Coordinates

25°18′0″N96°56′0″N

{{infobox england county | name

Staffordshire | image | motto | map | status Ceremonial & (smaller) Non-metropolitan county | origin Historic | region West Midlands | arearank Ranked 18th | area_km2 2713 | adminarearank Ranked 18th | adminarea_km2 2620 | adminhq Stafford | iso GB-STS | ons 41 | nuts3 UKG24 | poprank Ranked | popestdate | pop | density_km2 | adminpoprank Ranked | adminpop 816,700N | ethnicity 97.0% White1.7% S.Asian | council Staffordshire County Councilhttp://www.staffordshire.gov.uk | exec | mps * Karen Bradley (C) Bill Cash (C) Gavin Williamson (C) Andrew Griffiths (C) Michael Fabricant (C) Paul Farrelly (L) Tristram Hunt (L) Robert Flello (L) Joan Walley (L) Christopher Pincher (C) Jeremy Lefroy (C) Aidan Burley (C) | subdivmap | subdivs #Tamworth #Lichfield #Cannock Chase #South Staffordshire #Stafford #Newcastle-under-Lyme #Staffordshire Moorlands #East Staffordshire #Stoke-on-Trent (Unitary) }}

Staffordshire ( or ; abbreviated Staffs) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county (less the unitary district of Stoke-on-Trent) is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG24) and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders. It adjoins the ceremonial counties of Cheshire (to the north west), Derbyshire (to the east), Leicestershire (to the east), Warwickshire (to the south east), West Midlands (to the south), Worcestershire (to the south), and Shropshire (to the west).

The largest city in Staffordshire is Stoke-on-Trent, which is administered separately from the rest of the county as an independent unitary authority. Lichfield also has city status, although this is a considerably smaller cathedral city. Major towns include Stafford (the county town), Burton upon Trent, Cannock, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Tamworth. Wolverhampton and Walsall were also in Staffordshire until local government reorganisation in 1974, but are now within the West Midlands county.

Apart from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire is divided into the districts of Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, South Staffordshire, Stafford, Staffordshire Moorlands, and Tamworth.

History

Historically, Staffordshire was divided into the five hundreds of Cuttlestone, Offlow, Pirehill, Seisdon, and Totmonslow.

The historic boundaries of Staffordshire cover much of what is now the metropolitan county of West Midlands. An administrative county of Staffordshire was set up in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888 covering the county except the county boroughs of Wolverhampton, Walsall, and West Bromwich in the south (the area known as the Black Country), and Hanley in the north. The Act also saw the towns of Tamworth (partly in Warwickshire) and Burton upon Trent (partly in Derbyshire) united entirely in Staffordshire.

In 1553 Queen Mary made Lichfield a county separate from the rest of Staffordshire. It remained so until 1888.

Handsworth and Perry Barr became part of the county borough of Birmingham in the early 20th century, and thus associated with Warwickshire. Burton, in the east of the county, became a county borough in 1901, and was followed by Smethwick, another Black Country town in 1907. In 1910 the six towns of the Staffordshire Potteries, including Hanley, became the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. A major reorganisation in the Black Country in 1966, under the recommendation of the Local Government Commission for England led to the creation of an area of contiguous county boroughs. The County Borough of Warley was formed by the merger of the county borough of Smethwick and municipal borough of Rowley Regis with the Worcestershire borough of Oldbury: the resulting county borough was associated with Worcestershire. Meanwhile, the county borough of Dudley, historically a detached part of Worcestershire, expanded and became associated with Staffordshire instead. This reorganisation led to the administrative county of Staffordshire having a thin protrusion passing between the county boroughs (to the east) and Shropshire, to the west, to form a short border with Worcestershire.

Under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 the county boroughs of the Black Country and the Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District of Staffordshire became, along with Birmingham, Solihull, and Coventry and other districts, a new metropolitan county of West Midlands. County boroughs were abolished, with Stoke becoming a non-metropolitan district in Staffordshire, and Burton forming an unparished area in the district of East Staffordshire. On 1 April 1997, under a recommendation of the Banham Commission, Stoke-on-Trent became a unitary authority independent of Staffordshire once more.

In July 2009, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found in Britain was discovered in a field near Lichfield. The artefacts, known as The Staffordshire Hoard have tentatively been dated to the 7th or 8th centuries, placing the origin of the items in the time of the Kingdom of Mercia.

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Staffordshire at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. Regional Gross Value Added6,4478,62110,169

Year	|	Agriculture	Industry	Services
1995	|	209	2,349	3,889
2000	|	150	2,986	5,485
2003	|	169	3,164	6,835

Some nationally and internationally known companies have their base in Staffordshire.They include The Britannia Building Society which is based in Leek. JCB is based in Rocester near Uttoxeter.The theme park Alton Towers is in the Staffordshire Moorlands and several of the world's largest pottery manufacturers are based in Stoke On Trent.

Education

Staffordshire has a completely comprehensive system with eight independent schools. Most secondary schools are from 11–16 or 18, but two in Staffordshire Moorlands and South Staffordshire are from 13–18. Resources are shared where appropriate, as per the example of Kingsmead Technology College, Blake High School and Norton Canes High School combining their sixth forms to create a "Sixth Form Consortium", which can offer a greater selection of subjects than each school could individually.

Two universities are located in the county. Keele University is located in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Staffordshire University has four campuses located in Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford, Lichfield and Shrewsbury.

Sport

The modern county of Staffordshire currently has three professional football clubs – Stoke City and Port Vale both from Stoke-on-Trent and Burton Albion who play in Burton upon Trent.

Stoke City, one of the oldest professional football clubs in existence, were founded in 1863 and played at the Victoria Ground for 119 years from 1878 until their relocation to the Britannia Stadium in 1997. They were among the 12 founder members of the Football League in 1888. By the late 1930s, they were established First Division members and boasted arguably the finest footballer in England at the time in right-winger Stanley Matthews, who had two spells with the club between 1930 and his retirement in 1965 at the age of 50. In 1972, the club finally won a major trophy when they lifted the Football League Cup, but after relegation from the First Division in 1985 they would not experience top flight football for 23 years. After spending some two decades bouncing between the second and third tiers of the English league, they finally reclaimed their top flight status in 2008 by securing promotion to the FA Premier League – where they have remained ever since. Stoke City reached their first FA Cup final in 2011, but lost to Manchester City.

Port Vale, who like Stoke City play in Stoke-on-Trent, were formed in 1876 and became members of the Football League in 1892. After more than 70 years at various stadiums around the city, the club moved to its present home, Vale Park, in 1950. In early 1936, they had famously eliminated First Division champions Sunderland from the FA Cup. Another surprise FA Cup success came in February 1988 when they eliminated seven-time winners Tottenham Hotspur from the competition. Promotion to the Second Division for the first time since the 1960s was secured in 1989, and Vale would spent nine of the next 11 years at this level. However, the club has been less successful since the turn of the 21st century, and suffered relegation to League Two – the fourth tier of the English league – in 2008. The club has yet to win promotion from this division.

The counties other professional Football team is Burton Albion from Burton Upon Trent who currently play in Football League Two, after securing promotion from the Conference for the first time in the 2008–09 season.

The county has a number of non-league football clubs, including Stafford Rangers, Hednesford Town and Leek Town.

Geography

See the List of reservoirs in Staffordshire In the north and in the south the county is hilly, with wild moorlands in the far north and Cannock Chase an area of natural beauty in the south. In the middle regions the landscape is low and undulating. Throughout the entire county there are vast and important coalfields. In the southern part there are also rich iron ore deposits. The largest river is the Trent. The soil is chiefly clay and agriculture was not highly developed until the mechanisation of farms.

Staffordshire is home to the highest village in Britain, Flash. The village in the Staffordshire Moorlands stands at 463 m (1518 ft) above sea level. This record was confirmed in 2007 by the Ordnance Survey after Wanlockhead in Scotland also claimed the record. The BBC's The One Show investigated the case in a bid to settle the argument and Flash was confirmed as the highest. The highest point in Staffordshire is Cheeks Hill.

==Government== Staffordshire County Council is the top-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county. For Eurostat purposes, it is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG22).

Staffordshire operates a cabinet-style council. There are 62 councillors for Staffordshire. The Full Council elects a cabinet of 10 councillors, including the council leader, from the majority party. Each cabinet member has their own portfolio about which they make the "day to day" decisions.

Latest Council Election results

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Boundary changes

Towns and villages

See the list of places in Staffordshire, list of Staffordshire settlements by population and the List of civil parishes in Staffordshire

Dogs

A type of bull terrier called the Staffordshire Bull Terrier was bred for hunting purposes in this county. They are known affectionately as "staffs", "staffies", and "nanny-dogs". Staffies should not be confused with the considerably larger American Staffordshire Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, and (English) Bull Terrier.

Religion

Church of England

The only Cathedral in the county is Lichfield Cathedral in the city of Lichfield, the Diocese of Lichfield covers the whole county with the exception of Stapenhill, and much of the nearby county of Shropshire and the Black Country area of the West Midlands County. The county is covered by the archdeaconries of Stoke-on-Trent and Lichfield. The current Bishop of Lichfield is Jonathan Gledhill and the current Bishop of Stafford Geoff Annas. There are 298 Church of England Churches in the County.

Methodism

Primitive Methodism was founded in Staffordshire by Hugh Bourne, a native of Stoke-on-Trent, at a public gathering in the village of Mow Cop. He originally followed the Wesleyan form of Methodism but in 1801 he reformed the Methodist service by conducting it outside. By 1811 with his brother he founded the first chapel in the Tunstall area of Stoke-on-Trent.

Judaism

The only Synagogue in the county is on London Road in Newcastle-Under-Lyme which opened in 2006 and replaced the former "Birch Terrace" Synagogue in Hanley according to the 2001 census there were 407 Jewish People in The non-metropolitan area of Staffordshire, and 83 is Stoke-on-Trent, With a total population of 490 which makes up around 0.05% of the total population of the county.

Islam

there are 15 mosques in Stoke-on-Trent 4 in Burton-upon-Trent and 1 in both Stafford and Lichfield. A controversial new Mosque is under construction in the Hanley area of Stoke-on-Trent and will be the first purpose built mosque in the area. At the 2001 census there were 7,658 in Stoke-on-Trent and 6,081 in the rest of Staffordshire, With a total of 13,739 making up 1.3% of the population. 62.9% (3823) of the Muslims in the rest of Staffordshire of from the town of Burton-upon-Trent

Transport

Canals

Staffordshire has an extensive network of canals including the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, Caldon Canal, Coventry Canal, Shropshire Union Canal, Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and Trent and Mersey Canal.

Railways

See Rail transport in Staffordshire

Roads

The county has relatively good links to the national roads network. Several major roads intersect the county, making it a popular location for commuters working in Birmingham.

The M42 has a junction in Tamworth at the south-east of the county, and heads south-west towards Birmingham. The M6 runs north through the county and junctions 10A-16 are in the county. The M6 Toll, the UK's first toll motorway, runs through the county with junctions in Weeford near Lichfield, Cannock and joins the M6 heading north towards Stafford.

The A5 and A34 run through the county. The former has been significantly widened to a dual carriageway at several sections, although much of it remains single carriageway.

Air

There are currently no airports with scheduled flights in the county whith the nearest ones being Birmingham, East Midlands and Manchester depending on the location there is however Wolverhampton Airport in Bobbington and Tatenhill Airfield near Burton-upon-Trent both of which are small airports catering for General Aviation.

Mermaid's Pool

Mermaid's Pool is a legend linked to a pool located in the mountainous ridges of The Roaches in Staffordshire, England. According to legend, it is said to share something of a mysterious link with the Atlantic ocean, yet be poisonous to animals and fish. Legend has it, too, that the mermaid appears but once a year on Easter Eve at midnight, and anyone who sees her is either given the gift of immortality, or drawn into the depths of the pool to face their doom.

Places of interest

See the List of museums in Staffordshire

Alton Towers Ancient High House

Belvide Reservoir

Biddulph Grange

Blithbury Reindeer Lodge

Blithfield Hall

Blithfield Reservoir

Brindley Water Mill

Broad Eye Windmill

Burslem Hall Cannock Chase Chasewater Railway Cheddleton Flint Mill Churnet Valley Railway

Coors Visitor Centre and Museum of Brewing (previously the Bass Museum) Closed in June 2008

Croxden Abbey

Dovecliff Hall

Downs Banks Drayton Manor Theme Park Eccleshall Castle Festival Park Ford Green Hall Foxfield Steam Railway Gladstone Pottery Museum Hanley Park

Heart of England Way

Moseley Railway Trust (Apedale) Ilam Park Izaak Walton Cottage Museum

Manifold Way following the route of the former Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway

Lichfield Cathedral

Lichfield Road

Madeley Old Hall

Monkey Forest

Moseley Old Hall Mow Cop Castle

National Memorial Arboretum

Peak District National Park

RSPB Coombes Valley

Rudyard Lake Steam Railway

Sandon Hall

Shugborough Estate Stafford Castle

Staffordshire Way

Staffordshire Moorlands

The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

The Pennine Way

The Roaches

Tamworth Castle

Trentham Gardens

Trentham Lakes

Tutbury Castle Victoria Park Wall Roman Site Wedgwood Museum Weston Park Whitmore Hall Apedale Community Country Park

Gallery

See also

Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire

High Sheriff of Staffordshire

Samuel Hieronymus Grimm

The Stafford knot

Tamworth Pig

The Staffordshire Search and Rescue Team: www.staffssearchandrescue.org

References

External links

East Staffordshire Community Website

BBC Staffordshire website

Staffordshire County Council

Staffordshire Past Track – Historical archive about the county

The story of a Staffordshire Home Guard Battalion, 1940–1944

Staffordshire Photographs

Staffordshire Tourism website

The Staffordshire Encyclopaedia

Staffordshire Business Directory

Staffordshire Governors Association

Category:Non-metropolitan counties Category:NUTS 3 statistical regions of the United Kingdom

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Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of English history between about 550 and 1066 AD. The term is also used for the language now called Old English, spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in much of what is now England and some of southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century.

The Benedictine monk, Bede, writing in the early 8th century, identified the English as the descendants of three Germanic tribes: The Angles, who may have come from Angeln (in modern Germany); Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The name England ( or ) originates from this tribe. The Saxons, from Lower Saxony (in modern Germany; ) and the Low Countries. The Jutes, possibly from the Jutland peninsula (in modern Denmark; ).

Their language, Old English, derived from "Ingvaeonic" West Germanic dialects and transformed into Middle English from the 11th century. Old English was divided into four main dialects: West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian and Kentish.

Etymology

The term Anglo-Saxon is from writings going back to the time of King Alfred the Great, who seems to have frequently used the title rex Anglorum Saxonum or rex Angul-Saxonum (king of the English Saxons).

The Old English terms ænglisc and Angelcynn ("Angle-kin", gens Anglorum) when they are first attested had already lost their original sense of referring to the Angles, as distinct from, the Saxons, and in their earliest recorded sense refers to the nation of Germanic peoples who settled eastern Britain in and after the 5th century.

The indigenous British people, who wrote in both Latin and Welsh, referred to these invaders as Saxones or Saeson – the latter is still used today in the Welsh word for English people; in the Scottish Gaelic word for English people, Sasannach; and in the Irish word for English people, Sasanach.

The term Angli Saxones seems to have first been used in continental writing nearly a century before Alfred's time by Paul the Deacon, historian of the Lombards, probably to distinguish the English Saxons from the continental Saxons (Ealdseaxe, literally, "old Saxons").

The Angles (Old English Engle, Angle) presumably took their name from their ancestral home in Jutland, Angul (modern Angeln), an area shaped like a hook (cf. Old English angel, angul "fishhook", anga "hook").

Anglo-Saxon history

The history of Anglo-Saxon England broadly covers early medieval England from the end of Roman rule and the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Conquest by the Normans in 1066.

Origins (AD 400–600)

Migration of Germanic peoples to Britain from what is now northern Germany, the northern part of the Netherlands and southern Scandinavia is attested from the 5th century (e.g. Undley bracteate). Based on Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, the intruding population is traditionally divided into Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, but their composition was likely less clear-cut and may also have included Frisians and Franks. Also, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle contains text that may be the first recorded indications of the movement of these Germanic tribes to Britain.

Heptarchy (600–800)

Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons began in 597 and was at least nominally completed in 686. Throughout the 7th and 8th centuries, power fluctuated between the larger kingdoms. Bede records Aethelbert of Kent as being dominant at the close of the 6th century, but power seems to have shifted northwards to the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria.

Aethelbert and some of the later kings of the other kingdoms were recognised by their fellow kings as Bretwalda (ruler of Britain). The so-called 'Mercian Supremacy' dominated the 8th century, though again it was not constant. Aethelbald and Offa, the two most powerful kings, achieved high status. This period has been described as the Heptarchy, though this term has now fallen out of academic use.

The word arose on the basis that the seven kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Kent, East Anglia, Essex, Sussex and Wessex were the main polities of south Britain. More recent scholarship has shown that theories of the 'heptarchy' are not grounded in evidence, and it is far more likely that power fluctuated between many more 'kingdoms'. Other politically important 'kingdoms' across this period include: Hwicce, Magonsaete, Kingdom of Lindsey and Middle Anglia.

Viking Age and the Norman Conquest (800–1066)

In the 9th century, the Viking challenge grew to serious proportions. Alfred the Great's victory at Edington, Wiltshire, in 878 brought intermittent peace, but with their possession of Jorvik, the Danes gained a solid foothold in England.

An important development in the 9th century was the rise of the Kingdom of Wessex; by the end of his reign Alfred was recognised as overlord by several southern kingdoms. Æthelstan was the first king to achieve direct rule over what is considered "England".

Near the end of the 10th century, there was renewed Scandinavian interest in England, with the conquests of Sweyn of Denmark and his son Cnut the Great. By 1066 there were three lords with claims to the English throne, resulting in two invasions and the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings. The latter, which heralded the Norman conquest of England, resulted in the overthrow of the Anglo-Saxon polity and its replacement with Norman rule.

After the Norman Conquest

Following the conquest, the Anglo-Saxon nobility were either exiled or joined the ranks of the peasantry. It has been estimated that only about 8 per cent of the land was under Anglo-Saxon control by 1087. Many Anglo-Saxon nobles fled to Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia. The Byzantine Empire became a popular destination for many Anglo-Saxon soldiers, as the Byzantines were in need of mercenaries. The Anglo-Saxons became the predominant element in the elite Varangian Guard, hitherto a largely Scandinavian unit, from which the emperor's bodyguard was drawn and continued to serve the empire until the early 15th century. However, the population of England at home remained largely Anglo-Saxon; for them, little changed immediately except that their Anglo-Saxon lord was replaced by a Norman lord.

Culture

Architecture

Early Anglo-Saxon buildings in Britain were generally simple, not using masonry except in foundations but constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roofing. Generally preferring not to settle within the old Roman cities, the Anglo-Saxons built small towns near their centres of agriculture, at fords in rivers or sited to serve as ports. In each town, a main hall was in the centre, provided with a central hearth.

There are few remains of Anglo-Saxon architecture, with but one secular work remaining above ground – a 10m. x 5m. houscarl's dwelling re-using local Roman materials. This is still completely standing as an undivided single room with a single central north-facing door, belonging to the Godwin estates, so can be dated 1018–1066. At least fifty churches are of Anglo-Saxon origin, with many more claimed to be, in part from their dedication to local Anglo-Saxon saints, although in some cases the Anglo-Saxon part is small and much-altered. All surviving churches, except one timber church, are built of stone or brick and in some cases show evidence of re-used Roman work.

The character of Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical buildings ranges from Celtic influenced architecture in the early period; basilica influenced Romanesque architecture; to in the later Anglo-Saxon period, an architecture characterised by pilaster-strips, blank arcading, baluster shafts and triangular headed openings.

Art

Anglo-Saxon art before roughly the time of Alfred (ruled 871–899) is mostly in varieties of the Hiberno-Saxon or Insular style, a fusion of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic techniques and motifs. The Sutton Hoo treasure is an exceptional survival of very early Anglo-Saxon metalwork and jewellery, from a royal grave of the early 7th century. The period between Alfred and the Norman Conquest, with the revival of the English economy and culture after the end of the Viking raids, saw a distinct Anglo-Saxon style in art, though one in touch with trends on the Continent.

Anglo-Saxon art is mainly known today through illuminated manuscripts, including the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold (British Library) and Leofric Missal (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodl, 579), masterpieces of the late "Winchester style", which drew on Hiberno-Saxon art, Carolingian art and Byzantine art for style and iconography, and combined both northern ornamental traditions with Mediterranean figural traditions. The Harley Psalter was a copy of the Carolingian Utrecht Psalter — which was a particular influence in creating an Anglo-Saxon style of very lively pen drawings.

Manuscripts were far from the only Anglo-Saxon art form, but they have survived in much greater numbers than other types of object. Contemporaries in Europe regarded Anglo-Saxon goldsmithing and embroidery (Opus Anglicanum) as especially fine. Perhaps the best known piece of Anglo-Saxon art is the Bayeux Tapestry which was commissioned by a Norman patron from English artists working in the traditional Anglo-Saxon style. The most common example of Anglo-Saxon art is coins, with thousands of examples extant. Anglo-Saxon artists also worked in fresco, ivory, stone carving, metalwork (see Fuller brooch for example) and enamel, but few of these pieces have survived.

Language

Old English, sometimes called Anglo-Saxon, was the language spoken under Alfred the Great and continued to be the common language of England (non-Danelaw) until after the Norman Conquest of 1066 when, under the influence of the Anglo-Norman language spoken by the Norman ruling class, it changed into Middle English roughly between 1150–1500.

Old English is far closer to early Germanic than Middle English. It is less Latinised and retains many morphological features (nominal and verbal inflection) that were lost during the 12th to 14th centuries. The languages today which are closest to Old English are the Frisian languages, which are spoken by a few hundred thousand people in the northern part of Germany and the Netherlands.

Before literacy in the vernacular Old English or Latin became widespread, a runic alphabet, the futhorc, was used for inscriptions. When literacy became more prevalent, a form of Latin script was used with a couple of letters derived from the futhorc: 'thorn' ‹þ› and 'wynn' ‹ƿ› (generally replaced with ‹w› in modern reproductions).

The letters regularly used in printed and edited texts of Old English are the following:

a æ b c d ð e f g h i l m n o p r s t þ u w x y

with only rare occurrences of j, k, q, v, and z.

Law

Very few law codes exist from the Anglo-Saxon period to provide an insight into legal culture beyond the influence of Roman law and how this legal culture developed over the course of time. The Saxons chopped off hands and noses for punishment (if the offender stole something or committed another crime). If someone killed a Saxon, he had to pay money called wergild, the amount varying according to the social rank of the victim.

Literature

Old English literary works include genres such as epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, riddles and others. In all there are about 400 surviving manuscripts from the period, a significant corpus of both popular interest and specialist research.

The most famous works from this period include the poem Beowulf, which has achieved national epic status in Britain. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of important early English history. Cædmon's Hymn from the 7th century is the earliest attested literary text in English.

Religion

The indigenous pre-Christian belief system of the Anglo-Saxons was a form of Germanic paganism and therefore closely related to the Old Norse religion, as well as other Germanic pre-Christian cultures.

Christianity gradually replaced the indigenous religion of the English around the 7th and 8th centuries. Celtic Christianity was introduced into Northumbria and Mercia by monks from Ireland, but the Synod of Whitby settled the choice for Roman Christianity. As the new clerics became the chroniclers, the old religion was partially lost before it was recorded, and today historians' knowledge of it is largely based on surviving customs and lore, texts, etymological links and archaeological finds.

One of the few recorded references is that a Kentish King would only meet the missionary St. Augustine in the open air, where he would be under the protection of the sky god, Woden. Written Christian prohibitions on acts of paganism are one of historians' main sources of information on pre-Christian beliefs.

Despite these prohibitions, numerous elements of the pre-Christian culture of the Anglo-Saxon people survived the Christianisation process. Examples include the English language names for days of the week:

Tiw, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Tyr: Tuesday

Woden, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Odin: Wednesday

Þunor, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Thor: Thursday

*Fríge, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Frigg: Friday

Contemporary meanings

"Anglo-Saxon" in linguistics is still used as a term for the original West Germanic component of the modern English language, which was later expanded and developed through the influence of Old Norse and Norman French, though linguists now more often refer to it as Old English. In the 19th century the term "Anglo-Saxon" was broadly used in philology, and is sometimes so used at present. In Victorian Britain, some writers such as Robert Knox, James Anthony Froude, Charles Kingsley and Edward A. Freeman used the term "Anglo-Saxon" to justify racism and imperialism, claiming that the "Anglo-Saxon" ancestry of the English made them racially superior to the colonised peoples. Similar racist ideas were advocated in the 19th Century United States by Samuel George Morton and George Fitzhugh.

The term "Anglo-Saxon" is sometimes used to refer to peoples descended or associated in some way with the English ethnic group. The definition has varied from time to time and varies from place to place. In contemporary Anglophone cultures outside the United Kingdom, the term is most commonly found in certain contexts, such as the term "White Anglo-Saxon Protestant" or "WASP". Such terms are often politicised, and bear little connection to the precise ethnological or historical definition of the term "Anglo-Saxon". It often encapsulates socio-economic identifiers more than ethnic ones.

Outside Anglophone countries, both in Europe and in the rest of the world, the term "Anglo-Saxon" and its direct translations are used to refer to the Anglophone peoples and societies of Britain, the United States, and other countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand - areas which are sometimes referred to as the Anglosphere. The term "Anglo-Saxon" can be used in a variety of contexts, often to identify the English-speaking world's distinctive language, culture, technology, wealth, markets, economy, and legal systems. Variations include the German "Angelsachsen", French "Anglo-Saxon", Spanish "anglosajón", Portuguese "anglo-saxão", Italian "anglosassone", Catalan "anglosaxó", Japanese "Angurosakuson" and Ukrainian "aнглосакси" (anhlosaksy). As with the English language use of the term, what constitutes the "Anglo-Saxon" varies from speaker to speaker.

See also

Angles

Anglo-Frisian

Anglo-Saxon architecture

Anglo-Saxon dress

Anglo-Saxon military organization

Anglophile

Britons

Frisia

Ingvaeones

Jutes

Saxons

States in Medieval Britain

Timeline of Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain

Staffordshire Hoard

Modern concepts:

English people

Anglo-Saxon economy

Notes

References

Oppenheimer, Stephen. The Origins of the British(2006). Constable and Robinson, London. ISBN 1-84529-158-1

Further reading

Clark, David, and Nicholas Perkins, eds. Anglo-Saxon Culture and the Modern Imagination (2010)

F.M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd edition, (Oxford: University Press, 1971)

J. Campbell et al., The Anglo-Saxons, (London: Penguin, 1991)

E. James, Britain in the First Millennium, (London: Arnold, 2001)

M. Lapidge et al., The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999)

Donald Henson, The Origins of the Anglo-Saxons, (Anglo-Saxon Books, 2006)

Primary sources

D. Whitelock, ed. English Historical Documents c.500–1042, (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1955)

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, trans. L. Sherly-Price, (London: Penguin, 1990)

External links

Photos of over 600 items found in the Anglo-Saxon Hoard in Staffordshire Sept. 2009

Anglo-Saxon gold hoard September 2009: largest ever hoard officially declared treasure

Huge Anglo-Saxon gold hoard found, BBC News, with photos.

Fides Angliarum Regum: the faith of the English kings

Anglo-Saxon Origins: The Reality of the Myth by Malcolm Todd

An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary

Simon Keynes' bibliography of Anglo-Saxon topics

Category:Germanic paganism Category:Invasions of England Category:West Germanic peoples Anglo-Saxons Category:Sub-Roman Britain

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