7/31/2019 Cultura Anglo Saxona

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cultura-anglo-saxona 1/4

 

 Anglo-Saxon Culture 

The White Dragon is the ancient emblem of the English and a symbol of their unique culture andheritage. It is a strong statement of their English identity. 

Architecture

Early Anglo-Saxon buildings in Britain were generally simple, not using masonry except in

foundations but constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roofing. Generally preferring not

to settle within the old Roman cities, the Anglo-Saxons built small towns near their centres of 

agriculture, at fords in rivers or sited to serve as ports. In each town, a main hall was in thecentre, provided with a central hearth.

There are few remains of Anglo-Saxon architecture, with but one secular work remaining aboveground – a 10m. x 5m. houscarl's dwelling re-using local Roman materials.This is still

completely standing as an undivided single room with a single central north-facing door,

belonging to the Godwin estates, so can be dated 1018 – 1066. At least fifty churches are of Anglo-Saxon origin, with many more claimed to be, in part from their dedication to local Anglo-

Saxon saints, although in some cases the Anglo-Saxon part is small and much-altered. All

surviving churches, except one timber church, are built of stone or brick and in some cases show

evidence of re-used Roman work.

The character of Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical buildings ranges from Celtic influenced architecture

in the early period; basilica influenced Romanesque architecture; to in the later Anglo-Saxonperiod, an architecture characterised by pilaster-strips, blank arcading, baluster shafts and

triangular headed openings.

7/31/2019 Cultura Anglo Saxona

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cultura-anglo-saxona 2/4

 Art

The Pentney hoard.  Anglo-Saxon jewellry.

Anglo-Saxon art before roughly the time of Alfred (ruled 871 – 899) is mostly in varieties of the

Hiberno-Saxon or Insular style, a fusion of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic techniques and motifs. The

Sutton Hoo treasure is an exceptional survival of very early Anglo-Saxon metalwork and

 jewellery, from a royal grave of the early 7th century. The period between Alfred and theNorman Conquest, with the revival of the English economy and culture after the end of the

Viking raids, saw a distinct Anglo-Saxon style in art, though one in touch with trends on the

Continent.

Anglo-Saxon art is mainly known today through illuminated manuscripts, including the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold  (British Library) and  Leofric Missal (Oxford, Bodleian Library,MS Bodl, 579), masterpieces of the late "Winchester style", which drew on Hiberno-Saxon art, 

Carolingian art and Byzantine art for style and iconography, and combined both northern

ornamental traditions with Mediterranean figural traditions. The Harley Psalter was a copy of the

Carolingian Utrecht Psalter  — which was a particular influence in creating an Anglo-Saxon styleof very lively pen drawings.

Manuscripts were far from the only Anglo-Saxon art form, but they have survived in much

greater numbers than other types of object. Contemporaries in Europe regarded Anglo-Saxon

goldsmithing and embroidery (Opus Anglicanum) as especially fine. Perhaps the best known

piece of Anglo-Saxon art is the Bayeux Tapestry which was commissioned by a Norman patronfrom English artists working in the traditional Anglo-Saxon style. The most common example of 

Anglo-Saxon art is coins, with thousands of examples extant. Anglo-Saxon artists also worked in

fresco, ivory, stone carving, metalwork  (see Fuller brooch for example) and enamel, but few of 

these pieces have survived.

Language

7/31/2019 Cultura Anglo Saxona

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cultura-anglo-saxona 3/4

 Old English, sometimes called Anglo-Saxon, was the language spoken under Alfred the Great and continued to be the common language of  England (non-Danelaw) until after the Norman

Conquest of 1066 when, under the influence of the Anglo-Norman language spoken by the

Norman ruling class, it changed into Middle English roughly between 1150 – 1500.

Old English is far closer to early Germanic than Middle English. It is less Latinised and retains

many morphological features (nominal and verbal inflection) that were lost during the 12th to14th centuries. The languages today which are closest to Old English are the Frisian languages, 

which are spoken by a few hundred thousand people in the northern part of Germany and the

Netherlands.

Before literacy in the vernacular Old English or Latin became widespread, a runic alphabet, the futhorc, was used for inscriptions. When literacy became more prevalent, a form of Latin script

was used with a couple of letters derived from the futhorc: 'thorn' ‹þ› and 'wynn' ‹ƿ› (generallyreplaced with ‹w› in modern reproductions). 

The letters regularly used in printed and edited texts of Old English are the following:

  a æ b c d  ð e f g h i l m n o p r s t   þ u w x y 

with only rare occurrences of  j, k , q, v, and z.

Law

Very few law codes exist from the Anglo-Saxon period to provide an insight into legal culturebeyond the influence of  Roman law and how this legal culture developed over the course of time.

The Saxons chopped off hands and noses for punishment (if the offender stole something orcommitted another crime). If someone killed a Saxon, he had to pay money called wergild, the

amount varying according to the social rank of the victim.

Literature

First page of the epic  Beowulf  

7/31/2019 Cultura Anglo Saxona

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cultura-anglo-saxona 4/4

 Old English literary works include genres such as epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, riddles and others. In all there are about 400 surviving

manuscripts from the period, a significant corpus of both popular interest and specialist research.

The most famous works from this period include the poem  Beowulf , which has achieved national

epic status in Britain. The  Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of important early English

history. Cædmon's Hymn from the 7th century is the earliest attested literary text in English.

Religion

The indigenous pre-Christian belief system of the Anglo-Saxons was a form of  Germanicpaganism and therefore closely related to the Old Norse religion, as well as other Germanic pre-

Christian cultures.

Christianity gradually replaced the indigenous religion of the English around the 7th and 8thcenturies. Celtic Christianity was introduced into Northumbria and Mercia by monks from

Ireland, but the Synod of Whitby settled the choice for Roman Christianity. As the new clericsbecame the chroniclers, the old religion was partially lost before it was recorded, and today

historians' knowledge of it is largely based on surviving customs and lore, texts, etymological

links and archaeological finds.

One of the few recorded references is that a Kentish King would only meet the missionary St.

Augustine in the open air, where he would be under the protection of the sky god, Woden.Written Christian prohibitions on acts of paganism are one of historians' main sources of 

information on pre-Christian beliefs.

Despite these prohibitions, numerous elements of the pre-Christian culture of the Anglo-Saxon

people survived the Christianisation process. Examples include the English language names for

days of the week:

  Tiw, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Tyr: Tuesday

  Woden, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of  Odin: Wednesday

  Þunor, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Thor: Thursday

  *Fríge, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of  Frigg: Friday

Bibliography

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxons

2. http://www.wearetheenglish.com/store/bump_as_wd.htm