Introduction to British Literature

Britain before the Anglo-Saxons

• Celts: 2 groups. Britons (settled Britain) and Gaels (settled Ireland)

• Celts were farmers and hunters. Organized themselves into tightly knit clans with loyalty to chieftain.

• Druids: priests who settled disputes, presided over religious rituals, and told heroic stories that preserved past.

Celts

• Group of related tribes, linked by language, religion, and culture

• Emerged as a distinct people in the eighth century

• Energetic and inventive people

• Introduced the use of iron to Northern Europe

• Created Europe’s first major industrial revolution, its first common market, and its first international court of arbitration

The Barbaric Celts

• “Madly fond of war.”• Cut off heads of enemies

and attached them to necks of their horses, nailed them upon their houses

• Embalmed heads of most distinguished enemies and displayed them with pride

• Feasting times often violent; wrestled, gambled, raced horses, drank too much

• Women fought along with their men

• In Ancient Ireland when the king showed signs of aging, he was ritually slain.

Celtic Religion

• Each tribe had its local deities and cults; hundreds of names of gods and goddesses

• Druids exercised great political influence

• Believed in human sacrifice

• Celts revered deities in animal form; horses and bulls particularly important

Celtic Women

• Women attained a high place in Celtic society

• Woman continued to control property after she was married and could take them away should the bond unravel.

• If wife’s property exceeded husband’s, wife controlled the household.

• Celtic women, like men were vain; they painted their faces with berry juice and herbs and wore silver jewelry

Roman Conquest

• Julius Caesar invaded in 55 B.C.

• True conquest occurred nearly 100 years later with Claudius

• Roman rule lasted for more than 300 years

• Last Roman troops left in A.D. 407

Roman Contributions

• Well-paved roads• Growth of towns• Introduced

Christianity• Introduced more

advanced standard of living

Angles, Saxons, and Jutes

• Germanic tribes• Deep sea fishermen

and farmers• Came for territory• Lived in highly

organized tribes ruled by witan

• Brought their own pagan beliefs

• Belief in wyrd (fate) controlled events of life

• Gods: Tiu, god of war and the sky; Woden, chief of gods; Fria, Woden’s wife and goddess of the home

• (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday come from these names)

Anglo-Saxon Civilization

• Forced Britons from the land to edges of island and beyond (Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland)

• By end of seventh century more unified civilization emerges because of influence of Christianity

• Seven kingdoms: Angles (kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia), Jutes (Kent), Saxons, Essex, Middlesex, Sussex, and Wessex

• Chief spiritual force-concept of kingly behavior (called heroic ideal)

Heroic Ideal

• Ideal of excellence• Hero/king strove to do

better than anyone else• Skill and courage were

primary qualities of king• Successful king won

complete loyalty• In return, king gave gifts

to retainers

Christianity and Culture

• Celts became Christians under Romans; when Anglo-Saxon invasion occurred, Christianity was maintained only in remote regions where Anglo-Saxons failed to penetrate for 150 years.

Christianity

• 597 -St. Augustine sent to as missionary to King Ethelbert of Kent and about same time missionaries from Ireland began to preach in the North. Within 75 years, island was predominantly Christian.

• Christianity influenced written records.

• First written specimen of Old English language is a code of laws.

Anglo-Saxon literature

• England produced number of distinguished, highly literate churchmen

• Bede (pronounced Bead) – wrote the Ecclesiastical History of English People; completed in 731; called father of English history

• Greatest impetus on English culture: Alfred the Great, king of West Saxons from 871-899

• Book of Kells: Bible manuscripts produced by Celtic priests in Ireland

First Danish Invasion

• Between ninth and twelfth centuries Norse and Danes invaded. Norse invaded Northumbria, Scotland, Wales and Ireland; Danes targeted eastern and southern England

Alfred the Great• United all kingdoms of southern England and repelled

Vikings.• Was an enthusiastic patron of literature; had Bede’s

History translated into Old English.• Began Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the first historical record

to be kept in English.• Developed diplomatic relationship with neighboring

kings and princes• Developed a code of law• Founded first English public schools

Second Danish Invasion and Norman Conquest

• Tenth century, Alfred’s long-established peace is broken; Danes attempted to recapture and widen the Dane law

• Forced witan to select succession of Danish kings.

• 1042 line of succession returned to Alfred’s descendents

• Edward the Confessor developed friendship of William of Normandy

• Edward’s death in 1066 led to Norman conquest

Anglo-Saxon Literature

• Alliterative form; wrote nothing down until Christianity, so little poetry survived pre-Christianity

• Bulk of poetry is Christian, devoted to religious subjects

• Almost all in heroic ideal

• Poetry portrays dark world; narrow world with narrow laws.

• Rarely has romantic love

• Men don’t seem to relax; always are preparing to test courage against fate

Anglo-Saxon Literature continued

• Frequent use of ironic understatement.

• Use of kenning, highly formalized compound metaphor, often suggests irony.

• Types of poetry: elegy, epic, lyric, riddle

• Uses same verse form; verse unit is line; rhyme doesn’t link one line to the next

• Organizing device is alliteration

• Uses caesura (pause)