Page

0

Anglo-Saxon Basics

By

Matt Love Edited by Mark Allen

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010

Page

1

Matt Love – ‘Leofwin’ 1954 - 2014

Matt was a kind and generous soul who loved to spend time at West Stow indulging in his passion for re-enacting the early Anglo Saxon period. He would sit and play his Saxon lyre as pictured here, would delight friends and members of the public with his command of Old English, would sit at his little portable desk demonstrating historic calligraphy and runic writing showing children how to write their names in the Anglo Saxon furthorc and telling ancient and much loved stories to all.

Above all of that I believe that Matt loved to spend his free time with others that shared his enjoyment of all those things and it is with that in mind that I have taken some of the great work he put together and in honour of his memory turned it into this basic guide for members of the Friends of West Stow who, Like Matt, would like to get involved

in costumed re-enactment in the place that he loved so very much.

I am sure that he would have been very pleased to know that his memory has been and is still very much nurtured by those of us who were fortunate enough to have known him in the year since his passing. Leofwin will always be a part of West Stow and an even bigger part of those friends that still miss his wonderful company.

Slǣp fægere dēore frēond

Mark Allen – May 2015

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010

Page

2

Anglo-Saxon Families The father was the head of the family in Anglo-Saxon England, and the spear propped up by the door symbolised his role as protector. In fact, the father’s side of the family was called the ‘sperehealf’, while the mother’s side was called the ‘spinelhealf’. The spindle summed up her role in the family, and possessions found in men’s and women’s graves confirm this. It may have been that the father was expected to be quite strict, and even a little distant from his children. The mother’s brother (‘eam’) may have been a more caring and friendly male relative, though he only visited from time to time.

Old English has many more words for different family relatives than modern English, which shows how important the idea of ‘family’ was for them. If you weren’t very good at remembering all the complexities, though, you could call any relative ‘brōðor’ or ‘sweostor’.

You might have ‘stēop-‘ relatives, if your own parents were dead, or ‘fōster-‘ parents, if your real parents had given you away for some reason.

There were almost certainly four or five people in the average family – records from the year 1200 suggest 4.68*. Other relatives, then as now, of course, may have ‘lived in’.

People outside the family, but whose name, family and origin were known would count as ‘cýðð’. Everybody in the village and the surrounding area would count in this group. Together, your family and friends were ‘cýðð and cynn’, or ‘kith and kin’ in Modern English.

People you didn’t know could become ‘cýðð’ or a ‘frēond’ or guest after they’d explained exactly who they were. Otherwise, strangers were seen as little different from enemies or slaves – ‘ðēow’

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010

Page

3

Anglo-Saxon clothes – Men 5th and 6th centuries Men would wear woollen or linen hip-length undershirts with long sleeves and probably loin-cloths. Woollen trousers were held up with a belt threaded through loops. A tunic was pulled over the head, and reached down to the knees. It was usually decorated at the wrists, neck and hem, and was long-sleeved. A belt was worn at the waist, often with a decorated buckle and strap-end. Pouches, knives and other accessories might be hung from the belt. Shoes were made usually from a single piece of leather, but perhaps with an extra piece to form a sole. They were fastened with laces, toggles or loops.

7th to 11th centuries Tunics tended to have extra pleats inserted at the front, and sleeves became fairly tight-fitting between elbow and wrist. Bands of cloth, like military ‘puttees’ were often wound around the leg from knee to ankle. Belts tended to become thinner, and money may sometimes have been carried in pouches. Cloaks, where worn, varied in length, but were rectangular in shape and fastened at the shoulder. There is evidence that shoes were sometimes fastened with buckles or buttons. Jewellery became increasingly popular. Socks were probably worn by some from earliest times, but there is hard evidence for them in the later period.

There was undoubtedly much variation according to region, period and status. Many people would have gone barefoot, while leather and sheepskins must have been used for clothing. Hats of straw, wool or leather were worn.

Most clothes were made at home, and would almost certainly have undergone many repairs, or have been handed down, before being eventually cut up for rags or thrown away. Most fabric was plain-woven, but there is some evidence of tabby and twill-woven fabric.

Underclothes were not usually dyed, but left in their natural colour, or perhaps sun-bleached. Outer clothes could be dyed in various colours: woad for blue, ochre for brown and orange, madder for colours from red to yellow, green from seaweeds. Black was rare, as it was a difficult colour to obtain.

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010

Page

4

Anglo-Saxon clothes – Women 5th to 7th centuries Women wore an under-dress of linen or wool with long sleeves and a draw-string neck. Sleeves were fastened with clasps for wealthier women, or drawn together with braid or string for poorer women. The outer dress was a tube of material, rather like a pinafore, and often called a ‘peplos’. A pair of shoulder-brooches or clasps held this onto the under-dress. A belt was worn, from which various accessories were hung. There is some linguistic evidence that shawls were worn, as well as cloaks, which were fastened either centrally or to the right shoulder with a brooch. Shoes were as for men, and woollen socks were probably worn. Rings, bracelets and beaded necklaces were popular.

7th to 9th centuries Shoulder-brooches and wrist-clasps went out of fashion, and the sleeves of the over-dress now came to just below elbow-length on the arms and calf-length around the legs. The under-dress was cut longer than the over-dress. Veils held on by headbands or fillets became more popular as Christianity spread. Centrally-fastened cloaks replaced the earlier styles, often reaching to the knee and sometimes with a hood.

10th to 11th centuries The under-dress was now often pleated or folded, while the sleeves of the over-dress tended to flare towards the wrist. Dresses were edged with tablet-weave, and head-dresses became larger, covering the head and neck and hanging over the shoulders. They were held in place with pins. Belt accessories

became far less popular, while a slight pointing of the shoes became more fashionable. Cloaks were now rectangular with a hole cut out for the head, and held in place with a belt.

Children seem to have worn very much the same style of clothing as adults, but in smaller sizes.

Making clothes was women’s work, and spinning and weaving were among the main activities of women in the Anglo-Saxon period. It has been estimated that about eight miles of hand-spun thread were needed to make a tunic.

The loom in general use in Anglo-Saxon England was the warp-weighted upright wooden loom, leaned against a wall either outside, or in weaving houses where several women together could work and socialize at the same time.

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010

Page

5

Food and Drink The diet of the average Anglo-Saxons would have been mostly bread and ale.

Of course, the story is more complicated than that! The Anglo-Saxons kept cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, geese and chickens. These provided them with meat, eggs and milk, as well as cheese and butter. Horse- and dog-meat, then as now, seem to have been taboo. They kept bees for honey, which provided the only sweetener for all but the very rich.

They grew spelt, wheat, rye, barley and oats as the main cereal crops. Peas, beans, leeks, carrots, onions and turnips were grown for vegetables, and a wide variety of herbs was cultivated to flavour their food.

They gathered various fruits, nuts, berries and mushrooms in the ‘wild harvest’. They hunted, trapped or shot* birds, wild deer, boar, hare, fox, beaver and squirrel.

They caught trout, salmon, eels, perch and pike, using nets, traps, or a rod and line, and they harvested the sea for anything they could catch. At low tide, they collected cockles, scallops and oysters, which were

traded far inland.

They collected salt, and richer folk bought imported pepper and other delicacies such as olive oil, dates, figs, raisins, almonds, even rice and sugar. They drank mead, beer/ale and later in the period wine, there were a few local vineyards. Hot drinks were made with milk, honey, and using beer or herbal infusions. Of course, water would have been available from the local stream or well.

Anglo-Saxons did without such things as tea, coffee, chocolate, bananas, potatoes and many other things we take for granted today.

*with bow or sling!

Cooking and eating Food was cooked in pots with lids by the hearth, roasted on spits, stewed in an iron cauldron suspended over the fire, grilled, boiled, fried, steamed or broiled. There is documentary and archaeological evidence for cookware such as jugs, kettles, pans, mortars and sieves. There was probably always something stewing in the pot, which could be added to with whatever came to hand, and which

provided something to offer to guests, whenever they might appear at the doorway.

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010

Page

6

Ovens for baking bread or cooking meat seem to have been housed in communal baking-houses, so that loaves and pies would have to be marked to indicate their owners. Richer families had their own ovens, cooks and servants.

Food was eaten from wooden bowls or plates, or possibly from bread ‘trenchers’. It was eaten with knives, fingers and spoons, but forks were unknown to the Anglo-Saxons. People drank from wooden mugs, drinking horns for the feast, or even glass goblets for those who could afford them.

The evidence suggests there were two main meal-times in the day, around noon and in the evening. They were communal occasions, and snacking secretly on one’s own, or between meals was frowned on. There were plenty of feast-days during the year, which needed careful preparation. Other feast-days might be at the lord’s expense, where the whole village ate and drank together.

Grain could be stored in barns, and threshed and ground as needed through the year, but more perishable food could be preserved by drying, smoking or salting.

For the typical Anglo-Saxon family, most daily work was directed towards having enough food to get through the year. Skeletal remains suggest their diet was a healthy one – by necessity rather than by choice – but if things went wrong, there was a real risk of starvation.

Farmsteads, villages and Towns Leofwin is a typical ‘ceorl’, or freeman, living in the village of West Stów, in the east of England, by the River Lark.

Leofwin’s House

No Anglo-Saxon houses survive! But traces like postholes in the ground show their size and shape. They were squared off and typically about 30ft x 15ft (10m x 5m). There’s evidence for wooden floors, with a cavity underneath, possibly for storage.

Walls were built either with upright planks slotted together, or by ‘wattle and daub’. Some homes may have had windows, but there was no glass. There was a central hearth for warmth and cooking, but chimneys did not appear until medieval times. The smoke simply seeped out through the thatch.

There may have been an ‘upstairs’ in Leofwin’s house, possibly a floor at each end reached by a ladder. Beds were wooden-framed. They probably consisted of a cloth bag stuffed with wool to make a mattress, perhaps, with blankets or fleeces on top. There may have been very little furniture: perhaps a

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010

Page

7

trestle-table, a pair of benches, a chest, baskets, and some shelves. The thatched roof would be smoky and soot-blackened on the inside, ideal for curing meat.

Outside, there might be a number of smaller buildings associated with the houses: a midden or loo, sheds for tools, storage food and livestock. Evidence survives for many buildings with sunken earth floors: debate continues about their use. Some of the animals may have been brought indoors during the winter. Water had to be brought daily in buckets from the nearest stream or well. After dark, candles or the fire gave the family’s only light.

Leofwin’s village

Archaeology shows houses grouped together into villages, typically of up to ten families – ‘a tithing’. In later times, a village might boast a little wooden church in the Christian period.

Farmsteads

The tradition of free-standing farms dates from pre-Roman times, through the Roman occupation, into Saxon and Medieval times, to the present day. There were probably a handful of scattered farmsteads within a hour’s walk of West Stów.

Saxon towns

From the 700’s onwards, English kings began minting money. With improved trade and a more sophisticated society, towns became possible again. In the late 800’s, King Alfred ordered the building of many new towns as military and economic power-bases, spurred on by the need for defence against the Vikings. By today’s standards, Anglo-Saxon towns and villages were tiny,* but nearly all of them have survived, with something like their Anglo-Saxon names, into the 21st century.

*The population of England was about one thirtieth of todays!

Months, Days and Time The Anglo-Saxons, like most societies, knew that from midsummer day onwards, the sun rises slightly further south on the horizon each day, and that it takes 365 days before it returns to its most northerly position and repeats its cycle. This is called a year, or gear in Old English.

They also knew that in a year, the moon went through twelve complete phases, mysteriously changing shape each night until a ‘new moon’ appeared. Each month, or monath in old English, lasts about 29 days.

Annoyingly, there were always a few days left after twelve months (12×29=348) before the year was finished. The solution was to insert an extra month ‘æfterra līða’ every two or three years.

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010

Page

8

The Roman calendar had been constantly stretched and squeezed to fit the year until no single month actually matched the phases of the moon. This was the system that the Christian missionaries brought to England from Rome in the 600’s. By the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, the Roman system was triumphant everywhere, and we still use it today.

There is some disagreement about the meanings of the Anglo-Saxon month-names. Gēola is the same word as ‘Yule’, and may also have something to do with the ‘wheel’ of the year. Sol is something of a puzzle. Easter is linked with the word ‘east’, where the sun rises on the spring equinox. Hrēð and hlȳda may be gods or goddesses. Ðrīemilcemōnað may suggest that cows could be milked three times a day during this month, while līða may be an archaic word for month. Hālig means ‘holy’, and winterfyllēð could be the first winter moon. Blōtmōnað means ‘bloodmonth’, and may recall the month of sacrifices, or winter slaughtering of animals.

The English probably copied the idea of dividing the seasons into weeks from the Romans. They used the names of gods who were more familiar to them than the Roman ones, and we still use these names today. They are among the few clues we have to the gods of the Anglo-Saxons.

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010

Page

9

Dividing the day into sunrise, morning, noon, afternoon and so on was enough for most people, but monks and priests needed more accurate ways of telling the time to regulate the different services held throughout the day in monasteries.

Daytime was divided into twelve ‘tide’ or hours, but just as the length of a day varies according to the season, so the hours could vary in length! Monks used various systems (e.g. gradated candles, sand-timers, sun-dials, dripping water) to calculate the correct time for different services, and rang bells accordingly

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010

Page

10

ēalā !

hello !

gōdne daeg

good day

gōdne mergen

good morning

gōd ǣfen

good evening

gōd niht

good night

wes ðu hāl / westu hal wesað gē hāle

be well

be well (plural)

ic grēte ðē

ic grēte ēow ealle

I greet you

I greet you all

welcumen

welcome

hu gǣð hit?

how goes it?

hit gǣð wel

it goes well

gōd ðē mid sie

God be with you (goodbye)

nā, nese

no

gēa, gīese

yes

sōð

true

glæd ðē tō mētenne

glad to meet you

fera þū wel ferað gē wel

farewell

ic sārie

I’m sorry

forgief mē

forgive me

ic bidde ðē

please

ic ðoncie ðē

thank you

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010

Page

11

hwæt is ðis ?

what’s this?

hwæt hāteð ðis?

What’s this called?

saga ðæt eft

say that again

ic wāt

I know

ic nāt

I don’t know hū eald eart þu?

How old are you?

ic eom eahta gēar eald

ic eom eahta wintra

I’m eight years old

lā!

look!

ic wolde…

I’d like…

wilt ðu…

do you want to…

hwǣr eardest ðu?

Where do you live?

ic eardie on West Stów

I live in West Stow

hu hātest ðu?

What’s your name?

mīn nama is Brada

ic hāte Brada

my name is Brada

I’m called Brada

mōt ic …

may I …

ic eom Godweardes scop

I’m Godweard’s singer

hwǣr is… ? þǣr biþ

where is…? there is…

ic lufie … / … licað mē

I love … / I like…

ic lyste bet…

I prefer…

.. ne licað mē / ic hatie ..

I don’t like… / I hate..

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010

Page

12

Bibliography All artwork and text compiled by Matt Love and published on The English Companions website http://www.tha-engliscan-gesithas.org.uk/

Text edited and formatted by Mark Allen

The Friends of West Stow Anglo Saxon Village 2016

Designs © MW Love 2010