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How Did Christianity Influence Anglo Saxon Time

440 Words2 Pages

Many compositions of Anglo-Saxon, also known as Old English, literature reflect the influence of Christianity on the British isles. The widespread acceptance of Christianity in the seventh century had a strong effect on literacy, as laws, histories, and ecclesiastic writings that were publicized by the church. Most of the pieces written during the Anglo Saxon period were composed between c.650 and c.1100. These works include genres such as epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, riddles, and many others. These writings often combine Christian texts with Germanic heroic values. Religion played a very important role during the Anglo-Saxon time period. Before the year 596, almost everybody had strong pagan beliefs. …show more content…

By the year 650, almost all of England had converted to Christianity. Everyone applied their religious beliefs to what they did everyday including art and literature. During the Anglo Saxon time period, religion was a very popular topic for literature due to its large amount of influence in society. Heroism was also a main topic of literature during the Anglo-Saxon period. Heroism was highly praised during that time especially because of the constant war present in society. During this time, there was little or no topics of romantic love. Only about 30,000 lines of poetry from the age have survived to this time, and the epic poem "Beowulf" makes up a large portion of that. The Anglo Saxon period was historically of crucial importance because it was then that the foundations of an English nation took place. The Anglo Saxon's were a feudal system government which influenced England's development of what is now a monarchy system. The Anglo Saxons had many parts of their culture that we have today. Their period impacted the foundation of art, society, literature and culture of what he have

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