Anglo-Saxon England - Sources

Sources

There is a wide range of source material pertaining to Anglo-Saxon England.

There are literary sources:

• Historians in the Middle Ages
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a series of documents that charted Anglo-Saxon history from the mid-fifth century until 1066 (although one version extends till 1154). These were commissioned during the reign of Alfred the Great in the 9th century.

Other written sources include:

• Law codes. For example, there were four sets that originated in the seventh century; the first three were issued by the Kings of Kent: Æthelberht I, Hlothhere, Eadric, and Wihtred: the Law of Æthelberht, the Law of Hlothhere and Eadric, and the Law of Wihtred. The fourth was that of Ine of Wessex.
• The Charters were a series of legal documents that were primarily (although not exclusively) grants of land to individuals by the kings of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
• Biographies, hagiography, letters and poetry.
• Domesday Book. Although compiled in 1086, after the Norman Conquest, one of its functions was to ascertain who held what land and the taxes due under Edward the Confessor.

Non-literary sources include:

• Archaeology. Anglo-Saxon settlement can be traced by following burial patterns and land usage.
• Architecture
• Toponymy
• Numismatics
• genetics