History Of Anglos And Saxons

The Anglos and Saxons came to Britain in narrow boats called keels. When the invaders came ashore they quickly decided that they should focus more on survival by quickly planting crops to avoid starvation. As more Anglos and Saxons came to Britain, they began to settle further inland. Choosing valleys and land near rivers rather that the more hilly areas where the Celts continued to live. They also avoided the deserted roman towns for the Saxons felt that they would be too open to attack. Instead, they preferred to live in the clearings that they made in the forest.
As for the Celts, some probably managed to live side by side with the invaders, but the majority were slowly driven into the more mountainous parts of Britain.
The Angles and Saxons fought with each other just as they both fought with the Celts. SO instead of there being one Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Britain they split it up into seven separate little countries.

The Saxons rarely traveled from their homes. They stayed in their own village. Growing their food and rearing their cattle. They made their own clothes and their own clothes and their own tools. They were totally self-supporting.
The most important task of the Saxons was to look after the crops on the land. This was divided into three huge fields, way larger than any field that you would see today. Each of these fields was divided into strips separated from each other by mounds of earth called baulks.
The Saxon villagers had to make a success of their farming, other wise they and their families would starve. They had to work very hard throughout the year, with very simple tools. The plough, which was the most important tool of all, had to be shared by the neighbours. They would also have to share the team of oxen that pulled it.
Clods of earth in the fields had to be broken up by hand using a mattock, which looked like a pick axe only with a broader blade. The arable land was raked over with a harrow, which looked rather like a larger version of a modern garden rake.
If you had been one of these Saxon farmers you would have spent nearly all the daylight hours working on your strips, with just a little time left over for the vegetable plot around your home which was useful vegetables.

The Saxons had no wish to live in the deserted Roman towns. They had always been used to living in small villages, usually isolated from each other, and the large buildings put up by the Romans appeared as the work of giants to them. The Saxons believed that ghosts inhabited the ruins, so they built their villages where there was good land and water available. They built a bank of earth with a wooden fence on the top of it and inside this they constructed their houses. The poorest homes were made of sticks and mud. These were the homes of the serfs who were little better then slaves. The Ceorls or also known as the freemen were farmers and usually built their homes of wood. The biggest house belonged to the Thegn or Eorl, who was the most important man in the village.
The Thegn’s house was built either of wood or of stone and if possible would be positioned on the top of a small hill, for this house and its enclosure would be big enough to hold the entire village in times of danger. The house was called the Hall. Inside the walls could’ve been covered with woven work and there would be long tables and benches for people to eat and to sleep at. There was one fire in the middle which smoke would swirl around the rafters.
The land around the village was shared out amount all the villagers according to their importance. Only exceptions of this were that the serfs were landless men.
Some land was used for crops, some was kept as meadow land for cattle and there was also waste land where could be gathered.

The chief of the village had to do his best to make the villagers obey the laws of the Saxons. If the laws were broken then he had to have the law-breaked punished.
Under Saxon law each

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