In and Around the Village

 '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 to have been vastly inhabited whilst having no clear, fixed centre of habitation. It is only in later periods and after 1066 that villages start to nucleate and take on more fixed positions.

Since the habitation of a village could be quite sparse or spread out, with little urbanisation, the environment in which the village resided would have dominated it. The following will take a look at some of the sample sentences from Learn Old English with Leofwin that describe the outside (or ūte).

In this excerpt, a villager describes the surroundings of the village he lives in:

wē oneardiað tūn prittewella hāteð. is ēa, sēo pritta hāteð, and brycg.

'We live in a town called Prittewalla. [There] is a river [here], she is called Pritta, and [there is a] bridge.'

Unlike modern English, it is possible to avoid the use of words like 'the' or 'here'. If you translate Old English literally the sentences will sound a little like a caveman from a movie: 'is river, she is called Pritte, and bridge.'

sind līctun and bēorg.

'[There] is a graveyard and a burial ground.'

Christian and pre-Christian burial practises would have existed in the landscape around villagers. Burial mounds could be as mysterious to inhabitants then as they are to us today.

sind æceras, lǣs and hǣð. sind eac nēat and dēor.

'[There] are fields, pastures, and a heathland. There are also farm animals and wild animals.'

is strǣt sūð to ðǣm brime, and strǣte west, norð and ēast.

'[There] is a street south to the beach, and streets west, north, and east.

There are a number of Roman roads with 'street' in the name (Watling Street being the most famous). This is not a Roman but an English invention, stemming from the Old English word 'strǣt.' 

Most of the words in these sentences are in the nominative case, which means they are the subject of the sentence. However, here we have 'ðǣm brime', demonstrating the dative case for both 'the' and 'beach,' which fits with the phrase. This means that something is the indirect object of the sentence, this being the beach.

sind cleofu, strand, merscas and holt. 

'There are cliffs, beaches, marshes, and woods.'

Some words in Old English do not change when you pluralise them. 'Strand' and 'holt' are two examples of this, used in the sentence above.

brim is nēah.

'The sea is near.'

This next excerpt is a further account of the town of Prittewella, going into some more detail of families and occupations that you might find in an early medieval village.

'on prittewella, sind eahta oððe nigon cynn.'

'In prittewella, [there] are eight or nine families.'

'se ðegn hāteð godweard. hē hæfð wīf and tū bearn.'

'The thegn is called Godweard. He has a wide and two children.'

Early medieval England, like all societies, was stratified along class lines. A 'thegn' or 'thane' was somewhere between a 'ceorl,' the lowest ranking freeman, and an 'ealdorman' or 'ætheling,' the most noble or of noble blood. A thegn could inherit their position or gain it through the accumulation of land and wealth.

'his dōhtor hāteð agata. hē hæfð eac þrēo oððe fēower hors, twā sylh, grēat hūs and micel land.'

'his daughter is called Agata. He also has three or four horses, two ploughs, a large house and much land.'

As is demonstrated here, the thegn is defined by their possessions in land, objects, and people. Though not intentional, his daughter being listed alongside his possessions may be read as reflecting the material use that a daughter brings to a family such as his.

'hē hæfð scop, se brada hāteð, brada singeð sangas for ūs.'

'he has a poet, who is called Brada, Brada sings songs for us.'

Poets are referenced in Old English literature as entertainers who recite or create poetry. This would have been spoken out loud rather than written down, the latter usually being the work of monks. In fact, poetry written down by monks (like Beowulf) is considered to have originated in the oral tradition.

'se prēost hāteð ealhstān. hē genēosað ūs hwīlum. hē hæfð dīacon and lytele cirican on prittewella. hē hǣlð folc and bringeð spell of ūtan.'

'the priest is called Ealhstan, he visits us sometimes. he has a deacon and a small church in Prittewella. He heals people and brings news from outside.'

The priest of Prittewella appears to move around to different villages, providing a network between themselves and the outside world. Though the early medieval English would have had opportunity to travel, their connection to the world outside of their kingdom, or even their local region, would have been quite minimal.

We often think of churches as being buildings made out of stone. This is true for some churches of this period, but it is likely that many of them were built from wood.

'wē grōwað fodan swā hwǣte, bere, ātan and bēana.'

'we grow food such as wheat, barley, oats, and beans.'

'wē healdað nēat, swā cȳ, swīn, scēap, gǣt and hennan.'

we keep [farm] animals, such cows, pigs, goats, and hens.'

'wē healdað sǣweard wið wicingum'

'we keep a sea-watch against vikings.'

The above sentences about the village, its surroundings, and the activities and people within it give you a sense of what life there may have looked like. Of course, we can never get a full picture because written sources, which are often the most illustrative, have an elite bias and often depict romanticised or idealised versions of society. This is common for any society of the time. Sample sentences such as those provided in Learn Old English with Leofwin paint a picture of the early medieval English town as if it had a voice.