The Anglo-Saxon Period

The Anglo-Saxon Period By: Katie Smith, George Bollas, Andrew Petersen, Patrick Heraghty, and Jake Myers

Religion During the time of the Anglo Saxon’s, heathonism became a great part of their life for thousands of years before Christianity was a religion as the gods were a part of and ruled many aspects of their lives. They were a part of birth, life, death, harvest, earth, sky, love, fertility, nature, weather and many more. As the decline of the Anglo Saxon heathonism began in 597 c.e. , Christianity came about when the Roman missionary, St. Augustine, arrived in Kent who which was sent out on the orders of Pope Gregory. Before Pope Gregory became a Pope, he sent out the missionaries to convert all Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Augustines original intention was to create and establish an archbishopric in London. The Saxons had two church groups. they were seperate between the Celtic and Roman churches. They had many differences of opinions and practice. The Celtic church was was based on on monastic life and it was more loosely organized while the Roman church was conscious of structure, discipline, and moderation. Church education in this time was almost the only education that was available. In this time, they had monks that would travel throughout the countryside to preach and convert people living in the villages. They all believed that Christianity would be the main religion after this time.

Religion Image created by the Heathens Church School Church

Literary Happenings/ Authors Beowulf by Lorn Kennedy: Demons, War, Terror Widsith: a poem that draws on the Anglo Saxon oral tradition of tale singing. Ovid: An Anglo Saxon author is best known for his works Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria. His literature influenced European literature, art, and mythology. Much of Anglo Saxon literature was told through oral presentation so there is very little physical documentation of their literature.

Literary Happenings /Authors

Significant Historical Events • 55 B.C. - Julius Caesar invades Britain. • 50 A.D. - Londinium (present day London) founded by Romans as a supply port. • 61 A.D. - Queen Boadicea leads her eastern British tribe in an uprising against the Romans. • 409 A.D. - Roman legions flee from Britain • 449 A.D. - Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invade Britain. • 476 A.D. - Roman empire falls. • 537 A.D. - Death of King Arthur at Battle of Camlann. • 547 A.D. - Widespread plague reaches Britain from Europe • 793 A.D. - Vikings invade Britain, beginning a century of invasions • 871 A.D. - Alfred the Great becomes king of England • 878 A.D. - he faced the Danes (Vikings) who were invading • 1066 A.D. - The battle continued until the Normans defeat Saxons and Danes; William the Conqueror becomes English King and the great Anglo Saxon period ends.

Significant Historical Events

LANGUAGE During the Anglo-Saxon period, Old-English was the West Germanic language used by the people during this time period. The language first began to appear in the 8th century in the form of writing. Most of the text was written in West-Saxon which is one of the four main dialects, along with Mercian, Northumbrian, and Kentish. The Anglo-Saxons started to use some of the same writing styles as the Irish missionaries, one of the styles that they would use would be Insular half-uncial, which at the time was used for books in Latin. As well as minuscule, a less formal version, was used for to write Latin and Old English. Old English was first written with a version of the Runic alphabet known as Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Frisian. Its alphabet was loosely based off of Elder Futhark, the oldest form of the Runic alphabet, having between 26 and 33 letters. Anglo-Saxon runes were most likely used from the 5th century AD until around the 10 century. The language started to fade in the 7th century and during the 9th century the language was mainly used for manuscripts and became an interest for antiquarians; a modern day historian. The Language ceased to exist shortly after the Norman conquest of England, which was a subsequent invasion of England by the Normans and French. Runic inscriptions are most commonly found on jewellery, weapons, stones, and other objects, and only about 200 of them have remained preserved. Most of the inscriptions have been found in eastern and southern England

LANGUAGE

DAILY LIFE/ CULTURE Religion- they believed and worshipped multiple gods of nature. some of the main gods include Tiw, Wodin, Thor and Fryia and there names are remembered by days of the week tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday. Slavery-most people became slaves by being born a slave other than that war was the most notable source of becoming a slave. the only way out of being a slave was death. Clothing- the robe and tunic around the waist was the common clothing for a man for the women it was a robe or a dress down to the feet. Weapons- the main weapon in war or combat was a spear with a 7 foot long staff. Food/Farming- mainly grew wheats, oats, rye and barley Traveling- traveling was uncommon and you stayed where you where, trade was the only form of traveling

DAILY LIFE/ CULTURE

Works Cited Page http://www.britainexpress.com/History/anglo-saxon_life.htm - jake's source "The Anglo-Saxons." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 03 Sept. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/anglo_saxons/saxons.shtml>. -George source Ross, David B. "Early Christianity in Britain." Early Christianity in England. Britian Express, 2 Apr. 2009. Web. 03 Sept. 2012. <http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Early_Christian_Britain.htm>. . "Anglo Saxon Period." Angle Fire. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Sep 2012. <http://www.angelfire.com/journal/LiteratureOfEngland/AngloSaxon.html> -Andrew Source

Reflection on Sources The sources we used were all credible because they were all current. Also they were all created by an experienced group or author. None of the information is bias in any of these sources either. All the sources' purposes are to inform the reader. The information is also accurate considering it was all in the textbook that you gave us which is obviously a reliable source!

The Anglo-Saxon Period