A large collection of academic resources for a variety of Linguistics and English Language Education subjects at the graduate and undergraduate level

Old English          

Click here for a short personal introduction

The Old English Period:  450 - 1100 AD

The Anglo-Saxon Invasions:  450 - 750 AD

Period Introduction:  The start of the Old English period in the middle of the 5^th century AD represents the birth of English as a distinct language and the birth of the English people as a distinct culture.  At this point, three major Germanic tribes played the principal roles in the subsequent invasion of Britain – the Saxons, Angles and Jutes.  The date generally accepted as being the start of the Old English Period corresponds with the first major invasion of Britain by the Saxons in 449 AD.  The Saxons originated from modern-day Germany with the Angles originating from the area where Germany and Denmark border each other and the Jutes originating from northern Denmark.  It is only after these original speakers of Germanic-English separated themselves from their Germanic cousins that we recognize their language as being distinctly different from the other Germanic languages these people spoke.  From this point forward, the language of the Germanic invaders of Britain becomes recognized as English – the language of the “Angles” and other Germanic invaders.

446 AD – The Celtic-Britains have now endure several decades of devastating attacks from the Picts in the north and the Scots in the west, a result of the fall of the Roman Empire and the withdrawal of their colonial protectors.  In 410 AD, shortly after the withdrawal of all Roman troops from Britain, the first Germanic tribes start to arrive in Britain.  The British-Celts have no love for the Saxons, but facing imminent defeat, the Celt leader, Vortigern, authorizes the use of Saxon mercenaries, known as Foederati, for the defense of the homeland in 446 AD.  In return, the Saxons are promised land in Lincolnshire.

450 – The Saxon leader Hengest (see section notes 1) arrives on the shores of Britain with "3 keels" of warriors, and is welcomed by the Celt leader Vortigern.  This event is known in Latin as the "Adventus Saxonum," is the start of what will become a massive invasion of the Germanic people into England.  Angle, Saxon and Jute settlements in Britain are increasing quickly as more and more Germanic adventurers arrive.  In 452, the Celt leader Vortigern snubs his Saxon allies and enters into a pact with the Jute leader Hengest, marrying Hengest’s daughter, Rowenna.  In return, the Jutish leader is promised the kingdom of Kent. Hengest invites his son, Octha, from Germany with "16 keels" of warriors who occupy the northern lands, to defend against the Picts.  The Picts are never heard from again.  As word reaches the continent of the fertility of the island and the “cowardice” of the Britons (Bede 730 AD, see section notes 2), hordes of Germanic Angle, Saxon, Jute and Frisian adventurers descend on England.  The Germanic tribes enter an uncomfortable co-existence, often attacking and warring with one another, but united in their commitment to dispose of the original Celtic-Britians.  By 460 AD, what remains of the British-Celtic aristocrats and city-dwellers have been forced to flee across the English Channel to Armorica, in north-western Gaul.  Armorica means the "second migration", and has been suggested – probably erroneously - as a possible source word for “America” – the destination of another mass migration centuries later.  (see section notes 3).  Kent becomes the primasry center of culture and wealth.  It is about this time (465 AD) that Dux Bellorum, also known as Artorius, on whom the legends of King Arthur are probably based, and who is credited with uniting England as a nation, is born.

597 – In Rome, Pope Gregory I commissions and dispatches a band of Christian missionaries led by St. Augustine to convert the “Angli", as he calls them.  This is a major departure from contemporary form and custom, as the Germanic English People and their language have, until now, always been referred to as Saxones.  St. Augustine arrives in Kent the following year, and is received by King Ethelbert, and within months, King Ethelbert is converted and baptized.  Presumably because of the miss-wording of this Papal commission, the contemporary perception that the Pope is inspired in everything he says and does by divine guidance, and St. Augustine’s very successful conversion of these Germanic-Britains, the term Angli becomes accepted and is substituted for the term Saxones.  Henceforth, the Germanic peoples of Britain and their language will be known as Angli, or English.  (Had it not been for this seemingly obscure Papal misnomer 1400 years ago, we would very probably be speaking ‘Saxonish’ today instead of English).  In 601, St. Augustine is consecrated First Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Church of Rome is firmly established in England.  Irish missionaries follow, and the new faith spreads quickly.  By the end of the century, England is an important and influential part of Christendom, and the Germanic speech of England has become unique, with dialects that are distinctly different from those of their continental cousins and the languages of their Germanic roots.

700 Ad – Anglo-Saxon domination is complete.  The deposed Celtic-Britains have been pushed into what is now referred to as the “Celtic Fringe”.  They are referred to as Wealas, meaning “foreigners”, which is the source of the word Welsh.  At this point, the Celtic languages has had very little impact on Old English, with only about a dozen Celtic words finding their way into the English language.  Three of these borrowed words, crag (a steep rocky outcropping), tor (a high rock), and combe (a deep valley) describe geographic features the English had not known in their flat marshy homeland.  Another, Puca, is the name of an evil barbarian spirit that reemerges 9 centuries later as Puck, Shakespeare’s notorious mischief-maker.  Celtic place-names that survived the first 250 years of Anglo-Saxon domination include Avon (river),  Londinium (London), Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) and Dubris (Dover).  These are not to be confused with Celtic words that entered English much later in the 15^th (bog, cairn, plaid, slogan, whiskey) or in the 17^th century from Irish Gaelic (brogue, galore, leprechaun, shamrock, tory, banshee, blarney, colleen) and Scots Gaelic (clan, loch, kilt). In 730, Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, describes the English people by the name Angelcymn (Angle-kin) and their language as Englisc.  The Germanic languages of the Anglo-Saxons, being the very foundation of modern English, will leave our language with an extremely rich heritage of everyday words.  The list of words that come down to us from Old English is virtually endless: sheep, shepherd, ox, earth, plough, swine, dog, wood, field, work, glee, laughter, mirth, merry, the, is, you, man, wife, house, here, there….  McCrum states that computer analysis shows that the 100 most common words in English are all of Anglo-Saxon origin and goes on to give a glowing example of this legacy…

When, in 1940, Winston Churchill wished to appeal to the minds of the English-speaking people it is probably no accident that he did so with the plain bareness for which Old English is noted: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.”  In this celebrated passage, only “surrender” is foreign – Norman-French. (p. 61-62)

Christianity and the mass conversion of the English people is having a tremendous impact on English.  Words of religion are entering English from Latin, Greek and Hebrew, examples being disciple, shrine, priest, bishop, candle, church, school, priest,  nun and monk from Latin; apostle, pope and psalter from Greek; Sabbath from Hebrew.  Many common day words have undergone substantial changes, but their roots are still evident – angelos (messenger) becomes angel, diabolos (slanderer) becomes devil, Eostre (the name of the pagan goddess of dawn) becomes Easter, and evangelium (good news) becomes god-spell, the source word for gospel.  Words rooted in the Oriental origins of the Christian faith such as camel, lion, cedar, myrrh, as well as words like orange, pepper and ginger enter English from Sanskrit and the languages of India and the Middle East.  By the end of the eighth century, England has become one of the academic and philosophical centers of Europe, with monasteries like Lindisfarn, Wearmouth and Jarrow producing illuminated manuscripts and works of literature & art unrivaled anywhere else in the contemporary western world.  But a black cloud is gathering on the horizon – a second great invasion of the British Isles is imminent, an event by which English will be heavily influenced.

Section Notes

1.      Hengest plays an important role in Old English heroic poetry, being the retainer of the Danish king Hnaf.  He exploits are included in the Eote and in Beowolf (lines 1063-1159), and Bede (730 AD) describes Hengest as the great-grandson of Woden, the chief Germanic God.

2.      The Venerable Bede, a monk and scholar at the famous monastery at Jarrow, wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation around 730 AD.  Considered a monumental historical work, it is a primary historical source for early British history.

3.      The most commonly accepted and best documented explanation for the source of the word America is that it is derived from Amerigo Vespucci, the man who purportedly first recognized that North America was a new continent, and not just an extension of Asia.  In 1507, the famous cartographer Martin Waldseemueller published a map designating the New World an America, so the name America was coined well before any mass migration took place to the New World.  The premise that America originates from Celtic origins associated with their mass migration and evacuation of Britain at the hands of the Saxons, as well as the claim that America was named for a Bristol merchant named Richard Ameryx, is generally regarded as little more than “English patriotism and the wish that it might be true”. 

The Invasion of the Vikings (Danes): 750-1100 AD

Period Introduction:  The mass-movement of the Scandinavian peoples during this period is recognized as one of the great migrations in European history.  Collectively referred to as the Vikings, these Scandinavian peoples comprised of three broad groups and were geographically related to the present-day nations of Sweden, Denmark and Norway.  The Swedish Vikings colonized much of what is now Eastern Russia; the Danish Vikings (historically referred to an Danes or Norsemen) colonized most of northern France (Normandy) and England; the Norwegian Vikings colonized much of the British Isles, the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, and even into Labrador in Eastern Canada.  In the beginning, these Viking excursions were little more than hit-and-run plunder-raids, but in time, conquest and settlement became the primary objective of these adventurers.

750 AD –  The Vikings have been harassing the England with their hit-and-run plunder-raids since the beginning of the century, but these hardy adventurers are becoming now becoming an increasingly serious problem for the English.  In 793, the Viking begin a concerted attack on England starting with what will become successive seasons of attacks on the monastic communities of Lindisfarne and Jarrow.  By 880, half of England is under the control of the Danes, and the Norsemen will now focus their attacks on the last remaining Anglo-Saxon kingdom – Wessex.

871 AD – At the young age of 21, King Alfred the Great ascends the throne of the Kingdom of Wessex after his brother, King Aethelred, is killed fighting the Vikings.  In 878, Alfred if forced to flee for his life with a small band of supporters into the marshes of Summerset on the island of Athelney.  The Vikings seem unstoppable.  Alfred manages to raise a small army veteran warriors, and in a surprise attack, overwhelms the overconfident Danes at the Battle of Ethandune.  The Vikings sue for peace, and the resulting Treaty of Wedmore divides England along the old Roman road that runs from London to Chester known as Watling Street, with the Norse controlling north of the road and the Saxons controlling South of the road.  For Alfred, the war is won, but to achieve peace will require much more than military might.

880 AD – It is here that one of the greatest contributions to the English language takes place, and it is very possible that had it not been for Alfred’s conscious linking of the English language to the formation a national identity, we might not be speaking English today.  England is a loose collection of different kingdoms, each with its own king, its own loyalties and its own agendas.  Alfred, as the king of Wessex, only has sovereignty over the south-western portion of England, but it has become very apparent that his survival, and the survival of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, will depend on men, money and support from beyond his own kingdom.  Alfred must find some way to retain political control of the territories that are not his to rule.  Alfred decides that the solution lies in establishing a “shared sense of Englishness” – a national identity based on the one thing all Saxons hold in common – the English language.  First on his agenda is to rebuild the monasteries and the schools, and to replace Latin with English as the language of education.  He personally translates many Latin texts, including Bede’s History of the English Church and People into English, declaring… “if we are to have peace… it is necessary to translate certain books which are most necessary for all men to know, into the language that we can all understand, and to arrange it… so that all the youth of free men now among the English people…may be devoted to learning… and be able to read English writing as well.”  To provide for a common sense of justice, Alfred establishes a formal legal code as a definitive body of Anglo-Saxon law.  To establish a common history on which their new-founded identity could be perpetuated and to remind his subjects of their loyalties, Alfred initiates the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, a detailed public record of current events and English culture designed to inspire and celebrate a legacy that every Englishman can be proud to be a part of.  By laying down his sword and replacing it with a pen, Alfred the Great united the English people in spirit and resolve, and in the process, became both the savior of the English language and the founder of English literature.  It is because if this that Alfred – alone among all the kings and rulers of Britain – is known as “the Great”.

1050 AD – As the Old English period comes to a close, the Saxons and the Danes are living side-by-side as neighbors and have been doing so peacefully for several generations.  English, while certainly the dominant language outside of the religious community, has undergone major changes as a result of Norse-Viking colonization.  Some of the most dramatic changes to English are actually the result of the striking similarities between Old English and Old Norse.  Shipley (1986) provides a comparative example of Old English and Old Norse…

Modern English:  “I’ll sell you the horse that pulls my cart” 

Old English:         “Ic selle the that hors the draegeth mine waegn”

Old Norse:            “Ek mun selja ther hrossit er dregr vagn mine”

Both languages were similar enough that at least a basic level of communication would have been possible.  This, and the fact that the two peoples and cultures were in such close and prolonged contact with each other promoted a natural kind of pidginization that greatly simplified the very complex structures of Old English.  The Old English of the original Saxons was very strongly inflected, with nouns being inflected for the nominative, genitive, dative and accusative case, and verbs requiring separate conjugations for the  1^st, 2ns and 3^rd singular and plural forms along with complicated inflected forms for the past tense.  By the end of the Old English period, most of these complex structures and word endings had been eliminated, a result of language adaptation and pidginization based on the social and communicative needs of the new English society.

Old English and Old Norse shared many commonly used words – man, wife, mother, folk, house, thing, winter, summer, will, can, come, here, see, think, ride, over and under to name a few.  Old English and Old Norse also shared many similar-sounding words with different meanings, and English adopted the Norse meanings for many of these words.  For example, dream in Old English meant joy but in Norse meant sleep-vision; bread in Old English meant piece or fragment but in Norse referred to the foodstuff; bloom in Old English meant a piece of metal but in Norse meant a flower; earl in Old English meant warrior but in Norse meant a noble; plow in Old English referred to a measure of land but in Norse meant to till or turn over.  Other Norse words simply replaced their English counterparts, an example of which is window, which in Old English was eyethurl (literally, eyehole) but in Norse was vindauga (literally, wind-eye).  Many words of pure Scandinavian origin demonstrate easily identifiable phonological characteristics…scathe, scorch, score, scowl, scrape, scrub, skill, skin, skirt, sky, gear, geld, gill, give, kick, kindle, kid, kill, kin.

There are 4 major dialects of Old English – Kentish (Kent), West Saxon (South of England), Mercian (the West) and Northumbrian (the north) as well as numerous lesser dialects, all of which are mutually intelligible.  Winchester, the capitol of Wessex is the center of English culture and society, and West Saxon is the most prestigious as well as the dialect of most manuscripts and literature.  A culture of English has evolved and the written records of English predate those of any other West-Germanic language.  But English is about to face another challenge – one that will challenge both to the English language and the English identity.  The Normans are coming....