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BELLS CHIME

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For almost 1,000 years,

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Norman cathedrals and castles have
dominated the British landscape.

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But this Norman legacy
has eclipsed another culture.

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A golden treasure trove of their art
remained buried in the countryside.

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The lost art of a people
the Normans conquered.

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The art of the Anglo-Saxons.

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The discovery
of these golden hoards

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would radically alter our
interpretation of the Anglo-Saxons.

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They used materials and techniques
that brought together

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the ideas and beliefs
of Scandinavia,

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mainland Europe
and the Middle East.

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The Anglo-Saxons developed
a complex artistic language

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which combined both their pagan
past and their Christian future.

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They created a world of codes
and messages

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that revealed the inner workings of
the Anglo-Saxon mind, much of which

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has remained hidden until now.

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Surprisingly, much of the
Anglo-Saxon art in British museums

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was actually discovered
less than a century ago.

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In the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford,
among its array

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of priceless artefacts,

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is one of the most
comprehensive collections

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of Anglo-Saxon gold work.

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When I used to come here
as a student, I was mesmerised

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by the beauty and intricacy of
these glittering artworks.

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The craftsmanship and the detail
of each one captivated me.

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Over the years, many archaeologists
and historians

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have studied virtually every
aspect of these Anglo-Saxon hoards.

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But I'm the first art historian to
try and take a fresh look at them.

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The early Anglo-Saxons
were violent warriors

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who carried with them
an amazing wealth of personal art.

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Jewellery
they would wear into battle.

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When I look at them,
it's amazing to think that

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these are all over 1,000 years old
and each one tells their own story.

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The story of the Anglo-Saxons begins
at the start of the 4th century.

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They were not a single tribe,

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they were a combination
of different tribes.

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They came from what is now
the Netherlands,

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northern Germany and Denmark.

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Their art is full
of symbols and messages

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that refer to Norse myth and legend.

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Images of Odin
with his horned helmet

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and other animals

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like these serpents that
slither over the artwork.

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But by the end of the Anglo-Saxon
period, in the 11th century,

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they developed one of the most
complex visual languages on earth.

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This Dark Age artistic movement
was stopped pretty much dead

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in its tracks by the Normans,

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and their artistic goals
could not have been more different.

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One of the first things
the Normans did, after defeating

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the Anglo-Saxons in 1066, was to
build the mighty Durham Cathedral.

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The architecture
is one of occupation.

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The Normans were all about building

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permanent, public art,
unlike the early Anglo-Saxons

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whose warrior culture demanded
smaller, portable, personal art.

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When the Normans took over,

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they set about remaking much of
Anglo-Saxon culture into their own.

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However, some remnants of the old
Anglo-Saxon world would endure

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this Norman cultural onslaught.

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In ancient libraries like this,

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a few precious Anglo-Saxon stories
and poems did survive.

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They have enthralled me
ever since I was a schoolgirl.

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The world of the early Anglo-Saxons
is mainly one of the spoken word.

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There are virtually no written
records, but we catch glimpses

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of their vivid culture from the
poetry and riddles written down

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by monks in later centuries.

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For example, the epic poem
The Wanderer

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tells of a warrior
far from the life of the hall.

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SHE READS IN OLD ENGLISH

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Although the Normans brought
their own language with them,

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some words spoken by the
Anglo-Saxons still survive today.

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Mother and father, Monday and
Tuesday, he and she, all these words

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come from the Anglo-Saxons, but
aside from these words and poems,

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there's a lack of written evidence.

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As a result, the popular conception

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for centuries was that the Dark
Ages were precisely that, dark.

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With it comes to the very early
Anglo-Saxon treasures,

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these only survived because

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they were buried in the ground
long before the Normans came.

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We are still finding more
of this golden art today.

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The biggest haul of Anglo-Saxon gold
ever discovered

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has been found
in a field in Staffordshire.

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It is astonishing. I never in
my career thought I'd be holding

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this kind of treasure.

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The footage of the dig
is extraordinary.

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He just didn't seem to stop.

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Unbelievable. It's the sort
of thing you dream of.

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This has lain underground
for more than 1,300 years.

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At a cost of some £3.5 million,
the Staffordshire hoard

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has now been bought for the nation.

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Hello, Dave. Hello.
Welcome to Birmingham.

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'The archaeologist who oversaw
the initial find, Dave Simmons,

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'has been busy cataloguing some of
the 3,500 pieces found in the hoard.

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'I'm most keen to see the
processional cross which remains

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'twisted from the day it was grabbed
by an Anglo-Saxon warrior.'

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This is actually the largest

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single piece in the hoard.

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It's about 140 grams of gold
staring you in the face there.

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Gosh! Can we look at it close up?

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Yes, we can.

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What we have here is probably
a processional cross of some kind.

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It's amazing to see it like this.

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It's a pretty remarkable piece.

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If you look at the reconstruction,

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you can see there are
these three little holes.

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This thing would originally
have been fastened to

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the top of a pole and carried
as a processional cross.

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Probably to make it fit in
the hoard, it's been folded up.

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If I turn it over, you can see

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the arms have just been
folded in on itself

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and that's actually the bottom.

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You can see the three little holes.

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In the 7th century, this could
have been a military weapon.

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This is your secret weapon, your
religion into battle on your side.

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So, I presume, you think
it's war booty, then?

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I find it hard to understand how you
acquire the bits from 90 plus swords

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without it being something
connected with war.

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This is warrior bling.

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This is people wearing
really dramatic, really elaborate

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gold decoration to their swords,
to their equipment.

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Everything about the way these
things are cut and designed is about

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the effect on a battlefield.

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The phrase that I like is the idea
of the psychopathic peacock.

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This is a man who will chop
you in half with his sword,

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without thinking twice about it

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and because he's that kind of
person, he's valued by the king.

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People have looked at
a lot of the things here

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and said, surely they're made for
parade, they're not for real battle.

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Yes, they are. You're in that
battle looking as magnificent

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as you can because that tells
everybody how important you are.

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The Staffordshire hoard is one of
the most significant discoveries

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of Anglo-Saxon art ever made.

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It's staggering to think

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that this is all war booty, taken
from the bodies of fallen warriors

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after a battle that ended
more than 1,200 years ago.

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Looking at the intricate design
and beautiful craftsmanship,

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it's a sobering thought that
in order to see this detail clearly,

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you'd have to get very close
indeed to the man wearing it.

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It would probably be the last thing

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you ever saw, given their fearsome
reputation for chopping people up.

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But why did these beautifully
jewelled pagan warriors

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come to Britain in the first place?

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The simple answer is, there were
no Roman soldiers here to stop them.

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The Romans quite liked
building walls.

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In fact, they built one right
across the entire country

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to stop the barbaric Picts and Scots
from attacking Roman Britain.

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They did a good job of keeping
out not just the Picts and Scots,

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but also invaders from Northern
Europe, ancestors of Anglo-Saxons.

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By the start of the 4th century,
the Roman empire was in decline.

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And the provinces first to go

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would be the ones
furthest from Rome.

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In 410,
the Emperor Honorius wrote to

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the local authorities in Britain
with news they must have dreaded.

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Rome would no longer be able to send
reinforcements to help defend them

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against barbarian attacks.

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The British monk, Gildas, writing
some 150 years after this event,

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imaginatively described it
as the groan of the Britons.

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According to Gildas,
initially three boatloads

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of Saxon warriors arrived to defend
against the Picts in the north.

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They might have been mercenaries,

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invited over by Vortigern,
a legendary Ancient British warlord.

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However, they soon rebelled,

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and as more of their fellow
tribesmen arrived,

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they began to take over.

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With no way of knowing how much
of this is true, the Romano-British

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certainly defended themselves, but
the Anglo-Saxons were here to stay.

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By the 5th century,
the Anglo-Saxons had taken over

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most of the eastern half of England.

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This is Finglesham in Kent,

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and here on the village sign,
you can see a little figure.

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Odin, the Norse God.

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A central character in all the
early Anglo-Saxon pagan beliefs.

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And they've put him on the village
sign, not because the inhabitants
are pagan - well, they might be -

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but because near here,
an archaeological dig

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unearthed a golden belt buckle
with a depiction of Odin.

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It's now known as
the Finglesham buckle

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and it's one of the most famous
Anglo-Saxon artworks found in Kent.

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The Finglesham buckle was unearthed
in 1934 on the Northbourne estate.

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At the time,
Lord Northbourne was a small boy.

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He remembers the discovery
of an Anglo-Saxon grave

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that aroused the interest
of some local archaeologists.

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If you look at this mess out here,
which was a chalk quarry,

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somebody noticed that there was
what was obviously a grave in it.

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And Mr Stebbing, who was
the Mayor of Sandwich,

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and a friend of his who was also
an archaeologist, came out here,

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had a look at it, decided there must
be something interesting behind this

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and they excavated the first
10 or 15 graves, I think, up here.

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These lovely finds that
were coming out of your land

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ended up in your possession?

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Well, that was the law
in those days,

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and actually what happened was about
half of them went to local museums.

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And the other half,
my father retained.

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The family still have the treasures
and Lord Northbourne took me

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to his son's house to see them.

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This is my son, Charles.

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Lovely to meet you.
Pleased to meet you.

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You're going to show me
the treasures?

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I have the treasures here.
Wonderful.

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My goodness. So I'm going to
show you the buckle here.

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This is the famous
Finglesham buckle,

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which I'll put down for you here.

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Oh, my gosh.

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My goodness, can I pick it up?
Yes, absolutely.

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Wow.

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It's a solid piece of metal,
isn't it?

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So it's gilded

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with a silver back plate.

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I mean, everything about it,

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it's so golden and bright,

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it would have looked so amazing
on a military attire.

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If we have a look at the figure,
we know it's Odin, of course,

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because of this teardrop-shaped head

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and these hook-beaked birds coming
out from the prow of the helmet.

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And then he's wearing
his own version of the buckle

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around his middle.

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I'm very excited, sorry, I'm getting
a bit hot and excited at this!

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It's interesting that he's naked,
because this was one of the things

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that set apart the early
so-called barbarian warriors,

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that they would run into battle
naked, wielding their weapons.

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I get an overwhelming

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sense of excitement holding such
an amazing piece of art like this.

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It is a national treasure,

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something hugely important
to our art history.

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All of these finds from
Finglesham really give us

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a vivid picture of 5th-century
Anglo-Saxon England.

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These are Germanic pieces,
pagan pieces,

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full of imagery that's coming
out of the pagan belief system.

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Birds, Odin with his spears.

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So what do we know about Odin

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and the pagan beliefs
of the Anglo-Saxons?

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Well, Odin was the chief god
in Norse mythology.

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Ruler of Asgard, the location of
Valhalla, which was the great hall

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where dead warriors believed
they would go to in the afterlife

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to feast and drink for all eternity.

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00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:47,360
Snakes, boars, bears, wolves
and ravens, all these animals

236
00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:52,680
appear in Anglo-Saxon art and each
is tied to a specific Norse legend.

237
00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:56,000
Warriors believed they could
transform into these animals.

238
00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:01,240
It was these pagan beliefs
that fostered the idea

239
00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:04,320
that the Anglo-Saxons
were primitive.

240
00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:17,880
For a long time, historians thought
that very early Anglo-Saxon kings

241
00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:21,440
were barbarians, not nearly
as sophisticated as the Christian

242
00:19:21,440 --> 00:19:23,360
Romano-Britons they'd conquered.

243
00:19:23,360 --> 00:19:26,720
And the archaeological evidence
seemed to support this,

244
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:32,120
suggesting they lived in simple
wooden structures like this hovel.

245
00:19:32,120 --> 00:19:34,240
However,
the truth was very different.

246
00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:37,920
And it wasn't until Britain was
faced with another Germanic invasion

247
00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:40,760
that an archaeological discovery
was made that would

248
00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:44,680
transform our understanding of
the Anglo-Saxon world forever.

249
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:59,160
In 1939, as Britain prepared
for war, a team of archaeologists

250
00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:02,480
were preparing to excavate
an Anglo-Saxon burial site

251
00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:04,800
at Sutton Hoo in East Anglia.

252
00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:11,160
What they found astonished them.

253
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:15,920
It was a longboat,
18 metres from stem to stern.

254
00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:19,240
And inside, it was full of
precious artefacts,

255
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:22,200
the like of which
no-one had seen before.

256
00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:26,240
There was so much treasure,

257
00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,800
a man with this wealth
couldn't have lived in a hovel.

258
00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:36,800
The archaeologist concluded that
this had to be the grave of a king.

259
00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:39,960
'This is easily
the most magnificent collection

260
00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:41,720
'of Saxon jewellery ever found.

261
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:44,000
'Probably the finest piece
artistically

262
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:48,480
'is the great gold buckle,
over 14 ounces of solid gold.

263
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:50,960
'Sliding latches on the back plate

264
00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:54,400
'allow it to open and show how it
was attached to the leather belt.'

265
00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:13,440
Today, the Sutton Hoo treasures

266
00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:18,360
have pride of place in the British
Museum's Anglo-Saxon collection.

267
00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:25,560
The finds from Sutton Hoo would
literally rewrite the history books.

268
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:35,200
If you look at some of the details,
it's clear these objects are coming

269
00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,120
straight out of Scandinavia.

270
00:21:37,120 --> 00:21:43,520
Here is the raven of Odin, the beast
of battle, its beak curling round.

271
00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:51,120
And these amazing long claws
curving in on themselves.

272
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:55,000
This is Odin's bird,

273
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,640
ready to crawl over the bodies of
the deceased on the battlefield.

274
00:22:00,120 --> 00:22:03,960
And the helmet, very Scandinavian.

275
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:06,640
It must have made quite
an impression on the battlefield.

276
00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:10,400
Here coming up the front
we have two dragons,

277
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:15,640
big snarling teeth meeting in the
middle and protecting the crown.

278
00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:18,920
And then over the eyebrows,
two boars, their eyes

279
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:21,960
picked out in glistening garnets.

280
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:28,400
Boars were very potent symbols
to Anglo-Saxon warriors.

281
00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:30,040
Let me explain why.

282
00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:40,200
In the pagan beliefs
of the early Anglo-Saxons,

283
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:43,120
the boar symbolised fertility.

284
00:22:43,120 --> 00:22:47,200
The goddess Freya rode one
called Hildesvini into battle,

285
00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,440
that is, when she wasn't
riding her cat-drawn chariot.

286
00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:56,400
This was one of the few times when
saying someone is a BOAR in bed

287
00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:59,760
was actually a compliment.

288
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:12,720
But birds and boars weren't
the only animal symbols depicted

289
00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:14,360
on the Sutton Hoo treasures.

290
00:23:14,360 --> 00:23:17,000
There are also snakes,
lots of snakes.

291
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:22,680
You can see them writhing over the
surface of the golden belt buckle.

292
00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:28,760
Here, two intertwine
around one another

293
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:31,800
in this beautiful,
interlaced pattern.

294
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:34,840
But why the fascination with snakes?

295
00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:51,080
The snakes are in fact Jormungandr,

296
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:54,280
or the world serpent
from Norse mythology.

297
00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:58,600
Legend has it that he was the son
of another god that Odin tossed

298
00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:02,600
into the sea,
where he grew into a serpent.

299
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:09,680
A serpent large enough
to surround the entire world

300
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:12,000
and grab his own tail.

301
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:15,600
It was literally
the worm that turned the world.

302
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:17,520
And the Anglo-Saxons believed that

303
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:22,640
if the snake or worm ever let go of
its tail, then the world would end.

304
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,160
And this is my absolute
favourite piece.

305
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:40,360
The Sutton Hoo shoulder clasps.
And you can see that serpents

306
00:24:40,360 --> 00:24:42,160
writhe all over it.

307
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:47,040
They interlace down the sides here,
along the bottom and winding up here

308
00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:49,360
in this intricate pattern.

309
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:58,800
And then there are the boars.

310
00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:01,560
There's two of them at each
end of the shoulder clasp.

311
00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:03,600
They're quite difficult to make out.

312
00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:07,560
If I isolate just one, you can see
the snout with the tusk here

313
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:12,040
and you follow the shape
of the head up to the ear

314
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:16,800
and round below the face with the
spine coming all the way down here.

315
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:19,440
And then the little
trotter at the back.

316
00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:30,680
These pieces show us just how
sophisticated and international

317
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:32,720
the Anglo-Saxons were.

318
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:36,080
Glass from Italy, garnet from India,

319
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:39,560
and these delicate
chequerboard patterns.

320
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:42,360
Some of them are only
a millimetre wide.

321
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:46,320
It's amazing craftsmanship

322
00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:50,160
and something only a few elite
jewellers could reproduce today.

323
00:26:01,880 --> 00:26:05,880
Garrard's are one of the most
famous jewellers in the world.

324
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:10,560
The craftsmen create some of
the most exclusive jewellery.

325
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:19,120
With pieces ranging upwards
of a quarter of a million pounds,

326
00:26:19,120 --> 00:26:24,440
their jewellery adorns billionaires,
pop stars and royalty.

327
00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:30,520
The way we're looking at it there,
and then we see the side...

328
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:33,480
'Designer Stephen Webster,
the man in charge, believes

329
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:37,120
'the techniques the Anglo-Saxon
smiths used to make shoulder clasps

330
00:26:37,120 --> 00:26:40,000
'are the same ones
still in use today.'

331
00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:48,800
This is where
the jewellery manufacturing process

332
00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:51,680
has really not moved on the way that

333
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:56,560
you might have thought over 1,600
years, 1,500 years or something.

334
00:26:56,560 --> 00:26:59,720
There's a lot of small hand tools

335
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:05,400
and even though they would have been
cruder, these are very, very similar.

336
00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:08,760
So we've got a ring here that's
for a customer in Las Vegas.

337
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:12,600
So the best way to go about that
is to carve this in wax. Right.

338
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,120
So this is the first technique
that's the same.

339
00:27:15,120 --> 00:27:16,920
He's carving in wax and...

340
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:20,560
Do you want to show us some of
the tools that you use for carving?

341
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:24,800
Yeah, I'm just using
sculpers and a scraper.

342
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,080
So these are just sharp steel tools.

343
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:30,760
Again, they don't look
particularly modern. They're not!

344
00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:34,640
There's nothing modern on
his bench, not even his lunch!

345
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:39,880
To make the hundreds of garnet
inserts, the Anglo-Saxons

346
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:42,920
would have glued them
to sticks like this

347
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,320
and cut them to size
on a grinding stone.

348
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:53,080
I couldn't resist the opportunity
to have a go myself.

349
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:55,520
Oh, my God. Are you nervous?

350
00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:57,120
Yes, I'm really nervous.

351
00:27:57,120 --> 00:28:01,840
I don't want to... The thing to do
is to hold it firm but go in

352
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,680
and feel it so you feel it bite.

353
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:08,840
That's it and then you just keep it
like that. Oh, wow. OK.

354
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:13,760
Wow.

355
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,280
Oh, I can see it's wearing down.

356
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:18,000
We have lift-off.

357
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:22,640
Wow. Well, anyway,
you get the gist of it.

358
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:25,120
The rest is just time.

359
00:28:25,120 --> 00:28:27,520
Well, I've certainly worn
a little bit down.

360
00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:30,400
But that must take ages
to cut that whole shape out.

361
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:35,120
It gives you an idea. We've got
a modern tool, we've got electricity

362
00:28:35,120 --> 00:28:37,040
so they're just going to work it

363
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:39,800
with whatever they had.
It puts it into perspective.

364
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:44,200
A minute of doing that
and it's barely scratched the gem

365
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:46,680
and yet they'd have to do that
over and over...

366
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:50,840
All of them. A lot of work.
Have I done it well?

367
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:53,120
You did it well. Fantastic.

368
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:56,800
So I guess the million-dollar
question is,

369
00:28:56,800 --> 00:29:01,240
to make that pair of Sutton Hoo
shoulder clasps, how much?

370
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:06,640
We think it would be
just shy of £200,000. Right.

371
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,400
And it would take how long,
do you think?

372
00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:13,600
Well, we figured on something close
to four weeks each.

373
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:18,480
You know, there's not that many
short cuts. We've got better tools

374
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:21,680
and better things available
but it's still a lot of handwork.

375
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:26,160
200 grand and two months, you'd
end up with shoulder clasps.

376
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:28,120
Absolutely. Thank you.

377
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:37,760
To the Anglo-Saxons, the smiths
who created their jewellery

378
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,880
must have seemed like magicians.

379
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:45,240
In fact,
they even made one smith a god.

380
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:51,520
And his story is an epic tale of
enchanting jewels, rape and murder.

381
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:05,560
The tale of Weyland is one of
my favourite Norse legends.

382
00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:08,040
Weyland the smith
was a happily married man

383
00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:10,360
who made fantastic swords
and jewellery.

384
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:12,520
One night in his sleep

385
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:15,080
he was captured
by the cruel King Nidud.

386
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:22,840
The king imprisoned Weyland
on an island and forced him

387
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:24,680
to make jewellery for him.

388
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:28,880
To make sure he couldn't escape, the
king ordered him to be hamstrung.

389
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:34,960
Crippled, knowing
he wouldn't see his wife again,

390
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:37,800
Weyland exacted a terrible revenge.

391
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:44,600
He murdered the king's sons,
fashioned goblets from their skulls,

392
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,680
jewels from their eyes
and a brooch from their teeth.

393
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:53,680
Weyland then took back his wedding
ring from the king's daughter

394
00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:59,520
before raping her, fathering a son
and escaping on a pair of wings.

395
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:10,360
A truly grim fairy-tale,
but one that might actually

396
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:12,640
contain a grain of truth.

397
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:20,440
Many of the Anglo-Saxon smiths may
well have been slaves like Weyland.

398
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:25,400
The golden treasures found at Sutton
Hoo had made historians question

399
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:30,480
whether Anglo-Saxon kings really
had lived in small wooden hovels.

400
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,800
It couldn't have been
in places like this.

401
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:45,360
After the Second World War,
archaeologists discovered evidence

402
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:50,400
that Anglo-Saxon kings
lived in giant wooden palaces.

403
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:57,440
We now think that Anglo-Saxon kings
lived in huge halls like this.

404
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:00,040
Digs at Yavering in Northumbria
unearthed a hall

405
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:04,320
twice the size of this one
with an auditorium
that seated over 300 people.

406
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:17,360
These halls feature in Old English
poems like the epic Beowulf

407
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:21,000
which, for me, gives the most
evocative idea of life in the hall.

408
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,960
Indeed, the poem opens
with the command "Hwaet!",

409
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:28,000
"Listen!", which you can imagine
being shouted across a crowded hall

410
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:29,600
of drunken warriors.

411
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:38,680
SHE READS IN OLD ENGLISH

412
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:07,360
This replica hall was built
by the Regia Anglorum society.

413
00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:10,720
The 700 members
devote their weekends

414
00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:15,680
to recreating Anglo-Saxon life
in Kent.

415
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:20,400
We wanted somewhere where we could
do practical archaeology

416
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:25,840
and to recreate things which we know
exist in the archaeological record

417
00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:29,120
in the environment in which
they had originally been used.

418
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:31,520
So it's like living research.
That's right.

419
00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:35,800
It is somewhere where we can trace
the footprints of our ancestors.

420
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,280
We feel very strongly that

421
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:41,720
if we can trace their footprints
in time, we can see what they saw.

422
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:46,320
You think the interior
of these halls would have been
brightly decorated and coloured?

423
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:47,440
Very much so.

424
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:50,760
We know our Anglo-Saxon ancestors
enjoyed bright colours

425
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:53,240
because they lived
in a fairly drab world.

426
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:58,640
The apex of our porch has some
very pretty colours on there.

427
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:02,520
Yes, because it's a very bright
use of blues and reds and golds.

428
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,920
Absolutely. And very regal as well.

429
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:09,680
Yeah, you might even say it
looked like a Chinese restaurant!

430
00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:24,720
In 597, a man came across the sea
with an idea that would transform

431
00:34:24,720 --> 00:34:26,920
the art of the Anglo-Saxons.

432
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:32,760
St Augustine was on a mission
from God and Pope Gregory.

433
00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:37,240
He stepped off his boat right here.

434
00:34:37,240 --> 00:34:41,440
Well, just over there, close to what
is now St Augustine's golf course.

435
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,440
Legend has it that
Pope Gregory's decision

436
00:34:55,440 --> 00:35:00,120
to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons
came about thanks to a papal pun.

437
00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:05,200
On seeing some Angles
in a Roman slave market, he asked,

438
00:35:05,200 --> 00:35:06,800
"Where are they from?"

439
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:08,840
Hearing that they are Angles,

440
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:12,480
he said, "They are not Angles,
but Angels."

441
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:18,560
So the Pope decided
the Angle-Angels were so beautiful,

442
00:35:18,560 --> 00:35:20,920
they had to be Christian.

443
00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:25,120
He dispatched St Augustine to
ensure that all the British Isles

444
00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:30,040
would now follow him and God,
not Odin and lots of pagan gods.

445
00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:37,040
So what was life like in
these newly converted kingdoms?

446
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:40,800
It was quite nice, actually.

447
00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:51,280
According to Bede,
a monk writing some time later,

448
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:53,920
in Edwin's Northumbria,
it was completely safe

449
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:59,480
for a woman and child to walk from
one end of his lands to the other.

450
00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:01,920
And when times were tough

451
00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:06,480
and peasants turned up at Edwin's
Great Hall in search of food,

452
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:11,480
he not only gave them his dinner
but the silver plate it was on, too.

453
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:13,440
What a nice man!

454
00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:18,960
It sounds like a peaceful time.

455
00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:20,840
It wasn't always quite like that

456
00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:24,800
but it was a time when pagan and
Christian beliefs did co-exist,

457
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:27,440
and this was reflected in the art.

458
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:29,320
Mama.

459
00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:32,480
CLOCK CHIMES

460
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:34,600
Here, in the British Museum,

461
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:38,880
is one of the best examples that
shows how readily the Anglo-Saxons

462
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:42,400
were prepared to follow
both Christ and Odin.

463
00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:57,800
This is one of my favourite pieces -

464
00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:02,200
the silver and gilt belt buckle
from Crundale, in Kent.

465
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,920
This is a serious piece of
double-edged art...literally.

466
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:08,680
Look at how these symbols
sit alongside each other.

467
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:13,560
Knotted pagan snakes
and a Christian fish.

468
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:19,880
This piece clearly shows it was made
at a time when the Anglo-Saxons

469
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:21,480
were hedging their bets,

470
00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:25,760
embracing Christianity and keeping
hold of their pagan heritage.

471
00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:33,120
Looking at it now, you can imagine
the sort of man who commissioned it.

472
00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:36,360
One week he's fasting for Easter,

473
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,720
the next he's feasting
for the goddess Aostra.

474
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:50,320
For about a century,

475
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:55,320
the Anglo-Saxons continued to flip
between paganism and Christianity.

476
00:37:55,320 --> 00:38:00,720
And some time in the 7th century,
one piece of art was created

477
00:38:00,720 --> 00:38:04,800
that perfectly encapsulated
this eclectic view of the world.

478
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:13,560
In 1857, Victorian collector
Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks

479
00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:15,640
was on a shopping trip to Paris

480
00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:19,360
in pursuit of his famous pastime -
buying antiques.

481
00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:26,160
He heard about a rather unusual
item a dealer had for sale.

482
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:29,160
It had lain hidden
for nearly 1,000 years.

483
00:38:30,720 --> 00:38:34,280
And eventually, it wound up
in a Parisian antique shop.

484
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:37,840
When Wollaston Franks saw it,
he couldn't resist.

485
00:38:44,240 --> 00:38:47,960
Today, it's known as
the Franks casket.

486
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:52,640
Carved out of whalebone, it's
an amazing visual representation

487
00:38:52,640 --> 00:38:56,560
of the early Anglo-Saxons' view
of the history of the world.

488
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:02,680
It's well over 1,200 years old now

489
00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:05,760
and it has to be kept
in a climate-controlled case.

490
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:11,600
It's far too delicate to be handled.

491
00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:16,160
So the British Museum had
this replica made, which I can hold.

492
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:19,720
And this means I can show you
that the Franks casket is a truly

493
00:39:19,720 --> 00:39:24,400
three-dimensional art object. It's
like an Anglo-Saxon Rubik's Cube.

494
00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:29,720
If we start at the front, where the
key would enter the lock, missing...

495
00:39:29,720 --> 00:39:32,360
We've got two very enigmatic scenes.

496
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:38,560
We've the legendary Germanic story
of Weyland the smith.

497
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:46,320
Weyland has killed the king's son
and is offering a drugged goblet

498
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:50,160
made from his skull
to the daughter.

499
00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:53,880
And to the side of this
are three figures,

500
00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:58,680
the Three Magi,
approaching two figures here.

501
00:40:00,200 --> 00:40:05,440
Mary and Jesus have been abbreviated
to teardrop-shaped heads.

502
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:11,680
A scene from Germanic myth
alongside a Christian image.

503
00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:15,560
But if we turn it round to the left,
something else enters the equation.

504
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:19,080
A scene from Roman legend.

505
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:21,640
Here we've got
a very unusual version

506
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:23,320
of Romulus and Remus

507
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:24,760
being nursed by the wolf.

508
00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:26,160
Typically,

509
00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:28,840
they are shown as children
underneath the wolf,

510
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:30,840
but the Anglo-Saxons

511
00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:35,480
have shown them as full-grown adults
lying out prostate on the ground.

512
00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:42,040
With this upside-down wolf here.

513
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:49,840
But I love this object
because it captures that moment

514
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:54,320
when the Anglo-Saxons are moving
from paganism to Christianity.

515
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:58,600
And in this one piece we've got
so many of the legends and so much

516
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:02,560
of the imagery that had previously
dominated Anglo-Saxon art.

517
00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:21,120
A century after St Augustine
had landed,

518
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:23,680
stone symbols
of the Christian faith

519
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:26,200
began to dominate
the British landscape.

520
00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:34,520
In the wooden world
of the Anglo-Saxons,

521
00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:37,440
stone crosses made a big impact.

522
00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:41,720
This proved to be an effective
advertising campaign,

523
00:41:41,720 --> 00:41:43,680
one that definitely said

524
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:47,560
paganism was fading away and
Christianity was here to stay.

525
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:59,120
New churches and abbeys sprung up
throughout the Anglo-Saxon lands.

526
00:42:03,840 --> 00:42:08,200
In 674, Abbot Benedict Biscop
founded a monastery here.

527
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:11,400
Very few Anglo-Saxon
buildings survive,

528
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:14,920
but inside, the entire chancel
is original.

529
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:30,520
In its day, this place was an
island of Mediterranean culture

530
00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:32,640
in a sea of barbarism.

531
00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:41,520
The abbot, Biscop,
was a well-travelled man.

532
00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:44,360
In his lifetime, he made many trips
to Rome, and I think

533
00:42:44,360 --> 00:42:46,000
he fell in love with the place.

534
00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:57,960
So much so, that he decided
to create a little bit of Rome

535
00:42:57,960 --> 00:43:00,280
here in the north-east of England.

536
00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:09,080
The chancery he built is now one
of the oldest buildings in Britain.

537
00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:13,280
But working in stone wasn't
the only idea Biscop brought back

538
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:15,920
from his travels.

539
00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:19,240
Biscop introduced another new
concept, one the Anglo-Saxons

540
00:43:19,240 --> 00:43:23,800
had never seen before and one that
we couldn't live without today...

541
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:25,080
glazed windows.

542
00:43:25,080 --> 00:43:31,440
This is it, one of the earliest
stained-glass windows in Britain.

543
00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:38,440
But Jarrow wasn't to be remembered
for its stonework and glass.

544
00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:42,600
There was another art form that
it was to become world famous for.

545
00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:44,600
Manuscripts.

546
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:55,400
Although the whole country
was now Christian, the Church

547
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:57,440
was effectively split in two.

548
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:04,000
On the one side were the newly
converted Anglo-Saxons in England.

549
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:08,400
On the other were the Celtic
churches in the rest of the country.

550
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:15,560
The easiest way to understand their
artistic and spiritual differences

551
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:18,440
is to look at how
they both drew people.

552
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:23,720
This is the Mac Durnan Gospel.

553
00:44:23,720 --> 00:44:26,360
It's typical of the style
of manuscript produced

554
00:44:26,360 --> 00:44:30,440
by the very early Christians in the
Celtic parts of Britain and Ireland.

555
00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:34,280
It's small because it was designed
to be carried by the clergymen

556
00:44:34,280 --> 00:44:36,720
as they travelled
around the land preaching.

557
00:44:39,240 --> 00:44:43,160
The depiction of the figure
is very stylised.

558
00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:46,600
It's almost a cartoon.

559
00:44:46,600 --> 00:44:51,000
If you look at the feet, they're
cloven, not at all realistic.

560
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:53,480
Some scholars have speculated

561
00:44:53,480 --> 00:44:57,400
it comes from a belief that only God
can create the true image of man.

562
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:05,360
The Anglo-Saxons, who took their
ideas directly from St Augustine

563
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:12,080
and Rome, had no problem drawing
man, and his feet, naturalistically.

564
00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:16,600
This is the Durham Cassiodorus.
A fantastic Anglo-Saxon manuscript.

565
00:45:16,600 --> 00:45:19,280
Take a look at the figure here.

566
00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:23,000
It's far more naturalistic
and realistic.

567
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:26,360
And the treatment of the feet,
no cloven hooves here.

568
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:30,360
The artist has even included
tiny little toenails.

569
00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:33,600
It's far more in keeping with
the classical tradition of art

570
00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:35,160
that's coming out of Rome.

571
00:45:37,720 --> 00:45:41,760
The Celtic and Anglo-Saxon
Christians couldn't agree

572
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:44,040
when to celebrate Easter.

573
00:45:44,040 --> 00:45:47,160
And although these different
approaches to drawing feet

574
00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:50,560
may seem trivial to us now,
at the time they represented

575
00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:55,760
a real fundamental difference
between the two Christian camps.

576
00:45:55,760 --> 00:46:00,480
These two artistic styles may seem
irreconcilable, but one man's life

577
00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:04,320
was to inspire an artwork
that would bring the two together.

578
00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:15,640
His name was St Cuthbert
and he spent most of his life

579
00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:18,560
on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

580
00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:32,080
St Cuthbert was one of
Lindisfarne's earliest bishops.

581
00:46:32,080 --> 00:46:34,480
The most remarkable thing
about Cuthbert

582
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:36,680
was he was all things to all men.

583
00:46:36,680 --> 00:46:41,040
He was a nobleman,
a hermit, a monk and a bishop.

584
00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:43,600
And in death, he was to become

585
00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:47,760
one of the Anglo-Saxons'
most treasured saints.

586
00:46:53,640 --> 00:46:58,320
In 687, Cuthbert died
and was buried here.

587
00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:02,040
11 years later, the monks of
Lindisfarne opened his coffin

588
00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:04,360
and made an amazing discovery.

589
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:06,400
Cuthbert didn't rot.

590
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:09,240
Because of this,
he was declared a saint

591
00:47:09,240 --> 00:47:11,600
and a cult
would grow up around him.

592
00:47:18,720 --> 00:47:23,520
In death, Cuthbert managed
one final miraculous act,

593
00:47:23,520 --> 00:47:28,080
and it would reconcile the artistic
differences between the Anglo-Saxon

594
00:47:28,080 --> 00:47:30,680
and Celtic churches.

595
00:47:32,200 --> 00:47:36,080
He inspired another bishop
of Lindisfarne, Eadfrith,

596
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:38,840
to create a manuscript
of such beauty

597
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:43,680
it would become one of the pinnacles
of Anglo-Saxon artistic achievement.

598
00:47:44,760 --> 00:47:48,240
This is it.
This is the Lindisfarne Gospels,

599
00:47:48,240 --> 00:47:52,200
the finest piece of art from the
Dark Ages, and a national treasure.

600
00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:56,080
Well, this isn't actually it. The
original is in the British Library.

601
00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:58,280
But this one manuscript

602
00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:02,040
is the culmination of centuries
of Anglo-Saxon artistic endeavour.

603
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:06,400
Not only that, it manages to
resolve the stylistic differences

604
00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:09,400
of the two Christian factions.

605
00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:23,560
Let's look at it
in a little more detail.

606
00:48:23,560 --> 00:48:25,440
Here we have an image

607
00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:28,400
of Matthew the Evangelist,
writing in his gospel book.

608
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:32,040
And if you look at details
like the feet,

609
00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:35,040
you can see the same sort of imagery

610
00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:37,640
that we saw
in the Durham Cassiodorus.

611
00:48:37,640 --> 00:48:40,080
That naturalistic treatment
of the figure

612
00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:43,360
that's coming directly from Rome
with St Augustine.

613
00:48:56,080 --> 00:49:00,120
And alongside this, we get
these full-page illuminations

614
00:49:00,120 --> 00:49:01,400
called carpet pages,

615
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:07,760
where the swirls
move the eye from image into text.

616
00:49:07,760 --> 00:49:10,720
But look at this carpet page
in detail.

617
00:49:10,720 --> 00:49:13,480
Here we've got
Celtic whorls and spirals,

618
00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:18,200
just like we saw in the Mac Durnan
Gospels, here in the borders.

619
00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:21,000
They knot along the edges, here.

620
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:29,920
And then we've also got
Anglo-Saxon animal interlace,

621
00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:32,680
just like we saw on the Sutton Hoo
belt buckle,

622
00:49:32,680 --> 00:49:36,240
where the serpents
and beasts wound into one another.

623
00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:46,480
And if you look
at this carpet page,

624
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:50,480
it's the same imagery we've seen
on the Sutton Hoo shoulder clasps.

625
00:49:50,480 --> 00:49:54,440
Look at the centre,
the exact same geometric patterning.

626
00:49:58,360 --> 00:50:02,360
It's no accident
that they're called carpet pages.

627
00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:05,360
They certainly resemble
Islamic prayer rugs,

628
00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:09,160
and it's possible that Eadfrith
had seen a Middle Eastern carpet.

629
00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:14,840
He certainly had an encyclopaedic
knowledge of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon

630
00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:16,880
and Christian art of Rome.

631
00:50:19,720 --> 00:50:23,160
Today, the Lindisfarne Gospels
are considered

632
00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:25,360
one of the world's
greatest artworks,

633
00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:28,680
but less than a century
after they were made,

634
00:50:28,680 --> 00:50:30,320
they were nearly destroyed

635
00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:35,200
by a new wave of violent,
bloodthirsty pagan invaders.

636
00:50:42,920 --> 00:50:47,520
In 793,
the Vikings sacked Lindisfarne,

637
00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:51,040
slaughtering their monks
and plundering their treasures.

638
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:04,600
By 871, nearly all
the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms

639
00:51:04,600 --> 00:51:09,520
had been defeated and ravaged
by the marauding Vikings.

640
00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:21,680
Only the newly-crowned
King of Wessex stood against them.

641
00:51:24,320 --> 00:51:27,720
His name was Alfred -
Alfred the Great.

642
00:51:27,720 --> 00:51:30,680
And Winchester
was his capital city.

643
00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:38,560
Under Alfred,

644
00:51:38,560 --> 00:51:43,240
Winchester became the very model
of Anglo-Saxon civilisation,

645
00:51:43,240 --> 00:51:46,760
a place where art and culture
would flourish.

646
00:51:50,120 --> 00:51:54,840
During his reign, Alfred introduced
many concepts we take for granted,

647
00:51:54,840 --> 00:51:59,080
like taxes to pay
for the defence of his cities.

648
00:52:03,400 --> 00:52:08,040
However, he would never
decisively defeat the Vikings.

649
00:52:08,040 --> 00:52:11,840
But he did stop them from
conquering England completely.

650
00:52:20,520 --> 00:52:24,480
Winchester Cathedral was built
by the people that did ultimately

651
00:52:24,480 --> 00:52:27,960
conquer Anglo-Saxon England,
the Normans.

652
00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:32,760
But beneath it lies the remains
of a great Anglo-Saxon cathedral.

653
00:52:53,600 --> 00:52:55,680
During his 28 years on the throne,

654
00:52:55,680 --> 00:53:00,720
Alfred made the building of new
churches and monasteries a priority.

655
00:53:07,280 --> 00:53:11,040
The Church, and his faith,
were very important to Alfred.

656
00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:14,080
He believed the reason that
the Vikings had come to rape

657
00:53:14,080 --> 00:53:16,160
and pillage his land was simple.

658
00:53:16,160 --> 00:53:18,840
His people were not pious enough.

659
00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:27,880
To atone for this lack of piety,
Alfred made the production of art

660
00:53:27,880 --> 00:53:31,120
dedicated to the glory of God
his mission.

661
00:53:33,360 --> 00:53:35,200
And this is his legacy.

662
00:53:35,200 --> 00:53:39,960
It became known as the Winchester
School and it shows how the artistry

663
00:53:39,960 --> 00:53:44,240
and creativity of the Anglo-Saxons
developed in later centuries.

664
00:53:51,600 --> 00:53:54,480
There's still loads
of Anglo-Saxon motifs here.

665
00:53:54,480 --> 00:53:59,880
The bold use of colour, the gold,
this interlacing knotwork here.

666
00:53:59,880 --> 00:54:02,560
And as we move on to later works,

667
00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:06,840
you see even more naturalism
and movement in pieces like this.

668
00:54:15,360 --> 00:54:18,840
Look at the treatment
of the figure.

669
00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:21,440
And the drapery here.

670
00:54:25,880 --> 00:54:30,600
There's an increasing freedom of
expression in pieces like this,

671
00:54:30,600 --> 00:54:34,400
where the characters
are filling the space

672
00:54:34,400 --> 00:54:37,160
and pouring out
across the illumination.

673
00:54:40,560 --> 00:54:45,760
And looking at this, you can really
see why Anglo-Saxon manuscripts

674
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:48,440
became such highly-prized
artworks throughout Europe.

675
00:55:01,920 --> 00:55:06,120
The freedom and expressiveness
of the late Anglo-Saxon period

676
00:55:06,120 --> 00:55:08,520
was not limited to manuscripts.

677
00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:13,000
There was one piece of jewellery
that when it was found,

678
00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:16,320
looked so fresh
and was in such good condition

679
00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:18,640
the British Museum
thought it was fake.

680
00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:29,800
Of all the works produced in the
late Anglo-Saxon period, for me,

681
00:55:29,800 --> 00:55:33,680
this, the Fuller brooch,
represents most clearly

682
00:55:33,680 --> 00:55:37,280
both where Anglo-Saxon art has come
from and where it's heading to.

683
00:55:43,280 --> 00:55:46,200
It's personal,
it's portable, and shiny,

684
00:55:46,200 --> 00:55:50,080
just like the other early
Anglo-Saxon warrior bling.

685
00:55:50,080 --> 00:55:56,440
But the animals and pagan symbols
have now virtually gone.

686
00:55:56,440 --> 00:55:59,480
It represents the five senses

687
00:55:59,480 --> 00:56:01,880
and the four stages of life
around the edge.

688
00:56:02,840 --> 00:56:06,680
The most important thing
is the treatment of the figures.

689
00:56:06,680 --> 00:56:09,520
You can see that there's
very little naturalism.

690
00:56:09,520 --> 00:56:13,600
Take a look at this central
character. The eyes are so enlarged

691
00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:17,880
and the face has been reduced
just to the basic features.

692
00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:20,280
Then you have these figures
around the side.

693
00:56:20,280 --> 00:56:22,440
Their bodies are elongated.

694
00:56:22,440 --> 00:56:26,120
Their gowns
are turned into abstract patterns.

695
00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:30,280
And they're surrounded
by these shapes and arrows.

696
00:56:30,280 --> 00:56:33,040
All of this treatment
of figural depiction

697
00:56:33,040 --> 00:56:35,680
was to disappear
for another 1,000 years.

698
00:56:35,680 --> 00:56:38,240
That is, until Picasso.

699
00:56:42,960 --> 00:56:47,600
But of course, the Anglo-Saxons
never did get as far as Picasso.

700
00:56:51,160 --> 00:56:54,680
The Bayeux Tapestry
tells the story of their defeat.

701
00:56:59,520 --> 00:57:04,160
At the Battle of Hastings,
the Anglo-Saxons were the losers.

702
00:57:04,160 --> 00:57:09,960
And history, even art history,
is always written by the winners.

703
00:57:13,320 --> 00:57:17,360
After their victory in 1066, this
is one of the first works of art

704
00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:19,960
the Normans commissioned.

705
00:57:19,960 --> 00:57:24,880
For me, the Bayeux Tapestry
lacks the sort of imagination

706
00:57:24,880 --> 00:57:28,920
and artistic freedom that made
the Anglo-Saxons so special.

707
00:57:31,400 --> 00:57:35,920
As I look at this replica now,
how it follows step-by-step

708
00:57:35,920 --> 00:57:40,600
the story of the Norman victory, I
can't help but wonder how different

709
00:57:40,600 --> 00:57:44,480
the story of Anglo-Saxon art would
have been were they not defeated

710
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:47,640
and so many
of their treasures lost.

711
00:57:52,600 --> 00:57:57,600
But maybe this is one of
the beauties of Anglo-Saxon art.

712
00:57:57,600 --> 00:57:59,600
The fact that so much of it

713
00:57:59,600 --> 00:58:02,720
was buried for 1,000 years
in the British countryside

714
00:58:02,720 --> 00:58:07,400
means that today, we can see it
with truly fresh eyes.

715
00:58:07,400 --> 00:58:11,560
And with every new discovery, our
understanding of the Anglo-Saxons

716
00:58:11,560 --> 00:58:16,720
will keep changing and shine
a new light on the Dark Ages.

717
00:58:21,800 --> 00:58:23,520
MACHINE BEEPS

718
00:58:24,480 --> 00:58:27,120
BEEPS GET FASTER

719
00:58:44,320 --> 00:58:45,960
Oh. Rubbish.

720
00:58:45,960 --> 00:58:49,160
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