Posted on: December 7th 2018
On Friday 30th November Form 3 were visited by a real-life Anglo Saxon! His name was Cendrick and he had travelled forward 1,226 years in time to come and talk to the children.
He told Form 3 he is a farmer (“churl” in old English) who owns one hyde (field) but is hoping to be able to own five hydes and become a thane (lord) and maybe even buy some slaves to work for him. He showed pupils how Anglo Saxons build their houses and told them that they pay taxes to the King by giving him grain, milk, mead and even chickens. He even used runes (stones with Anglo Saxon letters on) to tell Form 3’s fortunes. He told some pupils that they will be famous, rich or grow to be six foot ten inches tall and one lucky girl is going to be blessed with seven babies!
After Cendrick’s visit, Form 3 found out about an ancient Anglo Saxon burial site discovered nearly 80 years ago at Sutton Hoo, learnt about the Viking raids of Lindisfarne in 793AD and made their own illuminated letters after studying some examples of Anglo Saxon manuscripts.
A great day was had by all. Read some comments from Form 3 about the experience:
Antonio: "My favourite part of the day was when Cendrick arrived because I was so excited and I didn't know what was going to happen."
Benedict: "My favourite bit of the day was when Cendrick started to tell us the story of Beowolf in old English and we couldn't understand him."
Bailey: "My highlight of the day was when we acted out the story of Beowolf and I had to be a statue. It was a little bit hard as I was a little bit itchy and couldn't move."
