THE ANGLO SAXONS
The Anglo Saxons
existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain
until the Norman Conquest in 1066.
The Anglo-Saxons were
the members of Germaniac groups who migrated to the
southern half of the island of Great Britain from nearby northwestern
Europe and their cultural descendants. Anglo-Saxon history thus begins
during the period of Sub-Roman Britain following the end
of Roman control, and traces the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in
the 5th and 6th centuries (conventionally identified as seven main
kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, East
Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex),
their Christianisation during the 7th century, the threat
of Viking invasions and Danish settlers, the
gradual unification of England under Wessex hegemony during
the 9th and 10th centuries, and ending with the Norman conquest of
England by William the Conqueror in 1066.
Term
Anglo Saxon
The term
Anglo-Saxon is a relatively modern one. It refers to settlers from the German
regions of Angeln and Saxony, who made their way over to Britain after the fall
of the Roman Empire around AD 410.
History of the
Anglo Saxons
The Roman
armies withdrew from Britain early in the fifth century because they
were needed back home to defend the crumbling centre of the Empire. Britain was
considered a far-flung outpost of little value.
Ø The Jutes and the Frisians from
Denmark were also settling in the British Isles, but the Anglo-Saxon
settlers were effectively their own masters in a new land and they did little
to keep the legacy of the Romans alive.
Ø They replaced the Roman stone
buildings with their own wooden ones, and spoke their own language, which gave
rise to the English spoken today.
Ø The Anglo-Saxons also brought
their own religious beliefs, but the arrival of Saint Augustine in 597
converted most of the country to Christianity.
Ø The Anglo-Saxon period lasted for
600 years, from 410 to 1066, and in that time Britain's political landscape
underwent many changes.
Ø The early settlers kept to small
tribal groups, forming kingdoms and sub-kingdoms. By the ninth century, the
country was divided into four kingdoms - Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia and
Wessex. Wessex was the only one of these kingdoms to survive the Viking
invasions. Eric Bloodaxe, the Viking ruler of York, was killed by the Wessex
army in 954 and England was united under one king - Edred.
Ø Most of the information we have
about the Anglo-Saxons comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a year-by-year
account of all the major events of the time. Among other things it describes
the rise and fall of the bishops and kings and the important battles of the
period. It begins with the story of Hengist and Horsa in AD 449.
Anglo-Saxon
Rule came to an end in 1066, soon
after the death of Edward the Confessor, who had no heir. He had supposedly
willed the kingdom to William of Normandy, but also seemed to favour Harold
Godwinson as his successor.
Harold was
crowned king immediately after Edward died, but he failed in his attempt to
defend his crown, when William and an invading army crossed the Channel from
France to claim it for himself. Harold was defeated by the Normans at the
Battle of Hastings in October 1066, and thus a new era was ushered in.
LITERATURE: Old English Period
Anglo -Saxon Epic poem
The most important pagan Epic poem is
the Beowulf the earliest, greatest Epic, or heroic poem in our
literature. The poet writing this poem is anonymous, but most Scholars
place him in the Anglian Kingdom.
Beowulf is a Scandinavian Saga. It was
written by a scholar after an oral transmission. the poem has got two stories
with the same Hero Beowulf a young man who helps the king of
the danes against a monster, grendel in the first part
Beowulf kills Grendel's and kills Grendel's mother in the second part. it
was written in dialect of wessex.
Anglo
Saxon Lyrical Poetry
The Anglo Saxon English poetry was unwritten .it
consisted of songs and poems,mainly heroic in character ,which was handed over
to one generation to another generation by the words of mouth.
WIDSITH : The
earliest of Anglo Saxon lyrical poem is WIDSITH ,was a poem of
about 150 lines ,the author and date of its composition are unknown
.The poem expresses the wondering life of the gleeman journey and
experience in different places.The poem records the poet's own experience and
emotions and to some extent it is a glorification of his own self.
Age of Chaucer
Deor's Lament : Deor's
lament or complain of deor is more lyrical than widsith ,Deor's
lament is about the complaint against his unjust dismissal from the favor of
lord by a rival poet. This poem marks definite progresses of the lyrical
approach of Anglo-Saxons poetry. The lyrical note is however, specially
dominated in certain elegies of early days. These poems are all
marked with the sense of melancholy.
Poems like The Ruin ,The seafarer ,The wanderer,
The wife's complain ,The husband's message are specific instances in their
respect ,all the mentioned poems contain lamentations for the loss of certain
things. Poetic techniques ,graphic , imagery and harmonious melody are the
important features of lyrical poetry.
Writers of Anglo Saxon Period
Bede : St. Bede the Venerable,
Bede also spelled Baeda or Beda, (born 672/673, traditionally
Monkton in Jarrow, Northumbria [England]—died May 25, 735, Jarrow; canonized
1899; feast day May 25), Anglo-Saxon theologian, historian, and
chronologist. St. Bede is best known for his Historia ecclesiastica gentis
Anglorum (“Ecclesiastical History of the English People”), a source vital
to the history of the conversion to Christianity of the
Anglo-Saxon tribes.
Caedmon: Caedmon, (flourished
658–680), first Old English Christian poet, whose fragmentary hymn to the creation
remains a symbol of the adaptation of the
aristocratic-heroic Anglo-Saxon verse tradition to the expression of
Christian themes. His story is known from Bede’s Ecclesiastical
History of the English People, which tells how Caedmon, an illiterate
herdsman, retired from company one night in shame because he could not comply
with the demand made of each guest to sing.
Then in a dream a stranger appeared
commanding him to sing of “the beginning of things,” and the herdsman found
himself uttering “verses which he had never heard.” When Caedmon awoke he
related his dream to the farm bailiff under whom he worked and was conducted by
him to the monastery at Streaneshalch (now called Whitby).
Cynewulf: Poems are the Christ,
Juliana, The fates of the Apostles and elene.
Alfred (849 – 901): He was the translator of the period; he translated so
many works
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