Writing: A Revolution in Saxon England

What does it all mean? For all we know, nothing happened during those years when Saxon abhorrence of written records reigned supreme. This is probably an unrealistic assumption, but written evidence to disprove it does not exist. We have archaeological evidence, most of which is circumspect. We have written accounts composed after the fact, most of which must be regarded as suspect. We have oral accounts, all of which have been transcribed by writers who faced the same set of difficulties described above. We are left with a very incomplete picture of Anglo-Saxon life in the 5th, 6th, and early 7th centuries. Not until monks arrived from the Continent at the turn of the 7th century did creating written records come into favor with a majority of Anglo-Saxons. But when it did, the results were staggering.