Before the introduction of Christianity to the British Isles, and before the Viking raids, what is now England was occupied by the Anglo Saxons. Very little is known about their specific society and customs, because all the written literature we have about that time period was written after Christianity was introduced.
As such, records of specific pagan beliefs that Anglo-Saxons prescribed to were lost to an age that did not write anything down, but engaged in a rich tradition of storytelling through singing and poetry.
As well as the society, the environment was also vastly different to the present day UK. By examining archaeozoological sources, we can find out how different the physical environment of Anglo Saxon England was to how we know England today.
Many fearsome species were mentioned frequently in Anglo-Saxon literature. Birds of prey and wolves were associated with war in Anglo Saxon poetry, as they waited to “enjoy the corpses,” (feast on carrion) when the battle was over, as written in The Battle of Brunanburh. Dragons came up a lot too, creatures perhaps not a part of the English landscape today.
It is estimated that wolves went extinct in Britain in the 1700s due to hunting. However, there is a case for reintroducing them to the landscape, as there are sufficient amounts of prey and they pose little risk to humans, while also being an interesting eco-tourism attraction.
- How wolves were driven to extinction in Britain - and why their return would help heal the landscape
The earn aeftan hwit ‘eagle white from behind’ comes up in the same poem, the white tailed eagle, which went extinct in the UK in the early 20thcentury due to illegal hunting but has since been reintroduced. It’s easy to see how Anglo-Saxons might have thought of the birds as formidable, with their robust bodies and wingspans that can be as big as a person, and their habit of descending to devour carrion.
Bears came up in literature frequently, as in Maxims II, “a bear must be on the heath, old and terrible.” For the Anglo Saxons, bears were symbols of power and strength. Beorna, an Old English word, could be used to mean either warrior or bear.
In the epic poem Beowulf, the hero’s name literally means ‘bee-wolf’ – in other words, bear. This etymology has led some scholars to believe that the poem is a reworking of the “bear’s son” narrative, which comes up in many cultures and in which a warrior achieves superhuman strength as the kin of a bear.
Some scholars believe that Beowful is a bear's son, whose lineage may be paralleled an Old Norse story where a young woman, Bera, falls in love with Bjorn, a man who has been transformed into a bear, and has three superhuman children with him.
There is some evidence that Anglo Saxons kept pets, as investigated by a Cambridge University student. In the poem The Battle of Maldon, the king, Brythnoth, lets fly his leofne fleogan ‘beloved hawk’ before the battle commences, and other texts indicate the tendency of anglo-saxons to train hawks – though it is unclear if they were considered pets or only for practical use.
There is an account of King Alfred giving a pair of hounds to the archbishop of Reims as a gift. A king’s hunting dog was worth a lot of money according to Anglo-Saxon records, perhaps as much as £2,500 in modern currency. While they could be used as hunting dogs or herding dogs for work, the high value may also indicate their worth as companions, as a luxury item only enjoyed by kings.
In addition, an Old Norse stone carving depicts an arrival of a dead warrior to Valhalla, the Old Norse afterlife. In the image, a Valkyrie welcomes the warrior and offers the drinking horn, and waiting behind her is what appears to be the warrior’s faithful hound. As Old English and Old Norse cultures blended a lot, it’s possible that Anglo-Saxons had similar beliefs.
It is likely that Anglo Saxons considered dogs and cats pets, with many breeds present from large hunting dogs, to very small “lap dogs.” In one case, a woman was buried with her dog, signifying that Anglo Saxons looked upon animals as companions and with affection.
Other times, when Anglo-Saxons were buried with animals, it was for religious reasons. In one unique burial, a woman was buried with a cow next to her. Archaeologists were surprised by the discovery, because it was usually only male warriors of a high rank who got buried with animals, and these were the horses that they rode into battle.
They believe that she was a woman of high rank due to the artifacts she was buried with, including brooches and glass beads. The woman was also buried with a key, a symbol of high status as it signifies she had access to the community’s wealth and food store. A constant supply of food for the community, the cow was likely a symbol of domestic wealth and power.
Anglo-Saxons were tightly bound to the sea, and showed incredible skill in boat building in order to explore new lands and to trade, and it’s no surprise that the ocean and its creatures come up frequently in Anglo-Saxon literature.
What does whale-road mean?
A common feature of the Old English language was the use of kennings, compound expressions that communicated metaphorical meaning. For example, ‘soul enclosure’ meant body, and ‘god’s candle’ meant the sun. The old English kenning for the sea was ‘whale-road’, and often appeared in place of the word, perhaps indicating a much greater abundance of whales than we see today, or greater even than saw before the effects of whaling.
However, the Anglo-Saxons were more afraid of the sea and its creatures than anything else. In a harsh world where survival depended upon people sticking together for protection, the worst fate that could befall an Anglo-Saxon was to be exiled from their community out to sea.
The whale was also a fearful thing, which Anglo-Saxons associated with the devil, as in the didactic poem The Whale, which aligns a whale’s behaviour with that of Satan. In the poem, the author cautions sailors not to mistake the colossal back of a whale for an island – if they set up camp upon it, the whale would dive down and suddenly drown them.
The whale was also said to emit a fragrant odour from its mouth, which attracted prey to its waiting jaws. Both these acts of deception, which end in peril for the whale’s victims, are likened to the devil’s habit of masquerading temptation as virtue by the author. However, modern science tells us that whales have no such fragrant breath, would be very difficult to mistake for an island, and are more gentle than satanic.
For later Christian Anglo-Saxons, religious imagery related to the sea was very strong, as seen in The Whale. In Beowulf, concepts of hell were closely tied to the ocean rather than to fire.
In the poem, Beowulf fights three monsters, two hellish beings related to Cain, Grendel and Grendel’s mother, and a dragon. During the fight with Grendel’s mother, she gets the best of him and drags him down into the Anglo-Saxon version of hell. Here, “many strange creatures harassed [Beowful] in swimming, and tore his battle coat with their tusks.”
Perhaps the author was referring to sea beasts, real or legendary, that may have been the subject of Anglo-Saxon anxieties as they travelled over the ocean but never knew quite what was in it.
Animals came up frequently in Old English literature, and though the clues we have from the period are tenuous, it’s clear that the Anglo Saxons had both fearful and loving relationships with different animals.
