The Old English Period

_ The earliest inhabitants: The Celts ( Britons)

_ The language spoken: Celtic- tribal society headed by nobles
_ Julius Caesar: first Roman Emperor invaded Briotain- not stayed there
_ 97 years later: Claudius- The Britons: driven into wales + Scotland. Language spoken: Latin
_ civilized Britain in some ways
_ The Romans: gave the English the names of all the months.
_ The Anglo-Saxons: The Romans left. Britain: vulnerable to the ttacks from the Picts and Scots.
_ The Angles+ Saxons+ Frisians+ Jutes from Germany. The language spoken: Germanic dialects.
_Britons: fled to Wales+ the West+ or became slaves
_ 7 kingdoms constantly at war. Wessex : King Alfred: unified
_ came to an end: 1066.
_ the meanings of Lancester wessex.
_ Beowulf: Epic: meaning? Setting? Author? Summary?
_ Aspects of life and culture: heroic ideals- image of a hero-fate- life- society constantly at war-
role of the king- festival- a justification of the Anglo- Saxon invasion.
-Old English prose: translation of several works from Latin into English+ Ecclesiastical History of
the English people ( Venerable Bede) + The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: a record of current events in
England.
_ The Establishment of Christanity: Saint Augustine: first monastery in Canterbury.
The Middle English period:
_ Norman Conquest (1066): William the Conqueror : Duke of Normandy: northwestern France-
descendants of the Vikings.
_ 3 languages spoken
_Feudal system: land-owning
_ Medieval Literature: The Romance+ ballads+ Popular drama
- Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
- The Father of English Literature.
- The Canterbury Tales: separate stories told by pilgrims on the way to Shrine of St.
Thomas a Becket
- Very realistic+ original
- Planned 120 stories- finished only 22.
- Vernacular language. Good story-telling. Different types of tales- personalities of
narrators: choice of tales+ ways of telling. Representatives of middle class.
- Setting: Tabard Inn with 29 pilgrims