Anglo Saxons Explained in 10 Minutes

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There was a time before England was united. This was a time before William the Bastard decided to prove to his contemporaries that his bastard moniker would be erased with a swift conquest of the biggest island northwest of Europe. A time before the Battle of Hastings and the year 1066. A time when many petty kingdoms ruled, conquered, and were liberated, time and time again, by a specific people group. A people group that is, in fact, a blend of many and that authors of later dates would collectively call the Anglo-Saxons.

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[dukewellingtonroblox]

Anglo-Saxons were from Northern Germany 🇩🇪

[thehungryllama]

"Beowulf was first put to paper in the 19th century..." HUH? More like 9th century...

[pdubya]

I find it a trifle ironic that having fought off the Viking hordes, the Anglo Saxon kingdom was finally conquered by a Norman whose province was descended from a Viking settlement gifted to them by Gallic neighbours in order to discourage them from looting locally.

[axelschroeder]

Nice to hear a fairly positive portrait of Anglo Saxons, although there are a lot of inacuracies here.
They did have a written language the Runes. Also did you know that Wednesday comes from
Wodin's Day. I consider myself a "native Anglo Saxon". I was born and raised in the area on the
Baltic coast that is called Angeln (Anglia) to this day and later I lived in the German state of
Lower Saxony. So there you have it: native Anglo Saxon.

[greggrobinson]

Wait a minute! Beowulf was "first set to paper in the 19th century"?? I think you mean 9th century. Scholars figure the manuscript was produced between ~975 and1025, though the oral poem's undoubtedly older.

[russelsellick]

Lots of inaccuracies here! They did use runes. But I'm not going to bother - no point.

[cat_daddy]

Was told to read beowulf in highschool and we couldn't understand why. Everybody loved old Mr Taylor so we went along and actually learned something.

[CaptivatingHistory]

It has been brought to our attention that certain things in the video need corrections or clarification:
• There is a difference between England, Britain (the United Kingdom), and the British Isles. Britain is a part of the British Isles, with the other major island being Ireland. England is a part of Britain, as is Wales and Scotland. The Anglo-Saxons, for the most part, lived in what is now modern-day England, although they did have settlements in southern Scotland.
• Britons and Celts are two separate people groups. The Britons were a Celtic tribe.
• The Romans laid claim to most of the British Isles, including Scotland. However, they never tried to take Ireland.
• The Anglo-Saxons had a written language, known as Old English or Anglo-Saxon. Anglo-Saxon writing before 650 is almost non-existent, though. The Anglo-Saxons had more widespread literacy after Christianization in the late 7th century. Before Christianization, which brought about the Latin alphabet, the Anglo-Saxons used a runic system, known collectively as the futhorc.
• Scholars still debate over when the epic Beowulf was written, with dates varying from 700 to 1000.
• Eddington was not the major battle that established Anglo-Saxon supremacy. That would have been the Battle of Brunanburh, which was fought between Athelstan of England (the grandson of Alfred the Great, who fought at the Battle of Edington) and an alliance of the Norse Kingdom of Dublin, the Kingdom of Scotland, and the Kingdom of Strathclyde. The alliance assembled a huge army with the intention of ejecting the Anglo-Saxons from the isles once and for all. However, they were defeated by the Kingdom of England in 937. Athelstan’s victory preserved England’s unity, allowing English nationalism to spread and dominate the region. (Thank you to Kelvin Kersey for pointing this battle out!)
• The Anglo-Saxons were not archers, but the Normans who followed were. Anglo-Saxons primarily used the bow to hunt. Slingshots (especially those with rubber bands) were also not commonly used by the Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons did use javelins, although they used spears more often.
• There is scholarly debate as to whether Anglo-Saxons used horses in battle. Many historians believe they did not use horses on the battlefield, although others point out the numerous references to warriors on horses in the literature of the period.
• The video implies that the Anglo-Saxons held control over Britain in 1066 when the Normans arrived. This is not true; England was unified, but Scotland and Wales were separate. It would take centuries before either Scotland and Wales truly fell under England’s dominion. Thus, not all of the people living in Britain viewed themselves as English.
We apologize for the inaccuracies presented in the video and will strive to do better in future ones.

[princerupert]

We are a Germanic people. But due to two world wars, our roots are not mentioned much these days. Rather like most yanks won't celebrate their British origin.

[robpurchase]

Anglo Saxons did have written language using the runic alphabet. This is where J R Tolkien got the idea of the Elvish language. The beliefs of the Saxons was captured in the Lord of the rings. Wood elves, middle earth the lands to the west being considered magical were all part of their religion.

[TheIamtheoneandonly]

What do you mean “Britons *and* Celts” ?!?! Same difference surely? And while we’re at it, what exactly is meant by “The Anglo Saxons had no written language” ?!?! Yes they most certainly did! It was based on the Futhorc (aka Runic) alphabet which was later replaced by the Latin alphabet upon their conversation to Christianity. Just saying.

[rajshekhar]

Very clearly spelt so, good audible video. Very informative. Thank you sir.

[Albanach-jenk]

This is about as accurate as brave hart

[Eadig]

If you're interested in learning about the Anglo Saxon Gods and the language that they spoke, Old English, you should read Alaric Albertsson's book Wyrdworking. He created a comprehensive guide into using the Anglo Saxon runes, understanding their pantheon, and Old English. There's actually a lot of info about them and their beliefs if you know where to look.

[nicolasmogensen]

BTW, only the very early Anglo-Saxons didn't use writing much but middle and later societies definitely did. It's just that very little of it survived time, the Viking Age, the Normannic times and 3 dozens major rebellions and civil wars since then.

[sineater]

Thanks to AC Valhalla I’m learning more about the saxons

[halmatpotter]

I learn a lot from your well researched and designed videos. Captivating.... thank you. Here's a voice pattern suggestion. Instead of dropping or burying the final word or syllable in each sentence, try doing the opposite and emphasize the final beat or word when its a strong word. Think of other ways you can vary your speech pattern to make for interesting listening. I like your voice.

[johnshannon]

The Anglo-Saxons didn't build Stonehenge . . .

[jaymesguy]

You're drawing too close a connection between the origins of the Anglo-Saxons and England and Britain's future world power dominance. That was far in the future and one shouldn't jump to conclusions or read history too deterministically in a backwards direction.

[babayaga]

I was literally JUST about to search for a historical summary video on the Anglo-Saxons, when this video popped up in my feed!