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The Anglo-Saxon period, also called the Old English period, extends approximately from the 5th century to the Norman Conquest in 1066.
After Roman rule ended in Britain, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes migrated there mainly from areas corresponding to modern Denmark, northern Germany and the Netherlands.
The Heptarchy comprised seven kingdoms :
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The name England derives from the Angles: Angle-land became England.
Anglo-Saxon society included kings and aristocrats, free farmers and peasants, and slaves.
ASJ: Angles, Saxons, Jutes
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📌 Anglo-Saxon religious culture combined Germanic/Norse pagan traditions, including the gods Woden, Thunor and Tiw, with Christianity, which spread from the late 6th century onwards.
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Most surviving Old English manuscripts were written down approximately between the 8th and 11th centuries, often by Christian monks, and much earlier oral tradition has disappeared.
Many Anglo-Saxon texts were written in Latin, particularly after the Christianisation of England.
Oral Germanic tradition meets Christian manuscripts
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Heroic and epic poetry was the dominant literary genre of the Anglo-Saxon period.
Recurring themes and values include :
Old English poetry normally relies on alliteration, caesura, stress and kennings rather than rhyme.
Compléments
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Beowulf is the most famous surviving work of Old English literature and is an anonymous epic poem of 3,182 lines.
Beowulf travels to Denmark to help Hrothgar, defeats Grendel without a weapon, kills Grendel’s mother, and later dies from wounds sustained while killing a dragon as king.
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Beowulf was probably composed between the 7th and early 8th centuries, although its surviving manuscript is later.
Beowulf takes place mainly in Scandinavia and involves the Danes and the Geats, combining legendary elements, heroic traditions and references to historical peoples and events.
Grendel, his mother, then the dragon
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📌 Beowulf contains Christian references to God, Creation, Cain, evil and sin, while also depicting a pre-Christian Scandinavian world and Germanic heroic traditions.
📌 Beowulf presents physical immortality as impossible but immortality through fame and memory as possible, because storytelling preserves his name and reputation after his death.
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Grendel’s lineage is connected to Cain, who killed his brother Abel in the Bible.
The poem’s Christian poet or scribes appear to have integrated older pagan heroic traditions into a Christian framework.
📌 Grendel threatens the community and social order, Grendel’s mother seeks revenge for her son and complicates the distinction between hero and monster, and the dragon represents destruction, death, greed and treasure.
The body dies; fame survives
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Bede, also known as the Venerable Bede, wrote Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, usually translated as The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, in Latin and completed it in 731.
Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, ruled during the 9th century, when Viking invasions threatened Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of historical records written in Old English, begun during Alfred’s reign probably in the late 9th century, with versions updated for centuries.
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Bede’s work records the Christianisation of England, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, kings, religious figures and historical events, but reflects its author’s Christian perspective and is not completely neutral. - Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, 731
Alfred the Great promoted education, literacy, translation and the use of Old English, helping to develop Anglo-Saxon literary culture.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records political events, battles, kings, invasions, religious events and other important events in English history, but reflects a particular political and religious context and is not completely neutral.
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Caedmon is traditionally considered the earliest named English poet and is associated with Caedmon’s Hymn, a poem praising God and Creation.
The Anglo-Saxon period influenced later British literature through heroic figures, monsters, dragons, epic quests, warrior cultures, ancient languages, myths and legends, and the idea of the heroic journey.
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Caedmon’s Hymn is one of the earliest surviving examples of Old English Christian poetry and illustrates the transition from Germanic oral tradition to Christian Old English literature.
Anglo-Saxon literature included :
J. R. R. Tolkien was a scholar of Old English and Old Norse literature and a philologist, and his knowledge of Beowulf, Germanic mythology and Old English strongly influenced his literary work.
Tolkien’s Old English scholarship → influence on his writing
Teste tes connaissances sur The Anglo-Saxon Period avec 24 questions à choix multiples et corrections détaillées.
1. À quelle période s’étend approximativement l’époque anglo-saxonne, aussi appelée période du vieil anglais ?
2. Après la fin de la domination romaine en Bretagne, d’où venaient principalement les Angles, les Saxons et les Jutes qui migrèrent vers l’île ?
Mémorisez les concepts clés de The Anglo-Saxon Period avec 71 flashcards interactives.
When did the Anglo-Saxon period extend from and end?
Approximately from the 5th century to the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Where did the Angles, Saxons and Jutes mainly migrate from?
Areas corresponding to modern Denmark, northern Germany and the Netherlands.
After what event did the Angles, Saxons and Jutes migrate to Britain?
After Roman rule ended in Britain.
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