The reason why we considered the king Alfred “the Great” is because he managed to defeat the Danes.

You should go deeper into your research when you study.

When we refer to the history of England, we generally refer to the Anglo Saxon history because they gave the name to England.

How does somebody know about history?                                                                                                                                  You have to take information from documents, events, thinker’s idea that are generally recorded or handed over from generation to generation, and they were orally handed over.

The Anglo Saxons

The Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes brought with them their religions, their strong organization and a code of values based on a high sense of honour and fidelity to their chiefs. They also brought with them their farming and fishing methods that allow they to survive in the difficult weather of their northern countries. Their social structure had the family at its centres which branched out to the clan and the tribe. Their society was ruled by a chief or a king who was generally a military leader. On top was the military leader, then came the earls(counts, dukes, marquises…) who were nobles by birth and the thegns who were the personal companions of the king, all the other people were free men, they were obliged/compelled to help the maintenance of roads, bridges and fords and provide military service when necessary. People lived in country villages where the farmlands, woods, pastures and meadows where owned communally. First of all the Anglo Saxons imposed their language later known as Old English which became through several modifications the English spoken today. The Celtic language of the native Britons survived only in Wales, Ireland and the north-west of Scotland.    

Influence of Christianity

Christianity which began to spread throughout pagan Anglo Saxon Britain, from the end of the 6^th century, proved a driving force in uniting the kingdom and in opening the country to the influence of Europe.

When the Danish king Cnut (1016-1035) became Christian, he took pains to reconcile the Anglo Saxons and the Danish. The Church was also very influential on aspects of culture because it introduced the writing of documents while pagan Anglo Saxon culture was mainly based on oral tradition. The Anglo Saxon culture was handed out orally from generation to generation. Oral culture is based on people’s ability to remember.

Beowulf

The word “Beowulf” is made up of the words “beo” and “wolf”, the English for lupo. If Beowulf is one of the most important examples of Anglo Saxon culture we should first ask ourselves/ wonder why do we know something of Anglo Saxon culture.                                                                                                                                     Beowulf is a form of epic poetry. It celebrates the great gestures and the deeds of Anglo Saxon civilization. We don’t have precise and detailed information about origins of Beowulf.                      

Speculate: to form an opinion about something without knowing all the details or facts.

The difference between culture and civilisation

The culture represents what we are instead the civilisation represent what we have. Culture includes religion, art, philosophy, literature, music, dance… and it is the expression of final aspects of life. Civilization includes all those things by means of which some other objective is attained (for example it consists of technology). Indeed the culture cannot be measured and civilisation has a standard of measurement.