Ancient History of Great Britain: Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings

The Celts in Britain

The celts began to arrive in Britain from northwestern Germany in the late Iron Age, around 700 BC. They didn't invade Britain but they gradually settled in the country between 500 and 100 BC. They were tribes of warriors who shared similar language, religion and culture. They were hunters, fishermen and metal workers and they explored what nature gave them by practicing agriculture. They introduced the iron plough, which made cultivation easier. They were divided into clans and they lived in small villages and they built hill forts which were groups of houses built on the top of a hill, surrounded by banks and ditches. The people there lived in huts made of wood with thatched roofs. They loved the natural elements like the sun, the moon and water and they held religious rites performed by the druids, which were priests and were to most influential figures for their work of education of the young. Celtic woman compared to other places the ancient world, may have had more rights and a more equal status to men, they could choose the man they wanted to marry and have their own property.

Celtic Origins of Halloween

The Halloween festivity has Celtic origins. They were pagans. The celts believed that summer ended on 31st October and that ghosts and witches returned on that night and that evil spirits entered the body of a person or a animal. This is why they used to wear costumes as a way to chase spirits away. Later Christian practices replaced pagan ones and added the All Saints' Day on 1st November.

The Romans in Britain

Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55-54 BC but the real conquest of the country began in 43-47 AD under Emperor Claudius. With the Romans started the growth of towns near their army bases. Towns had public baths and were centres of commercial activity. Romans also built over 9,600 km of paved roads in Britain.

Roman London and Infrastructure

The origins of London can be traced to the Roman invasion. They built the first London Bridge on the river Thames and they called their settlement on the north side of the bridge "Londinium" which became an important trading centre.

Hadrian's Wall Construction and Purpose

The most important monument was the Hadrian's Wall. When Hadrian visited the Roman province of Britannia, he decided to build a wall to protect his territory from the tribes in the North. Hadrian's wall ran for 73 miles from the east coast to the west coast in the north of England. The wall was built of stone and was 4.4 metres high and 3 metres wide. Alongside the wall there was a ditch and a military road with a vallum. The wall had a gate every mile with a milecastle, a small fort and two towers between each gate. About every 11 kilometres there was a large fort built on the wall. 15000 were the man involved in the army. They were soldiers, craftsmen and engineers. The wall wasn't just a defensive barrier but it also helped to control trade, smuggling and immigration. It highlighted the strength and importance of the Roman Empire.

Roman Withdrawal and Anglo-Saxon Invasions

In 409 AD, Emperor Honorius withdrew (ritirare) his soldiers to defend Rome against Barbarian raiders and the Romanised celts were left alone to fight against the Anglo-Saxon forces from Germany and Scandinavia, who invaded the island in the 5th century and destroyed the Roman British towns.

British Place Names of Roman Origin

British place namesThe names of many towns founded by the Romans, like Doncaster, Gloucester and Manchester, end in -caster, -cester or -chester. These suffixes come from castrum, the Latin word for a fortified military camp.

Borders and Walls: Symbolism and Reality

In his poem 'Mending Wall' published in 1914, the American poet Robert Frost challenges the cliche that 'Good fences make good neighbours'. Over the past decade, some democracies have built walls and fences on their borders. The United States, India and Israel built 3,500 miles of walls and fences. All three countries declare that they are walling out terrorists. Whether these walls and fences are effective at preventing terrorism may be debated. Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in 2007 said that he thought the fence had assumed a symbolic significance which should not obscure the fact that it is a very complicated problem, not only that a fence can be climbed over with a ladder or crossed through an underground tunnel. And none of these three border security projects completely enclose the border. The US fence only covers one third of the Mexican border, the Israeli project is two thirds done, and the Indian fences mark approximately 80 percent of the Pakistan and Bangladesh borders. Finally, there is always legitimate cross-border traffic. The US-Mexico border is the most crossed in the world. In Israel, there are tens of thousands of settlers who live on the Palestinian side of the wall but demand easy access back to Israel through checkpoints. India built hundreds of gates in their fence on the Bangladesh border to allow farmers access to lands on the other side. These cross-border traffic covers who wants to immigrate, smuggle contraband or carry out an attack. Indeed, all of the September 11th hijackers entered the US with valid visas through airports. What, then, is the long-term impact of these expensive and apparently ineffective border walls? The answer lies in Frost's concern about whom the wall might offend. For those on the Palestinian side, the massive wall symbolises the violence of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. For the large Muslim minority in India the barbed wire (filo spinato) symbolises partition and marginalisation. For Latinos in the US the fence symbolises America's discriminatory immigration laws. The walls have become emblematic of America's, India's and Israel's exclusionary policies rather than their ideals of freedom and democracy.

The Poem Mending Wall

This poem published in 1914 is about two neighbours who live in the countryside. One day they meet and walk along the wall that separates their land, repairing it where necessary. "Mending Wall" is a poem about borders, the work it takes to maintain them and the way they shape human interactions. The speaker and the speaker's neighbor spend much of the poem rebuilding a wall that divides their properties. As they do so, they debate the function of the wall and how it affects their relationship. The speaker suggests that the wall is unnecessary, both practically and politically: in the speaker's mind, walls exclude people, injuring otherwise harmonious relationships. But theneighbor argues that walls actually improve relationships, because they allow people to treat each other fairly and prevent conflict. The poem allows readers to decide for themselves which vision of the human community is most convincing. The speaker believes the wall isn't necessary, the speaker's apples aren't going to eat the neighbor's pine trees. More importantly, the speaker believes that walls actively damage people's relationships. This is because walls are likely to "give offense" that is, to offend people with their implication of mistrust and exclusion. The speaker asks the neighbor why they need to continue repairing the wall at all. In response, the neighbor says simply and repeatedly: "Good fences make good neighbours." The neighbor seems haunted by the possibility of future conflicts. In fact, he seems to regard such conflicts as an inevitable part of life, and believes that it's important to take steps to prevent them. For the speaker, there's no reason to engage in such preventative measures because there are no conflicts between him and his neighbor-not even the seeds of future conflict. "Here there are no cows," the speaker says, literally referencing the fact that they aren't competing for resources, and should be able to live peacefully side by side. In this worldview, people are basically decent. It is building the wall itself that seems to the speaker most likely to cause conflict, by creating a sense of "us" vs. "them" and implying that the neighbors don't trust each other. In this text we can find some figurative language like alliterations, metaphor and simile. Mending Wall" does not follow a particular poetic form. It isn't a sonnet, for example, or a villanelle. Instead, it is simply a single stanza of 46 lines.

The Anglo-Saxons

The Angles, Saxons and Jutes - known collectively as the Anglo-Saxons - were Germanic tribes who arrived over the course of the 5th and 6th centuries. These invaders were warlike and mostly illiterate. They used only the runic alphabet, which was composed of a series of mysterious characters that hey used it for carving inscriptions on stone or metals. They were farmers and deep-sea fishermen who hunted seals and whales in the ocean. They were organised into family groups or clans and they lived in wooden houses which they built near streams or rivers. The Anglo-Saxons had a great sense of beauty, made fine ornaments and enjoyed feasting and drinking, they also built halls which they decorated with carvings and paintings. The most important social bond was loyalty to the other members and to the lord of the tribe. They exalted physical courage and personal freedom. The dialects spoken by the different tribes evolved over time and together became known as Old English. This language provided the basis for Modern English, especially words relating to everyday life and activities. At first, the Anglo-Saxons worshipped several gods. This is why the Christianity introduced by the Romans disappeared until the end of the 6th century. Then Pope Gregory I the Great sent a monk Augustine to bring Christianity back to England. Augustine went first to Canterbury and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Christianity spread across the kingdoms and several monasteries were built and became important centres of communallife and culture. Much of what we know about the Anglo-Saxons is based on The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written by the monk Venerable Bede.

Old English Language

Old English language has its origins in the west Germanic dialects spoken by the angles, Saxons, and other tribes who invaded and occupied England in the fifth and sixth centuries. Old English was very different from modern English, and it is difficult, if not impossible, for modern English speakers to understand it without studying it. The language dominated in England until the Norman conquest, when French became for a time the language of the court and of literature. Old English was left to everyday use. The oldest Old English inscriptions were written using a runic system.

Anglo-Saxon Words and Influence

The influence of Anglo-Saxons culture is still evident today. The names of the days of the week come from the names of the major gods: Tiw (Tuesday), Woden (Wednesday), Thunor (Thursday). It is also evident in place names. The ending -ham meant farm and -ton meant settlement so Birmingham or Southampton are place names that come from the Anglo-Saxon times.

From the Heptarchy to the Norman Conquest

The Heptarchy Kingdoms

A) The heptarchy. After the Anglo-Saxon invasion, Britain was divided into several local kingdoms, each with his own king. with its own king. By the beginning of the 7th century there were seven main kingdoms, these were called the Heptarchy, and some of them still mark counties or regional names to this day: East Anglia (from East Angles), Essex (East Saxons), Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex (South Saxons) and Wessex (West Saxons). The three largest kingdoms, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, had become the most powerful by the middle of the 7th century.

The Vikings Invasions

B) The vikings. Between the 8th and the 9th centuries, new enemies arrived from overseas: the Vikings, who came from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. They attacked the monastery of Lindisfarne in 793 and gradually settled in the country.

Alfred the Great and English Unification

C) From Alfred the Great to Athelstan. King Alfred the Great of Wessex united the Anglo-Saxons against the Vikings, reclaiming lost territories, reorganizing the army, and fortifying towns. He also emphasized religion and supported the writing of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. In 879, the 'kingdom of Anglo-Saxons' was established under Alfred's rule, for local organization, town construction, coinage, English law, and education promotion. Alfred's son, Edward, expanded their power into the Midlands and East Anglia. Later, Edward's son, Athelstan, conquered Northumbria in 927, completing the unification of England. Athelstan is regarded as the father of the English state for establishing royal authority, law, and coinage.

Viking Kings and Canute's Empire

D) Viking kings. In the 990s, Vikings returned to England, and the Danegeld policy-paying protection money to avoid attacks-became common. In 1012, the Archbishop of Canterbury was killed, leading to Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard taking the throne within a year. His son, Canute, ruled a North Sea empire, including Denmark, Norway, and England, ending Viking attacks. Canute also became King of England. After Canute, Edward the Confessor, focused