Editing Anglo-Saxons (section)

===Religion===
{{Main|Anglo-Saxon Paganism|Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England|}}
[[File:Franks Casket vorne links.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.3|The right half of the front panel of the seventh-century [[Franks Casket]], depicting the pan-Germanic legend of [[Wayland the Smith]], which was apparently also a part of Anglo-Saxon pagan mythology.]]
Although Christianity dominates the religious history of the Anglo-Saxons, life in the 5th and 6th centuries was dominated by [[Germanic paganism|pagan religious beliefs with a Scandinavian-Germanic heritage]].

Pagan Anglo-Saxons worshipped at a variety of different sites across their landscape, some of which were apparently specially built [[heathen hofs|temples]] and others that were natural geographical features such as [[Vörðr|sacred trees]], hilltops or wells. According to place name evidence, these sites of worship were known alternately as either ''[[Hörgr|hearg]]'' or as ''[[Vé (shrine)|wēoh]]''. Most poems from before the Norman Conquest are steeped in pagan symbolism, and their integration into the new faith goes beyond the literary sources.{{Cn|date=April 2025}} Thus, as Lethbridge reminds us, "to say, 'this is a monument erected in Christian times and therefore the symbolism on it must be Christian,' is an unrealistic approach. The rites of the older faith, now regarded as superstition, are practised all over the country today. It did not mean that people were not Christian; but that they could see a lot of sense in the old beliefs also."<ref>Lethbridge, Gogmagog. The Buried Gods (London, 1957), p. 136.</ref>

Early Anglo-Saxon society attached great significance to the horse; a horse may have been an acquaintance of the god [[Woden]], or they may have been (according to [[Tacitus]]) confidants of the gods. Horses were closely associated with gods, especially [[Odin]] and [[Freyr]]. Horses played a central role in funerary practices as well as in other rituals.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jennbert|first=Kristina|title=The Horse and its role in Icelandic burial practices, mythology, and society|year=2006|pages=130–133}}</ref> Horses were prominent symbols of fertility, and there were many horse fertility cults. The rituals associated with these include horse fights, burials, consumption of horse meat, and horse sacrifice.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Sikora|first=Maeve|title=Diversity in Viking Age Horse Burial: A Comparative Study of Norway, Iceland, Scotland and Ireland|journal=The Journal of Irish Archaeology|volume=13|issue=2004|pages=87–109}}</ref> [[Hengist and Horsa]], the mythical ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons, were associated with horses,{{Efn|Their names mean, literally, "Stallion" and "Horse"}} and references to horses are found throughout Anglo-Saxon literature.<ref name="Owen-Crocker2000">{{cite book|last=Owen-Crocker|first=Gale R.|title=The Four Funerals in Beowulf: And the Structure of the Poem|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2RsNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA71|access-date=25 June 2012|year=2000|publisher=Manchester UP|isbn=978-0-7190-5497-6|page=71}}</ref> Actual horse burials in England are relatively rare and "may point to influence from the continent".<ref name="jupp" /> A well-known Anglo-Saxon horse burial (from the sixth/seventh century) is [[Sutton Hoo#The cremations and inhumations, Mounds 17 and 14|Mound 17]] at [[Sutton Hoo]], a few yards from the more famous [[ship burial]] in Mound 1.<ref name="Carver1998">{{cite book|last=Carver|first=M. O. H.|title=Sutton Hoo: Burial Ground of Kings?|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780812234558|url-access=registration|access-date=25 June 2012|year=1998|publisher=U of Pennsylvania P|isbn=978-0-8122-3455-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780812234558/page/167 167]}}</ref> A sixth-century grave near [[Lakenheath]], Suffolk, yielded the body of a man next to that of a complete horse in harness, with a bucket of food by its head.<ref name="jupp">{{cite book|last1=Jupp|first1=Peter C.|last2=Gittings|first2=Clare|title=Death in England: An Illustrated History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tWhOh31-yUwC&pg=PA72|access-date=26 June 2012|year=1999|publisher=Manchester UP|isbn=978-0-7190-5811-0|pages=67, 72}}</ref>

Bede's story of Cædmon, the cowherd who became the 'Father of English Poetry,' represents the real heart of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons from paganism to Christianity. Bede writes, "[t]here was in the Monastery of this Abbess (Streonæshalch – now known as [[Whitby Abbey]]) a certain brother particularly remarkable for the Grace of God, who was wont to make religious verses, so that whatever was interpreted to him out of [[Bible|scripture]], he soon after put the same into poetical expressions of much sweetness and humility in Old English, which was his native language. By his verse the minds of many were often excited to despise the world, and to aspire to heaven." The story of Cædmon illustrates the blending of Christian and Germanic, Latin and oral tradition, monasteries and double monasteries, pre-existing customs and new learning, popular and elite, that characterizes the Conversion period of Anglo-Saxon history and culture. Cædmon does not destroy or ignore traditional Anglo-Saxon poetry. Instead, he converts it into something that helps the Church. Anglo-Saxon England finds ways to synthesize the religion of the Church with the existing "northern" customs and practices. Thus the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons was not just their switching from one practice to another, but making something new out of their old inheritance and their new belief and learning.<ref>Frantzen, Allen J., and I. I. John Hines, eds. Cædmon's Hymn and Material Culture in the World of Bede: Six Essays. West Virginia University Press, 2007.</ref>

[[File:MS. Hatton 48 fol. 6v-7r.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|right|An 8th-century copy of the Rule of St. Benedict]]
[[Christian monasticism|Monasticism]], and not just the church, was at the centre of Anglo-Saxon Christian life. Western monasticism, as a whole, had been evolving since the time of the [[Desert Fathers]], but in the seventh century, monasticism in England confronted a dilemma that brought to question the truest representation of the Christian faith. The two monastic traditions were the Celtic and the Roman, and a decision was made to adopt the Roman tradition. ''Monasteria'' seem to describe all religious congregations other than those of the bishop.

In the 10th century, [[Dunstan]] brought Athelwold to [[Glastonbury Abbey|Glastonbury]], where the two of them set up a monastery on [[Benedictines|Benedictine]] lines. For many years, this was the only monastery in England that strictly followed the [[Rule of Saint Benedict|Benedictine Rule]] and observed complete monastic discipline. What Mechthild Gretsch calls an "Aldhelm Seminar" developed at Glastonbury, and the effects of this seminar on the curriculum of learning and study in Anglo-Saxon England were enormous.<ref name="Gretsch, Mechthild 2009" /> Royal power was put behind the reforming impulses of Dunstan and Athelwold, helping them to enforce their reform ideas. This happened first at the Old Minster in [[Winchester]], before the reformers built new foundations and refoundations at Thorney, Peterborough, and Ely, among other places. Benedictine monasticism spread throughout England, and these became centers of learning again, run by people trained in Glastonbury, with one rule, the works of Aldhelm at the center of their curricula but also influenced by the vernacular efforts of Alfred. From this mixture sprung a great flowering of literary production.<ref>Keynes, Simon. "The 'Dunstan B'charters." Anglo-Saxon England 23 (1994): 165–193.</ref>