Approximately at the same time other missionaries were acting on the territories of Ireland and Scotland. They were St. Patrick in Ireland and monk Columba in Scotland.
It was the Celtic Church which brought Christianity to the ordinary people of Britain. The Celtic bishops went out from their monasteries of Wales, Ireland and Scotland, walking from village to village teaching Christianity. In spite of the differences between Anglo-Saxons and Celts, these bishops seem to have been readily accepted in Anglo-Saxon areas.
These to Christian Churches were competing against one another until 664 when at Synod (church meeting) of Whitby the Roman type of Christianity was established. The church of Canterbury became the leading one and the centre of mass pilgrimage (паломничество).
The consequences of the adoption of Christianity in England:
¨ unification of the country;
¨ promotion of learning and culture ("minsters" (=monasteries) opened schools, monks worked as scribes and rewrote books, etc.);
¨ development of trade with Europe (largely due to the fact that they accepted Christianity and the Roman Church). They exported: wool, cheese, hunting dogs, pottery, metal goods. They imported: wine, fish, pepper, jewelry, etc.
4) Language
At first the invaders spoke different dialects but little by little the dialect of the Angles of Mercia prevailed. Soon the people living in Britain were referred to as the English after the Angles and the name England became widely used as the name of the whole country.
a. literature
¥ The legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table make their appearance at the times of the Celtic struggle against the Anglo-Saxons.
¥ The Poem of Beowulf dates back to the 7th century and is a written monument that reflects the life of the Anglo-Saxon society and its traditions. There’s a theory that this epic was first written in the Northumbrian dialect and later translated into West-Saxon.
b. linguistic traces
! names of the week days
e.g. Tuesday - Tiu - the god of war.
Wednesday - Woden - the supreme god and the ancestor of kings
Thursday - Thor - the god of storm
Friday – Frei/ Frigga - Woden's wife, was the goddess of nature and of love.
Sunday – the day of the Sun – OE sunnandǽg; Germanic –sunnon dagaz
Monday – the day of the Moon – OE mōn(an)dǽg
Saturday – the day of Saturn – the god of Time in the Roman mythology; Greek god - Chronus
To learn more about the days of the week go to http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/days/
! place-names
~ing = “folk or family” e.g. Reading = “the place of family of Rada”; Hastings = “the place of family Hasta”
~ham = “farm” e.g. Birmingham, Nottingham
~ ton = “settlement” e.g. Southampton, Kingston
~shire = “county” e.g. Yorkshire, Wiltshire