Anglo Saxon life - Food and Drink The Anglo-Saxons loved eating and drinking and would often have feasts in the Hall. The food was cooked over the fire in the middle of the house; meat was roasted and eaten with bread. They drank ale and mead - a kind of beer made sweet with honey - from great goblets and drinking horns. After the feast a minstrel would play a harp and sing songs of battles and heroes. Anglo-Saxons ate what they grew. They grew cereals - Wheat and rye for bread, barley for brewing and oats for animal food and porridge. Exotic foods such as potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, pineapples - fruits and vegetables of the New World, were unknown to the Anglo-Saxons. Drink Barley was used to make weak beer, which was drunk instead of water. Most Anglo-Saxons were vegetarians because they could not get meat very often. Animals Pigs were important for food because they produce large litters, which would quickly mature and be ready for slaughter. Fish The Anglo-Saxons ate fish which they caught in the rivers and the seas.
Anglo-Saxon Culture Michael Delahoyde Washington State University History: When Rome was weakening early in the fifth century c.e., troops in the outlying regions, including the British Isles, were withdrawn. Walls, roads, and baths remain even now. They also left the native Celts and Celtic-speaking Britons somewhat christianized, and Picts and Scots in the north, but "political" power fell to unstable tribal units. One of these leaders, Vortigern, "invited" Angles, Saxons, and Jutes to join his military power, so the land saw a swell of invasions by Jutes -- a germanic tribe from Denmark -- in 449, followed soon by Angles and Saxons. (The current name originates as "Angle-Land.") The Anglo-Saxon social structure consisted of tribal units led by chieftains ("kings," or "lords") who, theoretically at least, earned their respect from their warriors (or "retainers," or "thanes," the group being called a "comitatus"). In 597 St. Language and Style: Old English is not uniform. Works Consulted Mursell, Gordon.
Primary History - Anglo-Saxons - Anglo-Saxons at war Anglo-Saxon clothes - women | Tha Engliscan Gesithas 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’. 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. 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. 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.
Discribe the features of Anglo-Saxon Poetry in detail. | eNotes The poetry of the Anglo-Saxons is defined by the following characteristics: 1. Anglo-Saxon poetry is written in blank verse. The term blank verse means that there is no end rhyme occurring from line to line. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Anglo-Saxon: Oral Tradition by Ricardo Placensia on Prezi Ashmolean Museum: Anglo-Saxon Discovery - Beliefs When did the Anglo-Saxons become christians? When the Romans left, just after AD400, there were still some christians in Britain, but when the Anglo-Saxons arrived most people appear to have become pagans. Archaeologists can tell this from the types of burials, since pagans buried people with their possessions but christians did not. The christian church in Rome sent a monk called Augustine to England in AD597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons to christianity. He arrived in Kent and persuaded the King of Kent to become a christian. Augustine then built a church at Canterbury. At the same time, in the north of Britiain, christian monks arrived from Ireland and converted the Picts in Scotland and the Anglo-Saxons in Northumbria. Graduallly more and more Anglo-Saxons became christians until christianity replaced paganism altogether. The christians built churches and founded monasteries all over the country. Are there any Anglo-Saxon churches where you live? Find out more about Anglo-Saxon churches
Edurete.org The Anglo –Saxons in battle The Anglo –Saxons in battle: The military strategy of Anglo-Saxon tribes was based on surprise attack, a suitable tactic for semi-nomadic raiders, but their lifestyle changed, however slowly, after they settled down permanently in the recently conquered Britannia. The Anglo-Saxons reigned over a big part of South-Western England from the VI to the XI century and it is reasonable to suppose that their strategies and weaponry changed a bit in four centuries. We can reasonably guess that they should have learnt to fight as defenders of their new domains as well as attackers and raiders. Structure of Anglo Saxon Army: Like the vast majority of western Germanic tribes the core of Anglo Saxon army was infantry and each king led his warriors to the battlefield and had to give proof of his courage. Besides his warriors, kings were followed in battle by other nobles and lords, who were his allies and often his relatives. Anglo-Saxon battle strategies:
Life in Anglo-Saxon England 1. Introduction The Anglo-Saxon period lasted for some six centuries, from the arrival of Germanic invaders from the continent during the early fifth century AD to the Norman Conquest of 1066. This was a time of immense political and social upheaval which saw major changes in almost all aspects of everyday life. The early pagan settlers lived mainly by farming (see Unit 9, Farming), and formed a number of separate — and warring — kingdoms. 2. Anglo-Saxon kings were prolific legislators, and a number of law-codes survive from the seventh to eleventh centuries. 3. Life was more dangerous in Anglo-Saxon England than in modern times; and in addition to the hazards of war, feud, and capital punishment, Anglo-Saxons could be at risk from famine and epidemics, as well as from a range of endemic diseases including degenerative arthritis, leprosy and tuberculosis. 4. A substantial literature survives from Anglo-Saxon England in both Latin and Old English. 5. 6. 7. Further Reading Websites
Anglo-Saxon Instruments - English Historical Fiction ... by Richard Denning We have a pretty good idea of what musical instruments the Anglo-Saxons used. The Cotton collection in the British Museum includes the top image showing a Saxon king playing a harp with a horn player, an early trumpet and a rebec (a early violin type instrument). The lower image shows a lyre, bone flute and another type of woodwind. I now own four replica instruments based on Anglo-Saxon originals so I thought I would show them today. First I have the Horn. Next up is the bone flute. Drums were certainly used. Finally here is my lyre. This is the original Sutton Hoo Lyre in the British Museum: Here is a video of me playing (badly) these instruments. --------------------------------------------------------------- Richard Denning is an author of historical fiction.
Anglo-Saxon Families | Tha Engliscan Gesithas 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. Old English has many more words for different family relatives than modern English, which shows how important the idea of ‘family’ was for them. 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*. People outside the family, but whose name, family and origin were known would count as ‘cýðð’.