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Life and Land in Anglo-Saxon England

The Anglo-Saxons knew that life – and land – is precarious, which makes its gifts precious. ‘Understand that you will have to leave your temporary dwelling, your home and native land.

The poem’s outlook is expressly Christian, but here it uses a metaphor taken from the secular world: it imagines death as like being evicted, forced to leave your ‘temporary dwelling’ and settle in a new home at the will of an inscrutable landlord. This was the distinction between lænland,lands leased by a lord to his men and held only for a defined period, and bocland (‘bookland’), which was granted to the beneficiary in perpetuity and secured by written charter. Our public conversation about insecure housing increasingly recognises it as a pressing issue with profound social implications, affecting everything from the birthrate to the mental and physical health of ‘Generation Rent’.

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