Anglo_Saxons

Anglo Saxons According to the Venerable Bede, the first significant body of Germanic settlers in England had been hired as mercenaries by the British Prince Vortigern during fifth-century struggles for power among British Celts that broke out when Roman colonial troops were withdrawn. After a falling-out with their employer, these Germanic warriors seized British territory in the south of England for themselves and brought their families over the English Channel to settle it. Archaeological evidence also reveals a gradual infiltration of Germanic peoples into England along the rivers of east central England, then a low-lying bayou country that would have been impossible to police. Bede tells us that the Germanic settlers came from Anglian and Saxon regions of continental Europe, within the modern territories of Holland, Southern Denmark, and Western Germany. The settlers brought with them, in their heads, an extensive body of lore encoded in alliterative verse, including versified laws as well as historical and legendary narratives. Some of the settlers could use a runic alphabet to carve brief messages, mostly on wooden sticks, but writing was not used for Old English historical or literary material until the conversion to Christianity, when manuscript technology entered from Rome and Ireland. Old English literature includes a germanic, english, england, french, elements, settlers, power, native, modern, law, example, came, british, beowulf, anglo-saxon, after, works, wives, while, warriors, viking, two, territory, tended, technology, southern, roles, remarkable, quite, period, own, over, old, narratives, names, legend, latin, language, invasions, including, important, historical, find, eventually, european, established, epic, denmark, christianity, christian, castles