LITERATURE 5
Running head: LITERATURE 1
Answers to Questions
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Who were the Anglo-Saxons?
Question 1
The foundation of law that defined Anglo-Saxons is based on the preservation of peace. It was an essential element throughout the reign of Anglo-Saxons in specific regions and the leadership was hereditary, led by a King (Swanton, 2018). There were stringent rules that were against violation of Kings Peace.
Question 2
King Alfred did not seek to enforce his law through war and conflicts which results in bloodshed, but instead, he is after preservation of peace and harmony in the state. The law code by King Alfred was unique as it proposed on a conservative nature even after receiving threats of rebellion which was evident during his reign. It is an important feature that can be drawn from his reign.
Question 3
What sounds unusual in the prologue of Anti-Saxons is how come they decided to be conservative and embrace peace while still there were under threats of rebellion from rival countries. The second thing is that they killed their host at a conference who was Britain where they first settled.
Question 4
The primary reason for “Alfred’s Law Code” was to promote Alfred as a king who embraced peace in his leadership and it was one of the largest lawmaking enactments for them to survive in England.
Question 5
What strikes me as an alien to our cultural and legal norms is how we have adopted the Anglo-Saxon culture and modern language (Pulsiano, 2018), There reign brought development of English nations which later came to take western civilization. During the same period, Christianity was developed and Christianity values instilled in people. There was the development of literature and language which advanced to the one we are speaking now. I can see the logic in these elements, for example, Christianity is being applied in the daily culture and customs of people, and people are no longer worshipping gods like in traditional times.
According to (Anderson, 2015), the Anglo-Saxons could be able to read and write. They are known to have written almost 1000 books moreover they had “Anglo-Saxon charters “which included.
Documents made for religious purposes like Bible and prayer books.
Monastic records such as “Ely farming memoranda.”
Biographies, for example, the bio on the life of Alfred the last king of the Asser’s who died as a result of the fire.
The Anglo-Saxons who initially lived in England were pagans. They were not involved deeply with religious practices regarding burial customs, those that died were sometimes buried with “grave goods “signifying the possibility of life after death. According to “Bede,” the names they gave trying to differentiate days and months had pagan origins, while their ritual and the monarchs of various empires all came from a god in Germany (Pulsiano, 2018). However, they started to embrace Christianity after the missionaries from Rome and Monks from Ireland brought the gospel of Jesus Christ. A king and the Royal family ruled them, and it was a hereditary system of governance.
References
Swanton, M. J. (2018). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Routledge.
Pulsiano, P., & Treharne, E. M. (Eds.). (2018). Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and their heritage. Routledge.
Anderson, G. K. (2015). The literature of the Anglo-Saxons. Princeton University Press.