The Anglo-Saxons:
What Did They Value?
Overview: From the Iron Age when Celtic tribes inhabited the British Isles, through the Roman conquest (43 A.D. to the 5th century A.D.), the migration of Germanic tribes (5th-9th century A.D.), repe
ated Viking attacks (9th-11th centuries A.D.), and culminating with the Norman invasion by an army from northern France, the small island that is now known as England has been under constant threat of attack.
The Angles and Saxons—or Anglo-Saxons—who first inhabited England were accustomed to war and defended their land from invaders. The little we know of the peoples comes from artifacts found throughout England.
With the documents included here, describe what the Anglo-Saxons valued. What was important to them? The Documents:
Document A: “The Anglo-Saxons Sweep Ashore” article from a reference text
Document B: “Anglo-Saxon Life: The Warm Hall, The Cold World” article from a reference text
Document C: “Anglo-Saxon Religion: Gods for Warriors” article from a reference text
Document D: “The Bards: Singing of Gods and Heroes” reference article
Document E: “The Christian Monasteries: The Ink Froze” reference article
Document F: Map depicting Viking invasions and ttlements
Document G: Inventory of Anglo-Saxon treasure hoard discovered in 2009
Document H: Gold strip with a Biblical inscription included in a collection of Anglo-Saxon treasure
Document I: Anglo-Saxon riddles published in an 11th century text
Document A
Source: Leeming, David Adams. “Introduction to the Anglo-Saxons.” Elements of Literature. Eds. Kathleen Daniel, et al. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; 2000.
The Anglo-Saxons Sweep Ashore
This time the attack came from the north. In the middle of the fifth century, the invaders, Angles and
Saxons from Germany and Jutes from Denmark, crosd the North Sea. They drove out the old
Britons before them and eventually ttled the greater part of Britain. The language of the Anglo-
Saxons became the dominant language in the land which was to take a new name—Engla land, or
England—from the Angles.
But the latest newcomers did not have an easy time of it. The Celts put up a strong resistance before
they retreated into Wales in the far west of the country. There, traces of their culture, especially their
language, can still be found. One of the heroic Celtic leaders wa广东盐焗鸡
s a Welsh chieftain called Arthur,
who developed in legend as Britain’s “once and future king.”
At first, Anglo-Saxon England was no more politically unified than Celtic Britain had been. The
country was divided into veral independent principalities, each with its own “king.” It was not until
King Alfred of Wesx (r. 871-899), also known as Alfred the Great, led the Anglo-Saxons against
the invading Danes that England became in any true n a nation. The Danes were one of the fierce
Viking peoples who crosd the cold North Sea in their dragon-prowed boats in the eighth and ninth
centuries. Plundering and destroying everything in their path, the Danes eventually took over and
ttled in parts of northeast and central England.
It is possible that even King Alfred would have failed to unify the Anglo-Saxons had it not been for
the gradual reemergence of Christianity in Britain. Irish and Continental missionaries converted the
Anglo-Saxon kings, who subjects converted also. Christianity provided a common faith and
common system of morality and right conduct; it also linked England to Europe. Under Christianity
and Alfred, Anglo-Saxons fought to protect their people, their culture, and their church from the
ravages of the Danes. Alfred’s reign began the shaky dominance of Wesx kings in southern
England. Alfred’s descendants—Ethelfleda, a brilliant military leader and strategist, and her brother
Edward—carried on his battle against the Danes.
The battle continued until both the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes were defeated in 1066 by William,
Duke of Normandy, and his invading force of Normans from northwestern France.
Document B
Source: Leeming, David Adams. “Introduction to the Anglo-Saxons.” Elements of Literature. Eds. Kathleen Daniel, et al. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; 2000.
Anglo-Saxon Life: The Warm Hall, the Cold World
In 1939, in Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England, archaeologists discovered a treasure that had been under
the earth for thirteen hundred years. This enormous ship-grave contained the imprint of a huge wooden
ship and a vast treasure trove—all of which had been buried with a great king or noble warrior. There
was no trace left of the king or warrior himlf, but his sword lay there, along with other meticulously
decorated treasures of gold, silver, and bronze—his pur, coins, helmet, buckle, rving vesls, and
harp. This grave can’t help but remind us of the huge burial mound erected in memory of the king
Beowulf.
As the Sutton Hoo ship treasures 大动干戈的意思
show, the Anglo-Saxons were not barbarians, though they are
frequently depicted that way. However, they did 巅峰武帝
not lead luxurious lives either, or lives dominated by
learning or the arts. Warfare was the order of the day. As Beowulf shows, law and order, at least in the
early days, were the responsibility of the leader, especially during war, and succe衣领发黄
ss was measured in
gifts from the leader. Beowulf, for instance, makes his name and gains riches by defeating the monsters who try to destroy King Hrothgar.
This pattern of loyal dependency was basic to Anglo-Saxon life. Such loyalty grew out of a need to
protect the group from the terrors of an enemy-infested wilderness—a wilderness that became
particularly frightening during the long, bone-chilling nights of winter. In most of England, the Anglo-
Saxons tended to live clo to their animals in single-family homesteads, wooden buildings that
surrounded a communal court or a warm, fire-lit chieftain’s hall. This cluster of buildings was protected by a wooden stockade fence. The arrangement contributed to a n of curity and to the clo
relationship between leader and followers. It also encouraged the Anglo-Saxon tendency toward
community discussion and rule by connsus.
Document C
Source: Leeming, David Adams. “Introduction to the Anglo-Saxons.” Elements of Literature. Eds. Kathleen Daniel, et al. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; 2000.
The Anglo-Saxon Religion: Gods for Warriors
Despite the influence of Christianity, the old Anglo-Saxon religion with its warrior gods persisted. A
dark, fatalistic religion, it had come with the Anglo-Saxons from Germany and had much in common
with what we think of as Nor or Scandinavian mythology.
One of the most important Nor gods was Odin, the god of death, poetry, and magic. The Anglo-
Saxon name for Odin was Woden (from which we have Wednesday, “Woden’s day”). Woden could
help humans communicate with spirits, and he was especially associated with burial rites and with
ecstatic trances, important for both poetry and religious mysteries. Not surpris养鱼池塘怎么建
ingly, this god of both
poetry and death played an important role in the lives of the people who produced great poetry and
who also maintained a somber, brooding outlook on life.
The Anglo-Saxon deity named Thunor was esntially the same as Thor, the Nor god of thunder and
lightning. His sign was the hammer and possibly also the twisted cross we call the swastika, which is
found on so many Anglo-Saxon gravestones. (Thunor’s name survives in Thursday, “Thor’s day.”)
Still another significant figure in Anglo-Saxon mythology is the dragon, which ems always, as in
Beowulf, to be the protector of a treasure. Some scholars suggest that the fiery dragon should be en
as both a personification of “death the devourer” and as the guardian of the grave mound, in which a
warrior’s ashes and his treasure lay.
On the whole, the religion of the Anglo-Saxons ems to have been more concerned with ethics than
with mysticism—with the earthly virtues of bravery, loyalty, generosity, and frien扑朔迷离意思
dship.
Document D
Source: Leeming, David Adams. “Introduction to the Anglo-Saxons.” Elements of Literature. Eds. Kathleen Daniel, et al. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; 2000.
The Bards: Singing of Gods and Heroes
The Anglo-Saxon communal hall, besides offering shelter and a place for holding council meetings,
also provided space for storytellers and their audience. As in other parts of the ancient world (notably
in Homeric Greece more than one thousand years earlier), skilled storytellers, or bards, sang of gods
and heroes. The Anglo-Saxons did not regard the b说说搞笑
ards (called scops) as inferior to warriors. To the
Anglo-Saxons, creating poetry was as important as fighting, hunting, farming, or loving.
The poets sang to the strumming of a harp. As sources for their improvisational poetry, the
storytellers had a rich supply of heroic tales that reflected the concerns of a people constantly under
threat of手工盆
war, dia, or old age. We are told of the king in Beowulf:
. . . sometimes Hrothgar himlf, with the harp
In his lap, stroked its silvery strings
And told wonderful stories, a brave king
Reciting unhappy truths about good
And evil—and sometimes he wove his stories
On the mournful thread of old age, remembering
Buried strength and the battles it had won.
He would weep, the old king.
--Lines 2107-2114
Anglo-Saxon literature contains many works in this same elegiac strain. Poems such as “The
Seafarer”, for example, stress the transience of a life frequently identified with the cold and darkness
of winter. For the non-Christian Anglo-Saxons, who religion offered them no hope of an远古最大的蜘蛛
afterlife,
only fame and its reverberation in poetry could provide a defen against death. Perhaps this is why
the Anglo-Saxon bards, uniquely gifted with the skill to prerve fame in the collective memory, were
such honored members of their society.
