Before Beowulf

By: Christina Ayon, Grace Maxwell, Nicole Milliman,

Xochitl Moreno, Lauren Pearce
Everyday Life
 Women’s VS. Men’s Jobs
Men’s Jobs Women’s Jobs

● Farming ● Churning butter

○ Caring for animals, growing ● Grinding flour
crops, pulling ploughs ● Weaving
● Carpenter ○ Clothes made on looms
● Craftwork
● Feller of trees
○ Dyeing clothes and making
● Blacksmith
shoes
● Metalworker ● Creating jewellery
○ Forming tools, swords and
knives
 Daily Activities
● Looking after animals
● Collecting wool and spinning
● Chopping wood
● Building the hearth fire
● Preparing food
● Hunting and fighting training
● Circle Dancing & Chess for leisure
Food and Drink
 Food Drink
● Bread was a staple ● Wine, ale, mead, cider
● Dairy Sources: cows, sheep, and goats ● Goblets and drinking horns
● No desserts ● Water was not common
 Upper VS. Lower
Upper Class Lower Class

● Wine was a luxury ● Very poorest ground up and ate

● Raised cattle for food anything edible
● Specialty flour ● Peasants kept a cow for milk
● Imported delicacies: pepper, olive oil, ● Evening meal: broth and chopped
dates, figs, raisins, almonds, rice, sugar meat
Clothing
 Women’s Clothing

● Long ankle-length underdress

● Outer dress is Peplos
● Belt was worn over peplos
● Leather shoes with secured straps
● Other accessories: stockings, cloaks,
beads, tools, weapons
 Men’s Clothing

● Inner tunic and outer tunic worn over

trousers
● Two belts were worn
● Leather shoes with secured straps
● Additional accessories: caps, warrior
jackets, gloves, tools, weapons
Society
 Gender/Family Roles
Women Men Children
● The roles of Anglo Saxon ● Dominant role in society ● Adults at ten
women: ● Held the image of the Roles of Children
hero
○ mother, wife,
● Represented the strength ● Girls: weaving cloth,
caregiver, and cooking meals, making
and wisdom of their
teacher. cheese and brewing ale.
society
● Boys:ploughed fields,
● Idea of a cup bearer
● Protected and provided fished, and hunted
for the family
 Roles in Marriage
Women’s Role in Marriage Men’s Role in Marriage

● Possibility of marrying ● The husband would go to the father

anyone they chose.
● All belongings were
equally shared
● Law of Cnut
○ Permitted divorce
● Idea of a Peace Weaver
with his offers, before he could
marry his daughter.
● Would give his wife his land, estate
and everything that came with the
manor.

Upper Class
● Consisted of:
○ Kings, Ealdorman,
and Thanes
● Kings:
○ Overall rulers
● Ealdorman
○ Controlled the districts
on behalf of the ruler.
● Thanes
○ professional military
Social Hierarchy
Middle Class- Ceorls Lower Class- Thralls
● Were Bondsmen who were
● Largest group of people
75%
in effect slaves.
● Farmers and craftsmen
● Prisoners in debt
● Some were successful
● Did not have many rights
landowners, others
under the law
agricultural laborers
● Harshly punished without
any thought of justice.
 Jobs
Upper Class Middle Class Lower Class
THANES CEORLS SLAVES

● Attend local courts and discuss ● Slaves worked in the fields

● Informed the king on
grievances looking after crops and animals.
what was occurring
within the kingdom ● Males obligated to serve in the
● Depending upon the needs of their
army if needed
master, a slave could work inside
● Completed errands and
● Worked on the land as free the home as a servant
passed on important
peasants
messages for the king.
● Slaves workload, food intake, and
● Provided service trades whom they should marry was
○ metal working, dictated by their master
carpentry, and weaving
Religion and Rituals
 Religion
Pagan Worship

● Worshipping of many deities, known as ése ● Demonstrations of devotion

○ Sacrifice
Woden (head god)
○ Festivals
Thunor (god of sky and thunder) ● Worship sites would be out in
Tiw (god of war) the open
Frigg (goddess of love and festivity) ○ Modest shrines
○ Temples
● Similar to Norse gods
● Place-names dedicated to
● Believed in supernatural beings deities
○ Elves and household deities (Cofgodas)
 Religion
Monandæg- day of the Moon, Máni Frigedæg- Frigg’s day
Tiwesdæg- Tiw Sæternesdæg- Saturn
Wodnesdæg- Woden Sunnandæg- Sun
Ðunresdæg- Thunor

● Modranect- start of the Anglo-Saxon year

● Killing of oxen
● Men buried with weapon
○ Amulets (a good luck charm)

Ship and tumulus (tomb) burials were described in the Beowulf epic
Customs & Traditions
 Rites of Passage
● Birth, Marriage, Death

● Blot

● Symbel

● Húsel
 Birth Freya
● Frigg and Freya

● Vatni Ausa = baby naming rite

○ Eyrbyggja Saga, Njal's Saga

1. The Opening

2. The Naming

a. Ic weorpe wæter on bearne, ond giefe hí naman

3. The Closing
 Marriage
● Marriage by capture
○ Honeymoon
● Marriage by purchase
○ “Wedd” = to wager
● Arranged marriage
● Invoke Freya and
Frigga
● Exchange of
“bride-price” and dowry
● Exchange of swords
● Exchange of rings
 Death Sutton Hoo

● Buried
● Size of burial mound indicates status
● Buried with Treasures
○ To show status
○ Memorialize objects person liked while alive
○ For use in afterlife
 Alliances
Political Trade
● “New” Scandinavian nobles ● Coin circulation
● Swapping of sons ○ Sceattas helpful with forgein
● Dynastic marriages.
trade
● Angles, Saxons, and Jutes joined
military power of Vortigern (Briton) ● Expansion of overseas trade
● Treaty between East Anglia and
West Saxons
 Combat
● Axe and sword: duels
● Seax: fighting by groups
● Helmet
● Mail shirt
● Shield
● Spear
● Angon