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Old English (450 - 1100)
The official start of the English language is considered the moment of the arrival of three Germanic tribes (the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes) to the territory of Britain in the V century AD. They came from the area that today is known as Denmark and Northern Germany. Before the arrival of those tribes, the British Isles were inhabited by Celtic and Roman peoples.
It's interesting to know that the words "English" and "England" derive from the name of one of those tribes, the Angles.
The invaders pushed most of the Celtic speakers west and north - mainly in what is now Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
Lots of words from North Germanic origin came to English. And when Latin Christianity was introduced in the late VI century to the Anglo-Saxons, one of the biggest cultural changes was the introduction of parchment. Now, people could write down longer texts. The earliest Anglo-Saxon written texts date from the late VII century, although the Celts and the early Anglo-Saxons used the alphabet of runes.
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Anglo-Saxons
Texts in Old English consist mostly of poetry, prose, or proverbs. Those texts rarely have authors' names and it's almost impossible to know the exact date of when it was written. The earliest texts are poems of heroic journies and battles.
The most famous religious writers of that time are Caedmon (VII century) and Cynewulf (IX century). King Alfred the Great also translated many poems from Latin in the ate IX century.
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It is believed that the main influence on the development of Old English was due to the Viking invasions, which started in about 850. King Alfred the Great stopped the Viking domination of England, but the invaders anyway ended up settling down and adopting Christianity which was brought from Rome.
Alfred the Great
People say that about 400 Anglo-Saxon texts have survived from that era. The oldest text of those is "Caedmon's Hymn" (composed between 658 and 680), and the longest text in Old English literature is "Anglo-Saxon chronicle". But the most famous one is the epic poem "Beowulf" which consists of over 3000 verses. The text is thought to have been written in the VIII century.
Old English was quite a difficult language, at least in comparison with English that we use today: nouns had three genders (male, female and neuter), there were 7 classes of "strong" verbs and three of "weak" verbs, thet endings changed for number, mood, tense, and person.
Some other peculiarities of Old English:
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the absence of the word "do" in questions;
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there were double negatives;
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the letters U and V had no distinction in the written form;
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the letters J and W didn't exist.
There were 4 main dialects of Old English - Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon and Kentish. Northumbrian and Mercian dialects were often grouped together and called Anglian.
The dialect that dominated mostly and that was adopted by the other areas was West Saxon. The majority of the surviving documents at the end of the Old English period were written in the West Saxon dialect.
Even though it's only 1% of Anglo-Saxon words in English that survived to these days, these words are of great importance: water, food, family, moon, home, wood, etc.
It's interesting that a lot of swear words in English have their roots in Old English.
It is said that about 85% of Anglo-Saxon words gradually disappeared because of the invasions of the Vikings and the Normans who came to the territory of the British Isles next.
The period of the Norman Conquest of 1066 is regarded as the end of the Old English period. The English language was influenced by Anglo-Normans very much, and later it started developing into the period of Middle English.
The Vikings
Films about Anglo-Saxons!
Got interested in this historic period? Then here's a whole list of films and series about Anglo-Saxons specially for you!
The Last Kingdom
Alfred the Great
1. The Last Kingdom
A British historical drama and TV series based on The Saxon Stories novels by Bernard Cornwell.
2. Alfred the Great (1969)
A British film that tells about Alfred the Great trying to defend Wessex and fighting against the Danes in the 9th century.
3. Beowulf & Grendel (2005)
A Canadian-Icelandic adventure film based on the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf.
4. Beowulf (2007)
A British-American animated action film based on the same Old English poem and directed by Robert Zemeckis.
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Beowulf & Grendel
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Beowulf
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