ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews pre-Anglo-Saxon England and discusses the cultural and linguistic influence of Celtic and Roman Britain on emerging England and on English, its language. It discusses the formation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and follows with excerpts from the early seventh-century laws of King Aeelbirht of Kent; using this language material, a selection of important features of Old English (OE) are introduced. The chapter reviews the culturally and linguistically important process of Christianization and introduces an early Christian text in OE. It offers a short look at OE literary texts either written about or during this early period. The chapter provides two versions of one final text to illustrate some of the regional differences within early OE. Roman culture could be seen in the towns, where trade helped the economy to flourish and the flow of goods from the Continent to increase. Britain continued to be important as a supplier of metals.
