One of the hardest things about this particular inflow of history, IMHO, is that which position to you view it from? If you view it as a Romano-Briton, it was probably considered cataclysmic. If you view it as an Anglo-Saxon, it was a great move towards stabilizing their culture in a new land. If you view it as a Celt, who KNOWS what you would have felt?

I find it amazing how quickly the cultures amalgamated; how quickly "Roman" culture gave way to Anglo-Saxon culture. But most of all, I find it fascinating that Alfred, if we can believe Asser, traveled TWICE to Rome and took on the trappings of a Roman noble, so the concept of a unified nation with a certain standard of civilization was still alive and well 400-odd years after Romano-Briton broke from the Empire.