History: Anglo-Saxon Culture 500-1100CE

The course will cover five main themes/aspects:

1. Origins, Kingdoms, Kingdom – in this session we will consider how Anglo-Saxon England evolved from several smaller kingdoms and how that can be traced through from the archaeological record along on with much reflection on how contested the interpretations are

2. Language, learning, literature – in this session we consider the evidence for language from earliest times and the impacts of major factors such as religion and conquest on the evolution of the language. The survival of 1500 written records are a gift to students of history.

3. Science and medicine – science and medicine are maybe not the first things that leaps to mind when considering the early and mid-medieval world but we shall see that the Anglo-Saxons had much knowledge and skill in these disciplines including effective treatment for infection

4. Art and music – this session will consider the considerable legacy of artworks of different kinds in the record. Less obviously it will consider what we know of Anglo-Saxon music, its forms and uses

5. Conquests and landscapes – this concluding session will ask what impact the Norman Conquest of 1066 had on Anglo-Saxon culture. What was lost? What survives? Are we still speaking Anglo-Saxon?