you wouldn’t want to be an anglo-saxon peasant!...the book explores the daily life of an...

Teachers’ Information Sheet by Nicky Milsted

The book explores the daily life of an Anglo-Saxon peasant. He is ayoung farmer’s son living in the kingdom of Northumbria in theearly 7th century. He spends his time helping to maintain his home –a small, dark and smoky timber hut with a thatched roof that is partof a village of around 20 similar houses which surround a largergreat hall belonging to the village overlord. The Anglo-Saxonpeasant boy helps to plaster the walls (with a mixture of mud, strawand pig dung!) and thatch the roof, and looks after the vegetablepatch too. Other daily tasks include hunting, bee keeping, tending tothe animals and collecting poo (yes, human poo!) for use as afertiliser. It’s back-breaking, never-ending work, and if the weather is bad and crops don’t grow, everyone goes hungry. What is more,the villagers and their overlord must pay tribute to their minor king – basically this consists of all their hard-earned food and supplies!

The boy’s family is involved in a blood feud with a family from a nearby village. There has beenlots of violence and the whole family is at risk. Their home is set alight; when they escape theflames, the boy’s father is killed. Eventually the feud is stopped at a meeting of people from allthe surrounding villages, called a ‘folkmoot’, which rules that the other family is in the wrong.

It is a confusing time for many Anglo-Saxon peasants; the old gods who have been worshippedfor generations are being replaced by a new religion called Christianity. King Edwin (who rulesover all of the minor kings of Northumbria) has now declared that everyone must believe in onegod and change their ways of worshipping.

At the age of 12, the boy in the book is treated as an adult, and must join in with the fightingwhen a rival challenger wants to become king. It is a violent clash with hand-to-hand combat, and although the boy’s side are victorious, it has been a bloody battle with many men dying. With the blood feuds, fighting, endless physical work just to get enough to eat, and uncertaintyover religion and beliefs, it is clear that You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Anglo-Saxon Peasant!

Who were the Anglo-Saxons?

The Anglo-Saxon period covers the period of British history between about AD 450 and theNorman Conquest of 1066. Before this, Britain was part of the Roman Empire.

After the Roman military presence in Britain was called back to defend Rome, Britain wasinvaded and settled by peoples from northern Europe. These invaders included Jutes (fromJutland, which makes up modern-day mainland Denmark and part of northern Germany), Saxonsfrom northern Germany, and Angles from the border regions of Germany and Denmark. It is fromthe Angles and the Saxons that we get the term Anglo-Saxon.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Anglo-Saxon Peasant!

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The Anglo-Saxons seized land from the native Britons and settled, building villages and farming the land. By AD 600, there were five main kingdoms, all ruled over by a

different king: Wessex, Kent, East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria. There was a developing social class system emerging too. Each village had an overlord, a band of thanes (high-

ranking men who formed the overlord’s loyal band of fighting men) and ceorls (pronounced‘churls’) who were the lowest ranking free people, and who were also bound to fight in the causeof their overlord and king. There were also slaves in Anglo-Saxon times; they were mostly peoplecaptured in battle.

Christianity spread across the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms after the arrival of a missionary calledAugustine in 597. Temples to the old gods were converted into Christian churches, with theaddition of crosses, and many wooden temples were rebuilt in stone. Some of the Anglo-Saxonkings still maintained their old religion alongside Christianity, and erected Christian altars in theirpagan shrines!

It was during the Anglo-Saxon period that a concept of England as a nation developed. Thedifferent Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were united under King Alfred as the Vikings first raided andthen invaded, settling large parts of northern and eastern England in the 9th century. The Anglo-Saxons eventually defeated the Vikings, but in 1066 the Normans invaded from Normandy inFrance. This time, the Anglo-Saxon armies could not repel them and the Anglo-Saxon periodcame to an end.

During the reign of King Alfred, many of the Anglo-Saxon laws and customs were written downin Old English. This language is the origin of our Modern English, although it looked andsounded very different. Many modern words have their origins in Anglo-Saxon words, with laterinfluences like Norman French, Latin and even Old Norse (spoken by the Vikings). Examples ofAnglo-Saxon words we use today include:

Activity 1: What is archaeology?

Much of the information that we know about Anglo-Saxon life has been collected and analysedby archaeologists. But what is archaeology?

Challenge your pupils to write down a list of words that they think of when they think aboutarchaeology and what archaeologists do. These could be written onto a large sheet of paper oryour class whiteboard for discussion. Words that your pupils may come up with – or be promptedto list – could include: history, past, digging, detectives, rubbish, treasure, gold, excavation, finds,trowel, evidence, questions, science … and many more.

AppleBathChildDogEarField

GiveHiccupIntoJumpKeepLife

MonthNameOughtPlightQueen Read

ShopTime UnderWhoWhyYou

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For a good introduction to what archaeology is, see my blog post ‘What is archaeology?’ on the Young Archaeologists’ Club website: www.yac-uk.org/news/what-is-archaeology

Following your discussion, encourage your class to come up with an agreed definition ofarchaeology. “Archaeology is…”

Talking point: can your pupils talk about how archaeologists are different to historians? The maindistinction is that historians largely use written sources as their evidence for what happened in thepast, whereas archaeologists try to piece together stories of the past from a range of physicalevidence left behind by humans including pottery, jewellery, weapons, coins, building materialsand much more.

Archaeology is … Rubbish! Playing the Rubbish Game is a great way to get your pupils to thinklike an archaeologist. This game works by challenging your pupils to investigate the contents ofan imagined rubbish bin, using the evidence to try to answer some simple questions about thepeople who threw away the objects.

Below is an example bin for a family with young children and a cat:

● cat food tin● wrapper from a packet of nappies● old toy car / broken doll / pieces of Lego● worn children’s toothbrush● TV guide magazine● special-interest magazines – e.g. football, fishing, craft, baking, kids’ comics● empty nail varnish or make-up container● pair of laddered tights● blunt safety razor● food waste – e.g. apple cores, vegetable peelings, used tea bags● food packaging – e.g. empty food cans, wrappers, children’s yoghurt pots● takeaway menu and empty plastic/polystyrene containers

What can your pupils tell you about the people who threw away this selection of rubbish? Youcould prompt them with questions such as “did they have any pets?” or “do you think there werechildren living in this house?” or “do we know anything about what these people liked to do?”

Other questions to consider:

● How might the rubbish bin contents of a single person vary from that of a family?● Can you tell anything about the family’s wealth from the contents of the bin?● Can you identify their ethnic group or any religious beliefs from the remains?● How might the contents of this bin be affected by recycling or reusing items?● Would any of the objects rot or decompose over time?● What happens if you take away all the objects that could be recycled and those that

would decompose – what are you left with now? And how does this affect what youcan work out about the people who threw these objects away? © M

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The Jigsaw Game! This game is another way of trying to demonstrate the challenges facing archaeologists. Separate your class into small groups. Give each group a

different number of pieces of a jigsaw – but no indication of the pictures that they are trying to reconstruct, or the number of pieces in the complete jigsaw. Challenge them to build the

puzzle and work out what the picture is showing.

For example:

● One group should be give most of the pieces but missing an important part of thepicture (like one of the characters, for example)

● One group should be given around half of the pieces from across the whole jigsaw● One group could be given lots of pieces for one part of their picture but very little

from other parts of the jigsaw● One group should be given lots of pieces – but from two or more jigsaws!● One group should be given only a very small number of pieces

What challenges have your groups faced in trying to complete their jigsaw puzzles? Can theydescribe the whole picture accurately from the few pieces that they have been given? How is thislike being an archaeologist?

Extension activity: having played both the Rubbish Game and the Jigsaw Game, can your pupilsnow identify any problems that archaeologists might encounter when trying to investigate pastcultures? Challenge your pupils to write a short report to explain their ideas.

Activity 2: Day in the life of an Anglo-Saxon peasant

An Anglo-Saxon peasant’s day was full from dawn till nightfall. Men, women and children allhad important tasks to do to ensure that everyone was kept safe, warm and fed. It would havebeen a packed schedule! Tasks would have included:

● constructing and maintaining the timber buildings – including thatching roofs andplastering with wattle and daub (made of mud, straw and pig dung!)

● building and maintaining fences around animal enclosures● tending the vegetable patch● looking after animals – Anglo-Saxons farmed pigs, cows and sheep● ploughing fields and planting crops● hunting● bee-keeping● collecting manure (and even human poo!) to use as fertiliser● grinding grain for bread using a rotary quern or hand quern● preparing and cooking food – Anglo-Saxons had stew pots that would be hung above

the fire all the time, and added to regularly to make a dish called pottage, whichconsisted of a mixture of seasonally available produce (such as cereals, leeks, onions,peas and beans)

● weaving and spinning● butter and cheese making● and much more! ©

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Anglo-Saxons used querns to grind grain into flour for making breads. A rotary quern consisted of two circular-shaped stones sitting one on top of the other with a small gap

in between. The top stone had a central hole into which the grain was poured. The top stone was then turned using a wooden handle inserted vertically into a small hole. The turning of

one stone against the other grinds the grain into flour. Hand querns were much simpler, consistingsimply of two stones. The grain was placed on the surface of the flat bottom stone and ground bythe action of rubbing a second stone on top.

Ask your pupils to use the activity sheet to create an itinerary of an Anglo-Saxon peasant’s day;they could choose to write as a woman, man, boy or girl.

Talking point: how does an Anglo-Saxon peasant’s day compare to your pupils’ daily itinerary?!

Activity 3: Anglo-Saxon diet: archaeological poo!

Anglo-Saxon peasants would have eaten foods that they either grew themselves or were able togather from the countryside around them. Their daily diet would have been mostly vegetarian,and would have included:

● bread made from wheat and rye● vegetables, such as carrots, parsnips, cabbages, peas, beans and onions – usually as a

type of stew called pottage● fruit – such as apples, cherries and plums● fish caught in rivers and the sea (if the community lived on the coast)

Anglo-Saxons did eat some meat, but it would not have been eaten on a daily basis. It was oftenreserved for feasts. Pigs were the only animal reared just for meat; cows were kept for milk(which was also made into cheese and butter), and sheep were farmed for their wool which wasspun and weaved to make clothing and blankets. Both sheep and cows would only have beenkilled and eaten if they became old or ill.

This activity for investigating Anglo-Saxon diet is reproduced with the kind permission of theYoung Archaeologists’ Club (www.yac-uk.org)

It is an unusual way of encouraging your pupils to think about how archaeologists are able topiece together past diets by identifying and excavating human poo, otherwise known ascoprolites. Archaeologists that find toilet pits – or cess pits like those dug and used in Anglo-Saxon villages – are like pigs in muck (excuse the pun). The rich organic remains in the pooallow archaeologists to discover information about past climates and diets by recoveringmicroscopic evidence including seeds and grains that have passed through the human gut.

In this experiment, you can create some Anglo-Saxon poos for your pupils to excavate or dissect.The evidence that they recover will help them to piece together the diet of the Anglo-Saxons.

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The method for making your archaeological poos is given on the activity sheet. You should include some of the following evidence in your poos:

● Cereal grains (e.g. rye and wheat – you can buy these online or in a health food shop)● Tiny pieces of stone or grit (the Anglo-Saxons didn’t eat stones on purpose, but tiny

bits of the quern stones used to grind the grains would have rubbed off and ended upin the flour used for bread – this did mean that Anglo-Saxons often had bad teeth!)

● Apple pips● Cherry stones● Plum stones● Fish bones

Your pupils can excavate the poos using a wooden lolly stick. They should collect and record theevidence that they find. They might like to keep a tally of the different types of evidence (youcould use these tallies to create bar graphs and pie charts or to look at averages). What can theytell you about what Anglo-Saxons ate? Can they explain the tiny stones in the poos?!

Activity 4: Runes

Anglo-Saxons wrote in runes. However, not very many Anglo-Saxons could write – and certainlyAnglo-Saxon peasants would not have been able to!

The original runic alphabet was called the futhark after the first six runes (f, u, th, a, r, k) – in thesame way that alphabet is named after alpha and beta, the first two letters of the Greek alphabet.There are 24 runes in the futhark.

(NB – there were changes in the sounds made by some of the runes as the language developed.Some Anglo-Saxon scholars call the Anglo-Saxon version of the runic alphabet the futhorc.)

The activity sheet will help your pupils to write in runes. Can they decipher some of the runicmessages and write their own?

As well as being used to write inscriptions, Anglo-Saxons used runes for fortune-telling and ascharms. Fortune-tellers would have a set of rune stones, each marked with one of the runes. Bychoosing rune stones at random, and placing them in a set way, it was thought that it was possibleto tell a person’s future. Fortune-tellers also used bones thrown into the air to help to predictcoming events; the way that the bones landed and the patterns they made could be interpreted tohelp tell the future.

The activity sheet gives the names and meanings of Anglo-Saxon runes, and explains how theywere used for rune casting (or fortune-telling).

Your pupils can make their own rune stones (see Activity 8: Arty challenges).

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Activity 5: Anglo-Saxon burial

In 1939, archaeologists in Suffolk in East Anglia uncovered an amazing Anglo-Saxon burial in a landscape that has become known as England’s ‘Valley of the Kings’. Sutton Hoo

features at least 18 royal burial mounds that date to the 7th century AD. Archaeologists think that they probably belong to the royal family of Anglo-Saxon East Anglia, the Wuffingas. The Wuffingas claimed that they were actually descended from the king of the old gods, Woden.

In one of the burial mounds, archaeologists uncovered the richest burial ever discovered innorthern Europe. It was a ship burial; the king in this grave was laid to rest in a huge boat almost30m long and over 4m wide. The boat itself rotted away over the 1,400 years that it was buried,but archaeologists were able to identify its shape as a dark stain in the earth. Items found withinthe burial chamber in the ship included:

● a ceremonial helmet● a large round shield decorated with garnets and metal figures of a bird and a dragon● a beautiful sword with a gold and garnet pommel inside a decorated scabbard● a harness and belt for the sword with gold fittings● a musical instrument called a lyre● silver bowls and two silver spoons● spears● an elaborately decorated golden buckle● a golden, gem-encrusted purse containing money● a pair of drinking horns● folded textiles – including cloaks, blankets and hangings● a long coat of ring-mail● two hanging bowls● leather shoes● a cushion stuffed with feathers● a wooden platter● an iron axe with a long iron handle● combs made of antler● small metal knives● a bone gaming-piece, thought to be the ‘king piece’ from a set● a wooden bucket with iron bands● a bronze cauldron

It is thought that the person buried in this grave might have been King Rædwald of East Angliawho reigned from about 599 until his death in about 624.

Another burial mound at Sutton Hoo was found to contain the burial of a man and his horse!

These Anglo-Saxon kings were buried with huge ceremony and all of the items that befitted aking. The grave goods were intended to provide the king with everything he needed in the nextworld.

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Challenge your pupils to stock an Anglo-Saxon king’s grave – they can each put five items from the selection given on the activity sheet into the ship burial. What will they choose to include, and why?

Talking point: what objects might a modern-day person include as their grave goods?

Activity 6: A song for the scop

Anglo-Saxon people enjoyed feasting. In You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Anglo-Saxon Peasant!the people of the village have a large communal feast in the great hall to celebrate their victory in a battle.

An Anglo-Saxon scop (pronounced ‘shop’) is a story-telling musician. They were very popularentertainment at Anglo-Saxon feasts. Challenge your pupils to write a song for the scop.Remember that their songs are stories – so your pupils may find it easier to write a simple storyand then compose a tune that fits. Their song could describe the village’s victory over thechallenger to the king’s throne, or it could retell a story about earlier Anglo-Saxons who travelledto and invaded Britain from northern Europe.

Why not try… setting up your school hall as an Anglo-Saxon great hall (with a central hearth –albeit without the open fire! – and long benches) and performing your songs to an invitedaudience?

Research challenge: the Anglo-Saxons were great storytellers. One of their most famous tales isthat of Beowulf, which was first written down by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet at some pointbetween the 8th and 11th centuries. The story would have been shared for many generationsaround the fire before being written down. It tells of a hero called Beowulf who helps Hrothgar,the king of the Danes, when his hall is attacked by a monster called Grendel. Can your pupils findout more about the story of Beowulf, and retell it in their own words?

Extension activity: challenge your pupils to create their own play based on the story of Beowulfto perform to an invited audience.

Activity 7: Cord winding

Anglo-Saxons made cloth and cord by spinning and weaving. Woollen threads were dyed usingplants – colours available included blues, reds, oranges, and yellows.

There are instructions on the activity sheet for making cord by a method called cord winding,which would have been used by Anglo-Saxons (and later Vikings).

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Activity 8: Arty challenges

Make rune stones. Use air-drying clay to roll out a set of 24 small pebble shapes. Once they have dried, use a permanent marker pen to inscribe each one with a rune (see the activity

sheet for the rune ‘letter’ shapes). Your pupils could choose to just make one rune stone for theirinitial, which could be used as a charm.

Design an Anglo-Saxon shield. Use the activity sheet to design your own Anglo-Saxon shield.You could even make your own shields using strong cardboard from a packing box. The centralboss could be made with either an upturned yoghurt pot or a ball of tin foil.

Pupils’ pack contents

● ‘An Anglo-Saxon peasant’s day’ activity sheet● How to make Anglo-Saxon poo● ‘Writing in runes’ information sheet● ‘Messages in runes’ activity sheet● How to use runes for fortune-telling● ‘Anglo-Saxon burial’ activity sheet● Anglo-Saxon cord winding● Design an Anglo-Saxon shield● Blank sheet with the border top and bottom for your pupils’ own artwork and writing

Messages in runes: Answers

1) Runes are great

2) I love learning

3) The dog ate my homework©

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you wouldn’t want to be an anglo-saxon peasant!...the book explores the daily life of an...

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