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Jimmy Snooks's avatar

Brilliant and utterly fascinating. How little we know about certain crucial episodes in our history. It would benefit us to know more about our origins as it throws light upon our more current predicaments, perhaps.

On a lighter note, I can’t help wondering why the Anglo-Saxons chose boiling beer to pour on their besieging enemies. If they were short of the normally-used oil, or indeed drinking water (both important resources to a besieged force) then surely it would have made better sense to drink the beer and pour the resultant piss on to the unsuspecting foe. Boiling piss would have made an acrid, unpleasant brew to be sure. But then perhaps Athelstan was more concerned with preserving the sobriety of his troops in the face of such existential danger. Use the ale as a weapon and in doing so, remove the possibility of having to defend the citadel with a rat-eyed soldiery. Smart fellow. All the more reason to remember and honour him.

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Mike Greig's avatar

A very interesting summary thank you. There is an excellent Facebook group “Anglo-Saxon History and Language” with administrators who do a great job of sharing information on the Anglo-Saxon period. We need to organise a proper celebration of 1100 years on unification.

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