Mīn Webblēaf

In 596 CE, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine of Canterbury on a mission to establish Christianity in the Saxon kingdoms. This mission would come to be greatly successful, with the Saxons converting to the religion that they originally destroyed during their invasion. From that point onwards, Christianity and its texts, holidays, and culture promulgated itself amongst the English at the behest of the priestly class. (The excerpt in this text was taken from The Cambridge Old English Reader) This was unlikely to have been achieved without the instruction of Christianity from those in the religious order to the local people. It would have been important to teach the English how to be a Christian, since adherence to common ideals and practices helps cement social order and commitment to the Church. With the added supposed benefit of bringing them their salvation. The Old English Sunday Letter, supposedly written by Christ to the clergy, is a document of such instruction. Its goal: to co

 ' Tūn,' whilst sounding like 'town,' actually means 'village.' For many of us today, living in a town or city is just a normal part of our lives. For those who spoke Old English, however, living in a village would be far more common. The urban centres left behind by the Romans in 410 CE could continue to be inhabited but were mostly abandoned or declined considerably. It is only by c.700 that urban centres began to develop again, mostly in line with trade routes. London ( Lundenwic ), Southampton ( Hamwic ), and York ( Eoforwic ), for example, were all major ports for Mercia, Wessex, and Northumbria respectively. The layout of a village may have appeared quite random, a bit like the illustration below. Buildings were made out of wood or wattle-and-daub, with thatched roofs. Recent studies suggest that villages in early and middle Saxon periods were often shifting, moving about the landscape as their lives demanded. This means that particular regions can appear

The sample sentences used in this blog post are from The Cambridge Old English Reader. Monks following the rule of St. Benedict have been using sign language since at least the 10th century. This is because silence was demanded of those seeking divine contemplation in and around monastic buildings, including dormitories (during nighttime hours). The use of sign language became so prevalent that it was eventually felt necessary to codify them. The Old English text (with a Latin title), Monasteriales Indicia, describes 127 signs used by Early Medieval English monks. Other books of signs have been found in France at the Abbey of Cluny, and in Germany at Hirsau Abbey, for example. Below is an illustration depicting what St Paul's monastery in Jarrow may have looked like ( source ). The following is eight sets of instructions given to monks as an alternate method of communication. 1. Huniġes tācen is þæt þū sette þīnne finger on þīne tungan. The sign of honey is that you put your finger

Most of the sample sentences in this post are from Learn Old English with Leofwin (a brilliant book). For the most part, people in early medieval England lived in small houses often with just the one room. Their walls would have been made of wooden planks or 'wattle and daub,' the windows would have had shutters and no glass, and the roof would have been thatched (with no chimney). The villages or towns they lived in were not much bigger. The fictional couple in this post, Leofwin and Golde, live in a town called Prittewella (now Southend-on-Sea_) containing only six or seven houses. These may have surrounded a larger hall (heall) intended for the local social elite and for group activities like feasting. There may have also been a church, either made or wood, stone, or a blend of the two. This gives you a picture of the scale of English life at this time. None of these houses have survived today, but they can be identified by the postholes they leave in the ground and by local