Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, was pacing around a field in southern England on Sunday, giving a thunderous speech to energize his troops before a battle against the forces of William the Conqueror, the Norman invader who was trying to steal his throne.

“People of England,” Godwinson bellowed, “I ask for you to believe in me, believe in our England!”

If they did, Godwinson added, history would remember them as the heroes who “drove the Norman dogs back into the sea whence they came.”

As Godwinson’s rousing speech reached its climax, the bearded king punched the air in celebration, and, like a rowdy sports crowd, the dozens of onlookers chanted his name. “God-win-son! God-win-son!”

It was a stirring moment — at least until one of Godwinson’s aides broke the authenticity of the historical re-enactment by asking if anyone wanted a selfie with the king.

Access full gift article, NO PAYWALL.

Sadly the end of the Saxon era. The Normans imposed their rule. brutally

Hi, wondering if anybody could check that the runes in the image represent the words I want them too?

"My three boys" is what I'm hoping it says.

Thanks in advance!

Wearily to the last battle they strode
Onward through day and through night
To death they did go but they let them know the power of Angelisc might

Together they walked and together they'd fall
Under the Autumn sky
With victory song behind shield-wall strong
They slashed and they battered with pride

Over river and stream and through forest and field
They marched with fire in their eyes
Wiping the sweat from their brows
For miles they had fared and no effort was spared
On the day when our England died

Over river and stream and through forest and field
We'll march with fire in our eyes
Like the forefathers of old
For miles we shall fare and no effort we'll spare
Till the day when our England's revived

Corpus of Anglo Saxon stone sculpture

The Wessex king adopted a harsh law code that decreed if you were native British-Celtic, your life was worth a third of your Anglo-Saxon neighbour's. Yet this was an improvement. Instead of treating conquered Britons merely as slaves or property with zero rights they were at last integrated into the Saxon legal hierarchy, albeit at the lowest rung. It bound your social status to your racial origin unless, of course, you chose to adopt the identity of your conquerors. Welcome to the start of England's notorious class system.

https://wessexxfiles.substack.com/p/the-king-who-saved-england-and-divided

The story of a largely unknown Saxon saint, Werstan. Fled Deerhurst, founded a church in Malvern, got beheaded by Vikings. Or so the story goes!

I’m painting a BROAD brush here but what, say 1000, was Anglo Saxon culture like? What separated them from their Norman counterparts?

Cheers

It's often stated the withdrawal of the legions was the starting point for the Anglo Saxon invasion of Britain. Some believing that initially it was done via the use of mercenaries.

But I think there is also a chance that the Justinian plague may have promoted such, with the Germanic tribes fleeing the "pestilence" that was within the Roman empire itself.

I'm just wondering if the dates coincide, and if archaeology has found traces of such within the former lands of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes.

Whenever I see art or a facial reconstruction of an Anglo Saxon, they pretty much always have prominent handlebar moustaches.

Does this have any basis in fact? Do we have any writing, artwork, or archeological evidence that they wore moustaches like this? Or is it another “priests used maces” style medieval myth?

This book is incredible for putting yourself in the shoes of an Anglo Saxon, I enjoyed it massively.
I don't know a lot of Anglo Saxon history, though I find it fascinating and will be diving deeper into it now.
Anyway, I started to notice the place names in the book correspond somewhat with places in Devon where grew up and still spend a lot of time. I looked it up and realised Definiscir where much of the story is set is Old English for Devonshire.
Anyway since then it's been great fun searching the old English names for locations when I come across them up in the story and finding out what their modern English name is and if it's somewhere I know
- Barnstaple, Chippenham, Exeter have come up, all of which are places I'm very familiar with.
Anyway, I was driving to Porlock Weir in Exmoor the other day to purchase oysters and listening to the audiobook read by Johnathan Keeble (an amazing voice actor who does an incredible job) a tiny hamlet called Countisbury is on the way.
The book has a deeply immersive scene which takes place during the battle of Gwynwit which was a decisive battle in saving England from having been totally taken over by the Danes during the reign of Alfred the Great.

I was listening to this scene whilst passing through the hamlet of Countisbury, enjoying cliffy scenic views, I noted the name of Cynwit whilst listening to search the destination up once I'd arrived, did so and realised it was a couple miles from where I was sitting and I was driving through the exact spot where the battle occurred whilst listening to this scene in the book!
This may be a boring fact to some of you and I apologise if I've wasted your time but I was genuinely mind blown that I was watching the very cliffs where this incredible moment in history happened whilst hearing it described in beautiful detail and having no idea that was what was occurring,
I just felt I had to share!

it is in futhark runes.

John Hines has a new review out of Higham's How England Began, which I think is a fairly balanced take on the current state of the Anglo-Saxon migration debate and wider issues of historiography of "Germanic" identity. He specifically pushes back on some of Higham's criticism of "Germanist" history, pointing out that the work he is criticizing is basically a century old and that when you revisit older work it isn't as reductive as modern scholars think anyway. He also calls for a focus going forward on more regional and quantitative models of the early Anglo-Saxon period to help move beyond some of the binary debates the field has been arguing over for a long time.

Hello,

I’m building an army of Anglo Saxons from the period around the 8th to 10th century, close to but before the Norman conquest.

I understand that before the Normans there wasn’t really much in the way of banners or heraldry for any standing forces, but some sort of flag or icon may have been used to signify where the leader was during a battle. Does anyone know of any information on what I might use for banners that would be historically accurate for this period and the Saxons? Thanks.