Not much of the Anglo-Saxon poetry of the pagan period has come down to us.

The
remaining one is the epic Beowulf made of about 3000 lines, its a poem originated
on the Continent, but when and where are not known. It may have been carried to
England in the form of ballads by the Anglo-Saxons, or it may be Scandinavian
material, later bought in by Danish, Norwegian pirates.
Beowulf presents a picture of the life of the upper, warrior, caste among the Germanic
tribes during their later period on the Continent and in England, a life more highly
developed that the one of the Anglo-Saxons, before their conquest of the island.
Was written in the 8th century, it is in Old English, incomprehensible to a reader
nowadays, its Anglo-Saxon.
Middle English Middle Ages (1100-1500)
In 1066, William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy- northern France, invaded and
conquered England. The new conquerors called the Normans (the Norman invasion)
brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court,
and the ruling and business classes. For a period, there was a kind of linguistics class
division as the lower class spoke English, and the upper French class.
In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French
words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great
poet Chaucer (1340-1400), but it would still be difficult to understand today.
Language represents an identity, culture, historical period. Prestigious language and less
prestigious or not prestigious. There is no better way to express identity that with the
language.
Amalgama- del ingls y francs (mezcla)
One of the most striking facts in the later Middle Ages is the uniformity of life in many
aspects through all western Europe.
The modern nations, acquired national consciousness and became to shape themselves
through the chaos which followed the fall of the Roman Empire. The Roman Church
firmly established is the inheritor of much of the unifying power of the Roman
government, the feudal system everywhere gave the same political organizations and
ideals.
In a truer sense, perhaps, Western Europe was one great brotherhood, thinking much the
same thoughts, speaking in part the same speech, and actuated by the same beliefs.
At least, the literature of the period, largely composed by the great army of monks,
exhibits everywhere a thorough uniformity in types and ideas.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that is a work of an unknown artist which probably
lived earlier than Chaucer.
Like many other medieval writings, this one is preserved by mere chance in a single
manuscript which contains also three slightly shorter religious poems.

French and Germanic influences subsequently compete for the mainstream role in
English literature. Both traditions achieve a magnificent flowering in England in the late
4th century, towards the end of the Middle English period.
From 1340 to 1500 This period forms the third period
The most important part of it was the first fifty years, named the age of Chaucer. The
church exercised in the spiritual sphere and in the temporal, a despotic tyranny, a
tyranny used sometimes for evil acts.
French and Germanic influences subsequently compete for the mainstream role in
English literature. Both traditions achieve a magnificent flowering in the late 14th
century.
As the only even partially democratic institution of the age it attracted to itself the most
ambitious and able men of all classes. Secular lordships and monastic orders possessed
half of Englands lands.
Geoffrey Chaucer- 1338-1400
Born in 1338 probably, born and lived in London, about his life we have little and
fragmentary information.
Chaucers poetry falls in three clearly marked periods.
1. Poetry with French influence, he drew inspirations of the French poetry of that
time
2. Experimented with the numerous lyric forms which the French had brought to
perfection
Anyway, the great work is The Canterbury Tales the story may have had some basic in
fact.
The author finds himself in a suburb of London, just across the Thames, ready to start
the next morning, as thousands of Englishmen every year, a pilgrimage to the shrine of
St Thomas a Becket at Canterbury. Chaucer loved external beauty, there are famous
passages about the Nature.
Universal themes:
The despair or desperation
Religion, love, despair, nature, vengeance, loyalty, the family, erotic, beauty
News from Nowhere science-fiction
Chaucer loved external beauty, falsehood, hypocrisy, he is an artist of broad artistic
vision. Arte por el arte.
His poetry is dramatic, keen delight in psychological analysis interest in logical
reasoning.