Extracts from Anglo-Saxon Literature
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Extracts from Anglo-Saxon Literature’
In The Copybook
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Extracts from Anglo-Saxon Literature’
In The Copybook
An unknown Anglo-Saxon poet shares with us the grief of those whose homes and feast-halls were laid waste by Viking raiders.
The tenth-century Exeter Book contains a short soliloquy known as ‘The Wanderer’. It is set against the background of the reign of King Athelstan (r. 924-39), who united England and opened the way for the English to return to towns in the north and east ransacked by Vikings, now in silent ruin under freezing winter skies.
Viking raider Olaf Tryggvason, newly converted to Christianity, threw his weight behind a Danish invasion of England.
After converting to Christianity, Olaf Tryggvason renounced his career as a self-employed pagan pirate. But the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us that six years later he felt free to ally himself with King Sweyn of Denmark, a Christian, and challenge Ethelred the Unready for the English crown.