THE ANGLO-SAXONS

HISTORY OF EARLY BRITAIN

THE CELTS

• Farmers and hunters
• Lived in clans
• The Druids (priests) settled disputes
• Settled on Britain between 800 and 600 BC

ROMANS

• Conquered Britain
• Were more sophisticated
• Invented the road system, military forces, laws, and common language
• Left to defend Rome in 407 AD

ANGLO SAXONS

• Left Germany to invade the Britains
• Were fishermen and farmers
• Converted to Christianity in 600 AD
• Ruled until Norman Conquest

ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE

ORAL TRADITION

• Scops were professional poets and performers who relied on rhythm and alliteration. They served as entertainers and historians.

POETRY

• First English poet was Caedmon
• heroic (like Beowulf)
• Elegiac - "The Wanderer"

PROSE

• Bede-History of the English Church and people
• Latin

BEDE HISTORY

• In Anglo-Saxon England, literacy belonged to the clerics
• Bede's historia provides a national history

SCHOLARY WORK

• Bede describes Britian being taken over by the Anglo-Saxons
• Focuses primarily on Christianity spreading