hundred years, laws were made on a large number of matters. By the eleventh century royal
authority probably went wider and deeper in England than in any other European country. This process gave power
into the hands of those who could read and write, and in this way class divisions were increased. The power of
landlords, who had been given land by the king, was increased because their names were written down. Peasants,
who could neither read nor write, could lose their traditional rights to their land, because their rights were not
registered.

King Alfred the Great – An Outstanding Historical Figure

King Alfred the Great of Wessex (871-901) was the ruler of Wessex, Kent
and half of Mercia. During his reign the Britons
 became organized into twenty-five fortified cities
 underwent a period of prosperity
 the British navy was built and organised
One referential concept arose during this period, namely Danelaw which
was used to describe the set of legal terms and definitions created in the treaties
between the English king and the Danish warlord, Guthrum. Following the Danes’
defeat the treaty between the two leaders defined the boundaries of their
kingdoms and stipulated provisions for peaceful relations between the English
and the Vikings.
The Viking Raids (830-900)

Towards the end of the eighth century new seaborne raiders were tempted by Britain's wealth. These were
the Vikings, a word which probably means either “pirates” or “the people of the sea inlets”, and they came from
Norway and Denmark. The ferocious Vikings plundered all through Europe and they also landed on British soil. Like
the Anglo-Saxons they only raided at first. They burnt churches and monasteries (and with them any records they
might have kept of the raids.) along the east, north and west coasts of Britain and Ireland. London was itself raided in
842. Then, some made their homes in Britain, and from the 860s they controlled a large area of northern and eastern
England. The Saxon kings fought against them. Alfred the Great defeated the Vikings and sent them away from
Britain. But they returned, and in the early 11 th century there was a Viking king of England, King Cnut/ Canute. 19
By the end of the ninth century there were large-scale
settlements of Scandinavians in various parts of Britain,
and they had achieved political domination over a
significant territory.20.

The Vikings quickly accepted Christianity and did not disturb the local population. By 875 only King Alfred in
the west of Wessex held out against the Vikings, who had already taken most of England. After some serious defeats
Alfred won a decisive battle in 878, and eight years later he captured London. He was strong enough to make a
treaty with the Vikings, the Danelaw.

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The Viking invasions and the areas they brought under their
control.
Viking rule was recognised in the east and north of England. It
was called the Danelaw, the land where the law of the Danes
ruled. In the rest of the country Alfred was recognised as king.
During his struggle against the Danes, he had built walled
settlements to keep them out. These were called Inaghs. They
became prosperous market towns, and the word, now usually
spelt borough, is one of the commonest endings to place
names, as well as filename of the unit of municipal or town
administration today. 21

Historical Background to Old English Literature

The history of Old English literature follows closely the history of the conquering tribes and peoples which
successively came to the British Isles to settle there. They brought along with them not only a new way of political
and social life but also a literature of their own, recounting their ancient mentality, traditions and glorious past which
they had preserved in verse form or in prose. Mention should be made that literature in England began with the
Celtic Druids oral literary tradition who would memorize and recite poems for special occasions.

The Anglo-Saxon Society – Literary Context

In the isolated banquet halls or mead halls evolved the hierarchical and, ultimately, feudal political structure
of a government ruled by a king whose inferiors/underlings, the territorial lords and earls, oversaw the serfs who
worked solely for their ruler. This transition was one of the key elements of the epic poems of this time. Epic poems
are long narratives that follow the deeds of a great hero, focusing mainly upon one or two important periods and
events that reflect his valour. As with much of the literature of this period, the epic poems are rooted in popular
myths and traditions of the people. This was a period where the poetry was essentially parallel and alliterative. Most
Old English poetry is made up of two half-lines consisting of two accented syllables. The other unaccented syllables
varied, but each half-line had at least four syllables. The two halves were then related by consonantal alliteration 1.

The First Anglo-Saxon Artistic Events – The Oral Tradition

The earliest Anglo-Saxon literature was oral poetry about heroic or legendary stories concerning the history
of the Germanic tribes. These poems were performed at feasts by a minstrel/professional bard called a
scop/gleeman, accompanied by a harp.
Initially, epics were sung by minstrels who may have remained in one place but who more likely travelled
from settlement to settlement for fresh audiences.
Minstrels learned their stories by imitating the great storytellers; over time, the most memorable works
were eventually written down. However, because they were originally transmitted orally, emendations and deletions
to stories naturally occurred based upon the preferences of particular audiences. For example, a minstrel would
likely be more handsomely paid if he incorporated the name of and kind words about the king in whose mead hall he
was performing.2
Great feasts were held in the mead-hall to celebrate the deeds of a living hero or to commemorate the
mighty dead of their German ancestry. During these formal and joyful/sorrowful reunions, the scop, recited his
heroic epic in a rhythmic kind of chant to the king and his company of lords, while the queen and her retinue would
pass round the ceremonial mead cup.

1
Smith, “Riddles” 439 - ———. “Riddles.” , Smith Elton E, Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature. Ed. Robert Thomas Lambdin and
Laura Cooner Lambdin. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. 439–440.
2
Robert Thomas Lambdin and Laura Cooner Lambdin, “Old English and Anglo-Norman Literature”, in A Companion to Old and
Middle English Literature, Laura Cooner Lambdin (ed.), Robert Thomas Lambdin (ed.), Greenwood Press, Westport, CT.: 2002, 3
9
 The Scop
“The Anglo-Saxon scop was a professional or semi-professional tribal
poet who celebrated cultural values by singing epics on occasions of great
ceremony and festivity…. He was a man of repute, the equal of thanes.” (Dr. Kelly
Taylor)
For this reason, he held a host of positions in the society, a kind
of Jack-of-all trades
 court singer
 historian
 genealogist
 teacher
 composer
 critic
 warrior
 reporter

Old English Literature – A Categorization

Of surviving Anglo-Saxon literature, that which brings us most closely into contact with the
Germanic origins of the invaders is the heroic poetry, which still bears traces not only of the pre-
Christian heroic society of the continental Saxons and others, but also of that community of subject
which linked these early English with the wider civilization of Germania. This is written in the language
we know as Old English or Anglo-Saxon, which is essentially the English language in an earlier stage of
its development, with inflections which have since disappeared, a relatively small vocabulary from
which many words have since been lost (though some which are lost to standard English remain in
altered form in Scots and in regional English dialects). The verse is alliterative and stressed, without
rhyme, each line containing four stressed syllables and a varying number unstressed. 22

Old English Literature may be divided into three distinct parts:

a. Anonymous Old English Poetry
 Lyrical poetry
e.g. Deor’s Lament, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Wife’s Lament, The Husband’s Message
 Heroic epic poetry
e.g. Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon
b. Non-Anonymous Old English Poetry
e.g. the poems of Caedmon and Cynewulf
c. Old English Prose
e.g. the works of Venerable Bede (Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum - The Ecclesiastical History of the
English People )
When one considers Old English literature (the texts composed prior to the Norman Conquest of 1066), four
major distinct types come immediately to mind:
epic
lyric
didactic prose
chronicles.3
The alleged glamour of this era as one of castles, heroes, and farmers involved in feudal loyalty and honest
agrarian lifestyles, does not actually stand since this was a time of hardship, and the literature reflects the difficult
lifestyle of the Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Normans.
In England the land itself dictated the way inhabitants should lead their lives. Hunting and fishing were
crucial for food, goods, and shelter. Since the United Kingdom is a land surrounded by water, the sea often was

3
charms and riddles are of equal importance but they are not part of our concern. However, we are going to tackle this topic as
well.
10
referred to in literature. Sailing was not only a means of survival; in lyric and epic poetry it allowed for visions of
mythological creatures and hyperbolic retellings of everyday events. When the hard days of harvesting, hunting, and
seafaring came to an end, nights of feasting and mead drinking began and produced their own legends. 23
Those exhibiting great courage and teaching survival lessons were honoured by means of the tales told and
songs sung. Nonetheless, these tales of remarkable deeds are intermingled with the feeling of melancholy. The land
was one with harsh winters and short seasons of spring and summer. Thus, it was not an idyllic land of legends,
where human beings could not live for too long and during their brief lives they underwent uncountable moments of
loss and grief. For this reason, “the heroes usually sought glory and immortality in the songs passed from bard to
bard or scop to scop. The musical retellings were not only a way of teaching, but also the only real form of public
entertainment on the cold nights of the long, harsh winters.” 24
The bad and moody weather previously mentioned was the reason that made socializing indoors important,
leading to the appearance of tales of the mysterious and the horrible: fire breathing dragons that burnt down
villages and ogres/monsters that ripped men apart/into pieces. Yet these works functioned to amuse large groups
during long periods of confinement within walls. This highlights the importance of the banquet and the mead halls
as places of social and political interaction. Travelling gleemen and scops would compete for honour in their singing
and tale telling techniques. Whoever painted the best word pictures and kept the audience enthralled would win the
prize and the financial support of a patron. 25

1. Comprehension Questions
1. What historians gave accounts of the Germanic people’s intrusion into the English-to-be culture and
civilization?
2. Which are the component parts of the British Isle?
3. Who were the very first inhabitants of nowadays Britain?

4. What were the Germanic/Teutonic peoples like? How were they described by historians and other
historical accounts?
5. Which were the most important invaders that came to Britain?
6. How many Germanic people invaded nowadays Great Britain, what were their names and where did
they come from?
7. What did the Celts use to wear?
8. Who were the Romanized Britons, where did they live and what was their relationship with the Roman
Empire?
9. Why were the Celts so fond of nature? (provide at least 2 reasons)
10. Who were the Druids?
11. What kind of position did women hold during the Celtic supremacy?
12. Mention some of the consequences of Roman colonization in Britain.
13. Where do the English names of weekdays come from?
14. What were the most important improvements that the Romans brought along during their
colonizing the Britons?
15. Who built Hadrian’s wall and why?
16. Where did the Angles, Saxons and the Jutes come from?
17. How were the Anglo-Saxons hierarchically organized?
18. Who brought Christianity to nowadays Britain and why?

2. Communicative activity
Work in pairs. Prepare and then act out the following conversation:
Student A: You are Boudica. Your husband has just died and the Romans tried to take his money. You want to
build an army and fight the Romans. Talk to student B about your army. Tell him why you want to fight. How can you
help him if you win? Can you make him join your army?
Student B: You are a British farmer in the east of England. Your local queen, Boudica, wants you to fight in
her army. Do you want to join her? How do you feel about the Romans? Will it be dangerous? What will you get for
fighting? Will you join her army?

11
 3. Match these people with the descriptions below.
Alfred the Great Julius Caesar King Cnut
Queen Boudica Druids Venerable Bede
a. He was the first Viking king of Britain
b. He was a world-famous empire leader
c. A person who defeated the Vikings and agreed on a compromise with them – the Danelaw
d. A person who did not tolerate the Romans’ brutality and took a stand against them.
e. One of the first learned and knowledgeable people in the medicine and religious fields
f. A well-known historian who provided insight into the world of the Anglo-Saxons.

Choose the correct option.

1 The early inhabitants of Britain, the Iberians, left behind
a) graves and a mysterious circle of stones erected on the Salisbury Plain.
b) no trace of their culture and civilisation.
2 The Celts came from
a) northern Italy around 400 BC and spoke Latin.
b) Germany and were called Britons.
3 The Romans
a) led by Julius Caesar landed in Britain in 55 BC.
b) were defeated by Boadicea.
4 The Romans conquered
a) southern and central Britain, where they built towns and roads.
b) Britain and defeated the Picts in Scotland.
5 The Anglo-Saxons
a) came when the Romans withdrew from Britain,
b) defeated the Romans and took control of Britain.
6 Christianity was introduced by the
a) Romans, then strengthened by St Augustine.
b) Anglo-Saxons, who built churches and monasteries
7 The Vikings
a) invaded southern England, but soon left without trace.

12
 b) came from Scandinavia and established settlements along the coast of northern England.
8 The Normans
a) led by King Harold II defeated the Vikings in 1066.

New vocabulary Hence

Founder = inhabitants
Utterly = life span
Dialect = pottery
To fend for oneself = forefathers
To withdraw from = mounds
To preserve = worth mentioning
To convert to Christianity = the British Isles
To be inhabited by = of paramount importance
Wild swine = fetch
Hence = custom
chariots due to
strikingly looking woman move westwards
Definitely skilful
blow a fuse wheat
leeks oats
turnips live on
parsnips herding
gooseberries bee keeping
porridge kinship
fennel ploughing
nettles striped
boar checked cloaks fastened by a pin
trout tartan
mackerel ragged
salmon of comparatively little moment
town dwellers path
with ease illiterate
actually charters
high spirited plough
border oxen
mainland Advent
pull out paganism
pass on ordinary
forge alliances bishops
trading centre local trade
settlements trade routes
mead halls boost
rooted literacy
alliterative jewellery
scop/gleeman navy
emendations provisions
audiences seaborne
mighty wealth
retinue plunder
Jack-of-all trades enthralled
alleged intermingle
confinement
hardship
exhibiting
13
14
1
(Călina Gogălniceanu, Corina Mihăilescu, Medieval Britain, Ed. Institutul European, Iași, 2004, p. 7, prefata Sorin Pîrvu
The British Spirit))
2
An Illustrated History of Britain, David McDowall , Pearson Education Limited, Essex, Longman Group UK Limited 1989., p.
4
3
An Illustrated History of Britain, David McDowall , Pearson Education Limited, Essex, Longman Group UK Limited 1989., p.
3
4
An Illustrated History of Britain, David McDowall , Pearson Education Limited, Essex, Longman Group UK Limited 1989., p.
5-6
5
(Călina Gogălniceanu, Corina Mihăilescu, Medieval Britain, Ed. Institutul European, Iași, 2004, p. 6, prefata Sorin Pîrvu
The British Spirit))
6
An Illustrated History of Britain, David McDowall , Pearson Education Limited, Essex, Longman Group UK Limited 1989., p.
6-8
7
A History of Britain, Fiona Beddall, Pearson Education Limited, Penguin Books, 2006, 1
8
Derek Allen, Kenneth Brodey, Paul Smith, The Living Record. A Short History and Anthology of English Literature,vol. 1,
English Literature from its origins to the eighteenth century, La Spiga Languages, Milan, 2001, 8
9
An Illustrated History of Britain, David McDowall , Pearson Education Limited, Essex, Longman Group UK Limited 1989., p.
8-10
10
(Călina Gogălniceanu, Corina Mihăilescu, Medieval Britain, Ed. Institutul European, Iași, 2004, p. 7, prefata Sorin Pîrvu
The British Spirit))
11
Derek Allen, Kenneth Brodey, Paul Smith, The Living Record. A Short History and Anthology of English Literature,vol. 1,
English Literature from its origins to the eighteenth century, La Spiga Languages, Milan, 2001, 10
12
David Daiches, A Critical History of English Literature, vol. 1p. 3
13
David Daiches, A Critical History of English Literature, vol. 1p. 4)
14
It must be noted that this term was created only as a means to distinguish the British Saxons from those on the
Continent (according to Greenfield 6 - Greenfield, Stanley B. A Critical History of Old English Literature. New York: New
York University Press, 1965.).
15
Moore, Knott, and Hulbert 1 - Moore, Samuel, and Thomas A. Knott, revised by James R. Hulbert, The Elements of Old
English. 10th ed. Ann Arbor, MI: George Wahr Publishing, 1977
16
A History of Britain, Fiona Beddall, Pearson Education Limited, Penguin Books, 2006, 2-3.
17
An Illustrated History of Britain, David McDowall , Pearson Education Limited, Essex, Longman Group UK Limited 1989.,
p. 11-13
18
An Illustrated History of Britain, David McDowall , Pearson Education Limited, Essex, Longman Group UK Limited 1989.,
p. 14-15
19
A History of Britain, Fiona Beddall, Pearson Education Limited, Penguin Books, 2006, 3.
20
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/overview_vikings_01.shtml, accessed online, August 3017
21
An Illustrated History of Britain, David McDowall , Pearson Education Limited, Essex, Longman Group UK Limited 1989.,
p. 15-17
22
A Critical History of English Literature, vol. 1, David Daiches, p. 5
23
Robert Thomas Lambdin and Laura Cooner Lambdin, “Old English and Anglo-Norman Literature”, in A Companion to Old
and Middle English Literature, Laura Cooner Lambdin (ed.), Robert Thomas Lambdin (ed.), Greenwood Press, Westport,
CT.: 2002, 1.
24
Robert Thomas Lambdin and Laura Cooner Lambdin, “Old English and Anglo-Norman Literature”, in A Companion to Old
and Middle English Literature, Laura Cooner Lambdin (ed.), Robert Thomas Lambdin (ed.), Greenwood Press, Westport,
CT.: 2002, 2
25
Greenfield, Stanley B. A Critical History of Old English Literature. New York: New York University Press, 1965, 72.