[Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.] The aim of this podcast is to provide you with a quick tour of the Anglo-Saxon exhibits on display at the British Museum.
This is meant as a guide to accompany you around the various items on display at various points.
I will suggest you pause the podcast while you move to the appropriate exhibit.
It is possible to do this tour along at the tour available for the Old English manuscripts in the British Library.
It is suggested you do the British Library tour first, and then this one for the British Museum.
To begin with, you should be standing in the main foyer of the British Museum.
The British Museum is situated in Bloomsbury in London. Press pause until you are there.
You need to find your way to room 41, the early medieval European.
This is on the first floor. Take the large staircase to your left as you enter the British Museum, and at the top, go straight ahead.
Pause the podcast until you're at the entrance of room 41.
He should now be at the entrance to room 41, which has a range of cases and exhibits ahead of you,
and slightly to the right should be a sign reading Early Medieval Europe A.D. 300 to 1100.
This room has two main problems with it. First, it adopts a rather confusing layout which really defies rhyme and reason at times.
Secondly, although it has a lot of exhibits which are of interest, for some curious reason,
it downplays information on the Anglo-Saxons almost to the point of non-existence.
Quite why the British Museum sees fit, not to provide adequate explanation about the first 500 years of English history,
is a question you should ask at the information desk on departing.
Nevertheless, there are several key exhibits on display in this room related to the Anglo-Saxons, most notably, of course, the Sutton who burial.
More importantly, we will build up to this by showing the influences on Anglo-Saxon artwork and the commonality shared with other Germanic art.
Before we look at art in general, let us begin with by briefly considering the survival of what could be called classical art,
or certainly the art of the Roman Empire. Go to the cases immediately to your left and Late Antiquity in Byzantine art.
Pause the podcast until you are there.
Due to the size of the Roman Empire at its height, we recognise the division that took place between the Eastern and Western empires.
The eastern empires often been called the Byzantine Empire, and its central focus was on the capital of Constantinople.
In case ten, look at the artefacts on display of Byzantine silver, notably items 2 to 11,
a collection of spoons from the third to fifth centuries, and the bowls.
We will come back to similar items later in the tour.
Now read the panels on the world of late Antiquity in the early Byzantine Empire, and pause the podcast until you are finished.
We are now going to look at the barbarians, i.e. the people who live beyond the Empire's northern borders.
Our aim here is to quickly move through the main tribes, noting obvious features evident in their artwork.
All of this will help us to show the origins of contemporaries of the artwork we will see on display from Anglo-Saxon England.
Go to the sign describing early Germanic groups AD 450 and read the information there.
Pause the podcast until you have done so. We will now consider some of the artwork of these varying tribes.
As we can see, we attempt to name the various Germanic tribes and chart the migrations and invasions.
The Goths, for example, were an East Germanic tribe, possibly originating in Scandinavia,
but moving into modern day Poland, Slovenia and further south in the third and fourth centuries.
As the Roman Empire declined, the Goths expanded, splitting into the Ostrogoths and Visigoths,
with their empire stretching throughout modern day Italy, Spain, and the Balkans.
The Vandals and other East Germanic tribes also harried the north east of the Roman Empire in the fifth centuries,
and eventually reached Carthage on the North African coast.
Look at the cases 15 and 16 and the artwork on display from the Goths, Vandals, Ostrogoths and Lombards.
Note the common artefacts such as belt buckles, brooches and drinking horns and more importantly, the designs and stars.
Pause the podcast until you are ready to proceed. Now let us look at Western Germanic tribes, the Franks.
We use the term east and west to indicate roughly the main thrust of their original migrations,
the Franks being along the northern coast of modern day Germany, Holland and France.
30 cases 19 and read about the Franks. Looking at the items on display.
Again, note the similarities in terms of the artefacts on display, with those we have already seen from the other Germanic tribes.
The coast, with such things as the shield boxes and the throwing spear.
The so-called Francisca, named after the tribe, which is item 74, is the podcast until you have finished.
In case 21 we can see items from early Scandinavia Scandinavia.
Again, note the similarities. Pausing the podcast until you are done.
In summary, so far we have seen that although the Germanic tribes seem to have originated in roughly the same area,
their paths of migration and conquest led them in different directions.
Hence our terminology of North, East and West Germanic.
This is exactly the same terminology we use to describe the Germanic languages, e.g. the language of the Anglo-Saxons.
Old English is a West Germanic language. What we have also seen are commonalities in the various artefacts and art forms.
Now let us look at this in more detail. Go to case 42, entitled Germanic and Viking Art, and pause the podcast until you get there.
Quite why. The sign indicates that there is a distinction between Germanic and Viking art is open to debate, but we shall let this pass.
Here we can see an explanation of some of the designs you already observed,
in particular what is called the interlaced style, with plant and animal motifs in particular interwoven.
Note how we can categorise the various periods of design into interlaced one, interlaced two, etc., and thus help date the objects.
It is interesting to note the interlaced designs are also evident in the manuscript art of such works as the Lindisfarne Gospels,
on display in the British Library. The Lindisfarne Gospels were produced in the late 17th century or early eighth century in Northumbria,
and demonstrate the sophistication of Anglo-Saxon artwork. They are described as an example of high bono Saxon artwork,
the Saxon part indicating the influence of Germanic interlaced art, which is evident before you.
We shall come back to the high Bono part later. Pause the podcast until you are ready.
Now go to case 43 to look at the techniques used by the demonic craftsman.
Pause the podcast until you are ready. We are now almost ready to consider the Anglo-Saxons, but not quite.
Before we do so, let us consider the British Isles in this early migration period.
Go to the displays on Celtic Britain. Pause the podcast until you get there.
Britain was, of course, part of the Roman Empire, extending up to the modern day Scottish Borders.
The indigenous British, usually lumped together under the term Celts,
became Christianised in the latter stages of the empire, and the Celts in Ireland were converted by Saint Patrick.
Look briefly the displays of Celtic artwork, noting in particular the bronze hanging bowl in case 26 and the facsimile of part of the Book of Durrow.
Here we can see common Celtic designs which influenced the artists of the later Lindisfarne Gospels.
Hence the term we used earlier to describe the artwork there as high burner.
Saxon Art holds the podcast until you are finished.
Let us consider what we've seen so far. We have noted that in its latter stages, the Roman Empire split into two halves,
and we've seen some of the artwork from the eastern part of the Byzantine Empire.
We've seen the migrations of the various Germanic tribes and the common artefacts and designs, notably interlace art.
We have also looked at Celtic artwork. Now we are ready for the Anglo-Saxons.
It is at this point that the room slowly lets us down.
There is no proper explanation of who the Anglo-Saxons were, where they came from or where they went to.
So before we proceed, we need some background information.
In short, the Anglo-Saxons originated from around northern Germany, in Jutland sometime in the mid fifth century.
By invitation, conquest or economic migration, they began to settle in Britain.
The Venerable Beech, writing in the early eighth century, tells us that the migration was made up of three main tribes the angles,
who settled in the North Midlands and the East, the Saxons who settled in the south, and the Dukes who settled in Kent in the Isle of Wight.
Undoubtedly, the situation was much more complicated, and there is evidence that Franks also migrated along with other tribes during the period.
For example, the opportunity for the migration invasion arose out of the abandonment by the Roman Empire of Britain in the early fifth century.
The Romano-British, who were left, possibly invited the Angles and Saxons over as mercenaries to begin with,
and for whatever reasons, power shifted to the newcomers. The indigenous population, namely the Celts,
were either assimilated or pushed westward by the heathen Saxons to the traditional Celtic lands of Wales, Cornwall and Ireland.
Gradually, the tribes of the Anglo-Saxons formed small kingdoms.
We know of over 30 in the early periods, which merged into the seven large kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons,
namely Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Wessex and Sussex.
Eventually, by the 10th century, this had become a single nation England, the land of the Angles or England.
Now let us look at some of the Anglo-Saxon exhibits. Look at the items in cases 22 to 25, which so material for men, women and warriors.
Many of the items should be familiar now, sharing similarities to those we have seen from other Germanic tribes.
Pause the podcast until you are ready. It is important to remember one thing from all of this, which is outlined in case 24,
namely, that what we are generally seeing here are grave goods items buried with the person.
Why was this done? In short,
it was a practice to indicate a belief that these goods could be used in the afterlife that material goods were of used in this world and the next.
This is a non-Christian practice. The Anglo-Saxons were, after all, heathens when they migrated.
So just consider these lines from the beginning of Beowulf, the great Anglo-Saxon epic describing the funeral of a leader called shall Cheugy.
Here is written as language, body in shape, and send it out to sea.
Adorned with treasure and laid on the lay off method.
And are good Britain on the arm. Ships known by master.
There was mad a fellow on fell welcome flat violated the head each the child you gave,
and Hilda went with them on how the wild and fill them and pnm they laid then the beloved Lord,
the giver of rings, in the embrace of the ship, the famous one by the mast there was brought much treasure from far away.
Some precious items I have never heard of a more commonly being prepared with war weapons and battle garments, swords, and béarnaise him on be armed.
They made my money. Go to him. Meet Sheldon on floor.
This art favour you return null as he hinnom Larson.
Lark continued and told the Australian bond that dude on the hyaena at from Shea after
forth on send them on over to the humble ways and done on his breast lay many traces,
which then with him had to journey into the floods ownership far away.
That's told that they furnish him the lesser with gifts, with the people's treasures than those dead,
who at the beginning sent him forth as a child alone over the waves.
Let us consider this further. Go to the Franks Casket in the middle of the room, and pause the podcast until you get there.
The France Casket, named after Sir Augustus Franks,
dates from the eighth century and is a wonderful item illustrating all kinds of influences on Anglo-Saxon thinking.
Let us start at the front. Here the panel is divided into two halves.
On the left we have illustrations from the story of William the Smith of the gods, a story from Germanic pagan mythology.
Vaillant is a great blacksmith, but he's captured and imprisoned, forced to make wonderful items as seen on the far left of the panel.
He eventually escapes and wreaks his revenge. On the right hand side of the panel, we have the adoration of the Magi.
In other words, on this single panel we have Germanic myth juxtaposed with Christianity.
Moving around the castle on the left hand side, we have a depiction of the story of Romulus and Remus, a story from classical mythology.
On the back we have a depiction of the sacking of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus in A.D. 70.
Note at this point another feature of the casket, namely the runic inscriptions running around the box.
At the very top left of the Titus picture, you may be able to make out the runes.
For Titus. The tea room looks like an arrow. For example, look at the rest of the casket and pause the podcast until you are finished.
If you wish to find out more about runes, go to case 39 and look especially item 29 to say axe or short sword common to the Saxons.
Pause the podcast until you are finished. We have already mentioned that when the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain, they were pagan,
presumably worshipping the Norse pantheon of gods, including two Wotan, Thor and Freya.
Evident in the names of our weekdays, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
But the Franks Casket has a scene from An Activity of Christ. So at some point they begin to adopt Christianity.
Go to page 38, read about the coming of Christianity and look at the items on display.
He pulls the podcast until you are finished.
It is important to remember that when the Anglo-Saxons arrived in Britain, it was already Christian under the Roman Empire.
As they migrated westwards, Celtic Christianity was reduced to Wales, Cornwall and most importantly, Ireland.
In the sixth century,
Irish missionaries returned to mainland Britain to start the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon decades in advance of Saint Augustine's landing in Kent.
The Irish Church therefore, was a major influence on Anglo-Saxon Christianity and artwork, especially in Northumbria, hence the Lindisfarne Gospels.
The other major influence on Anglo-Saxon Christianity came later with the rise of the Carolingian Empire,
especially under Charlemagne in the late eighth century and early ninth century.
In case 34, you can see examples of Carolingian art,
and in the corner a large sign with an illustration from the New Minster charter presented by King Edgar.
In the mid 10th century,
an Anglo-Saxon manuscript illustration of the king presenting his charter to Christ is very similar to the designs in Carolingian art,
which in turn were drawn originally from Byzantine art.
The school of art from this period of Anglo-Saxon England returned the Winchester
School after the centre where it flourished under the Benedictine Saint Arthur Wold.
Look also at the wonderful examples of Anglo-Saxon ivory art in case 37, and pause the podcast until you are finished.
We have seen many things so far, including common designs amongst the art of the Germanic tribes,
the prevalence of grave goods, and the reappearance and rise of Christianity.
Before we move to one of the greatest collections of Anglo-Saxon art, let us look at a major burial.
Go to the Tableau burial site in case 40 and pause the podcast until you get there.
What do we have here? Well, first of all, we have a wonderful collection of Anglo-Saxon artefacts glass beakers,
a bucket, buckles, etc., all placed in a burial mound overlooking the Thames in the 17th century.
Many of the designs will look familiar by now. But what else can we glean from this?
The wealth of the hoard indicates a nobleman. But was it Christian or pagan?
The occurrence of grave goods seems to indicate the latter, but perhaps this is not the case.
We are now going to look at the greatest Anglo-Saxon discoveries so far.
The great ship burial at Sutton Head.
Go to the signs describing the burial and excavation and the far wall, and post the podcast until you have read them.
Again. We have a burial in a mound this time, you know, now lost ship and again overlooking the river.
This has important resonance with the burial at the end of Beowulf,
where the mourners build a mound on a headland so that sailors will remember the hero of the poem.
Now, let us consider what was in the mound. In case 45 we can see some of the jewellery, including wonderful cloths on enamels.
Here's the podcast and you will study them and remember the designs you have seen elsewhere.
In cases 46 and 47, we have an array of goods for the meat haul, including a liar for entertainment.
This is very similar to the illustration in the Vespasian Psalter, an Anglo-Saxon manuscript.
Pause the podcast until you study studied all these goods.
So far this is classic pagan symbolism. The goods are there for the dead nobleman to use in the afterlife.
However, now go to case 48. Here we can see examples of Byzantine silver that we noted earlier, but look closely at the items ten and 11.
Are these baptismal spoons engraved with salts and Paulus?
If so, then possibly the person buried here was also Christian or a pagan recently converted to Christianity.
In case 49 we have yet more influences. Note the roundels on the bowl items one, two, three.
These are very like the Celtic designs we have seen earlier and prevalent in the Lindisfarne Gospels.
We also get a suggestion as the identity of the king, namely Ronald, who died in 62526.
In case 50 we have even more jewellery. And again note the by now very familiar patterns and designs.
In the central case we have the famous helmet, sword, shield, extended male,
all the trappings of a powerful and important warrior, again mirroring many of the descriptions in Beowulf of the arms and armour.
It is difficult to summarise somehow, and it's important. It shows us many things.
Familiar patterns in the art and artefacts.
It demonstrates possibly the fusion of Christianity and Paganism, Germanic and Celtic art all understandable at that period of time.
But it also shows the wealth and craftsmanship for the Anglo-Saxons and the extent of their reach all the way to purchasing Byzantine silver.
Finally, and most importantly, brings some of the descriptions of Beowulf and other poems to life before our eyes.
Before you depart, take a look at the other examples of Anglo-Saxon art, evident in the fragments of stone crosses in the centre of the room.
The most famous stone cross, that which contains lines from the poem The Dream of the rood, now stands in Dumfriesshire.
But if you are interested, a replica cast can be found in the Victorian Albert Museum.
I hope this guide has helped you in your wanderings around this room.
The most important lesson to learn from this is just how many influences they were in the Anglo-Saxon,
not explained by their origins, the people they encountered, and the religious struggle of the period.