End of the Roman rule, arrival of Anglo-Saxon’s

Roman Empire 27 B.C-480 AD

Rome invades Britain, populated by Celtic speaking peoples in 48 A.D.

Roman Empire falls because of invasion of Germanic tribes over timespan of 200 years

Political and economical instability

Anglo Saxon Kingdoms

-angles, saxons, and jutes

Myths like King Arthur

The Anglo saxons went from raiders to settlers and invaders seeking to conquer defenseless Briton’s

Saxon - “sword”

Angles - “Englaland”- “land of angles”

English became common tongue

Anglo saxons set up small kingdoms

Anglo-Saxon Culture

Polytheistic pagans, worshipped many gods

Worshipped Woden and tHUNOR

Hierarchical society,

Ruled by king and would give gifts to soldiers who swore allegiance

Wergild - (man) (price)

You would owe money to the family of a person you killed

Christianity in early medieval Britain

Roman Empire Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in 312 AD the roach church established monasteries

Big switch to Christianity from Roman Empire

595 AD - Augustine of Canterbury did missions and converted King Ethlebert of Kent to Christianity

Paganism fell off

The Anglo Saxons and Christianity

The church tried to meld the existing Anglo Saxon traditions to pagan traditions

Winter solstice happened o dec 21st

That became part of Christmas

6th century, 7th century, 8th century

Christianity brought writing back - we wrote documents in old English

Overview of Old English

Grammar

Resembles modern German

Vocabulary

Roughly 15 percent of old English word are still in use today in modern English

-brother, law

-werewolf