Anglo-Saxon history

Question 1

The island we know as England was occupied by what group of people

Answer 1

Is the Celts, one of the tribes was called the Brythons or Britons (where we get the term Britain)

PRE-HISTORICAL/ PRE-ROMAN UP TO 55 BC

Question 2

What religion were the Celts

Answer 2

They were pagans in their religion was animism a Latin word for spirit, they saw spirits everywhere

PRE-HISTORICAL/ PRE-ROMAN UP TO 55 BC

Question 3

Who were the Celts priests and what was their role

Answer 3

Druids, their role was to go between the gods and the people

PRE-HISTORICAL/ PRE-ROMAN UP TO 55 BC

Question 4

What important events occurred during the Roman occupation

Answer 4

• Julius Caesar begins invasion in 55 BC
• occupation completed by Claudius in 1st century A.D.
• Hadrian’s Wall built about 122 A.D.
• Romans “leave” in about 410 AD because Visigoths attack Rome St Augustine, lands in Kent in 597 and converts King Aethelbert to Christianity; becomes first Archbishop of Canterbury

Question 5

What important cultural and historical results were there in the Roman occupation

Answer 5

• military- strong armed forces (legions)
• infrastructure: government, walls, villas, public baths
• language and writing: Latin was official language, practice of recording history led to earliest English “literature” being documented
• religion- Christianity began to take hold

Question 6

Overview of periods of early English history: prehistory – 1066 AD

Answer 6

• Pre-Roman/ Pre-historical up to 55 BC
• Roman Occupation 55 BC – 410 AD
• Anglo-Saxon period 410-787 AD
• Viking invasion 787-1066 AD
• Norman conquest begins in 1066

Question 7

What important events occurred during the Anglo-Saxon period 410-787 AD

Answer 7

• 410-450 Anglos and Saxons invade from Baltic shores of Germany, and the Jutes invade from the Jutland peninsula in Denmark
• 9 Anglo-Saxon kingdoms eventually became the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy or “Seven Sovereign Kingdoms”

Question 8

What was the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy

Answer 8

Kent
Essex (eat Saxon)
Sussex (south Saxon)
East Anglia
Northumbria 
Mercia
Wessex (west Saxon)

Question 9

What were the Vikings

Answer 9

Sea-faring Scandinavians (Scandinavian explorers)

VIKING INVASIONS 787-1066 AD

Question 10

What were important results of the Viking invasions

Answer 10

• continued political instability and conflict, there was no central government or church
• don’t follow Anglo-Saxon code
• the English language is born and is known as old English
• Anglo-Saxon is the term for the culture
• old English is mainly Germanic in grammar

Question 11

What characteristics were present in Anglo-Saxon literature

Answer 11

• Beauty in brave acts determined the fates of people and wars
• powerful storytellings
• invasions of supernatural
• patterns of sound
• moral and political challenges
• surreal landscapes
• riddling wit

Question 12

Anglo-Saxon literature assumed familiarity with what

Answer 12

Religious doctrines, hierarchy, religious orders, rituals, sacraments, and holidays

Question 13

Who did the Anglo-Saxons educate with their literature

Answer 13

Clergy and lay (those not ordained)

Question 14

Who produced the earliest manuscripts

Answer 14

The church

Question 15

What tension did their literature pieces represent

Answer 15

Religious and secular aims

Question 16

What was the oldest of the great long poems

Answer 16

Beowulf

Question 17

When did Beowulf originate

Answer 17

The first half of the eighth century

Question 18

And what was Beowulf originally composed of

Answer 18

The dialect of what was then Merica

Question 19

What was Beowulf translated into

Answer 19

West-Saxon dialect, old English

Question 20

Beowulf was a work of who

Answer 20

Believed to have been a work of a single Christian poet it was well-established in Christian tradition