The relative tolerance of the Anglo-Saxon church towards folk culture in the era of the spread of Christianity led to the fact that the monasteries became not only the conductors of a new religion in society, but also the centers where the recording of monuments of folk literature was concentrated, however, with its appropriate selection and processing. This explains the rather large number of monuments of folk poetry that have come down to our time. After all, only small fragments of the Central German poetic tradition have survived: a fragment of the “Song of Hkldebrant” and two spells. We know almost nothing about the ancient poetry of the Franks. Disappeared, leaving only minor traces in the epic of other peoples, the epic tradition is ready. And only Scandinavia brought to us the richest poetic heritage of the “heroic era”: the mythological and heroic songs of the Edda. Of course, we know only a small part of the works performed by the Anglo-Saxons, most of the epic poems have been lost forever. However, four surviving manuscripts of Old English poetic texts (all written around 1000) and several fragments reveal a rare richness and variety of themes, plots, and poetic forms. It is no coincidence that therefore the VIII-X centuries are considered the heyday of the Anglo-Saxon epic.

It was based on a circle of ideas and ideas that make up what can be conditionally called the artistic consciousness of that part of the population in whose environment epic works arose and were passed down from generation to generation, recreated in each new performance. Aesthetic needs were combined in him with ethical and legal views. The epic reflected ideas about the world (no matter how limited the “whole world”) history and the place in it of the history of their people; it embodied and transmitted to subsequent generations information about the past; through epic legends, both the introduction of each new generation into history and the continuous connection of times from the past to the future were carried out. The epic contained a cosmological model and an ideal model of society, recreating the macro- and microcosm in poetic forms. By its nature, epic creativity was syncretic and multifunctional and was the main form of expression of knowledge, feelings, aspirations and ideals of its creators.

That is why the role of the performer and creator of epic tales - the osprey - in Anglo-Saxon society was extremely great. An osprey is an entourage of the king, sitting at his feet at a feast, receiving generous gifts and meeting with honor when he wanders the world. Skop is the keeper of the wisdom transmitted by him to people, a storehouse of knowledge. Therefore, in the Anglo-Saxon poems, one of the first virtues of a wise man is his knowledge of many songs: Moses (Exodus), Hrodgar (Beowulf), Solomon, and many others have this virtue. “Just as precious stones stuck to the queen, weapons to warriors, so a good osprey to people,” one of the Old English gnomic poems said. It was impossible to do without an osprey at a feast and on a campaign, he was next to the king both in the days of war and in peace hours to glorify his exploits. Only in songs could the glory of the hero, the memory of his valor and generosity, be preserved and passed on to the descendants:

... and close, the king's favorite, a long-term connoisseur of praise, the preserver of the legends of old times, he, in his own way conjugating words, began a speech - praise of Beoaulf; combining consonances in a skillful way, he wove into the chant a new story, unknown to people, told a true story ...

(Beowulf, 867-874)

The osprey, as a rule, is a combatant who also took part in hostilities. But many references have been preserved that both noble people and kings often acted as singers: this is how they talk about St. Dunstan and Aldhelm, about Alfred the Great and many others. The performance of songs was not considered something shameful, unworthy of a noble or just a pious person. On the contrary, the ability to tell about the past in sonorous verse is evidence of wisdom, knowledge, and God's chosenness. It is no coincidence that images of the osprey are so frequent in the miniatures of Old English manuscripts, and even biblical characters, such as David, are represented with a harp in their hands.

As described in the poem "Vidsid" - "Wandering", the osprey often passed from one ruler to another, spreading glory and blasphemy all over the world:

So wander, as fate has inscribed, hymn-tellers through distant lands, composing a word about hardships, about good generous givers: both in the north and in the south, everywhere there is a sophisticated in songs, not stingy with offerings, holders, in front of the retinue, eager to strengthen their deeds with glorification, as long as the good of life and the light he sees.

(Widsid, Sh-142)

Wandering from kingdom to kingdom, singing songs at the courts of the rulers of different lands and peoples, the osprey told about the deeds of the long-dead rulers Ermanaric and Attila, about victories over monsters, giants and dragons that threatened the death of their fellow tribesmen, brave and powerful heroes - Beowulf, Sigmund . The thirst for battle sounded in his tales of strife and bloody battles between the Danes and the Jutes, the Huns and the Burgundians, the Geats and the Swedes, and it did not matter that many of these tribes were no longer in the world. They inhabited the epic world of the Anglo-Saxon osprey and his listeners, and in it they acquired a new full-blooded life.

There were also new songs at the osprey - songs born of Christianity:

... there the harp sang and the voice of a clear hymn-teller that led the tradition from the beginning, from the creation of the world; he sang about how the Creator arranged the land-plain, washed by the sea, about how the Creator established the sun and the moon in the sky, so that it would shine for all earthly people, and how He adorned the earth with greenery, and how He endowed creatures that breathe and move with life .

(Beowulf, 89-98)

There were also sad songs - about a hero who was cut off from the world in which he lived and who was left with only memories of past happiness in the circle of friends at a banquet table. All this material, diverse in its origins, plot and moods, was united in his memory by a retinue singer.

The integrity of the epic fund of the Anglo-Saxons was based, on the one hand, on the unity of a comprehensive image of the world created by the artistic rethinking of reality in the minds of many generations of ospreys, on the other hand, on a common system of versification with a traditional set of poetic means and techniques. There was a set of metaphors, comparisons, stereotypical descriptions developed over the centuries that could be used in a wide variety of works30. The memory of the osprey helpfully suggested to him the words and expressions that should be used when describing a particular situation, when describing a certain event, regardless of whether it happens to a Christian saint, Beowulf, the giant Grendel, or a pagan ruler.

The stereotypical means of expression, along with a unified system of stylistic devices (repetitions, stringing of synonyms, etc.), created the unity of the poetic fabric of the monuments, which differed in character and plot, and held together the heroic world of the Anglo-Saxon epic. At the same time, the unity of the poetics of epic works cannot hide the diversity of their types. The development of artistic consciousness as a result of the beginning differentiation of certain aspects of social consciousness as a whole, on the one hand, and the influence of Christian literature with its conscious and theoretically comprehended literary forms, on the other, led to a gradual complication and stratification of epic literature, to the emergence of new narrative types. This process probably proceeded gradually, slowly. But we don't know anything about him. Only its result is known - in the VIII-X centuries. on English soil, many epic monuments of various subjects were created, reflecting various aspects of life, influenced to varying degrees by the Christian worldview and literature.

What are the types of these works, can they be considered independent genres of epic literature, which makes it possible to isolate them?

The most obvious sign, on the basis of which separate groups of monuments are usually singled out, is the plot and its orientation towards the reflection of a certain range of events and phenomena. So, in the poems, ranked as a heroic epic, the fight against monsters, tribal strife and wars occupy a central place. The content of small poems, usually called heroic elegies, is the psychological state of a person who has lost his master and loved ones and is acutely aware of his loneliness. The religious epic is a processing of stories from biblical legends and the lives of saints. Historical songs are devoted to a poetic story about real events. The distinction between themes and plots entails a number of other essential features, the totality of which allows us to consider the selected groups as independent genres in the system of the Anglo-Saxon epic. The most important points seem to be: the correlation of monuments of various genres with the all-German epic tradition and with Christian literature; their attitude to history, that is, the level and character of their historicism; interaction in them of truth and fiction and understanding of both; their compositional structure, interpretation of the image of the hero, as well as the main elements of the epic world of monuments, primarily their spatial and temporal characteristics. There are also some differences in the social functioning of various genres, in their destination for a certain audience, although this circumstance is not always sufficiently obvious.

At the same time, one cannot exaggerate the independence, the isolation of genres in Anglo-Saxon epic poetry. “They are not clearly opposed to each other as different art forms,” and therefore the boundaries between them are blurred and indefinite. It is no coincidence that there is no agreement on the question of, for example, which poems should be classified as heroic elegies, and in Beowulf there are episodes that - if they were recorded separately - would be considered heroic elegies, religious-epic and even religious-didactic works. The permeability and interweaving of genres testify not only to the initial stage of their development, but also to the still existing unity, integrity of the epic poetry of the Anglo-Saxons, genre differences within which are mainly variants, modifications of the poetic picture of the world.

This is what makes the historical classification of epic genres impossible, especially since all the monuments were created in the editions that have come down to us between the middle of the 8th and the end of the 10th century, that is, almost simultaneously. With the exception of a few works - the earliest ("Hymn" by Caedmon - about 680) and the latest (historical songs) - there is no reason to date them, although attempts of this kind have been made repeatedly. Therefore, the only possible way is to clarify the typology of epic genres.

The earliest from a typological point of view are the monuments of the actual heroic epic - "Beowulf" (which does not exclude the possibility of a later origin of its edition that has survived to this day), "Walder", "The Battle of Finnsburg". These are legends based on traditional plots, which go back mainly to the all-German epic and have parallels in it. The influence of Christian ideology is found in them to the extent that it penetrates the artistic consciousness as one of its constituent (but not defining) elements. However, it should be noted that typologically heterogeneous works belong to this group. The poem "Beowulf", which tells about the hero's victories over monsters, obviously goes back to the archaic forms of the epic of the ancient Germans, of which only a few traces have been preserved in Scandinavian narrative mythological songs. All the more surprising is the connection within the framework of one, integral work of motives, plots, and representations of many eras. In it we find elements of various epic genres: elegies (for example, the complaints of a warrior), other heroic tales (the song about Sigmund, the song about Ingeld, etc.), religious epic (the song about the creation of the world or Hrodgar's appeal to Beowulf). It combines the ideas of a tribal society with feudal ethics, the heroic ideal of a warrior-hero with the image of a “just ruler”.

Other heroic-epic works have a different character, of which, however, very few have survived - and mostly in fragments. Their heroes, as a rule, are legendary and historical figures, the plot is intertribal (or interstate) strife, they are dedicated to any one event or chain of events that make up a single plot, the ideal epic world is endowed with some features of reality.

Typologically, the later genres are the religious epic and heroic elegies. Both genres arise under the strong influence of the Anglo-Saxon Christian literary tradition, but its different aspects.

In the monuments of the religious epic, the interaction of two layers of Anglo-Saxon culture and their interweaving in the minds of the Anglo-Saxons is most clearly manifested. Biblical and hagiographic stories are processed in the form of a traditional German heroic epic. This reworking, however, cannot be regarded as "pouring new wine into old wineskins", i.e., as a mechanical combination of Christian content with the traditional epic form. The use of ancient Germanic epic poetics inevitably entailed the reconstruction (in more or less complete scope) of the picture of the world characteristic of Germanic pre-Christian society. It transformed the concepts of Christian ethics into heroic-epic representations familiar and accessible to everyone, and thus included Christian plots in the familiar world of heroic tales. It is no coincidence that most of the monuments are based on plots that have heroic features in themselves; those biblical characters and saints are selected whose actions are consistent with ideas about the heroic. This is Judith, who killed Holofernes and thereby saved her native city from the hordes of Assyrians. This is St. Andrew crushing the Myrmidon cannibals in order to free St. Matthew. This is Moses, a wise leader and ruler who knows many songs, leading his tribe from captivity and organizing a worthy rebuff to the Egyptian army overtaking them (the poem "Exodus"). The biblical story unfolds and grows in accordance with the requirements of the heroic-epic poetics, although the time and space limits are strictly limited by the original. Many episodes are introduced, mostly of heroic content, the chain of which creates the gradual development of the action.

In the heroic elegies, a completely different aspect of Christian literature was developed. These are the oldest works in the Western European literature in the folk language, where the focus of the narrator is the psychological world of the hero. Of course, it is stereotypical, just as the situation itself is stereotypical in all works of this genre. Moreover, attention is focused on only one side of this world - on feelings of sadness, loneliness, a keen sense of the variability of the world, the transient nature of its joys and sorrows. The opposition of the happy past and the tragic present creates a contrast that underlies the composition of the elegies. But all the experiences of the hero unfold against the backdrop of an ideal heroic world. It is present in the hero's memories of a happy past. It determines the tragedy of the situation - the isolation of the hero from this world, the impossibility for him to show his heroic essence. The hero is faceless, he (with the exception of the singer Deor) does not even have a name.

Historical songs represent a later stage in the development of the epic. Their connection with the all-German tradition is manifested only in the system of stylistic devices and images; they are focused on depicting a specific, real, historically reliable event, although the principles of its reflection contain many traditional features, sometimes fantastic. As a story about one event, they are compositionally based on the sequential deployment of the action in time; the place and time of the action, as a rule, are strictly limited, one-dimensional, timed to the real place and time, where and when the event underlying the plot of the work took place.



Feudal relations in Western Europe developed not only in France, Germany and Italy. Early feudal states appeared both in the British Isles and on the Scandinavian Peninsula. At the same time, the process of feudalization in England and Scandinavia proceeded at a slower pace than in these states of Western Europe. This was due to the extremely weak influence of the Roman orders in England and especially in Scandinavia.

1. England in the VII-XI centuries.

Conquest of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons

After the Roman troops at the beginning of the 5th century. were withdrawn from Britain, inhabited by the Britons (Celts), German tribes of Saxons, Angles and Jutes, who lived between the Elbe and the Rhine (the area of ​​​​settlement of the Saxons) and on the Jutland Peninsula (the area of ​​\u200b\u200bsettlement of the Angles and Jutes) began to invade its territory en masse. The Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain lasted over 150 years and ended mainly at the beginning of the 7th century. Such a long conquest is due primarily to the fact that the Celtic population of Britain put up stubborn resistance to the Anglo-Saxon conquerors.

In the process of conquest, the Anglo-Saxons exterminated a large number of the Celtic population. Some of the Celts were forced out of Britain to the continent (where they settled on the Armorica peninsula in Gaul, later called Brittany), and some were turned into slaves and dependent people who were obliged to pay tribute to the conquerors.

Independence was defended only by the mountainous Celtic regions in the west of Britain (Wales and Cornwall) and in the north (Scotland), where tribal associations continued to exist, which later turned into independent Celtic principalities and kingdoms. Complete independence from the Anglo-Saxons (until the second half of the 12th century) was also preserved by Ireland inhabited by the Celts.

On the territory of Britain, conquered by the Anglo-Saxons (it later became England proper), around the end of the 6th and beginning of the 7th centuries, several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were formed. These were: Kent - in the extreme southeast, founded by the Jutes, Wessex, Sessex and Essex - in the southern and southeastern parts of the island, founded by the Saxons, East Anglia - in the east, Northumbria - in the north and Mercia - in the center of the country, founded mostly in English.

All these kingdoms were early feudal states, similar to those that were formed on the continent of Europe by the Franks, Burgundians, Visigoths and other Germanic tribes.

Anglo-Saxon economy

The main occupation of the Anglo-Saxons was agriculture. It undoubtedly prevailed over animal husbandry, although the latter continued to play an important role in the economy. Hunting was also of great importance.

The villages of the Anglo-Saxons were surrounded by small patches of arable land and vast expanses of woods and moorlands. Heath and hills, covered with heather and thick bushes, served as pasture for sheep, goats and cattle. Pigs were fattened in the forests, where they found acorns and beechnuts in abundance.

The Anglo-Saxons plowed the land with a heavy plow with a team of 4 and 8 oxen. Sometimes a lighter plow was also used - with one or two pairs of oxen. Significant distribution among the Anglo-Saxons has already received two-field and three-field. The Anglo-Saxons sowed winter wheat, rye, barley, oats, beans and peas. Plots of an arable field were usually fenced, located in strips, and after harvesting and removing fences, they came into common use, turning into communal pastures for livestock.

The level of development of productive forces among the Anglo-Saxons in the 7th-8th centuries. was about the same as that of the Franks in the 5th-6th centuries.

Free rural community and the beginning of its decay

A characteristic feature of the Anglo-Saxon society was the preservation in it for a very long time of a free rural community, similar to the Frankish community-mark. The basis of the Anglo-Saxon society, at least in the first two or three centuries after the conquest, was made up of free communal peasants - curls, who owned, within the community, significant plots of land - the so-called guide ( Gaida was usually called a piece of land that could be cultivated for a year with one plow with a team of 4 pairs of oxen. Such a hyde was 120 acres. In some sources, the gaida was considered equal to 80 or 100 acres.). Gaida was the hereditary allotment of a large family in which brothers, their sons and grandchildren ran the household together. In the period immediately following the conquest of Britain, the individual family, consisting of a husband, wife and their children, was, apparently, among the Anglo-Saxons still in the stage of separation from this large family and, at least in property terms, was still closely related to the latter. In addition to an allotment of arable land, each household had the right to land that remained in the use of the entire community - meadows, pastures, wastelands, forests, etc.

The Anglo-Saxons also had noble people - earls, who stood out in the process of social stratification from the mass of ordinary members of the tribe. The Earls, who already differed in property from ordinary peasants, as the community decomposed, turned into large landowners.

The Anglo-Saxons also had slaves and semi-free people, who came mainly from the conquered Celtic population. Slaves were used as yard servants or received a small allotment and cultivated the lands of the Anglo-Saxon nobility.

Leths and wilys (as the Welsh Celts were called), as a rule, sat on foreign land, carried corvee and delivered their masters in kind. Part of the Celts (especially in the western regions of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms bordering Celtic Wales), although they paid tribute in favor of the king, retained their lands and their freedom. Part of the Celtic nobility, not exterminated by the conquerors, merged with the Anglo-Saxon nobility.

The growth of large landownership and the enslavement of the peasants

The Anglo-Saxons gradually fell into the number of people dependent on large landowners, who lost their freedom both as a result of property stratification among free community members, and as a result of violence and oppression by the tribal and military service nobility and direct seizures of arable and communal lands by it. . With the sobbing of the wealthy peasant elite from the community (which was especially facilitated by the emergence of allod - the private property of a community member on an allotment of arable land), the number of free peasants began to inevitably decrease.

Ruined, deprived of their land, the peasants were forced to go into bondage to large landowners and take land plots from them on the condition of paying dues or performing corvée. So, the Anglo-Saxon peasants from free people turned into dependents. Large landowners, under whose private authority the peasants dependent on them, were called Glafords ( Hence the later form of the word is lord.) (which corresponds to the concept of "senior", or master).

In the formation and strengthening of the feudal relations that arose and developed among the Anglo-Saxons, the royal power played an active role, helping the landowning nobility to enslave the free Anglo-Saxon peasants. One of the articles of the “Truth of King Ine” (end of the 7th century) read: “If anyone leaves his glaford without permission or secretly flees to another county and is found, let him return to where he was before and pay his glaford 60 shillings ".

With the growth of the Anglo-Saxon states and the strengthening of royal power in them, the importance of royal warriors - the Gesites, originally medium and small landowners, increased. The old tribal nobility (earls) partly merged with them, and partly was forced out by the new military-service nobility, who received land grants from the king.

The church played an extremely active role in the process of enslaving the peasants. Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons, which began at the end of the VI century. (in 597) and ended mainly only in the second half of the 7th century, met the interests of the ruling stratum of the Anglo-Saxon society, since it strengthened the royal power and the landowning nobility grouped around it. Land grants granted by kings and nobility to bishops and numerous emerging monasteries contributed to the growth of large church landholdings. The church justified the enslavement of the peasants in every possible way. Therefore, the spread of Christianity was met by the free Anglo-Saxon peasantry, who saw in their former, pre-Christian cults the support of communal orders, long and stubborn resistance.

Organization of government in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms

The organization of the local government of the Anglo-Saxons in the period immediately following their conquest of Britain was based on the structure of a free peasant community. Free residents of a village (i.e., a rural community) gathered at a gathering, where, under the leadership of an elected headman, they resolved economic matters related to joint use, communal lands, and other issues, resolved disputes between neighbors, litigation, etc. Representatives of rural communities that were part of a certain district (such a district was called a hundred among the Anglo-Saxons) gathered every month for hundreds of meetings, where they elected a foreman who was in charge of the hundreds. Initially, it was a meeting of all the free inhabitants of the hundreds or their representatives. Here, court cases that arose between residents of different villages, which were part of a hundred, were mainly dealt with.

With the development of feudal relations, the nature of the hundred assembly has changed significantly. The foreman turned into a royal official, a representative of the central government, while free curls or their elected representatives were replaced by the largest and most influential landowners of the hundreds, as well as the official representatives of each village in the person of the headman, the priest and the four most prosperous peasants.

Popular meetings of the Anglo-Saxons, which were originally meetings of the warriors of the entire tribe, and then of individual kingdoms, from the 9th century. became collections of counties (or skirs, ( Skyr (a later form of the word - shire) means county.) as the Anglo-Saxons now began to call large administrative districts) and were convened twice a year to consider court cases. At first, representatives of the tribal nobility, headed by the eldorman, played a decisive role in these counties. Subsequently, with the growth of royal power, the eldorman was replaced by a royal official - a skyr-gerefa ( The word "gerefa" (a later form - riv) means a steward, headman. From skyr-geref (in its later form - shire-reve) comes the word "sheriff".), who became the head of the county. Since then, only the most noble and powerful people of the county, large secular landowners, as well as bishops and abbots, have taken part in solving cases.

Features of the development of feudalism in England

The process of the disappearance of the free peasantry in England was relatively slow, which was due to the extremely weak influence of the Roman order. A certain role was also played by the fact that the tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who migrated to Britain were at a lower level of socio-economic development than the Franks who settled Roman Gaul, and they retained communal orders longer. It was in England that, along with the royal squad, for a long time the military militia of free peasants, the so-called fird, continued to exist, which constituted the initial basis of the entire military organization of the Anglo-Saxons.

The relatively strong rural community that persisted for a long time in Britain strengthened the forces of the peasants in their struggle against feudal enslavement. This was also one of the reasons that determined the slower process of feudalization in England, compared with other countries of Western Europe.

Unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 9th century. and the formation of the kingdom of England

There was a constant struggle between the individual Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, during which some kingdoms seized the lands of others and even temporarily established their dominance over them. So, at the end of the VI and at the beginning of the VII century. Kent was the most important. Approximately from the middle of the 7th century. the dominant position was occupied by the northernmost of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms - Northumbria, in the VIII century. - Mercia in Central England, and, finally, from the beginning of the 9th century. dominance passed to Wessex in the southwestern part of the country, subjugating all other kingdoms. Under King Ecbert of Wessex in 829, the entire country of the Anglo-Saxons united into one state, which from that time was called England.

The unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into one state at the beginning of the 9th century. was due to both domestic and foreign policy reasons. On the one hand, the feudalizing elite of society needed to overcome the resistance of the peasants to enslavement, which required the unification of all the forces of the ruling class and the unification of individual kingdoms into one state. On the other hand, from the end of the eighth century the devastating raids of the Normans (Scandinavians) began on England. The needs of defense in a difficult struggle with the Normans determined the urgency of the political unification of the country.

In the united Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the general popular assembly was no longer convened. Instead, the king gathered Witenagemot (which means "Council of the Wise"), which consisted of the most noble and influential magnates of the kingdom. All matters were now decided by the king only with the consent of Whitenagemot.

Danish invasions. The struggle of the Anglo-Saxons with the Danes

The Normans, who terrified many states of what was then Europe with their pirate raids, attacked England mainly from Denmark and therefore are better known in English history under the name of the Danes. Initially, Danish pirates simply devastated and plundered the coast of England. Then they began to seize territories here and establish permanent settlements. So they captured the entire north-east of the country and introduced Danish customs and practices there (the area of ​​"Danish law").

Wessex in the south-west of England, which rallied scattered Anglo-Saxon kingdoms around itself and was less accessible to Danish raids than other areas, became the center of resistance to the conquerors.

An important stage in the fight against the Danes, and at the same time in the development of the Anglo-Saxon feudal state, was the reign of King Alfred, who received the title of the Great from English historians (871-899 or 900). Having bought off the Danes with tribute (after a series of defeats and failures), Alfred began to gather military forces, among which an important role was played by the ancient people's militia from free peasants, and the cavalry, heavily armed feudal army. A significant fleet was built, after which the Anglo-Saxons again entered into a fight with the Danes. Having stopped their onslaught, Alfred concluded an agreement with the Danes, according to which the whole country was divided into two parts. In the southwestern part of England, the power of the Anglo-Saxons remained, and the northeastern part remained in the hands of the Danes.

Of great importance for consolidating the unity of the country and strengthening the feudal state was the collection of laws compiled under Alfred - "The Truth of King Alfred", which also included many legislative provisions from the old Anglo-Saxon "Pravda" compiled at different times in separate kingdoms.

The strengthening of the feudal state was also facilitated by the new system of organization of the Anglo-Saxon army, based on the military service of small landowners as heavily armed mounted warriors.

In the second half of the 10th century, under King Edgar (959 - 975), the Anglo-Saxons were able to subdue the Danes who settled in Northeast England. Thus, all of England was for a time united again into one kingdom. As a result, the Danes, who lived in England and were related to the Anglo-Saxons both in language and in their social system, merged with the Anglo-Saxons.

At the end of the X century. Danish invasions resumed with renewed vigor. The Danish kings, who by that time had united under their rule not only Denmark, but also most of Scandinavia, resumed raids on England and in 1016, subjugating the whole country, established the power of the Danish kings there. One of them - Canute (at the beginning of the 11th century) was simultaneously the king of England, Denmark and Norway.

In England, he sought to find support in the person of large Anglo-Saxon landowners. The collection of laws published by him confirmed a number of privileges and rights appropriated to themselves by large federal landowners. In particular, he recognized the broad judicial rights of the feudal lords over the population subject to them.

However, Danish rule in England proved fragile. The state of Canute, torn apart by internal contradictions and feudal strife, quickly disintegrated, and the old Anglo-Saxon dynasty was restored to the English throne in the person of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066).

The development of feudal relations in England in the IX-XI centuries.

The process of feudalization of Anglo-Saxon society, which continued during the period of struggle with the Danes, by the 11th century. gone far enough. Differentiation among free community members, the ruin of significant masses of the peasantry, intensified by Danish raids, violence on the part of the nobility supported by the state - all this led to the transfer of a significant part of the peasant land into the hands of large landowners. The reduction of peasant landownership was accompanied by the fragmentation of allotments. The size of the peasant allotment also decreased in connection with the separation of individual families from a large family. If initially a common peasant allotment was a gaida (120 acres), then in the 9th-11th centuries, when a large family finally gave way to an individual family, a much smaller allotment - a girda (1/4 gaida - 30 acres) was already common ( Subsequently, an allotment of 30 acres became known as a virgata.).

Large landownership grew steadily. The wars with the Danes contributed to the formation of a new dominant layer of landowners - the military service nobility, or the so-called thegns, who replaced the former royal warriors - the gesites. This was a significant stratum of small and medium-sized landowners, from which the Anglo-Saxon chivalry subsequently formed. The large landowners, who differed from the small tens primarily in the large size of their possessions and great political influence, retained the name of the former noble people - erls.

An important role in the enslavement of free Anglo-Saxon peasants and in their subordination to large landowners was played, as in the Frankish state, by immunity, which in England was called juice. A peasant who fell under the rule of a large landowner who received the rights of immunity was called a cokmen. He was still considered personally free and continued to own his land, he could even leave the estate. But in judicial terms, such a peasant was dependent on a large landowner. This allowed the latter to gradually turn a free peasant into a person who was indebted to the immune landowner for certain payments or duties.

The royal government, in turn, continued to actively promote the enslavement of the peasants. Thus, "The Truth of King Athelstan" (first half of the 10th century) ordered the relatives of a man who does not have a master to "find him a glaford." If even after such an order a person was “out of protection”, he could be killed with impunity. The growth of the private power of the landowner was also evidenced by the "Truth of King Edmund" (mid-10th century), which said that every owner of the land "is responsible for his people and for everyone who is in his world and on his land."

The feudally dependent landowners at that time had not yet merged into a single stratum of the serf peasantry. So, in the Anglo-Saxon feudal estate, according to one monument dating back to the beginning of the 11th century, genites worked, the former free curls, apparently still retaining ownership of the land and were obliged to pay their lord a light monetary and natural dues, and sometimes carry a small barshchina. In relation to the king, the genites were indebted to the military service of a free man. Along with them, the geburs lived on the estate - disenfranchised peasants who sat on the master's land and were obliged to corvee in the amount of 2-3 days a week throughout the year. The Geburs also carried a number of other heavy duties (they paid dues, various dues, etc.). Permanent corvée and other heavy duties were also performed by cossetles (cutters) - peasants who were holders of only small plots of land.

Thus, the process of feudalization that began in England after the Anglo-Saxon conquest by the beginning of the 11th century. hasn't been completed yet. Significant masses of peasants remained free, especially in the field of "Danish law", because the class differentiation among the Danes who settled in this part of the country was not yet as sharply expressed as among the Anglo-Saxons, and the feudal estate did not become widespread and did not acquire that finished form, which distinguished the feudal estate (manor) in England in a later period.

2. Formation of the early feudal Scandinavian states - Denmark, Norway and Sweden

The beginning of the transition of the Scandinavian countries to feudalism

Scandia (Scandza, Scadinavia) ancient writers called the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as the islands adjacent to it.

By the beginning of the Middle Ages, most of Scandinavia and Jutland were inhabited by tribes that made up the northern branch of the Germanic tribes.

In the southern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, in the region of the lakes Vänern and Vättern, lived the Getae, or Yoty (in some monuments they are called Gauts and Geats). The southern part of modern Sweden has retained the old name - Gotaland (Yotaland), that is, the land of the Goths (Yots). Slightly north of the Getae, in the area around Lake Mälaren (in present-day Central Sweden), the Svei (Svion, or Sveon according to ancient authors) lived. Hence Svealand - the land of the Swedes, or Swedes.

In the western part of the Scandinavian Peninsula (modern Norway), a large number of small tribes lived: Raums, Ryugs, Chords, Trends, Haleigs, etc. These were the ancestors of modern Norwegians. Danes (hence the Danes) lived on the islands of the Danish archipelago, in the neighboring regions of Southern Scandinavia (Skåne and others) and on the Jutland Peninsula.

In addition to the Germanic tribes on the Scandinavian Peninsula (in the northern regions of Sweden and Norway), there lived tribes of Finns ( Hence the name of the northernmost region of Norway - Finnmark.). This name in the Old Norse sources is called the Saami (Lapps). By the beginning of the Middle Ages and even much later, these tribes were at the stage of a stable tribal, primitive communal system. The Scandinavian Germanic tribes at that time were already undergoing a process of decomposition of primitive communal relations, although more slowly than among the Germanic tribes living closer to the borders of the Roman Empire. Scandinavia, located on the northern edge of the European continent, was little subject to Roman influence.

The main occupations of the population of the Scandinavian countries in the early Middle Ages were cattle breeding, agriculture, hunting, fishing and navigation. For plow farming, the most favorable conditions were in Jutland (in the middle part of the peninsula and especially on the adjacent Danish islands), in the southern part of Scandinavia and in Central Sweden, in Upland, an area adjacent to Lake Mälaren. Rye and barley were cultivated here. With the further development of agriculture in Scandinavia, crops such as oats, flax, hemp and hops appeared.

But agriculture was not developed in all areas of Scandinavia. In vast areas of the northern and western part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, that is, in Norway and most of Sweden, as well as in the northern part of the Jutland Peninsula, there were very few lands suitable for cultivation. Most of the territory here was occupied by forests, mountains and swamps; geographical conditions, especially climatic, terrain, etc.; were not favorable for agriculture. They were dealt with here to a relatively small extent. Cultivated mainly barley, less - rye.

The main occupations of the population in these areas of Scandinavia were cattle breeding, hunting, especially for fur-bearing animals, and fishing. In the far north of Norway and Sweden, reindeer herding played an important role.

Fishing has become especially important in Scandinavia. This is due to exceptionally favorable conditions: the large length of the coastline, highly indented and replete with many bays, bays and other natural harbors convenient for parking ships, the presence of ship timber and iron (mined from swamp ore, and later mining), necessary for the construction of strong sea courts, etc.

The development of navigation and nautical knowledge was also closely connected with the significant development of fishing. The inhabitants of Scandinavia and Jutland, who in the Middle Ages were often called by the common name of the Normans (literally "northern people"), were courageous navigators who made long voyages on their rather large ships for those times (multi-oared sailing boats), which could accommodate up to hundreds of soldiers. At the same time, the Normans were engaged not only in fishing, but also in trade, which at that time often had a semi-robber character, and outright robbery - piracy.

As tribal relations decayed among the Scandinavian tribes, a transition was made from a tribal community to a rural, neighboring community. At the same time, social stratification grew. The tribal nobility stood out more and more sharply from the mass of free community members, and the power of military leaders, as well as the priesthood, increased. At the same time, the squad began to play an increasingly important role, with which the military leader shared the booty captured during the wars. All this contributed to the further disintegration of the communal order, the strengthening of social differentiation and the gradual formation of classes. There were alliances of tribes headed by kings (konungs) and the first, still very fragile, political associations were born - the forerunners of the early feudal Scandinavian states.

The Scandinavian countries, like many others, did not experience the slaveholding stage of development. Here, however, patriarchal slavery existed. The slave-owning way of life was especially developed in Scandinavia in the 9th-11th centuries, when individual military leaders began to undertake long-distance sea voyages with the aim of robbing, trading and capturing prisoners of war, whom the Normans sold to other states into slavery, and partly used in their economy.

In the economically more developed regions of Scandinavia, especially in Denmark, in southern Sweden, and partly in Central Sweden, slave labor was more widespread. The tribal and military-landowning nobility, towering above the mass of free community members, exploited in their economy a significant number of slaves, for the most part who already had allotments, that is, planted on the land. This nobility began to subjugate the free peasants. Survivals of slave labor remained of considerable importance in Scandinavia even later, until the 13th and even the beginning of the 14th century, but slavery did not become the basis of production.

The Scandinavian countries entered the path of feudal development only in the 9th-11th centuries, and the process of feudalization itself took place in Scandinavia more slowly than in most countries of Western Europe. Free peasantry, although in diminishing numbers, existed in Scandinavia throughout the Middle Ages. Common ownership of uncultivated land, pastures, meadows, forests, swamps and other lands existed and was widespread throughout the Middle Ages. While a significant stratum of independent free peasantry was preserved in Norway and Sweden, the feudal holders did not lose their personal freedom either, which was an important feature of the development of feudalism in Scandinavia.

In most of Sweden and Norway, where agriculture did not become the main occupation of the population, there were usually no conditions for the emergence of large feudal farms with large master fields, the cultivation of which would require the use of corvée labor of serfs. Here feudal exploitation was expressed mainly in food rent and in some other in-kind duties of the dependent population.

In Denmark, that is, in Jutland, on the Danish islands and in Skåne (in the southern part of Scandinavia, which was part of the Danish possessions in the Middle Ages), agriculture was the main branch of the economy. Therefore, here subsequently a large feudal estate with corvée and serfdom played a significant role.

Development of feudalism in Denmark

Feudal relations in Denmark began to develop earlier than in other Scandinavian countries. This was due to the more significant development of agriculture and related sectors of the economy than in other areas of Scandinavia, the earlier collapse of tribal relations and the transition to a rural community, the decomposition of which led to the formation of prerequisites for the transition to feudalism. Of some importance was the fact that, due to its geographical position, Denmark, more than Norway, not to mention Sweden, was connected with the feudal countries of Western Europe and, consequently, its social system could be more influenced by the orders prevailing in these countries.

Earlier than in other Scandinavian countries, an early feudal state began to take shape in Denmark. Back in the 8th century King (King) Harald Battle Tooth, according to legend, united all of Denmark and the southern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula (Skone, Halland, Blekinge) under his rule.

In the 10th century, under King Harald Sinezub (circa 950-986), the Danish kingdom was already strong enough to wage successful wars with the tribes of the Prussians and Pomeranian Slavs. Under the same Harald Sinezub, Christianity began to spread in Denmark. The kings gave large land grants to the church. Christianity finally took root in Denmark in the 11th century.

The Kingdom of Denmark reached considerable power under King Kanute (1017-1035). The composition of his power, in addition to southern Scandinavia, also included England and Norway. But it was just as fragile a state formation, like other large early feudal states. It disintegrated immediately after the death of Kanut. Of all the territories conquered by the Danes, only Southern Scandinavia remained in the Danish kingdom.

Norway in the Early Middle Ages

Numerous small tribes that inhabited Norway for a long time lived within small areas (fylks) separated by high mountains. Communication between them was carried out mainly by sea, thanks to bays (fjords) deeply protruding into the land. At the head of each tribe was its leader - jarl, a representative of the tribal nobility, who ruled with the help of the people's assembly.

Several tribes united in tribal unions. The affairs of such an alliance were decided by the people's assembly, which initially included all free people. Such meetings; called Things. In fact, not all free people could come to the Thing. Too much distance often served as an obstacle: the members of the tribe were forced to break away from their household for a long time. With the growth of social stratification, the nature of the Things also changed. War chiefs and other representatives of the nobility came to the Things with their squads and dependent people, putting more and more pressure on their decisions. The larger tribal unions were the Riks. At the head of such associations were elected kings (kings), who were elected at popular meetings - tings, usually from representatives of a certain noble family.

The decomposition of tribal relations and the emergence of classes led to the formation of the early feudal Norwegian state. An important role in this, as in other Scandinavian countries, was played by the formation of the military service nobility, grouped around the jarls and kings, who took part in their military campaigns and the division of booty.

A long fierce struggle between the military leaders (who tried to unite all counties under their rule) and the local tribal nobility more than once led during the 9th-10th centuries. to the temporary unification of the country under the rule of one or another king. The first still very fragile unification of Norway took place under Harald Fairhair around 872.

In Norway, as in other Scandinavian countries, the Christian church was an important tool of the kings in the political unification of the country. Christianity began to penetrate Norway in the middle of the 10th century. At the end of this century, it was already officially introduced by King Olaf Trygvason (995-1000). It was forced Christianization. The masses put up stubborn resistance to it. The tribal nobility, which relied on local pagan cults, also opposed the introduction of Christianity. Under King Olaf Haraldsson (1015-1028), whom the church called "saint" for his zealous planting of Christianity, the unity of Norway was more or less strengthened. Thus, a relatively strong unification of separate tribes and tribal unions of Norway under the rule of one king occurred at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th century.

In 1025, at the Battle of the Helge River (in Skåne), the Norwegians were defeated by the Danes; a little later, in 1028, Norway for a short time became part of the possessions of the Danish king Canute. Norway freed itself from Danish domination in 1035, immediately after the collapse of the Kanut state.

Formation of the Swedish state

In the XI century. The Swedish early feudal state also began to take shape, while two centers played the most important role in the unification of the Swedish tribes. One of them was located in Central Sweden, in the region of Lake Mälaren, in an area inhabited since ancient times by the Sveev tribe (Uppsala). Another center was the region of the tribes of the Goths, or Yots, i.e. Southern Sweden. In a stubborn struggle between the Uppsala kings (kings) and the South Swedish kings, the kings of Central Sweden (Uppsala) won.

Olaf Shetkonung (early 11th century) was the first king to extend his power throughout the country. Under Olaf, the Christianization of Sweden also began (about 1000). But Christianity finally triumphed in Sweden only by the 12th century. By the same time, and even later (XIII-XIV centuries), the final approval of feudal relations in Sweden also applies. But even then the feudally dependent holders made up only a minor part of the peasantry. The bulk of the Swedish peasants during most of the Middle Ages retained the position of free community members, landowners.

Naval campaigns of the Normans and their raids on European countries

Led by the leaders - the Vikings, the Normans made long sea voyages on their ships, the purpose of which was to capture rich booty and prisoners. The captured Normans were sold into slavery in the markets of various European and Asian countries, thus combining sea robbery - piracy with trade.

With the development of feudal relations in Scandinavian society, piracy, initiated by the nobility, intensified. A well-known role in this was played by the rivalry between individual representatives of the nobility for power in the emerging early feudal states and the displacement by the victorious kings (kings) of members of the noble families competing with them, who left Scandinavia with their squads.

The ships of the Normans plowed the seas washing the shores of Europe (Baltic, Northern, Mediterranean) and the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. In the VIII and especially in the IX-X centuries. they raided the eastern coasts of England, Scotland and Ireland, and also reached the Faroe Islands and Iceland, where they established their colonies.

Iceland in the 8th century visited by the Irish. The beginning of the colonization of Iceland by Scandinavians, mainly immigrants from Western Norway, dates back to the 70s of the 9th century. The settlement, from which the main city of Iceland, Reykjavik, subsequently grew, was founded in 874. In the 9th-11th centuries. in Iceland, the same socio-economic processes took place as in Norway, but the isolation of the island, its remoteness not only from Scandinavia, but also from other countries, contributed to a particular slowdown in social development. Tribal nobility - the so-called years were both military leaders and priests. The government of the country was increasingly concentrated in the hands of this nobility. In the all-Icelandic people's assembly - the Althing (which arose in 930), the decisive role belonged to representatives of the feudalizing elite of society. In 1000, under pressure from Norway, Christianity was officially adopted at the Althing, but it spread very weakly in Iceland. Along with Christianity, pre-Christian beliefs and cults continued to exist here for a very long time.

In the second half of the XIII century. Iceland was conquered by Norway, and at the end of the XIV century. (according to the Kalmar Union), together with Norway, fell under the rule of Denmark, which led to the oppression and exploitation of the Icelanders, first by the Norwegian, and then by the Danish feudal state. However, in Iceland, as in Norway, serfdom did not develop.

At the end of the X century. (about 982) Icelander Eric the Red discovered Greenland, on the southwestern coast of which the first settlement of immigrants from Iceland arose. This was the beginning of the colonization of Greenland by Europeans. Scandinavian settlements in Greenland existed for several centuries.

Around 1000, the Scandinavians sailed to America, the first to land here was Life, the son of Eric the Red, his ship was accidentally carried to these shores by strong winds. Skydinavs founded three settlements in North America: Helluland (in the Labrador region), Markland (in Newfoundland) and Vinland (believed to be near present-day New York). But these settlements, as permanent colonies, apparently did not last long. The very fact of the discovery of America by the Scandinavians remained little known and was subsequently forgotten.

The Normans penetrated deep into Germany along the rivers Elbe, Weser and Rhine. The Normans also attacked France - from the English Channel, the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean Sea. Just as in Germany, they penetrated the great rivers into the depths of France, mercilessly plundered and devastated the country, bringing terror everywhere. In 885 - 886 years. Normans besieged Paris for 10 months, but could not break the stubborn resistance of its defenders.

At the beginning of the X century. (in 911) the Normans, led by Rollon, seized the territory at the mouth of the Seine and founded their principality here. Thus the Duchy of Normandy was born. The Normans who settled here quickly lost their language, adopted local dialects and customs, and merged with the French population.

Natives of Normandy in the XI century. penetrated through Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea, conquered southern Italy and Sicily and founded a number of counties and duchies there (Apulia, Calabria, Sicily, etc.). The politically fragmented feudal states of Western Europe could not offer sufficient resistance to the Normans, but the Normans themselves more or less quickly assimilated and merged with the locals.

The Normans, who in Eastern Europe were called the Varangians, made pirate raids into its borders. They combined these raids with trade, primarily in slaves, whom they delivered to Byzantium, and through the Volga and the Caspian Sea to Iran and its neighboring countries. The path of the Varangians from Scandinavia to Constantinople (the so-called "Great Route from the Varangians to the Greeks") ran through the Gulf of Finland, Neva, Lake Ladoga, Volkhov, Lake Ilmen, the Lovat River, partly the Western Dvina and further along the Dnieper to the Black Sea. Varangian settlements on the lands of the Eastern Slavs remained scattered and isolated, and the assimilation of the Varangians in Russia was extremely fast.

3. The culture of the early feudal society in England and Scandinavia

Culture of England

In the initial period of the early Middle Ages, at least in the first century and a half after the start of the migration to Britain, the Anglo-Saxons did not yet have a written language. They developed oral poetry, especially heroic epic, which preserved historical legends, everyday and ritual songs - drinking, wedding, funeral, as well as songs related to hunting, agricultural work and pre-Christian religious beliefs and cults. Skilled singer-musicians, the so-called gleomaniacs, who composed and performed songs accompanied by musical instruments, enjoyed great respect among the Anglo-Saxons. With the strengthening of the role of the princely and royal squads, the Anglo-Saxons appeared singers-squads, the so-called ospreys. Using tribal and tribal traditions, they composed songs about the exploits of ancient heroes and modern military leaders (7th-8th centuries).

The largest work of the Anglo-Saxon heroic epic, which arose on the basis of the folk traditions of the Anglo-Saxon tribes, heroic songs and sagas of Scandinavian origin, is the Beowulf Poem (about 700), originally written, as is believed, in the Mercian dialect of Old English. The most ancient copy of the poem has been preserved in a manuscript of the 10th century, containing over 3,000 verses.

The poem sings of the heroic struggle of Beowulf with the bloodthirsty monster Grendel. Beowulf, the bravest of the knights of the South Scandinavian tribe of Geats (Gauts), defeats this monster in single combat and performs a number of other feats. The poem in a vivid artistic form reflects the characteristic features of the tribal system. Beowulf embodies the best qualities of a folk hero - fearlessness, courage, justice, the desire to help comrades in trouble, the willingness to die in the struggle for a just cause. At the same time, the poem clearly shows the features of the life of the squad, the relationship between kings and warriors, on which the growing royal power relied more and more. Pre-Christian beliefs and mythology in this poem clearly predominate over elements of Christian beliefs, which, as established, are mostly later additions of the clerics who rewrote the poem.

One of the oldest monuments of Anglo-Saxon writing and at the same time a work of fine art is a box made of whalebone, dating from about the middle of the 7th century, with runic inscriptions carved on it ( Runes are written characters (letters) that had some similarities with the Latin and Greek alphabets. They were used by various ancient Germanic tribes (Goths, Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians, etc.) for inscriptions carved on rocks, gravestones, shields, household items, items made of horn, bone, wood, and metal.) in the Northumbrian dialect and with relief images of episodes from ancient Germanic, ancient and biblical mythology. This testifies to the undoubted penetration into the popular culture of the Anglo-Saxons of church influence.

The development of feudal relations and the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons associated with this process led to the emergence of religious poetry in various dialects of the Old English language, based on biblical stories. Examples of this kind of poetry are the so-called Caedmon Hymns, originally written in the Northumbrian dialect, and then translated into the Mercian and Wessex dialects, and works of a religious epic and didactic nature (biblical tales, legends and lives of the saints) attributed to Cynewulf, who lived It is believed that at the end of the 8th - beginning of the 9th century.

Christianization led to the emergence of the Anglo-Saxons along with Old English and Latin writing. Originated in England in the 7th-8th centuries. the monasteries became centers of ecclesiastical education and literature, which developed primarily in Latin.

A page from the "Ecclesiastical History of the Anglian People". Troubles of the Hon. 8th century

The most significant centers of feudal-church culture were located in the north-east of England. In the monastery of Yarrow in Northumbria lived Bede the Venerable (673-735), one of the most educated people of his time, the author of the first major work on English history - "The Church History of the Angles". Bede's historical work, written in Latin, covered the events of English history up to 731 and included, along with reliable information, many legends and ancient folk traditions. At the episcopal school in York, the famous figure of the "Carolingian revival" Anglo-Saxon Alcuin was brought up and began to teach.

Danish invasions, which began at the end of the 8th century, led to the ruin of entire regions of the country, especially in the northeast, and caused great damage to the development of Anglo-Saxon culture. Some rise in it was outlined only in the second half of the 9th century; as a result of strengthening the position of Wessex as the center of the unification of England. Under King Alfred, secular schools were opened in Wessex for the children of the nobility, in which teachers who arrived from the continent taught. Translations into English of the works of Latin authors were made (a number of translations belong to Alfred himself). This contributed to the development of the Anglo-Saxon, i.e., Old English language and literature. At the same time, the compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was undertaken, which marked the beginning of chronicle writing in English.

Significant successes were achieved in the IX-XI centuries. in the design of handwritten books. With great skill, the Anglo-Saxon masters, people from the people, whose names remained unknown, illustrated secular and church books. The headpieces, endings, capital letters and miniatures they made testify to the richness of creative imagination, they are distinguished by the subtlety of the drawing and the surprisingly artistic combination of colors.

Culture of Scandinavia

The culture of Scandinavia is interesting, first of all, for its precious heritage of pre-feudal (primitive communal) and early feudal origin: epic songs of the so-called “Elder Edda”, amazing in their original artistic content, powerful narrations of Icelandic family and royal sagas and poetry of skalds - Old Norse singers and poets, who moved from one place to another and composed heroic songs about the battles and campaigns of the Vikings. This epic folk poetry, in its content and power of poetic representation, is unparalleled in all Western European literature of the early Middle Ages.

The most important monument of the Scandinavian poetic epic "Elder Edda" is a collection of ancient Norse and Old Norse songs of a mythological and heroic nature, tales of gods and heroes based on a well-developed pagan mythology. These works reflect in poetic form not only pagan ideas and beliefs, but also the life and real relations of the tribal society. The heroic songs included in the Edda tell about historical events that took place during the so-called "great migration of peoples." The Elder Edda was recorded in Iceland, believed to be in the 12th century. with the advent of Latin writing there (the oldest manuscript that has come down to us dates back to the second half of the 13th century), but its songs were composed in the 9th-10th centuries, and in content many of them date back to ancient times.

"Younger Edda" is a prose treatise on Scandinavian mythology and poetics, written in the XII century. Icelandic skald and historian Snorri Sturluson.

A special place in the Scandinavian medieval literature is occupied by the Icelandic sagas - prose epic narratives in Icelandic, developed by skalds orally and first recorded in the 12th century.

Sagas are varied in content. Many of them are historical legends, in which actual historical events have found a fairly true reflection: for example, the Egil Saga is a legend about the famous Viking and skald of the 10th century. Egil Skalagrimsson is one of the most reliable sagas in terms of its historical content, the “Saga of Njal”, the wise Icelandic lawyer of the late 10th - early 11th century. and bloody tribal strife, "The Saga of Eric the Red", which tells about the discovery of Greenland and North America by the Icelanders, etc.

Some sagas are of great value as historical sources, in particular sagas that provide evidence related to the history of Russia. Actually feudal, chivalric culture arose in the Scandinavian countries much later and developed under strong German influence (especially in Denmark).

In the history of the material culture of the Scandinavian countries of this time, it is necessary to note the remarkable folk applied art - woodcarving, as well as church architecture (the construction of wooden churches). Both of these arts flourished especially in Norway.

The stone architecture of this time is represented by the cathedral in Stavanger (Norway, the end of the 11th-beginning of the 12th century) and the large cathedral in Lund (Sweden, the 12th century), built in the Romanesque style.

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The Anglo-Saxons began to be called the tribes of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians and several other small tribes from the European continent, which in the V-VI centuries. invaded what is now England on ships, ousted the Celts and other indigenous people from there, experienced a brief period of paganism, were baptized by Roman priests, united under the leadership of Alfred the Great, survived a difficult period of struggle (and partial merger) with the Vikings from Scandinavia (and Iceland) and , finally, were defeated and gradually destroyed as an independent culture by the French under the leadership of William the Bastard ("Conqueror") in 1066. In the XI - at the latest XII centuries. Anglo-Saxon culture and living language completely ceased to exist in this world and survived only in manuscripts, on a few runic monuments and in distorted geographical names (toponymy). The period of development of the Anglo-Saxon language from the middle of the 5th to the middle of the 12th centuries is called Old English. (F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron: 1980: 1890-1907)

Old English (English) Old English, OE Гnglisc sprc; also called Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of English spoken in what is now England and southern Scotland.

According to L. Korablev, the corpus of Old English literature consists of:

• 1) Alliterative poetry: for the most part, these are variations on themes from the Old and New Testaments. Although there are several "native" heroic poems, such as "The Battle of Maldon", "The Battle of Brunanburg", "Widsita", the ancient lists are "thuls", and a number of other poems that modern Western scholars classify as Old English Christian symbolism (" Seafarer", "Lament of the Wife", "Ruins", etc.). True, the so-called ancient English conspiracies and magic have been preserved, where ancient Germanic magic and paganism are half present with Roman Jewish ideas and vocabulary. The most famous examples are "Field Rites", "Spell of Nine Plants", "Conspiracy Against Rheumatism or Sudden Acute Pain", "Spell of a Swarm of Bees", "Against Water Elf Disease", "Against Dwarf Dverga", "Against Theft" , "Road Spell", etc.; there are also alliterative riddles, as well as verses from the Old English chronicles and poetic translations of the books of Orosius and Boethius, devoted to Greek-Latin-Christian themes and the Paris Psalter; stands apart, of course, "Beowulf";
• 2) Old English prose:
  • a) Old English laws: secular and ecclesiastical;
  • b) the sermons of the Anglo-Saxon priests themselves (often this is alliterative prose), this also includes the lives of St. Oswald, St. Edmund, St. Gutlak, etc.;
  • c) several versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle;
  • d) Old English translations of the Christian Apocrypha and the Pentateuch;
  • e) Old English translations of worldly Oriental and Greek-Latin novels such as Apollonius of Tours (Alekseev: Apollonius of Tyre);
  • f) translations into Old English of the books of Boethius, Orosius, St. Augustine, Pope Gregory, made with several inserts and additions by King Alfred the Great;
  • g) Old English genealogies, legal documents, astronomical, mathematical, grammatical works and glosses. (Here you can also add a few Latin and Middle English works created both by the Anglo-Saxons themselves and by subsequent generations, which talk about the history of the Anglo-Saxons);
  • h) Old English herbalists and medical books;
• 3) Separately, one can single out Old English runic monuments, where there is both prose and alliterative poetry. The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) runic poem is one of the most important medieval manuscripts containing information about runes. (Korablev L.L., 2010: 208)

The art of the Anglo-Saxons is closely connected with literature, because most of the surviving monuments are illustrations for books, scriptures, lives of saints.

The term "Anglo-Saxon art" itself refers to a particular style of book decoration and architecture that existed in England from the 7th century until the Norman Conquest (1066). Anglo-Saxon art can be divided into two periods - before and after the Danish invasion in the 9th century. Until the 9th century, the design of handwritten books was one of the most flourishing crafts in England. There were two schools: Canterbury (developed under the influence of Roman missionaries) and Northumberland, much more common (preserved Celtic traditions). The Celtic decorative traditions of this school (pelt pattern) were combined with the pagan traditions of the Anglo-Saxons (bright zoomorphic patterns). The Mediterranean influence manifested itself in the addition of human figures to the pattern. The Danish invasion in the 9th century had a devastating effect on Anglo-Saxon art. This became especially noticeable in the 10th century, when destroyed monasteries began to revive and interest in architecture increased. At that time, churches built in the Anglo-Saxon style existed at the monasteries, and their architectural design was borrowed from European architects, especially French ones. At this time, King Edward began the construction of Westminster Abbey (1045-1050), which, in its layout, resembled French models. Anglo-Saxon architecture had its own differences: the relatively frequent use of wood, the square room of the altar ledge in the eastern part of the temple (instead of a semicircular one), and a special masonry technique. The early Anglo-Saxon secular buildings in Great Britain were simple buildings mostly of wood and thatched roofs. Preferring not to settle in the old Roman cities, the Anglo-Saxons built small towns near their centers of agriculture. Among the monuments of spiritual architecture, one can single out the surviving churches and cathedrals built of stone or brick (All Saints Church in Brixworth (Northamptonshire), St. Martin's Church (Canterbury), except for one built of wood (Grinstead Church (Essex)). influenced not only the development of architecture, but also the increase in the number of new books in the second half of the 10th century and the development of the so-called Winchester school of manuscript design.The school was characterized by a very lively, nervous and expressive drawing.Works with a brush and pen have been preserved.The works of the Winchester school were a model to imitate the French masters Works of English art of the 7th-10th centuries. - mainly illustrated manuscripts and objects of a decorative and applied nature are still entirely in the living Celtic tradition and are strongly influenced by the Scandinavian tradition. Magnificent monuments of Anglo-Saxon art are the Lindisfarne Gospel, the Book of Durrow, precious objects from the burial in Sutton Hoo, numerous carved crosses, etc. (David M. Wilson, 2004: 43)

The predominant occupation of the Anglo-Saxons was agriculture, but they were also engaged in cattle breeding, fishing, hunting, beekeeping. By the time they moved to Britain, they plowed the land with a heavy plow, grew cereals (wheat, rye, barley, oats) and garden crops (beans and peas). In addition, crafts flourished: wood and metal carving, leather, bone, and clay products.

The Anglo-Saxons maintained communal relations for a long time. The bulk of the Anglo-Saxons until the 9th century. were free peasants - community members who owned plots of arable land up to 50 hectares in size. They had many rights: they could participate in public meetings, have weapons and formed the basis of the military militia of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

The Anglo-Saxons also had noble people who gradually turned into large landowners. Like many other ancient peoples, there were also semi-free people and slaves, who came mainly from the conquered Briton population.

At the head of individual Anglo-Saxon states were kings, whose power was limited by the "council of the wise", consisting of representatives of the nobility. The "Council of the Wise" approved the laws and was the supreme court of the kingdom, he elected the king and could remove him. At the same time, the role of the community was still strong in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. All the most important issues of the life of the village were decided at the gatherings of community members.

In order to consider the recipients of spells, it is necessary to analyze the religious beliefs of the Anglo-Saxon tribes.

Anglo-Saxon paganism is a form of Germanic paganism practiced by the Anglo-Saxons in England, after the Anglo-Saxon invasion in the middle of the 5th century until the Christianization of its kingdoms between the 7th and 8th centuries. Much of what is known about Anglo-Saxon paganism comes from ancient texts that have survived to this day. Such are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and the epic poem Beowulf. Like most religions defined as paganism, it was a polytheistic tradition centered around the belief in various gods that were the supreme deities of the Norse tradition. Among them:

Odin (Wäden) Supreme god, god of war, poetry and mystical ecstasy. The English name for Wednesday - the day dedicated to Mercury - Wednesday, comes from his name.

Freya (Frog) Goddess of love and war. In addition to love, Freya is "responsible" for fertility, harvest and harvest. Harvests are different, and Freya sometimes has seizures, because of which she is allowed to harvest a bloody harvest. Thus, Freya can bring victory in battle. From her name comes the English word Friday, meaning Friday.

Balder (Balder) son of Odin and Freya, god of spring and wind. Balder is similar to the deities of dying and resurgent nature present in the mythology of many peoples, patronizing agriculture or vegetation in general.

Yngvi-Freyr (Ingui Frea) god of fertility and summer. Freyr is subject to sunlight, he sends rich harvests to people, patronizes peace on earth both between individuals and between entire nations.

Thor (Juunor) god of thunder, storm and sky. He protected gods and people from giants and monsters. Thor's magical equipment included: the hammer Mjolnir, iron gauntlets, without which it was impossible to hold the handle of a red-hot weapon, and a belt that doubles strength. With a red-hot hammer and a belt of strength, Thor was virtually invincible. The English name for Thursday is Thursday, derived from Thor's name.

Tyr (Tow) one-armed god of military prowess and justice. Tuesday is named after the god Tyr.

The religion largely revolved around sacrifices to these deities, especially at certain religious festivals throughout the year. Religious beliefs at both stages (pagan and Christian) were closely connected with the life and culture of the Anglo-Saxons; magic played a big role in their lives, explaining various phenomena of reality. Religious beliefs also relied on the structure of the Anglo-Saxon society, which was hierarchical.

Methodology for the search for the national component of the Western worldview

Here we have to reveal the role of the English ethnos in the birth and flourishing of modern Western civilization - a civilization that in the generally accepted historical typology is called the New Age. We will not now deviate from the generally accepted historical framework of the New Age and accept that the new European culture arose in the 17th century, which was accompanied by serious shifts in European culture in material, spiritual, socio-political terms. What can serve as a basis for identifying the special role of English culture in the formation of the European modernist mentality? The special role of England in European history has always been emphasized in the socio-political historiography of Europe. In other areas of culture, this role was sometimes less noticeable, and where it did not manifest itself at all due to the essentially unificationist nature of modernist culture, from the point of view of which national differences were erased in the central spheres of being of culture, which began to appear as they descended to more and more peripheral spheres. The culture of modernity here can be represented as a cone, the top of which is formed by the central spheres of modernist culture (economics, science, scientific philosophy, morality in the form of universal human values, etc.), as we descend to the circle-base of the cone, we are approaching more and more traditional and pushed aside in the era of modernity to the periphery of the spheres of culture (various genres of art, rituals, rituals, etc.). It is easy to see that the progressive-unificationist orientation of modernist thinking seeks to eliminate all national-separatist (the term "separatist" (lat. separatus) is used here in its original etymological meaning, translated into Russian as "separate", "special") manifestations in higher spheres cultures and, if possible, in the peripheral ones. In the same areas where the unificationist processes encountered difficulties, they were value-leveled and repulsed to the most remote edges of the cultural space, as vestiges of previous, and therefore backward, cultural epochs. The elimination of the national, therefore, was a priority task of the modernist worldview at its very inception, serving progressive, unificationist, eurocentric, scientific-rationalist the intentions of the new European style of thinking. Universalism and "supranationalism" can also be ranked among the generic essential features of modernism, as well as those listed above.

In its spatial existence, modernist culture has a tendency towards humanitarian expansion, the desire to carry out universal acculturation according to the Western type. This process in the 20th century, especially with the fall of colonialism, faced noticeable difficulties associated with the rejection of even the most primitive cultural formations of Western patterns of life. The need to solve this problem led to methodological reflection, which was expressed as follows by M.K. Petrov: "... In the analysis of cultural issues, the emphasis today must be shifted from what brings cultural types together and unites them, to what really separates them and what, apparently, will have to be overcome in one way or another in the order of the cultural revolution ...". This reflection touched upon the fundamental methodological postulates of scientific knowledge, one might say, the shrine of the European culture of modern times, which brilliantly proved itself in the previous two or three centuries and brought Europe world leadership. So an attempt to overcome the obstacles that arise in the way of European cultural expansion turns into a methodological revision of the modernist style of thinking itself. This revision also affects the ethnic universalism of European culture, reaching even the most impregnable bastion in this movement - experimental science, which from the very beginning was self-conscious of itself as an ethnically indifferent sphere of culture, i.e. having the same power of coercive persuasion for all people, regardless of their nationality. The difficulties of European cultural expansion prompted us to look for answers to the questions why the scientific method and scientific knowledge are not assimilated by representatives of many non-European cultural entities. But in modern conditions, the question must be posed more broadly: is modernist culture equally universal not only on a global scale, which, as we have seen, is already quite problematic, but also within Europe itself, which is a polyethnic entity? The difficulties of modern Russian modernization all the more make us look for answers to the questions posed. And from boring and powerless lamentations about the inability of Russian culture to European modernization, move on to a historical and culturological analysis of the very emergence of new European culture, or rather its national determinant, hidden behind the postulates about the universal nature of modern European culture and its core - experimental natural science.

First of all, in methodological terms, it must be emphasized that behind the well-known statements today about the fundamental difference between traditional (or traditionalist) and technogenic civilizations, it must be clearly remembered that technogenic civilization is present in the singular, it is unique, and there is no indication that in In the nearest historical time (or ever at all), the technogenic Western civilization will have its twins, which have arisen independently of the influence of the first and so far the only one. The next natural step seems to be a view of the new European culture as arising spontaneously and not determined by the previous stages of European history. For anyone who can go beyond Marxist schemes, this approach seems to be quite legitimate, especially since it is not new - both Weber and Petrov have already spoken about this, although they have not directly stated it. Petrov considered European culture in its origins, starting from antiquity, as having deviated from natural and simple forms of reproduction and transmission of social experience. And although he analyzes in detail the influence of the medieval way of thinking on the emergence of a scientific worldview, yet this influence alone is not enough for subsequent revolutionary changes. Here, with a certain degree of confidence, we can speak of a volitional factor that cannot be taken into account in the analysis of previous methods of reproduction, and therefore it is impossible to predict or reconstruct its successive connection with tradition. This volitional factor can be associated with the development of the national self-consciousness of the European peoples, which acquired a revolutionary scope in the 14th-17th centuries, with all the efforts of Christian Catholic universalism and cosmopolitanism to level this process. And here a legitimate question arises about the role that each of the main European ethnic groups played in the formation of the new European culture. And the logical next step - which European ethnic group played a leading role in the formation of modern European and all Western civilization? The history of European culture of modern times in its political, economic, technical, scientific aspects unequivocally says that the English ethnos played a special role in Europe for the last three or four centuries. Although until recently this question did not arise at all within the framework of European scientific-cosmopolitan rationalism, no special studies were carried out, still few people can object to the thesis that Great Britain took the initiative in many significant, system-forming phenomena of European culture (in public policy, economics, science). But the initiative is for that and the initiative, to be, albeit significant and frequent, but still a single act. The current state of European spiritual realities leads to recognizing the English ethnos not only as the leader, but also as the creator of the modern Western cultural Cosmos. M.K. Petrov mentioned that modern European scientific and technological civilization is a product of the Anglo-Saxon spirit. Behind the universalist intentions in economics, science, and technology, there is a mono-national culture, mentality, philosophy, and even mythology. If we reconstruct the process of formation of the worldview foundations of modern European culture in the schemes of synergetics, then we can say that European medieval culture entered a crisis non-equilibrium state in the 14th-15th centuries, and over the next two to three centuries, being in a state of fermentation and chaos, had there are several alternative ways of development. Perhaps the very strong-willed factor in the face of English ethnic self-consciousness and the energetic political and economic activity of England, which persistently offered Europe its principles for building new worldview postulates and new principles for human reproduction and the transmission of social experience, played its role here. Further, we will have to characterize in more detail, based on a number of modern studies, the role of the Anglo-Saxon ethnic group in the formation of the Western mentality.

Anglo-Saxon national component in the formation of the foundations of modern civilization

Modern culture is characterized not only by a rationalistic worldview (which is manifested in the values ​​and ideals of science), but also by rational relationships in almost all spheres of life, even in those that, like art, are difficult to formalize. The mind of the culture of modern times can be defined as instrumental rationality, characterized as the setting of goals (within the framework of earthly life) and the search for the most effective ways to achieve them, i.e. with the least material and time costs. Is this instrumental rationality a universal filter of worldview? Those. can it be a means of ordering the world, which can be equally well used by various ethnic entities? Here we can recall the famous rhetorical question “If smart, then why not rich?”, Which in the context we are considering is by no means rhetorical. Modern linguistics, coupled with the analytical philosophy of the twentieth century, which, by the way, is English-speaking, has come to the conclusion that the language of a particular ethnic entity, absorbed by representatives of this community from childhood, determines the worldview and the primary sense of order in the surrounding reality. Everything would be much simpler if the languages ​​of the world differed from each other only in terms of lexical composition, and each vocabulary unit of one language would have a clear semantic correlate in another. However, the same modern linguistics classifies the languages ​​of the world into five types with pronounced structural and grammatical differences. And these structural and grammatical differences, to put it mildly, significantly affect the differences in the worldview of certain national subjects. This five-term typology is to a certain extent conditional, since each of the structural-grammatical types carries the features of all the others, but the features of one type are dominant here. The languages ​​of the various European national subjects belong to different structural-grammatical types. New English, formed by the 16th century, belongs to the analytic language type, and is the most analytic of all European languages. Here is how the linguist A. Kiriyatsky characterizes the analytical structure: “... an analytical reasonable approach to everything, self-destruction of archaism and unnecessary excesses in democratic politics, economics and languages ​​... the strictest laws for constructing sentences to convey the most clear thought or beauty (sometimes to the detriment of beauty). The same is true in politics and economics. That which is not analytically profitable goes analytically into the background, like a vestige, which leads to often superficial knowledge, leading to prosperity, but the extinction of inner development ... ". Here we see both the advantages and disadvantages of the analytical structure, but it is obvious that for the creation of an instrumental-rational worldview, the New English language fits perfectly, better than other European languages. These conclusions well explain both the fact that English is the most common international language, and the fact that, thanks to its language, the English-speaking culture demonstrates its effectiveness in all significant areas of European and world culture. This connection between instrumental rationality and the English-speaking mentality can be reversed and the question arises whether instrumental rationality itself, as a pan-European phenomenon spreading its expansion throughout the world, was not created precisely by English culture during the period of chaos and ferment of the 16th-17th centuries? Instrumental rationality, cleared of value attitudes, is based on the fact that in everything it is necessary to proceed solely from one's own material interests. Such a mentality implies a view of the world around us, including other people, as dead inanimate bodies, a means to achieve my interests. The ideological basis for the formation and dissemination of such views was given in the teachings of T. Hobbes, in particular, in his famous phrase “the war of all against all”, which says that the natural nature of a person is enmity with other people in order to satisfy their needs. In economic terms, this postulate of Hobbes was the ideological basis of A. Smith's political economy concept, which in turn was the ideological basis of modern liberal economics. In the philosophical and methodological aspect, T. Hobbes is one of the founders of English empiricism, which limited the field of human knowledge to the experimental reality surrounding us and for a long time (and we continue to live in the European culture of the New Age) became the central paradigm of philosophical and scientific knowledge.

Finally, recent studies show that even the pride of European culture is experimental science, which for a long time was perceived as a stronghold of internationalism, holding national worlds together into a single European Universe, and that science is not free from ethnic rears. In particular, the historically first scientific theory, Newtonian mechanics, which determined the worldview of European mankind for more than three centuries, has some British mythological roots in its foundations. Jung's concept of archetypes provides a methodological basis for this kind of analysis. The results of the structural analysis of Newtonian mechanism can be summarized as follows. Matter, like the entire material world, appears to Newton as a formless, passive, homogeneous substance. An appeal to traditional mythology reveals here a parallel with the symbol of Water. The mythological "Water" symbolizes the totality of the possible. The Newtonian picture of the world is based on the boundless Water or Ocean as a symbol of the physical Universe. And since this picture of the world does not presuppose Land, then nature must be thought of here as a beginning, although different from Water in its original form, but still connected with it. At the same time, it is easy to see that the mechanism in essence is such a beginning, since it gravitates to a greater extent to the principle of “water”, chaotic, material, as opposed to the organism, thoroughly permeated with spiritual, logos energies. Further, the mechanism, as we know, presupposes movement. However, this is not a movement in the organic sense, i.e. not growth, complication and subsequent decay, which are a multifaceted deployment of internal potency and purpose, but a movement of a different kind - monotonous, aimless, reduced to the deployment of "bad infinity". Niels Bohr, in his autobiography, compared the repair of a damaged yacht to tissue regeneration in a wounded whale: “... the ship is not really a dead object either. It is to man what a web is to a spider, or a nest to a bird. The shaping force here comes from the man, and the repair of the yacht is also in a sense analogous to the healing of the whale. We believe that this is a very deep thought, because, indeed, the mechanism is associated with its creator and manager - a person. Man in relation to the mechanism plays the role of "soul" in the ancient sense of the word, i.e. active, intelligent, strong-willed, but at the same time qualitatively different from the mechanism and relatively independent of it (and, consequently, a person, taking on the control of the mechanism, as if dematerialized, almost reduced to the soul, that is, to reason and will). As we can see, the mechanism expresses the principles of unification, aimless movement in itself, corporality, the dominance of plurality over unity. All of these are imprints of signs of matter in the ancient, mythological sense of the word, i.e. matter as uncertainty, fluidity, formlessness, infinite fragmentation. Moreover, it is clear that in the system of traditional mythologems, only the symbol of the Ship can correspond to such an inanimate, material, mobile principle that exists in the boundless Ocean and is associated with the water element. So, the mythological symbol of physical nature in its phenomenal, objective form in Newton's picture of the world is "Ship".

Nature, according to Newton, does not have the beginning of activity in itself, it moves as a result of an external transcendental force - the Divine first impulse, which bends the inertial rectilinear movement of isolated bodies, turns them into a system of nature and sets the whole world in motion. At the same time, Newton is also inclined to understand the law of gravity as a miracle of God. So, the Newtonian God in His dynamic hypostasis is conceived as an absolutely transcendent and completely alien to nature principle - an invisible, all-pervading and all-controlling force, opposite to the inert visible world. Obviously, in traditional mythology, the image of the Wind corresponds to this, since there “the wind represents air in its active, mobile aspect and is considered the primary element due to its connection with the creative breath or breath.”

So, the picture of the world of Newton's physics, if it is translated from the metaphysical language into the language of mythological symbols, is a seething, restless Ocean-Matter without end and without edge. In this Ocean, the Ship-Nature floats, which is driven by the Wind-Spirit - the same celestial principle, but in its activity.

If we return to the general context of the Western culture of the Modern Age, we will immediately find that in the Modern Age, the most important event for the entire subsequent Western history took place: England began to perceive itself not as part of the continent, as in the Middle Ages, but as the World Island, and accordingly began to take shape and grow stronger. a special civilization of the "oceanic type", which opposed itself to the traditional civilizations of the continental type. In geopolitics, Land and Sea are understood as two types of world order and worldview belonging to a particular civilization, which are expressed in two antagonistic models of being or "nomos" - the House and the Ship. Home is peace. Ship - movement. Geopolitics sees in the Sea and the Land, the Ship and the House not just metaphors associated with the geographical features of civilization, but mythologemes that are rooted in the consciousness and self-awareness of this civilization, defining its existence and the way of historical life, i.e. fate. At the same time, it is argued that the dominance of the elements of Land and nomos "House" is characteristic of the traditional type of society, the main features of which are the attachment of a person to the earth, the Fatherland, the dominance of a hierarchized worldview, as a rule, of a religious persuasion, the "spiritual Vertical", emphatically non-pragmatic, irrational, non-bourgeois type of social life. The dominance of the Sea and the Ship, on the contrary, presupposes a society of a democratic, individualistic type, the main features of which are the assertion of individual freedom, activity, and social mobility, a dehierarchized non-religious worldview, a “spiritual horizontal”, market pragmatism, etc. . The founder of geopolitics, Karl Schmidt, emphasizes that the industrial revolution, the cult of scientism, comfort and rationalization of social relations belong exclusively to civilizations of the oceanic type, associated with their specific worldview.

Künewulf "Christ" - not in Russian, for those who speak English - modern English translation - http://www.apocalyptic-theories.com/literature/christiii/mechristiii.html

Important:

Tolkien J.R.R. - Return of Bjorntot - http://bookz.ru/authors/tolkien-djon-ronal_d-ruel/bjorntot/1-bjorntot.html

1. Book culture

The pre-literate period and the early period of the emergence of writing

In the initial period of the early Middle Ages, at least in the first century and a half after the start of migration to Britain, the Anglo-Saxons did not yet have a written language. They developed oral poetry, especially heroic epic, which preserved historical legends, everyday and ritual songs - drinking, wedding, funeral, as well as songs related to hunting, agricultural work and pre-Christian religious beliefs and cults. Skilled singer-musicians, the so-called gleomaniacs, who composed and performed songs accompanied by musical instruments, enjoyed great respect among the Anglo-Saxons. With the strengthening of the role of the princely and royal squads, the Anglo-Saxons appeared singers-squads, the so-called ospreys. Using tribal and tribal traditions, they composed songs about the exploits of ancient heroes and modern military leaders (7th-8th centuries).

About ospreys

A small piece of Anglo-Saxon poetry " " (i.e. "multi-travelling"), which for a long time was considered one of the oldest monuments of Anglo-Saxon literature that has come down to us, draws the image of just such a singer. Its main part is occupied by a "catalog" of countries allegedly visited by the singer, and those residences where he was received with honor. Among the glorious rulers who visited Widsid, the names of the most famous heroes of Germanic epic legends are named.

Another work in which the singer is described, "osprey", is called " ". It is a lyrical monologue put into the mouth of a court singer named Deor. Deor says that he once sang at the Geodenings and was loved by them until he was replaced by the "master of songs" Heorrenda (Heorrenda), who took away from him both the grace of the court and fief possession (landryht). Intrigues in the world of people of art: (Deor finds consolation for himself only in the fact that he recalls a whole string of famous images of heroic sagas, heroes of ancient legends. Initially, the poem dates back to the 7th-8th centuries, now it is increasingly attributed to the 9th and even to the 10th century. But the examples used by the author clearly point to an ancient epic tradition.

The emergence of writing in England.

Writing in the modern sense of the word began to be used at the court of the Anglo-Saxon kings along with the adoption of Christianity, when, after the arrival of the Roman mission of St. Augustine, the first books in Latin appeared. Most likely, these were books used in worship, and, of course, the Bible. Since 597, Latin became the official language of the Christian Church in England, and Latin writing was practically the only type of writing that was soon adapted for records in Old English. On the basis of the Latin alphabet, the Old English alphabet was created, which was distinguished by the special styles of some letters, characteristic of the so-called “insular” (“island”) Latin script, as well as the use of two runic characters.

Runic writing

There is evidence that the Anglo-Saxons who arrived in Britain owned the oldest native Germanic letter, the so-called runic alphabet.

Anglo-Saxon runes are a variation of the older runic alphabet known from the 2nd to the 7th centuries. all Germanic tribes. From the older runes, the younger runes should be distinguished, which spread only among the Scandinavian tribes in the Viking Age from the 9th to the 11th centuries.

Most of the older runic inscriptions found on the continent or in Scandinavia are isolated sentences that are difficult to interpret, or individual runes, sometimes the entire runic alphabet. Senior runes were not used to record texts of a narrative nature - laws, letters, epic tales. All these spheres of verbal creativity were of an oral nature among the Germans, and their transition to writing was associated with all the ancient Germanic peoples with the influence of Latin literacy.

Two main Anglo-Saxon monuments with runic inscriptions are known: this is the so-called. “Franks' casket” and “Ruthwell Cross”, both monuments of the 7th century.

“” is a casket on which, in one sentence, a whale (or walrus) is reported, from whose bone the casket was made, intended to store relics - perhaps holy gifts. The box is decorated with carvings that represent a mixture of ancient, Christian and pagan Germanic subjects. The mythical blacksmith Völund, a well-known character in Scandinavian mythology, is placed here side by side with the magi bringing gifts to the infant Christ.

Franks Casket Details:

Ruthwell Cross- This is a huge stone crucifix from Northumbria, found in the town of Ruthwell near the border with Scotland. On it are carved in runes several stanzas of a poem dedicated to the history of the Holy Cross (the full version of the poem has been preserved in a later manuscript). The appearance of such crosses is associated with the establishment of the cult of the Cross in the 7th century. after his return to Constantinople. Separate runic signs are also found at the end of some of the poems written in Old English by the Anglo-Saxon poet Kyunevulf (beginning of the 9th century). Each of the signs replaces in the text the word that the rune was called. The sequence of their appearance in the text allows us to reconstruct the name Kyunewulf.

The upper part of the Ruthwell Cross in front (photo on the left), behind (photo in the center) and the painted upper part of the copy of the Ruthwell Cross (photo on the right)

Such data indicate that the runes continued to be used for some time after the introduction of Christianity, and not only for the purposes of pagan magic. Apparently, their preservation is associated with an attempt to enhance the impact of the inscription on the addressee, regardless of the context in which the inscription appeared. So, the poet Kyunevulf not only weaves his name in runes into the text, but also urges the reader to pray for his soul. However, in the conditions of the struggle against paganism, the runes could not be preserved for a long time.

The first monuments in Old English

The bulk of the monuments of the 7th-8th centuries, that is, immediately after Christianization, were written in Latin. On the use of Old English in writing in the 7th century. there are only a few mentions, but the monuments themselves have not reached us. Apparently, however, from the very beginning, Latin was not the only official language in England, as in the Frankish state, Germany and other countries: for example, the first judicial codes (for example, “Laws of Ethelbert” - Kent, between 597 and 616) were written down in Old English (they were later included in his “Laws” by King Alfred in the 9th century).

Legal texts and translations of liturgical texts

In the early period from the 7th to the beginning of the 9th century. monuments in Old English are predominantly legal texts(laws, charters, donations to monasteries), as well as individual passages translations of liturgical texts- Gospels and Psalms). Obviously, the oldest way of using the Latin alphabet for records in Old English is the so-called “ glosses”, that is, superscripted translations of individual Latin words in the text of the Gospel and psalms. From these separate gloss inscriptions, glossaries were subsequently compiled - Latin-Old English dictionaries. The gloss technique shows the primary use of the Latin alphabet for records in Old English - the teaching of Anglo-Saxon clergymen in Latin as a foreign language. This teaching evidently began immediately after Kent's baptism, as the "Laws of Æthelbert" recorded in Old English testify to this.

From the 7th to the beginning of the 9th century there is no literary norm as such, and four dialects are attested in writing: Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, and Wessex. The first two were English dialects. They showed great similarities among themselves, but territorial boundaries contributed to the development of some distinctive features in them. The Kentish dialect was formed on the basis of the dialect of the Jutes, the Wessex - on the basis of the dialect of the West Saxons who settled Wessex. A unified written norm begins to take shape only from the end of the 9th century. - the beginning of the X century. based on the Wessex dialect in an era when England is united under the auspices of Wessex.

Monastic book culture

From the 7th century churches were erected throughout the country, monasteries were built, and the number of people who received education in these monasteries and on the continent, mainly in France, grew. The most important role is played by monasteries as centers of education. Anglo-Saxon monks and church leaders are engaged in theology and literature, history and natural sciences. The outstanding works of many representatives of the Anglo-Saxon Church are included in the golden fund of European literature, and the monasteries in Canterbury, York, Yarrow already in the VIII century. become the leading centers of Europe not only in the field of theology, but also in Latin and Greek learning.

After the adoption of Christianity, the Anglo-Saxon society was included in the sphere of culture, which had already taken shape in the Christian world. Its preachers were both major church figures sent by Rome: abbots of monasteries, bishops, papal legates, and Anglo-Saxon clergy who traveled to France and Rome. A major role was played by the arrival after the Council of Whitby (664) of a new mission from Rome, associated with the official victory of the Roman variety of Christianity over the Celtic (the reason was the death of the last of the archbishops appointed by Rome). Theodore of Tarsus (668-690), sent by the Pope as Bishop of Canterbury in 668, brought back many manuscripts of ecclesiastical and secular writings. Theodore carried out extensive educational activities, planted literacy and founded the first monastic scriptoria in England. The difficult work of a scribe is vividly depicted by the monk Alcuin, who compared it to the work of a plowman. All early manuscripts include works of religious content: gospels, liturgical texts, writings of the church fathers.

Anglo-Saxon literature in Latin

Its formation proceeded under the strong influence of common European Christian writing, the aesthetic principles of which, like literary forms, had already taken shape by the 7th century. But the existing tradition was not mechanically assimilated by the Anglo-Saxon authors. Its creative revision and development led to the fact that already a century later, in the 8th century, some of the works of Anglo-Latin literature gained European fame and took pride of place among the most famous monuments of European literature.

The earliest in the galaxy of outstanding writers of England was Aldhelm (640-709), brother of the Wessex king Ine, abbot of one of the first Anglo-Saxon monasteries (Malmesbury), later Bishop of Sherborne.

An outstanding scientist and writer of his time was the Benedictine monk of the monastery of Yarrow Beda the Venerable (673-735), about whom it was written in detail earlier.

Beda had many disciples who later became prominent figures in the English Church. One of them, Egbert, turned the monastery at York into a world-famous cultural center, where Alcuin (735-804), one of the masterminds of the Carolingian Renaissance, was educated a few decades later. The role of Alcuin in the history of Western European culture is somewhat different from the role of Beda. This is an outstanding organizer and educator, the initiator of undertakings unprecedented in scope and intent, but not an original writer. Alcuin studied at York under Beda's student Egbert and became Bishop of Canterbury. In 780 he was sent to Rome and met Charlemagne on the way back. Since that time, Alcuin lived at the court of Charles, heading the Academy he created. He is considered the founder of the "seven liberal arts" system.

The literary heritage of Alcuin is represented by works of exclusively ecclesiastical content: these are treatises on theology, on ethical topics, commentaries on the Bible.

Viking raids, destruction of monasteries

After the death of Alcuin, there was some stagnation in the development of church culture in England caused by Viking raids: the robbery and destruction of monasteries on the North Sea coast led to the loss of their former significance. First half of the ninth century marked by a decline in literacy. This allowed Alfred the Great to write 50 years later: “There were few people this side of the Humber who could understand the service in English or translate what was written from Latin into English. And I think that there are not too many of them behind the Humber. And they were so few that I cannot remember a single person south of the Thames when I began to rule this kingdom.

Anglo-Latin literature by the beginning of the 9th century. completed its heyday. This is due to certain reasons. Monuments of Latin-language literature were designed for an educated reader who understands the intricacies of the theological, historical and natural science thought of their time. However, such readers became less and less.

The need to spread Christian doctrine among the masses determined two subsequent rises in English prose:

1) in the era of Alfred himself (end of the 9th century)

2) in the era of his successors (the second half of the 10th - the beginning of the 11th century).

Enlightenment in the Age of Alfred.

Continuing the humanistic traditions of Alcuin, Alfred undertook an unprecedented work for his time - the translation of the largest Latin-language works of the European Middle Ages into Old English. Alfred gathered around him, following the example of Charlemagne, the most prominent representatives of theology, philosophy and literature. Alfred and his entourage translated five works, the choice of which reveals the depth of knowledge and the subtlety of understanding the culture of the era. These writings: the most complete history of their people (“Ecclesiastical History of the Angles” by Beda), an exposition of world history and geography (“Seven books of history against the pagans” by Paul Orosius), the largest example of philosophical thought (“On the consolation of philosophy” by Boethius), an accessible exposition of the patristic understanding of the world (“Monologues” by Augustine Blessed), the code of Christian ethics (“Duties of a shepherd” by Pope Gregory I). Thanks to the educational activities of Alfred, the circle of readers of these outstanding works expanded. Alfred did not set himself the task of an accurate translation of these works. Rather, he retold and commented on what he was translating, and sometimes supplemented his own information - for example, the stories of travelers about the life of the peoples of northern Europe, included in his Old English "History" of Orosius.

In Alfred's time, and probably at his direct command, the compilation of the first "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" began, containing a weather account of events that took place both in Wessex and in other kingdoms. These are artless narratives that do not pretend to stylistic sophistication or pomp. However, they give a broad picture of the life of Anglo-Saxon society.

With the death of Alfred, the first rise of English-language prose ended, and for the next 50 years it did not give the world any outstanding works. Even the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" of the first half of the 10th century. reveals a decline in storytelling.

Benedictine Renaissance

The Benedictine Renaissance - the second rise of English-language prose - falls on the second half of the 10th - the first half of the 11th century. It is connected with the church reform (named after Benedict of Anyan). In English monasteries, weakened at that time by the attacks of the pagan Scandinavians, spiritual activity is being revived, the correspondence of books is taking on a wide scope, and new collections of church and secular works are being compiled. It was to this time that the main manuscripts that have come down to us, containing epic monuments, date back.

Central to this activity is the dissemination and deepening of theology, Christian exegesis and ethics. A huge number of sermons, commentaries on the Bible and the writings of the Church Fathers, lives and original writings on theological topics appear, incomparable with the previous period. Among the numerous authors of this period, Elfric (995-1020/1025) and Wulfstan (? - 1023) stand out.

Elfric and Wulfstan

Continuing the tradition of Alfred, Elfric translates a significant part of the Old Testament into Old English, providing it with his own comments and supplementing it with biographies of the three Wessex kings: Alfred, Æthelstan and Edgar.

The rise of Anglo-Saxon prose at the end of the 10th - the first half of the 11th century. took place within the framework of church literature in contrast to the predominantly secular literary activity of Alfred. This determined the main features of the work of Elfric and Wulfstan. These features also influenced the "mass" genres of secular literature that were widespread at the same time.

"Mass" literature

One of them is the Anglo-Saxon poetic "Bestiary"("Physiologist"). Numerous “Physiologists”, which were very popular with the medieval reader, depicted various real and fantastic animals in the spirit of Christian symbolism: a unicorn, a phoenix, a whale, the properties of which were interpreted from ethical and didactic positions. The Anglo-Saxon "Bestiary" contains descriptions of a panther, a whale and a partridge inhabiting the three elements: earth, sea and air.

There are three main sources of "mass" literature of the Anglo-Saxon period: classical (antique), biblical and native traditions. The influence of Christian ethical and aesthetic ideas was extremely strong. The Bible and church narrative literature have become an inexhaustible source of themes and plots. Again and again, the themes of the creation of the world, individual episodes of the life of Jesus Christ, stories about the life of the apostles, Christian saints were developed, and they were clothed in familiar forms, and therefore accessible to recently converted members of Christian communities. In sermons and narrative works, there is a desire to acquaint the audience with the main plots of the Old and New Testaments.

All these trends are revealed by one of the most popular genres of "mass" medieval literature - the lives of the saints. The foundations of Anglo-Saxon hagiography were laid by Beda in the short lives included in the "Church History" and in one of the first lengthy lives of the local Anglo-Saxon saint - Cuthbert. The canonical form of life developed in Western Europe was adopted by Beda, and through him by other Anglo-Saxon authors. However, in Beda, and especially in subsequent works, the genre is undergoing changes under the influence of the desire to adapt the text to the perception of a wide audience.

Old English poetry

By the X-XI centuries. include four manuscripts in which Old English poetry has been preserved. It is united in verse and style (it uses the so-called alliterative verse, based on the consonances of roots, mainly initial consonants, and clichéd phraseology), but is diverse in content. It includes:

1. The heroic epic, which tells about the legendary history of the continental Germans (“Beowulf”);

2. Retelling of the Old Testament (Genesis and Exodus) (Kedmon)

3. Fragmentary retelling of the New Testament (the poem "Christ") (Kyunevulv)

4. Lives of the Saints (“Andrey”, “Elena”, “Yuliana”, “Gutlak”) (Kyunevulv)

5. Small elegiac and didactic works ("The Complaint of the Wife", "Seafarer" and others).

Retelling of the Old Testament associated with the figure Caedmona(second half of the 7th century), about which Beda tells; New Testament and hagiographic writings - with the name Kyunevulf.

"Beowulf"

The greatest monument of Old English poetry is the epic poem "Beowulf", which tells about the battle of the legendary hero Beowulf with monsters. Despite the fairy-tale plot, the poem contains a mention of a number of historical persons and events of the 5th-6th centuries, the situation described by it reflects the life and concepts of the leaders and their squads of the era of the Great Migration of Peoples. While glorifying the German ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons (the action in the poem takes place in Denmark and Sweden), the poem at the same time develops the motif of the frailty of this world and the fragility of people's existence in this world.

Lyrics: "The Wife's Complaint" ( IX century)

In "The Wife's Complaint" we feel a drama, the meaning of which can only be guessed at. Happy at first, the couple lived only one for the other; while the husband wandered on distant seas, the wife waited for him with impatience and anxiety. But

she was slandered before her husband, separated from him, and now she lives in exile.

Separated from all the joys of life, she then feels overwhelmed by grief,

it, on the contrary, hardens at the thought of the injustice that has befallen her

I'm sad because

That I found a husband for myself, created right for me,

But miserable and full of sadness in his mind.

He hid his heart from me, having the thoughts of a killer,

But a happy look. Often we promised each other

That no one will separate us

Except one death: but everything has changed a lot,

And now everything goes like it never happened

Our friendship did not exist. I am compelled from far and near

Endure the hatred of my lover.

I was forced to live in the forest

Under an oak in a dugout.

This earthen house is old, but I am still tormented by one long desire.

These valleys are gloomy, the hills are high,

Bitter for me are the fences of the enclosed place, full of thorns.

My home is dark. Often the absence

Here my lord subjected me to torment!

Spiritual ideals of early medieval England reflected in literature

The concepts and ideals of early medieval England, reflected in its literature, are a kind of combination of Christian and pre-Christian ideas. The latter can be conditionally divided into two groups: pagan beliefs and heroic-epic representations.

pagan beliefs.

The methods of introducing Christianity and the original forms of church ideology in England were marked by considerable tolerance. A subtle politician, Pope Gregory I wrote to his missionaries in 601 “... temples of idols in this country should not be destroyed at all, but limited only to the destruction of some idols ... for if these temples are well built, then it is more useful to simply turn them away from serving demons to serve the true God.”

Heroic-epic performances

Heroic-epic representations were preserved mainly in oral-poetic creativity, which was brought by the Anglo-Saxons from the continent. Already the Roman historian of the 1st century AD. Tacitus wrote that the events of the past are captured by the Germans in poetic form and these chants are loved by all. The Anglo-Saxons brought to the British Isles legends about heroes who lived during the great migration of peoples.

The relative tolerance of the Anglo-Saxon Church for folk culture led to the fact that some monuments of folk literature were written down in monasteries and performed not only at royal feasts and kaerls, but also in the monastery refectories. Despite the appropriate selection and processing, they retained the ethics and ideas of the pre-Christian era. These songs were loved by everyone, including monks, which sometimes caused alarm among church leaders, as Alcuin's letter to the monks of Lindisfarne testifies: “What is in common between Ingeld and Christ? .. Let the words of the Lord sound loudly at the tables in your refectory. It is necessary to listen to a reader, and not a flutist, the fathers of the church, and not pagan songs ... ”.

Heroics and Christianity

The heroic ethic permeates Old English literature.

The cornerstone of this ethic is the lifelong bond between the leader and his vassal (combatant), based on personal loyalty.

The devotion of the leader is manifested in the gift of treasure. Through grants, the lord increases his own glory and the glory of the vassal, placing on him the duty of further service. The given object - a horse, a ring or a weapon - becomes a material reminder of mutual obligations when the time comes for war or revenge. Hrodgar's last word to Beowulf before the battle with the monsters is an assurance of a generous reward. Upon returning home, Beowulf gives horses, weapons and treasures to his leader Hygelak, and in return receives gold, honors and land. This maintains both mutual connection and mutual glory.

The devotion of the combatant to his leader is manifested in glorious deeds. The primary goal of a warrior is the acquisition of eternal glory. “Glory is more precious than anything,” for only posthumous glory gives a warrior hope for life in eternity. Therefore, the dying Beowulf expresses a desire to be buried in a high mound on the sea cape, so that all sailors can pay him a posthumous honor. The desire of a warrior for glory was considered one of the virtues: the last praise of the protagonist of "Beowulf" (his peculiar epitaph), on which the poem ends, is the epithet "greedy for glory." Glory is an alternative to oblivion, which death can bring with it.

However, death is also a frequent companion of glory: eternal glory coexists with the risk to life. As the first lines of the poem “The Battle of Brunanburg”, recorded in the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” under 937, say, Æthelstan and his relative Edmund got themselves “everlasting glory”, that is, continuing to live in generations. The heroic verse acts as a means of transmitting such glory through the ages. Even the afterlife, as seen in The Seafarer, is described in terms of earthly glorification.

A vassal's loyalty to his lord can also be shown in exile. The characters of poetic lives were guided by the same heroic ethics as the heroes of Germanic legends. One place in the life of St. Andrew suggests that if the lord went into exile, then his warriors were obliged to go with him. When Andrew decides to go alone to Mermedonia to suffer for his faith, his comrades declare that “hlafordlease”, they will not be accepted by anyone and will not be able to find refuge anywhere.

The main task of the combatant was to protect the lord and revenge for him.

Before the battle with the dragon, Beowulf's nephew Wiglaf reproaches the combatants for not wanting to repay their leader for the previous feasts and not taking part in the battle. The price of their cowardice is the loss of land rights, and the shameful life that awaits them is tantamount to exile. Wiglaf's speech ends with an aphorism: "Death for a warrior is better than a life of dishonor!"

The act of devotion to a leader—an act so praised in Beowulf—is vengeance. Higelak takes revenge on the Swedish king Ongenteov for the death of his brother, King Hadkun; Beowulf kills Daghrevn, the murderer of King Hygelak; Hengest takes revenge on Finn for the death of his leader Khnef - all these are acts of revenge of a vassal for the death of his master. Revenge was not always instantaneous: Hengest spent the whole winter with Finn after the forced truce, before he had a plan for revenge; Beowulf repaid Onela many years later by befriending his enemy Hengest.

The Christian Church in England condemned the custom of blood feud and tried to completely replace it with the wergeld. Despite the fact that the duty of revenge is justified and even glorified in Beowulf, the poet is clearly disturbed by the idea that this custom, which satisfies the claims of the victim, cannot restore order in society.

At the same time, the duty to the master sometimes came into conflict with the more ancient duty to the clan. This conflict is clearly revealed in a passage from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (755), dedicated to the feud between Cynewulf and Cyuneheard. The end of this feud shows that the duty to the king was higher than the duty to the family.

In the era of Christianization, this supreme law was associated with the Christian understanding of good and evil. Beowulf's heroic response to Hrodgar after the death of his beloved warrior Eskhere - "it is better to avenge friends, and not cry fruitlessly" - is justified in the light of the fact that revenge is directed against Cain's kinsman, which is called the monster Grendel in the poem. In general, the heroic ethics in Beowulf is recognized not only in itself, but also due to the fact that the enemy of the hero Grendel is interpreted as a “spawn of hell” and an “enemy of the human race”. Beowulf acts as a disinterested savior - first of the people of the Danes (from monsters), then of his own people of the Geats (from a fire-breathing dragon), in which some researchers even see his resemblance to Christ.

Tolkien rightly notes that the choice of the hero's three battles with monsters as the central episodes of the poem is not accidental: it was the superhuman nature of Beowulf's opponents that made it possible to take the conflict itself beyond individual tribal strife and make the hero a champion of good against evil.

In the short poems "The Wanderer" and "The Wanderer", usually referred to as "elegies", lamentation of the heroic past is associated with the development of the motive of "the frailty of everything earthly" in the spirit of Christian sermons, with a call to see the true fatherland in heaven.

An attempt to combine the Christian and pre-Christian world outlook is typical not only for the heroic epic, but also for poetic works that develop biblical or hagiographic themes. In various poems, Christ is called a “brave warrior”, “guardian of the people”, “mighty leader”, that is, metaphors typical of the German king, and Satan is presented as an outcast who has no place in the social hierarchy. Like the ideal king of the German epic, God is not only merciful and generous, but distributes gifts to his faithful warriors and demands loyalty in return. Satan appears to be the same leader before his fall. God creates angels so that they make up his team, and Satan takes the place of the most experienced and worthy warrior in it, he is a “proud military leader”, a governor.

A certain variant of the combination of heroic and Christian moral values ​​is found in the famous poem "The Battle of Maldon", which sings of Beorchtnot, an ealdorman from Essex, who also unsuccessfully fought the Vikings in 991, but died as a hero on the battlefield and was buried in a monastery in Eli.

A feature of Beorhtnot's behavior in this battle is that he makes a tactical mistake, allowing the Vikings to cross the river ford and thus giving them equal chances to win with the Anglo-Saxons. However, this mistake was interpreted by the unknown author of the poem as a heroic step, showing the immense courage of the leader. The text emphasizes that Byurchtnot takes this step for ofermode “from an excessive spirit,” that is, from immeasurable courage. Despite the fact that this term in Christian monuments could serve as a designation of pride (it is this term that is included in the designation of Satan as the “angel of pride”), here it does not detract from the merits of Beorhnot, whose behavior during the battle is a model of courage. Burchtnot fulfills his duty to his people and army to the end and dies like a true German hero, and at the same time, before his death, he turns on his knees with a prayer to God. The Vikings are called “pagans” in the same context, which intensifies the martyrdom of Burchtnot as he died for the faith.