The Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings shaped British history in ways that are directly relevant to us today and inform our language, laws and culture. Without them we would not have some of our greatest stories, heroes and artefacts. The recent exhibition at the British Library on the Anglo-Saxons is testament to their enduring appeal to us in the twenty-first century. In a time of political uncertainty the Anglo-Saxon attempts to make a cohesive England may still prove to be more enduring than later attempts to create a Great Britain...