CARLOTTA: Good evening ladies and gentlemen! We are now on air with a new program called “Brain”. You can find us on facebook on the page radio3/brain and you can also follow us on Twitter, our name is: @.._radio3.
Today we’re talking about history. But history is a huge topic, so, in this hour, we’re listening to some experts and talking about the history of England and more in particular about the Anglo-Saxons.
The Anglo-Saxons were populations of Germanic origins; they were the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. In the V century they reached Great Britain after the Romans’ withdrawal and they pushed the Britains  toward Wales and Cornwall. Indeed the name of the country “England” comes from the Anglosaxon “ Engla land” that means “land of the Angles”. But why did this tribes come to England?
We know the Anglo-Saxons were farmers and fisherman; they used to hunting seals and whales in the ocean and live in difficult conditions of life so they were just looking for richer lands, more fertile where living was easier: for these reasons they crossed the North Sea and invaded Great Britain.
Information about the social organization of these Nordic tribes are written in the oldest surviving Anglo-Saxon  poem: “Beowulf”.  To learn more about this poem and the information about the values and the organization of the Anglo-Saxons that are contained in it we invited a linguist, teacher at the University of Kent Asia Grando:
ASIA: Good evening 
CARLOTTA: Good evening mrs Grando, nice to meet you. We are glad to have such an important professor in our studios.
A: nice to meet you too and thank you for your invite.
C:  Mrs Grando is a linguist and she has recently published a book: “Engla land”. 
A: Yes. It’s an analysis of the Anglo-saxon poem “beowful”. I read this poem again and in my book I draw the society of the Anglo-Saxons and their values.
C: So what is this epic poem? 
A: Beowulf is the longest epic poem in Old English, the language spoken in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest. More than 3,000 lines long, Beowulf relates the exploits of its eponymous hero, and his successive battles with three monsters
C: so Beowulf is a warrior..
A: Yes, he is a warrior. And the poem Beowulf is a classic tale of the triumph of good over evil. It is organised into three acts. The poem opens in Denmark, where Grendel is terrorising the kingdom. The Geatish prince Beowulf hears of his neighbours’ plight, and sails to their aid with a band of warriors. Beowulf encounters Grendel in an unarmed combat, and kills the monster by ripping off its arm. 
There is much rejoicing among the Danes, but Grendel’s loathsome mother takes her revenge, and makes a brutal attack upon the king’s hall. Beowulf seeks out the hag in her underwater lair, and slays her after an almighty struggle. Once more there is much rejoicing, and Beowulf is rewarded with many gifts. The poem culminates 50 years later, in Beowulf’s old age. Now king of the Geats, his own realm is faced with a rampaging dragon, which had been guarding a treasure-hoard. Beowulf enters the dragon’s mound and kills his enemy, but not before he himself has been fatally wounded. 
Beowulf closes with the king’s funeral, and a lament for the dead hero.
C: When was the oldest surviving Anglo-Saxon poem composed?
A: Unfortunately nobody knows for certain when the poem was first composed. Beowulf is set in the pagan world of sixth-century Scandinavia, but it also contains echoes of Christian tradition. The poem must have been passed down orally over many generations, and modified by each successive bard, until the existing copy was made at an unknown location in Anglo-Saxon England. Beowulf survives in a single medieval manuscript housed at the British Library in London. Some scholars have suggested that the manuscript was made at the end of the 10th century, others in the early decades of the eleventh, perhaps as late as the reign of King Cnut, who ruled England from 1016 until 1035. The most likely time for Beowulf to have been copied is the early 11th century, which makes the manuscript approximately 1,000 years old.
C: reading your book, after all, we can notice how a military leader, an hero becomes king. That’s important to learn about  Anglo-Saxon society, can we say a ‘warrior society’?
A: sure! Indeed we know they lived in tribes and their society was ruled by a king, a military leader, a great warrior. There were also a kind of aristocratic, the ‘earls’ and some personal companions of the king, the ‘thegns’. On the other side people who had to help with roads, bridges and forts and had also to provide military service were called ‘freemen’. 
C: If we can know some real information about Anglo-Saxon social organization, how we can describe this poem, only as an historical poem? But there are monsters, you know..
A: well, that is a great question. . (ride) this is an epic poem, it deals with legend and real historical events. But even if the poem was completely invented we would learn about their values and ideas.
C: so what about those values?
A: We know that the Anglo-Saxons were brave, indeed how ca a gret warrior be not brave?..but, above all they were lojal.  They lived in tribes and they used to live in difficult condition of life so they must trus each other. In particular they were lojal towards their chiefs and they lived in group of huts around the chief’s one.
C: that’s interesting. Maybe that’s why they didn’t care about culture.. they followed their values and their ideas! They had to survive, they didn’t want to write millions of books!
A:you’re right! But you have to remember that they have their language: the old English!
C:you’re right too..
A: When the Anglo-Saxons began populating the British Isles in the fifth and sixth centuries AD they spoke a language, similar to modern Frisian, the language of northeastern region of the Netherlands, that is called Old English. Four major dialects of Old English emerged, Northumbrian in the north of England, Mercian in the Midlands, West Saxon in the south and west, and Kentish in the Southeast.
These invaders pushed the original, Celtic-speaking inhabitants out of what is now England into Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland, leaving behind a few Celtic words. These Celtic languages survive today in Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland and in Wales. 
C: Did some other populations or language influence the Old English?
A: of course! The Vikings and latin did. Norse invasions, beginning around 850, brought many North Germanic words into the language, particularly in the north of England. Some examples are dream, which had meant joy until the Vikings imparted its current meaning on it from the Scandinavian cognate draumr, and skirt, which continues to live alongside its native English cognate shirt.
C: and what about latin?
A: The arrival of St. Augustine in 597 and the introduction of Christianity into Saxon England brought more Latin words into the English language. They were mostly concerned with the naming of Church dignitaries, ceremonies..
C: Until now I met and talked with different experts from different Countries and from different kinds of university  and areas of study.. and one thing that I learn from the historical ones is that everything brings some changes and influences others.. even words, I think! So would you please explain the influences of the Old English to the modern English, of course if there are!
A: Well, the majority of words in modern English come from foreign, not Old English roots. In fact, only about one sixth of the known Old English words have descendants surviving today. But this statistic is deceptive; Old English is much more important than this number would indicate. About half of the most commonly used words in modern English have Old English roots. Words like be, water, and strong, for example, derive from Old English roots.
C: Oh I see! ..You know I read your book and in the end, in really few words you nominate a film that have been based on Beowulf, a film of 2007 directed by Robert Zemeckis. With Ray Winstone as Beowulf, Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie.. let’s listen to the trailer!
..trailer..
A: like every film there are some changes, the director takes some liberties in telling of those stories. But to make the reader enjoy this poem in a way that I think is relaxing and less demanding I give the name of that film.
C: not all the people can enjoy a book but everyone, maybe with their families, can enjoy a good film! Now, thank you very much and.. come here again! 
A: It was a pleasure, I hope now you will want to read my book and I also hope maybe, you know, some teenagers now will consider the idea of coming to university and become a lenguist! 
(rumore di bacini per salutarsi)
C: and now we will listen to the soundtrack of the film Beowulf to say goodbye to mrs Grando and give the time to another expert to come and enjoy us in this studio. “..”,Radio 3.
..canzone..
C: Good evening again! You are listening to “..” ..I remember to the listeners that today we’re speaking about the Anglo-Saxons. After my little presentation of this population a linguist, Asia Grando, had joined me to present her book “Engla Land”. She explained to us the epic poem “Beowulf” that she had analyzed in her book . We talked also about Anglo-Saxon social organization and their language, the Old English. Now, to complete the figure of this population we invited in our studios another expert.. but this time an art expert. He is the supervisor of the area of the British Museum in London  dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon objects. Good evening Filippo Cicogna.
F: good evening
C: we’re pleased to have you here.. before all, nice to meet you mr. Cicogna.
F: Nice to meet you too. I’m honored to be here and I’m happy to share new information with people interested in knowing them.
C: We are very interested. Isn’t art an important part of a population’s  culture?
F: Yes it is, of course. We can learn about the costumes and  traditions also with the study of objects that a population made. Of course it’s important too study literature and history!
C: so what do you do in British Museum? What are your occupation?
F: In the area of the museum dedicated to the Anglo-Saxons are exhibited objects from the site of Sutton Hoo. 
C: What Sutton Hoo is?
F: Sutton Hoo it’s a site a few miles far from the Suffolk coast in England. It was discovered in 1939 but the two cemeteries in this site are dated 6th-7th century. This site is important because we found a ship burial that was excavated in the spring and summer of 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War. In the museum we have all the objects that we found in it.
C: So all the objects from this ship-burial are safeguarded at the British Museum..
F: Well there are 10 artefacts that we found in the centre of the ship where there was a burial chamber built with a pitched roof and hung with textiles. In it a dead man lay surrounded by his possessions. He was buried with his weapons, his armour, wealth in the form of gold coins and gold and garnet fittings, silver vessels and silver-mounted drinking horns and cups, symbols of power and authority, and clothes ranging from fine linen overshirts to woollen cloaks and caps trimmed with fur.
C: .. and which are the most relevant? Would you like to speak about those one?
F: One of the most famous groups of objects in the British Museum is the splendid collection of grave goods that in the British Museum are electrotype copies of the original coins, which are available for study at the Museum. Indeed this coins are the only way to date the burial, it seems to have been deposited at some point between around 610-635 AD. We found 37 gold coins, 3 coin-shaped blanks, and 2 small gold ingots. The presence of the coin-shaped blanks suggests that the number of coins was deliberately rounded up to 40.
C: So the Anglo-Saxons used coins as a payment method too. .
F: yes but, as we know, they were a warrior society so they used to survive, not to produce food or artefacts to sell to other people. Indeed they were farmers and fishermen. When they lived in North of Europe, before coming to England, they used to hunting seals and whales in the stormy ocean.
C: so it’s interesting to know why did a population of warrior make some artefacts! If they only need to survive, why did they were interested in art?
F: there are four kings who may have been buried here: Raedwald who was overlord of the English kingdoms, Eorpwald and co-regents Sigebert and Ecric, who both died fighting Penda of Mercia in AD 637. But we do not know what a king's burial would have looked like, so we cannot exclude the possibility that Mound  was for a member of the royal king or a powerful member of a high-ranking family. So it is impossible that the objects were of a poor person, in any case they were of a rich one.
C:what are the other artefacts that we may know, that are relevant for understand the habits of the Anglo-Saxons?
F: We said that they were warriors, so it’s not a case that we found a sword and an helmet in the ship-burial.. The sword is richly furnished with a gold and garnet pommel, gold guards and filigree clips on the hilt. It was buried in a wooden scabbard which was lined with sheep wool. The sword hung from a belt whose fittings are equally magnificent. All are made of gold with inlaid garnet cloisonné. The belt buckle is the only piece of 'jewellery' found in this extraordinary grave that is damaged.
C: and the helmet..?
F: This extraordinary helmet is very rare. Only four helmets dating to the early medieval period have been found so far in England. The helmet has panels decorated with animal ornament and heroic scenes, motifs that were common in the Germanic world at this time. The face-mask is the most remarkable feature of the helmet: it has eye-sockets, eyebrows and a nose, which has two small holes cut in it to allow the wearer to breathe freely. The bronze eyebrows are inlaid with silver wire and garnets. Each ends in a golden-bronze boars-head - perhaps a symbol of strength and courage. The helmet was badly damaged when the burial chamber collapsed. By locating the remaining fragments as if in a three-dimensional puzzle, the helmet has been rebuilt. A complete reconstruction has also been made.
C: All those artefacts were discovered in a burial chambre so it gives me an idea of a population that believes in the afterworld.
F: Yes.. even if the Anglo-Saxon society is a warrior society we know that ,after all, they buried people and they put some artefacts to celebrate his importance, maybe as a chief, and to prepare the person to another life after the death.
C: In the rest of England was the religion diffused too?
F: well, at the end of the 6th century Pope Gregory I The Great sent a monk, Saint Augustine to bring Christianity back to England. Soon monasteries progressed and turned into important centres of communal life and culture.
C: Now with your and mrs Grando’s help we draw a complete figure of the Anglo-Saxons and their culture. Thank you very much for your coming mr Cicogna. I hope you enjoy our discussion and you too come here again!
F: Thank you to you for having me here. Maybe if you like come and enjoy me at the British Museum, so you could see the artefacts that we spoke about. 
C:Today we had two great experts, mrs Asia Grando and mr Filippo Cicogna. We spoke about mrs Grnad’s book ‘Engla Land’, the Beowulf, the social organization of this populatin and its language and than about the collection of the Anglo-Saxons at the British Museum  with its coins, and the sword and the helmet all from the treasure of Sutton Hoo and also about the activities for surviving and the Chrisitanity of England. I hope you have enjoyed this radio program and I hope also you’ll listen to us again. This is “Brain”, Radio3, and I’m Carlotta Urban. Byeee