The Anglo-Saxons A History of the Beginnings of England

The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RGM7D6HDMAH06?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp


One of my interests is Anglo-Saxon England. It's not an obsessive mania, but more of a romance, I guess. Anglo-Saxon England seems so familiar and so strange. The Anglo-Saxons inhabited land that students of history are very familiar with and they spoke “English,” but their English is a completely different language and the cities and towns we know were just having their foundations laid down.

I listened to this as an audiobook. It was a very enjoyable experience. Not unlike the worldbuilding of a fantasy novel. The Anglo-Saxons arrived in the sixth century shortly after the end of the Roman era. They drive the Christian Celtic population west. They set up shop and divide into various powerful kingdoms - Kent, Mercia, Wessex, Northumbria, West Anglia etc. These kingdoms swapped power back and forth until the Danes arrived and did to them what they had done to the Britons.

This book does a good job of telling the story. The special “value added” in this book is that I think I got a better handle on the background that led to the replacement of Harald by William the Conqueror in 1066. The childless Edward the Confessor had spent his early life in exile in Normandy. He had come under the thumb of the Godwinson family. He probably had promised his throne to the Duke of Normandy because “why not?” He had no reason to love anyone in England.

Author Marc Morris does a good job of explaining the people and circumstances of the era. The characters come to life. I will say that I was surprised to learn how much slavery was a part of the Anglo Saxon culture, but there it was.