These invasions wasted the energies of England during more than two centuries, but this long period of struggle brought little change to the institutions or manner of life in Anglo-Saxon England. The _witan_, or assembly of wise men, the forerunner of the present English parliament, met in 1066 and chose Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon king. During these six hundred rears, the Anglo-Saxons conquered the British, accepted Christianity, fought the Danes, finally amalgamating with them, brought to England a lasting representative type of government, established the fundamental customs of the race, surpassed all contemporary western European peoples in the production of literature, and were ready to receive fresh impetus from the Normans in 1066. The Anglo-Saxon Language.--Our oldest English literature is written in the language spoken by the Angles and the Saxons. This at first sight looks like a strange tongue to one conversant with modern English only; but the language that we employ to-day has the framework, the bone and sinew, of the earlier tongue. Modern English is no more unlike Anglo-Saxon than a bearded man is unlike his former childish self. A few examples will show the likeness and the difference. "The noble queen" would in Anglo-Saxon be _s=eo aeðele cw=en_; "the noble queen's," _ð=aere aeðelan cw=ene_. _S=eo_ is the nominative feminine singular, _ð=aere_ the genitive, of the definite article. The adjective and the noun also change their forms with the varying cases. In its inflections, Anglo-Saxon resembles its sister language, the modern German. After the first feeling of strangeness has passed away, it is easy to recognize many of the old words. Take, for instance, this from _Beowulf_:-- "...ð=y h=e ðone f=eond ofercw=om, gehn=aegde helle g=ast." Here are eight words, apparently strange, but even a novice soon recognizes five of them: _h=e, f=eond_ (fiend), _ofercw=om_ (overcame), _helle_ (hell), _g=ast_ (ghost). The word _ðone_, strange as it looks, is merely the article "the." ...therefore he overcame the fiend, Subdued the ghost of hell. Let us take from the same poem another passage, containing the famous simile:-- "...l=eoht inne st=od, efne sw=a of hefene h=adre sc=ineð rodores candel." Of these eleven words, seven may be recognized: _l=eoht_ (light), _inne_ (in), _st=od_ (stood), _of_, _hefene_ (heaven),_sc=ineð_ (shineth), _candel_ (candle). ...a light stood within, Even so from heaven serenely shineth The firmament's candle. Some prefer to use "Old English" in place of "Anglo-Saxon" in order to emphasize the continuity of the development of the language. It is, however, sometimes convenient to employ different terms for different periods of development of the same entity. We do not insist on calling a man a "grown boy," although there may be no absolute line of demarcation between boy and man.