As many of you will know these past few months I have been studying the topic of Anglo-Saxon mounted warfare and I've come to realize how insane it is that even among a majority of scholars today you'll hear it parroted that the Anglo-Saxons only knew how to fight on foot.
(1/20) Many scholars of the early 1900s took up and championed the idea that the Anglo-Saxons for the entirety of their history were stupid barbarians who had "forgotten how to use the bow and never learnt to fight on horses", only knowing how to fight in primitive formations on foot.

Medieval peasantries are often seen as amorphous blobs but in former ages hierarchy touched all levels of society, in Anglo-Saxon England not just the peasantry but even the unfree were stratified. This thread, an updated version of a past one, is on these non-noble ranks.
(1/23) To begin from the bottom and work upward, the lowest rank in society, as it is in most societies, was that of the slave. A distinction was made between those who had been born into slavery and those who were 'penal slaves' with the latter enjoying a higher status than the former.

The Way of the Warrior in Anglo-Saxon England involved far more than merely being trained in the use of weapons as I put it simply in my thread of yesterday. Of equal, or greater, importance was learning both the rituals associated with warfare and the right form of battle.
1/19 The war-band, most commonly called the 'werod', consisted of two parts. The first, the 'duguð' (ME: douth), were the fully initiated members of the band while the 'geogoð' (ME: youth) were those still learning the art of war who would become duguð if they survived their training.

Ulfcytel of East Anglia was a hero who shone forth during the turbulent dawn of the 11th century. Although far less known of than others his life is yet worth studying for the lessons to be learned from this man who walked in virtue amidst the smouldering ruins of his world.
1/41 Ulfcytel was born into dangerous times and would never see happier ones, being destined to fall in battle at the last hour of this age's upheavals. In the year AD 980, when he was born, after a long respite the Danes finally returned to England and so began the Second Viking Age.

One of the most fascinating, yet difficult, aspects of Anglo-Saxon history to study is the hundreds of petty tribes and people groups who together made up the great kingdoms everyone knows; Wessex, Mercia, et al. As an example we might call on the tribe of the Hyrstingas.
(1/7) The Hyrstingas were but one of the 18 tribes who together made up the 'kingdom' of the Middle Angles. The Tribal Hidage assessed them at 1,200 hides which strongly suggests that by the time the survey was conducted a certain amount of consolidation had already here taken place.

Old English had two words for "army", those being "fyrd" and "here". After the military reforms of King Alfred the Great they began being used less strictly, sometimes interchangeably, yet still firmly enough to provide us with valuable insight into Anglo-Saxon logistics.
(1/8) "Fyrd", the first word used for "army", is etymologically associated with the verb "fēran" which means "to set out/to go". This word was applied to armies who were on the defensive in whatever given conflict they were involved and, most often, fighting within their own territory.

The main departure from orthodoxy in John Haywood's 'Dark Age Naval Power' is his argument that those in the clinker tradition - the Saxons, Frisians, Angles, etc. - utilized sails from an early date, interpreting archaeological evidence through the lens of written sources. (1/8)

Haywood's main argument which draws on written sources, linguistics, ethnographic comparison, archaeology and a good deal of fair reasoning.

Thread of excerpts from 'The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England 1066-1901: Remembering, Forgetting, Deciphering, and Renewing the Past' by John D. Niles. Anglo-Saxon Studies formally began as a result of the Reformation and the Dissolution which followed it during which Old English manuscripts that had been stored in monastic houses were confiscated and became accessible to a broader base by private purchase or royal collection.

🧵HAROLD THE BREAKER OF WALES
For 20 long years during King Edward's reign England suffered provocation after provocation from Wales. Every step was taken, every effort exhausted to avoid bloodshed but the Welsh would not stop. So it was then decided that Wales must be destroyed. In 1039 Gruffydd ap Llywelyn rose to the kingship of northern Wales, his subsequent conquests would see for the first time in history the whole of Wales united under a Welsh king. However, the same traits in Gruffydd which enabled him to bring this about would cause his downfall.

While the Germanic tribes are often conceived of as all being filthy people with wild, unkempt hair this is simply not true. Great care was taken regarding hair and styles varied wildly from tribe to tribe. Nowhere is this variance better seen than in the Anglo-Saxons themselves. During his stay in the court of Charlemagne the scholar Alcuin wrote a letter to King Æthelred who ruled over his native Northumbria in which he complained about the hairstyle of his countrymen, saying it wrong for them to grow their hair very long and wear their beards likewise.

One feature of Late Anglo-Saxon England which greatly contributed to her success was a certain degree of social mobility, not so open as to trample on natural hierarchy and yet open enough to assure that the ruling elite did not became stagnant and consequently degenerate. (1/15) Ceorls, ordinary freemen, could aspire to the rank of thegn and achieve it if they had the skill and energy required to increase their standing. In the 'Geþyncðo', a treatise on status penned by Archbishop Wulfstan, two paths are laid out by which this first rise could be done.

🧵During the closing days of AD 870 King Halfdan together with his Great Army crossed the River Thames and occupied Reading. Over the next months historic levels of blood would be spilled and from this conflict would rise our greatest king.
The First Invasion of Wessex had begun. Danish aggression against the West Saxons was long-standing though up to this point it had mostly been limited to raiding. Eastern Wessex which comprised the shires of Kent, Sussex and Surrey suffered the brunt of these early raids, especially commercially important East Kent.

Whenever I post about Harold Godwinson it is inevitable that certain clueless dolts crawl out of the woodwork to say he was awful and a cruel king. As such, I have here gathered several quotes from contemporary Norman and adjacent sources which speak of Harold's character.
(1/21) "Harold was the greatest of all earls in the English realm in wealth, honour and power"
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"Harold was a brave and valiant man, very handsome, pleasant in speech, and a good friend to all"
is what William of Jumièges had to say in his 'Gesta Normannorum Ducum' (I. 41, I. 43).

J.R.R. Tolkien once summarized the Northern heroic spirit as "uttermost endurance in the service of indomitable will". Perfect loyalty to an Anglo-Saxon was the complete surrendering of will to one's lord without losing an ounce of endurance in the pursuit of its fulfillment
1/23 In ll. 89-90 of 'The Battle of Maldon' we read the poet criticize actions taken by Ealdorman Beorhtnoth: "then the earl in his overmastering pride actually yielded ground to the enemy, as he should not have done". Folly on his part though it well highlights his men's loyalty.

As is to be expected from a warrior culture such as the Anglo-Saxons had loyalty to lord was among the highest of virtues. I've before posted well known examples of loyalty unto death and even beyond, below I will post two lesser known stories: those of Lilla and Tortmund.
(1/7) During the reign of King Edwin of Northumbria an assassin named Eomer was sent against him by Cwichelm of the West Saxons. This Eomer carried a short sword smeared with poison and entered King Edwin's hall on Easter Day under the pretense of carrying a message from his lord.

🧵FORGOTTEN TERRORS
The Franks at Sea, 12BC - AD279

Because of their exploits on land which saw them conquer the greater part of Western Europe it is often forgotten that long before the Frank's reputation was tied to the sea, their piratical raids reaching as far as Asia Minor. The story of Frankish seafaring, as far as written sources go, begins in 12BC. As recorded by the geographer Strabo, when Augustus's stepson Drusus led an expeditionary Roman fleet along the North Sea coast of Germany the only opposition they encountered came from the Bructeri.

Bernard Cornwell hates Christianity, a hatred which I believe I've read comes from his childhood. He is an objectively good writer but his books contain many subversive elements. Obviously such things were to magnify as his series carried on and further when transitioned to film.

https://twitter.com/LanaLokteff/status/1647097310827139072

Not only is his bias to be seen in his writing of all Christian clergy as helpless dolts but his main plot, too. I can imagine him smirking to himself as he demoted Alfred, one of the most heroic Englishmen to ever live, and making instead the savior of Christian England a pagan.

This point really merits emphasis. Early Medieval warriors in media are often written to question their commanders, this breeding reluctance with which their duties are performed, if at all. It'd be wrong to say this never happened, but in reading the sources it rarely ever did.

https://twitter.com/rfhirst/status/1646649727046537217

Take 'The Battle of Maldon'. Tolkien in his commentary condemns Ealdorman Beorhtnoth's giving away his upper hand by allowing the Vikings to cross as prideful yet applauds Beorhtnoth's followers for not questioning his decision though surely they knew it disastrous.

In manner similar to though not as intense as the Spartan, Anglo-Saxon boys born to aristocratic families would often be sent away around the age of seven to spend the rest of their youth in their mother's household, learning from their grandfather and uncles the art of war.
1/11 This form of education was evidently quite effective. Everywhere from 'Cynewulf and Cyneheard' to 'The Battle of Maldon' we read of Saxon warriors performing their duty unthinkingly and unflinchingly, where Hollywood would make room for reflection, not dismayed by gravest danger.

The Laws of King Ine give us limited though valuable insight into how the Anglo-Saxons viewed foreigners, which in short was with extreme distrust. Below is a collection of those sections from the Laws which speak of foreigners generally and the Welsh specifically. (1/--) The first section we will talk about, §11, follows in part from §7.1. Here it is stated that if a man commits theft and his immediate family has knowledge of his crime then as punishment he himself, his wife and his children are all to be sold into penal slavery.

🧵On Dragons
For as long as man has committed words to paper, and surely far longer than that, he has relayed stories of great and terrible serpentine creatures, of dragons. In this thread is gathered an assortment of various accounts regarding such beasts from Ireland to India. The oldest account of a dragon battle comes to us from the Rig Veda. Herein we find hymns relating to the storm deity Indra and his battle with Vrtra, the "first-born of dragons". Indra's achievement, accomplished with the thunderbolt, makes him the world's first dragon-slayer.