The Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Periods 449-1485

   

English 12British Literature - Unit One

Language

As Britain's invaders (Angles, Saxons, and other Germanic peoples) united into a nation called England, their dialects evolved over time into a distinct language called English - today usually called Old English.

 

Old English was very different from the English we speak today.  - Harsher sound -Written phonetically with no silent letters -Grammatically more complex The most valuable characteristic was its ability to change and grow, adopting new words as the need arose.

Literature

The Anglo-Saxons had an early writing system called the Runic alphabet - used mainly for inscriptions on coins and monuments.   

Their literature was composed and transmitted orally rather than in writing.

 

 Oral poets called scops celebrated the deeds of heroic warriors in long epic poems. They also sang shorter lyric poems.  

  

Themes of the poems included:  -death or loss -religious faith -moral instruction

Riddles reflected a more playful nature; describing a common object, like a ship or a bird, in ways that forced the audience to guess their identity.     

In the town I saw a creaturewhich feeds the cattle. It has many teeth;

its beak is useful as it points down,gently plunders and turns for home;

it searches for plants along the slopes,and always finds those not rooted firmly;

it leaves the living ones held by their roots,quietly standing where they spring from the soil,

brightly gleaming, blowing and growing.

A rake

WYRD

  

The Anglo-Saxons had a strong belief in wyrd (fate) and an admiration for heroic warriors whose wyrd it was to prevail in battle.  

The spread of Christianity in Britain was accompanied by a spread of literacy and the introduction of the Roman alphabet. 

 The only books were manuscripts that scribes copied by hand. Thus, only a fraction of Anglo-Saxon poetry has survived (Beowulf).  Most Old English poems are anonymous.

The history of English…in 1 minute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Tfbeqyu2U

The Medieval Period1066-1485

 

Chivalry: a code of honor intended to govern knightly behavior. The code encouraged knights to honor and protect ladies and to go on holy quests.  

 This was the time of...

 

The Crusades, Richard the Lion-Hearted,Robin Hood, The Hundred Years War, The Black Death.   

The decline of Feudalism

Feudalism, a political and economic system based on land ownership, declined, leading to the growth of towns.  As towns became the centers of commerce, universities were becoming the chief centers of learning.

Language

The Norman Conquest (1066) led to changes in the English language. Norman French became the language of business, nobility, scholars, and craftspeople in Britain.  Only the peasant population used English.

Middle English

English soon incorporated thousands of words from Norman French, leading to the development of Middle English. By the end of The Hundred Years War between England and France, English had once again become the first language of the nobility.

 Words adopted from Norman French

      clique        garage     suite    critique      felony     damage   collage      restaurant      chef     prison     marriage     govern        justice        jury

Literature

The later Middle Ages saw the development of mystery and miracle plays, which dramatized episodes from the Bible and from saints' lives, and morality plays, which taught moral lessons. Religious faith was a vital element of medieval English life and literature.

Romances

 

Especially popular in the Middle Ages were romances, tales of chivalric knights (King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table)

  

ChaucerThe most important writer of the 14th century was the poet Geoffrey Chaucer. He wrote The Canterbury Tales: a collection of tales supposedly narrated by a group of pilgrims traveling from London to Canterbury to visit a shrine.