These tough conditions created strong ties within tribes and encouraged intense loyalty to clan leaders. The environment also contributed to the high esteem in which the inhabitants held individual bravery, a quality they honored above all others.
The history of early Britain is one of foreign domination. The Angles and Saxons from the lowlands of Europe took over the rule of England (Angle-land) between 450 and 550 A.D. Viking invaders from Denmark, Sweden, and Norway made their presence felt as well, constantly raiding England during the period in which the poem was written. These seafaring warriors, descendants of Beowulf's era, were the Vikings who roamed the world and explored North America two hundred years before Columbus.
Warrior culture and society. The raw essence of life among a warrior people is celebrated in BeowuiJ. Much of its narrative is concerned with the challenges of existence, the weaponry used, and the festive celebrations of this group. The poem also portrays a strong sense of fatalism, or acceptance of death. The warriors of the era accepted their mortality and fate in a way that seems casual to the modern reader. The concept of wyrd (the root of the modern word weird), or fate, was central to the world view of the Anglo-Saxons living between the eighth and the tenth centuries.
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