The Anglo-Saxon Period

England, Scotland and Wales are the countries that created United Kingdom. But there are many years before the union of these countries. There are many years before the Great Britain occurred. England is the territory that now constitutes England. It was inhabited by human 800.000 years ago.

England had been invaded by many tribes until the Norman Conquest. In AD 43 romans invaded Britain until the 5^th century. When they left, the Anglo-Saxons came to the Britain. They were Germanic people who came to the Britain with the request of a tribe’s chief to protect Vortigern from Pict and Irish. The exact time of their immigration is unknown but it was the end of the 5^th century.  Anglo-Saxons founded many kingdoms in Britain, such as Wessex, Sussex, and Mercia.   They introduced old English. In old English Mierce or Myrce means "border people". The Wessex’s king Egbert gathered them around one kingdom in the 9^th century.

Vikings immigrated to England in the 8^th century. They stayed in England until the Roman Conquest. But in a battle with the Anglo-Saxons, they were beaten. And with this battle the unity of Anglo-Saxons got stronger.

The Anglo-Saxon king Edward who had no children died in 1066.his brother in law wanted the throne. He conquered York and succeed in the Battle of Stamford Bridge. In the meanwhile the Normandy duke William the Conqueror invaded Sussex. When Harold heard that he wanted to face him. So he went to Sussex without resting his army. In the Battle of Hastings William killed Harold and became the king. He could have ruled the Great Britain on his own but he kept his loyalty to the France King Philip I.

A country, a kingdom which was conquered by many different people had many different languages and different religion, of course. When Romans conquered, the language was Latin, and in the times of Vikings and Anglo-Saxons the language was Germanic. And after the roman conquest the language was French. Their religion was first paganism then it became Christianity. 

As a second year student in ELT student I shamefully say that I do not know any useful knowledge for this course. But I have always loved history. That is why I hope I love English literature.

The knowledge I know about English literature based on what heard in my senior year of high school and it also comes from the series I watch. It is not quite knowledge at all.

Throughout these years I learned something about Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens. And I only heard  of Beowulf, Anglo-Saxon, and Victorian Era. I don’t know what they mean exactly. I hope I learn them this year.

I believe it is good that we need to research, because when someone search something, they are less likely to forget. You give them some information which is likely to give them desire to learn more, desire to search. For example, when I was watching the series ‘Merlin’, I become more and more curious about the legend of King Arthur and researched. If ı heard these things in the class I would forget on the way home.

So this year I hope I can learn as much as I can.  And make what I learned useful for my future.