Anglo-Saxon people

Anglo-Saxon is a generalised term for the Germanic peoples who invaded the southern parts of Britain in the fifth century and established their own culture there.

The traditional view, based largely on Bede, is that the Celtic tribes of Britain hired continental Germanic warriors to fight as mercenaries against the crumbling remnants of Roman power on the island, and that they arrived in AD 449 under the leadership of the chieftains Hengest and Horsa. Modern archeological, historical, and linguistic research rejects this view as too strongly influenced by revisionist tendencies in the writings of eighth-century Anglo-Saxon historians. Although the general features of the traditional account remain accepted, including the supposition that the majority of the invaders were Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from the northwestern coast of Continental Europe, the dating and manner of the invaders' arrival as well as the role of the Frisians remain vague. Both linguistic and genetic research into the relationship between modern English and Frisian people, and their respective languages, suggest a far greater importance for the Frisians in the establishment of an English culture in Britain.

The Anglo-Saxon era is normally considered to have ended with the Norman Conquest, after which the upper classes of society were dominated by the Norman-French invaders. The two elements of society were gradually fused.

Religion

Christian missionaries, and the church they established, were highly successful in removing or disguising the original religion of the Anglo-Saxons. As far as can be gathered the main gods were Woden, Thunor, Tiw,Frey and the goddess Frig. The form of cultic worship is conjectural.