The Saxons--no,they're not playing Coachella {Eng. 12}

The Anglo-Saxons--a burly bunch they were! The Anglo-Saxons that crazy marauding society! What's a scop to do, but sing the tales of those heroes who slayed dragons, saved the village and married the girl? The Anglo-Saxon's bring us Beowulf, the first epic poem ever. I mean first as in original. Beowulf , written in Old English sometime before the tenth century A.D., describes the adventures of a great Scandinavian warrior of the sixth century. A rich fabric of fact and fancy, Beowulf is the oldest surviving epic in British literature.

Beowulf exists in only one manuscript. This copy survived both the wholesale destruction of religious artifacts during the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII (the king who enjoyed torturing his wives either by killing them, divorcing them leaving them penniless or threatening death...what a catch)  and a disastrous fire which destroyed the library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631).

The poem still bears the scars of the fire, visible at the upper left corner of the photograph. The Beowulf manuscript is now housed in the British Library, London.

Some fun facts about the Anglo-Saxon culture {which connect our time with theirs}:  Four Anglo-Saxon gods gave their names to days of the week: Tiw/Tuesday; Woden/Wednesday; Thunor/Thursday and Frige/Friday. Imagine, all this time we've said Thank Goodness it's Frige day!  Anglo-Saxons were superstitious. They believed in lucky charms. They thought 'magic' rhymes, potions, stones or jewels would protect them from evil spirits or sickness. Thank you www.bbc.co.uk for the fun facts.