Anglo-Saxons &

Middle East
English
Presented By:
Touqeer Akhtar

UW
Background
Immigration of Angles, Saxons and Jutes

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Characteristics

• These tribes were fearless, adventurous

and brave.
• They sang at their feast about battles,
gods and their ancestral heroes and
some of their chiefs were bards (poets).
• Their Songs was about religion, wars and
agriculture and English poetry began
from these songs.

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Principles
They followed five principles in their
life.

• Love to personal freedom

• Responsiveness to nature Love for religion
• Love for womanhood
• Struggle for glory

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 Literature
Much of Anglo-Saxon poetry is lost, few fragments left.

• Beowulf is a tale of adventures of Beowulf, the
hero, who is a champion and slayer of monsters.
The incidents in it are such as may be found in
hundred of other stories.
• Walhere tells how Walter of Aquitaine withstood a
host of foes in the passes of the Vosges.
• The Fight at Finnesburg deals with the same
favorite theme of battle against fearful odds.
• Widsith describes continental courts visited in
imagination by a far-wandering poet.
• Complaint of Doer describe the disappointment
of a lover.
• After the Anglo-Saxon embraced Christianity, the
poets took up religious themes as the subject
matter of their poetry. Major Portion of Anglo-
Saxon poetry is religious.

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Famous Poets
The two important religious poets were Caedmon
and Cynewulf.

Caedmon sang in series Cynewulf his important

the whole story of fate of poem is Crist, a metrical
man, from the Creation narrative of leading events a
and the Fall to the Christ’s ministry upon earth,
Redemption and the Last including his return to
Judgment. judgment.

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Development of Prose
This period was also marked by the beginning of
English Prose.

• King Alfred translated Latin to English through which

a prose was established.
• There was no break in prose of Anglo-Saxon Period.
• The great success of Anglo-Saxon prose is in
religious events.

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 Ending of Anglo-Saxon Period

The Anglo-Saxon period was ended in 1066 A.D, when last king of 8
Saxon Harold defeated by William the Conqueror of Normandy at the
battle of Hastings.
Middle English

Middle English period, is the

arrival of the Norman French
in England, following their
victory at Hastings under
William the Conqueror in 1066
Grammar

Middle English has a very low bending compared with the old English. The system
undergoes significant changes: before some pronouns started with h, but in the middle
English start with th.

For example:
• wat heo ihoten weoren & wonene heo comen.
• what they were called and from-where they came.
• 'cómo fueron llamados y desde dónde venían‘. 

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Grammar

Sometimes French and Old English components combined to form a new word, such as
the French gentle and the Germanic man combined to formed gentleman. Sometimes,
both English and French words survived, but with significantly different senses

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