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• Druids – priests
• Saw spirits in nature (sort of like trees in The Wizard of Oz or Ents in Lord of the Rings)
• Human sacrifice to appease all-controlling gods
• Stonehenge
– temple for religious rites involving the solar and lunar cycles;
– 6 ton stones moved 750 miles from coast to Salisbury Plain in central England and arranged in a way that links the structure perfectly to the solar and lunar cycles
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7 Kingdoms
(At times, fewer)
• Heptarchy
”the rule of 7”
• Northumbria, Mercia,
East Anglia, Essex,
Kent, Wessex
– Also, surrey
(between Essex & Wessex)
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• Bretwalda-
ruling king
– Literally means “Britain-
ruler”
– King whose supremacy
was recognized by others
• Æthelbert of Kent
(540-610A.D.)
1st
Bretwalda
• St. Augustine and
Æthelbert’s frankish
Queen Bertha
Introduced Christianity
to Saxons
– knowledge of a past
culture
– literacy
• Reigned: 871-899 A.D.
• Great warrior who was
respected by many
British kingdoms
• Held culture and
established uneasy peace
with the Vikings known
as Danelaw, a time in
which literature Grew
• 30,000 lines of
Anglo-Saxon
literature generated
– mixed paganism with
Christianity to form a
strange synthesis
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• Anglo-Saxon
Chronicles
– Historical
traditions of
Anglo-Saxons, in
the form of annals
(year by year)
• Written by St. Bede
(673-765 A.D.) at
Durham Cathedral. A page of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
depicting Charlemagne, in the late 8th
century, killing the heathen Saxons.
– Bishop Leofric of
Exeter collected
the works of
Anglo-Saxon people
and left the book to
Exeter Cathedral’s
Library upon his death
in 1072.
– Began creation in
940, most surviving
poems of Anglo-Saxon
literature appear in it.
– Use as a beer mat,
cutting board and 14
pages burned out of
it, has miraculously
survived many exeter
fires.
The first page of “The Wanderer”
in The Exeter Book.
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• Devices used by a Scop
– Lacking end rhyme
– Excessive use of alliteration
– Use of kennings: imaginative,
usually hyphenated metaphors
• Ex. Whales’-way
(rough road)
• Ex. Swan’s Road
(open sea)
Benjamin Bagby’s Beowulf
Performance.
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Most Anglo-Saxon works were
poetry
• Long Narrative-Serious
subject
• Centers on
“superhuman” heroic-
action that determines
the fate of a nation
• Setting is Grand in
scope
– Continents
– Kingdoms
• Style is elevated
• Action oriented
• Heroic/literary epic-
known author
• Folk epic-
unknown author
• Somber,
melancholy
subject
• Style
emphasis on
alliteration
and rhyme
• Tone is
reflective of
the author’s
attitude
•Imaginative
metaphors-
describing
something
vaguely, yet
accurately.
•Related to
kennings- very
playful quality
•Use
personification
Our world is lovely in different ways,
Hung with Beauty and works of hands.
I saw a strange machine, made
For motion, slide against the sand.
Shrieking as it went. It walked swiftly
On its only foot, this odd-shaped monster,
Traveled in an open country without
Seeing, without arms, or hands,
With many ribs, and its mouth in its middle.
Its work is useful, and welcome for it loads
Its belly with food, and brings abundance
To men, to poor and to rich, paying
Its tribute year after year. Solve
This riddle if you can, and unravel its name.
A creature came through the waves, beautiful And strange, calling to shore, its voice
Loud and deep; its laughter froze Men’s blood; its sides were like sword-blades. It swam
Contemptuously along, slow and sluggish, A bitter warrior and a thief, ripping
Ships apart, and plundering. Like a witch It wove spells—and knew its own nature, shouting:
“My mother is the fairest virgin of a race Of noble virgins: She is my daughter
Grown great. All men know her, and me, And know, everywhere on earth, with what joy
We will come to join them, to live on land!”
A worm ate words. I thought that wonderfully
Strange—a miracle—when they told me a crawling
Insect had swallowed noble songs,
A night-time thief had stolen writing
So famous, so weighty. But the bug was foolish
Still, though its belly was full of thought.
