OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE

THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF THE BRITISH ISLES

THE BRITISH ISLES
prehistoric times
positioning: trade route
connecting the
Mediterranean
civilization and the
North
THE IBERIANS
3,000 -2,000 BC
small, dark, long-headed
race
race of the New Stone
Age
monuments in
Cornwall, Ireland, Wales
and Scotland
RACE RELATED TO THE IBERIANS
after 2,000 BC
inhabited the East coast
bronze working
merged with the
Iberians
built the Stonehenge
complex (before 1,000
BC)
THE CELTS
approx. 700 BC
tall, fair-haired, war-like
three waves: the Goidels,
the Brithons, the Belgae
kinship – tribal
organization
THE ROMANS
Caesar – in 55 BC and 54
BC
actual conquest began in
AD 43
AD 60 - the revolt of the
Iceni >>> Queen
Boadicea
Roman occupation
lasted around 400 years
>>> year 407
THE ANGLES, THE SAXONS AND THE JUTES
invading tribes (the Scots and the
Picts, the Goths and the Vandals)
the Britons called for help
help came in AD 449 and never left
again
the Angles, the Saxons and the
Jutes – Germanic origin
described by Julius Caesar (De bello
gallico), Strabo (Geographica),
Tacitus (Germania)
tall, fair-haired, savage and
superstitious
heathen >>> mythology >>> real
life for them
THE ANGLO-SAXON MYTHOLOGY
Woden – supreme deity
Thor – god of thunders
Freya – goddess of love
and fertility
Tiu – god of darkness
Oestra - goddess of
heathen spring
Wyrd – goddess of fate
>>> Shakespeare’
Macbeth
Watch and learn!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1tldPrQ_AY