Anglo-Saxons

Who were the Anglo-Saxons?

The Angle, Saxon, and Jute are known as the Anglo-Saxons. The Angles and the Saxon
tribes were the largest of the three attacking tribes and so we often know them as Anglo-
Saxons. They shared the same language but were each ruled by different strong warriors.
The Anglo-Saxons were warrior-farmers and came from north-western Europe. They
began to invade Britain while the Romans were still in control.
The Anglo-Saxons were tall, fair-haired men, armed with swords and spears and round
shields.
They loved fighting and were very fierce.
Their skills included hunting, farming, textile (cloth) production and leather working.

How do we know about skills and occupations of the Anglo-Saxons?

We know about the Anglo-Saxons because of things we have found giving us quite detailed
information about their lives. Anglo-Saxons were often buried with their possessions. The
objects we have found in graves have provided us with evidence of the different jobs done
by men and women and the skills they had.
Knives and spears are often found in Anglo-Saxon men's graves. This suggests they were
involved in hunting, fighting and farming. Women's graves often include tools used for
sewing and weaving, which suggests they were involved in making clothes (textile
production).

What did the Anglo-Saxons do for entertainment (leisure)?

The Anglo-Saxons enjoyed horse racing, hunting, feasting and music-making. They played
dice and board games such as draughts and chess. Entertainment during feasts included
listening to a harp being played and juggling balls and knives.
Children played with balls, hoops and whipping tops (spinning tops). They also played with
carved wooden toys such as horses and small wooden boats.

When did the Anglo-Saxons invade Britain?

The first Anglo-Saxons raided the shores of south and east England in the fourth century
AD, but they were beaten back by the Romans. At the beginning of the fifth century, the
Romans left Britain. They had not trained the British to defend themselves and so the
next time the Saxons tried to invade Britain they succeeded.
It was during the second half of the fifth century that more and more Anglo-Saxons
arrived to take land for themselves. It is for this reason that the time of the Anglo-
Saxons is usually thought of as beginning about AD 450. 

Where did the Anglo-Saxons come from?

The Anglo-Saxons left their homelands in northern Germany, Denmark and The
Netherlands and rowed across the North Sea in wooden boats to Britain.
They sailed across the North Sea in their long ships, which had one sail and many oars.
They made a series of attacks on different parts of the country over a period of years
and under a number of leaders.
The Jutes settled mainly in Kent. They did not call themselves 'the Jutes', they referred
to themselves as 'the Kentings', that is the men living in Kent.
The Angles settled in East Anglia.
The Saxons settled in areas of Essex (East Saxons), Sussex (South Saxons), Middlesex
(Middle Saxons), and Wessex (West Saxons).

British Kingdoms
(each area ruled by a different king)

Why did Anglo-Saxons invade Britain?

Historians are not sure why the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain. Some sources say that the
Saxon warriors were invited to come, to the area now know as England, to help keep out
invaders from Scotland and Ireland. Another reason for coming may have been because
their land often flooded and it was difficult to grow crops, so they were looking for new
places to settle down and farm.
How long did the Saxons stay in England?
They ruled in  England for about 500 years ( a hundred years longer than the Romans).
However, unlike the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons never 'went home'; many people living
in Britain today have Anglo Saxon ancestors. The name England even comes from the
Saxon word 'Angle-Land'.
The Anglo-Saxons took control of most of Britain, although they never
conquered Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. They settle in England in places near to rivers or
the sea, which could be easily reached by boat. One of the places they settled in was
Tonbridge, in Kent. Tonbridge was an ideal place to settle as it was on the main track from
Hastings to London and has a river. 

At the time when the Anglo-Saxons came to England much of the country was covered in
forest. Only about a few thousand people in the whole land (today there are about 50
million people living in  England). It was an easy place for newcomers to find a place to
start a village and then chop down the surrounding forest to make farmland.
Many of the names of our towns and villages come from Saxon words.

Kingdoms
The Anglo-Saxons divided  England into kingdoms, each with its own royal family. The five
main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Kent and Anglia.

Towns and Villages

Anglo-Saxons name for towns was burh. The word 'burh' still appears in place names in
Britain - Peterborough and Scarborough are two examples.
The first Anglo Saxon Villages were often named after the Chieftain (Leader of the
village). This made it clear which tribe the village belonged to. These places often have the
letters 'ing' of 'folk' somewhere in their name, often at the end. The first part of the
name was most likely to have been the name of the local chieftain.
The people who lived in the 'village' of Hastings were 'Haesta's people'. 
Haesta was the chieftain.
The people who lived in the 'village' of Reading were 'Redda's people'.
Redda was the chieftain .
Later Anglo Saxon villages were named after a feature in their surroundings rather than
the name of the chieftain.
Oxford got its name because it was a place where oxen were driven across a ford in a
river.
 Anglo Saxon Examples of 
Meaning
Word place name

barrow wood Barrow-in-Furness

bury fortified place Banbury

Shaftesbury

ford shallow river crossing Stamford

ham village Birmingham

hamm enclosure within the bend Southhampton

(a different way of of a river' Buckingham
spelling of ham)

hurst wooden hill Staplehurst

Chislehurst

leigh / lee / ley forest clearing Henley

mer /mar /mere lake Cromer

ney island

port market town Bridport

stead /sted place Stanstead

stow / stowe meeting place Stowmarket

holy place Padstow

ton / tun enclosed village / Tonbridge

farmstead / manor Alton
Luton

wick / wich Produce of a farm Greenwich (fields)

Woolwich (sheep)
Butterwick (dairy)
Chiswick (cheese) 
Norwich (?)

Places named after Gods

Other Anglo Saxon villages were named after pagan gods or goddesses.
Place names begining with Wednes, Wodnes and Woodnes come from the name
of Woden,  a war god. Examples include Wednesfield in the West Midlands
and Wodnesfeld in Essex. Both mean Woden's field.
Tuesley in Surrey was named after the god Tiw.
Thursley in Sussex is named after the god Thunor and means Thunor's grove.

Counties
The Saxons settled in areas of Essex (East Saxons), Sussex (South Saxons), Middlesex
(Middle Saxons), and Wessex (West Saxons).
The Jutes settled mainly inKent. They did not call themselves 'the Jutes', they referred
to them selves as 'the Kentings', that is the men living in Kent.
The Angles settled in East Anglia

Religion
The Anglo-Saxons were pagans when they came to Britain, but, as time passed, they
gradually converted to Christianity. Many of the customs we have in England today come
from pagan festivals.
Pagans worshiped lots of different gods. Each pagan god controlled a particular part of
everyday life: the family, growing crops, love, healing, wisdom, metalworking, the weather,
war, day & night and so on.

GOD GOD OF WHAT?

Balder God of Immortality

Eostre Goddess of Birth

Frigg Goddess of Love

Hel Goddess of Death

Loki God of Cunning

Saxnot God of the Family

Thunor God of Thunder

Tiw God of War

Wade God of the Sea

Wayland God of Metalworking

Woden Chief God

Religion was a means of ensuring success in material things. For example, you might pray to
a particular goddess for a successful harvest, or for victory in battle.

Days of the Week

Certain days of the week are named after early Saxon Gods.
Monandæg  ( Moon's day - the day of the moon ), 
Tiwesdæg  ( Tiw's-day - the day of the Scandinavian sky god Tiw,Tiu or Tig), 
Wodnesdæg  ( Woden's day - the day of the god Woden (Othin) ), 
Ðunresdæg  ( Thor's Day - the day of the god Ðunor or Thunor ), 
Frigedæg  ( Freyja's day - the day of the goddess Freyja or Frigg, wife to Woden), 
Sæternesdæg  ( Saturn's day - the day of the Roman god Saturn, whose festival
"Saturnalia," with its exchange of gifts, has been incorporated into our celebration of
Christmas.), 
Sunnandæg  ( Sun's day - the day of the sun ).

From Pagan to Christianity

About 1400 years ago, the Pope in Rome sent a missionary to England to persuade the
Anglo-Saxons to become Christians.
The leader of the Christian Church was the Pope, who lived in Rome. The Pope sent a monk
called Augustine to England. Augustine landed in the south and converted the first King
Ethelbert of Kent, and then the people living there. The Pope made Augustine a Bishop and
Ethelbert allowed him to build a church in Canterbury.
Christianity then spread to other parts of Britain. The pope gave orders that pagan
temples should be converted into Christian ones and that pagan celebrations should also be
made into Christian ones.
Churches, usually built of wood, were built in Saxon villages all over Britain.

By about 600, England was divided into small Anglo-Saxon kingdoms each ruled by a king.
Much of what we know about the Anglo-Saxons comes from graves like the one discovered
at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk.
Near the River Deben in Suffolk, at Sutton Hoo, are eleven mounds or 'barrows' dating
back to the 7th century. In 1939 archaelogists explored the largest mound and discovered
a ship buried in the mound.

Anglo Saxon Houses

We know what Saxons houses may have looked like from excavations of Anglo Saxon
villages, such as the one at West Stow in the east of England. Here, an early Anglo-Saxon
village (c.420-650AD) has been carefully reconstructed where it was excavated. Using
clues from the what was discovered, archeologists have reconstructed the houses as they
may have looked about 1,500 years ago.
We know that the Saxons built mainly in wood, although some of their stone churches
remain.
Anglo-Saxons houses were huts made of wood with roofs thatched with straw.
Much of Britain was covered with forests. The Saxons had plenty of wood to use.
There was only one room where everybody ate, cooked, slept and entertained their
friends.
The houses were built facing the sun to get as much heat and light as possible.

The Hall
The biggest house in an Anglo Saxon village was the Hall, the Chief's house. He lived there
with his warriors.
The Hall was long, wide and smoky, with the fire on a stone in the middle. The smoke from
the fire escaped through a hole in the roof.
The windows were slits called eye-holes. There was no glass in the windows.
On the walls were shields and antlers. The floor was dirty and covered with rushes from
the river banks. Sometimes the oxen were kept at one end of the Hall.

Anglo-Saxon Villages
Anglo Saxon villages were usually very small. The largest villages had no more than a few
hundred people living there.
The villages were built near natural resources. The villagers needed food, water, fuel for
heating and cooking and materials for their homes and clothes. The natural resources had
to provide the villagers with what they needed to survive.
The village also needed to protect itself. All round the village was a high fence to keep the
herds safe at night from enemies and the wild animals of the forests - wolves, foxes and
boars.
 The Anglo-Saxons grew crops and kept pigs, sheep and cattle. They hunted other animals
and fish for food. They made household goods and farm equipment from pottery, wood and
metal, clothes from cloth they wove themselves. They traded goods such as hunting dogs
and slaves for things they couldn't make, like glass, with people from other countries.

he 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.
 vegetables - carrots, parsnip, cabbages, peas, beans and onions.
 fruit - such as apples, cherries and plums
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. River water was
often polluted. wine was imported from the Mediterranean but only drunk by the very rich.
Most Anglo-Saxons were vegetarians because they could not get meat very often. Wild
animals such as deer and wild boar were common but could only be killed by the people who
owned the land. Only a few Anglo-Saxons were wealthy enough to pay for a slaughter of an
animal.

Animals
Pigs were important for food because they produce large litters, which would quickly
mature and be ready for slaughter. They were the only animals reared just for their meat.
Every other kind of animal served other purposes and were only killed when they became
old or ill. Sheep were reared for their wool and meat. Cows were used for their milk and,
when they were old, for hides, meat and glue. All animal fat was valuable for making oils
for lamps.

Fish
The Anglo-Saxons ate fish which they caught in the rivers and the seas.

Who invaded England next?

In the ninth century (Year 800), 400 hundred years after the Anglo-Saxons invaded
England, the country came under attack from Viking raiders from Norway and
northern Denmark.
Like the Anglo-Saxons, they made there home here. They drove the Saxons out of part of
the country and took it for themselves.
King Alfred, Saxon king of Wessex, fought them in a great battle, but he could not drive
them right away and had to let them have part of the country, called Danelaw.
Parts of  England were now ruled by the Vikings whilst others were ruled by the Saxons.
Who was the last Saxon King and where did he die?
In 1066, the last Anglo Saxon king of England died at the Battle of Hastings. His name was
King Harold.
William from Normandy (France) became the new King and replaced all the Anglo Saxon
lords with Norman ones and so brought Anglo Saxon times to an end.