A BRIEF HISTORY OF ENGLISH:

ANGLO SAXON PERIOD

 OVERVIEW OF ENGLISH INFLUENCES
PRE-HISTORY-1066 A.D.
C.R.A.V.N.

Celts (Brythons and Gaels) up to 55 B.C.

Roman Conquest 55 B.C. - 407 A.D.
Anglo-Saxon Period 407 A.D. - 787 A.D.
Viking Invasions 787 A.D. - 1066 A.D.
Noman Conquest begins in 1066 A.D.
INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES
PRE-HISTORICAL/PRE-
ROMAN
The Celts/Pre-Roman
The island we know as England was invaded by two groups of
people:
1. Celts: known as Bythons (now spelled Britons) and
2. Gaels (who settled on the island now known as Ireland).
3. Picts
Druids were their priests and when clans had disputes, they
intervened to settle them.
ROMAN OCCUPATION
Important Events During
Roman Occupation
 Julius Caesar begins invasion/occupation in 55 B.C.
 Occupation completed by Claudius in 1st Century A.D.
 Romans “leave” in 407 A.D. because Visigoths attack Rome (this
leaves Britain defenseless)
 St. Augustine (the “other” St. Augustine) lands in Kent in 597 and
converts King Aethelbert (King of Kent, the oldest Saxon settlement)
to Christianity; becomes first Archbishop of Caterbury
The Anglo-Saxon Period
410-1066 A.D.
Important Events in the Anglo-Saxon Period

410-450 Angles and Saxons invade from Baltic shores of Germany, and Jutes
invade from Jutland peninsula in Denmark, thus driving out the Celts.
Nine Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms eventually become the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy
(England not unified) or “Seven Sovereign Kingdoms”.
King Alfred “the Great” managed peace against the Danes for about a
generation, until William of Normandy defeated them in 1066.
Anglo Saxon Life
Anglo saxon life:
1. Seafaring: fatalism
Anglo saxon life:
2. Religion and Gods
 Paganism
 Tui—god of war
 Woden—king of gods
 Thor—god of thunder and sky
 Freia—goddess of home
Anglo saxon life:
3. Social Structure
 Anglo saxon life:
4. Culture and beliefs
REVENGE
In the name of Honor,
revenge was a way of life.

Ways to satisfy a wrong:

 Redress in kind (an eye for an eye)
 Wergild ("man money")—payment in
treasure
 Death
 Anglo saxon life:
3. Culture and beliefs
WARRIOR CODE
 Undying allegiance
to a lord
 Generosity of leaders
 Reputation/Fame: Immortality
only earned through heroic actions.
The goal was to be remembered after death, in songs and stories of his great
deeds
 Boasting
 Belief in fate (Wyrd)
 Treasure equals success
 Fierce, hardy life of warrior and seamen
 Strength, courage, leadership abilities appreciated
 Rowdy rituals of mead-halls
 BEOWULF
 Setting - Denmark and Sweden
 Author - Unknown, probably a monk
 Composed in the 7th or 8th century
 Oldest surviving English poem
 BEOWULF: AS EPIC

POETRY
FEATURES OF EPIC POEM :
 Long narrative poem
 Recounts the adventures of a hero
 Passed down orally
 Uses elevated language
 Begins in media res
EPIC HERO:
 Predestined
 Mysterious origin
 Embodies cultural ideals
 Responds to catastrophic situations
 Supernatural intervenes to help him
 Moral compass leads him to defend his society
 Mortal but god-like
BEOWULF

 Epic hero
 Geat
(from southern Sweden)
 Nephew of Higlac
(King at story’s start)
 Sails to Denmark to help Hrothgar
Hrothgar

 Danish king
 Builds Herot (hall)
 Tormented by Grendel for 12 years
 Loses many men
 Joyless before Beowulf’s arrival
GRENDEL

 Referred to as demon and fiend

 Haunts the moors (swampy land)
 Descendant of Cain
(kills his brother Abel in Bible)

 Feasts on 30 men the night of 1st attack

GRENDEL’S MOTHER

 Referred to as a
she-wolf
 Lives under a lake
 Challenges Hrothgar when
she kills one of his best men
FIRE DRAGON

 Lives in Beowulf’s kingdom

 Wakes up when thief steals cup
 Guards countless treasures
Funeral Pyre for Beowulf:
Epic Poem Ends in
Elegy (song of praise)
Anglo-Saxon Literature
Germanic ethos that celebrated the warrior and his exploits.
Most storytelling was oral.
Old English Poetry became distinctive...
1. Alliteration- repetition of consonant sounds [“Then the grim man in green
gathers his strength”
2. Kenning- a metaphor expressed as a compound noun - “whale-path” for the
sea, “ring giver” for king
3. Caesura- a break or pause in poetry: “Oft to the wanderer / weary of exile”
4. No meter
5. Elegiac tone
6. Mixture of paganism and Christianity
7. Fate/Often deals with the winter and the sea: ubi sunt
8. Almost no romantic love
Anglo Saxon Christian Poetry

 The hero no longer aspires to win gold from an earthly king; his prize is a
heavenly crown, to be won, it may even be, in spiritual conflict;
 the glories of life on earth are transitory;
 earthly valour cannot atone for the stains of sin upon the soul;
 the beauty of nature, in her fairest aspects, cannot compare with the
radiance of a better land;
 Belief in day of wrath and mourning when the Judge of all the earth shall
deal to every man according to his deeds.
 Poetry turns to lyrical from epic
Anglo Saxon Elegies
 Deor's Lament
 The Seafarer
 The Ruin
 The Wife's Lament
 The Husband's Message
Caedmon
 Unlettered man
 “Caedmon, sing me something.” Then he answered and
said, “I cannot sing anything, as I know not how to sing.”
Again he who spoke to him said, “Yet you could sing.”
Then said Caedmon, “What shall I sing?” He said, “Sing to
me the beginning of all things.”
 Genesis, book of Moses, Christ incarnation, Passion, ascent
to heaven
 Beginning of the dream narrative
Cynewulf
 Dream of the Rood
 one hundred and forty lines of alliterative verse
 The poet dreamt a dream
 the holy rood decked with gems and shining gloriously. Angels guarded it,
and, at its sight, the singer was afeared, for he was stained with guilt. As he
watched, the tree changed colour; anon it was adorned with treasure, anon
stained with gore
 as he watched, it spoke, and told the story of the crucifixion, the descent
from the cross, the resurrection. This conception of the cross as being gifted
with power of speech lends a charm to the poem.
 The address is followed by the poet’s reflection on what he has seen: the
cross shall be henceforth his confidence and help.
Cynewulf
Riddles:The Book of Exeter
90 riddles.
Written in about 975, our primary source of Anglo-Saxon poetry
Dominant tone of riddles is light and somewhat bawdy (for entertainment
purposes.
 saw two captives     carried in the house
under the hall-roof;     sturdy were they both;
companions they were,     fast bound together.
Close to one of them     was a dark-skinned slave.
She controlled them both     by fast fetters.
The sea fed me; the water-helm was over me, and waves covered me, [close to
the ground]. I was footless. Often toward the sea I opened my mouth. Now will
some man devour my flesh. He does not want my skin, when he rips off my hide
with the point of a knife, and then quickly eats me uncooked…
 Alfred: The Great
 King of Wessex, 871-899, Best known for: Establishing peace with
the Vikings and building up the Kingdom of England
Contributions:
 gathering and writing of the legal code. Common English law
 translating various Latin books to English for the commoners to be
able to learn from them
 Before his time reading and writing in Anglo-Saxon Britain was
reserved to the clergy, and even there it was low-level in many cases.
Alfred's program to boost up learning began a renaissance within the
Anglo-Saxon world, which increased culture in many forms.
  Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
 A Brief Glimpse of the History of English
from “Our Father”
Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum 
si þin nama gehalgod tobecume þin rice gewurþe þin willa on eorðan
OLD 400- swa swa on heofonum 
Beowulf urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us to dæg 
ENGLISH 1066 and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum 
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele soþlice.

Oure fadir þat art in heuenes halwid be þi name; 

þi reume or kyngdom come to be. Be þi wille don in herþe as it is
Middle 1066- doun in heuene. 
Chaucer yeue to us today oure eche dayes bred. 
English 1485 And foryeue to us oure dettis þat is oure synnys as we foryeuen
to oure dettouris þat is to men þat han synned in us. 
And lede us not into temptacion but delyuere us from euyl.

Our father which art in heauen, hallowed be thy name. 

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in
Early Modern 1485- Shakes- heauen. 
Giue us this day our daily bread. 
English 1800 peare And forgiue us our debts as we forgiue our debters. 
And lead us not into temptation, but deliuer us from euill.
Amen.

Modern 1800-
Austen Extra Credit! Write “The Our Father” in Modern English.
English present