1 Anglo-Saxon Period

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English Literature

05. the eighteenth century

01. The anglo saxon period

06. the nineteenth century

02. the middle english period

07. the twentieth century

03. the sixteenth century

04. the seventeenth century

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North American Literature

08. the colonial period

09. the nineteenth century

10. the twentieht century

11. contemporary english and north american literature

The Anglo-Saxon Period

449 - 1066

Celtic Expansion

Anglo-Saxon period

449 - 1066

Early English literature has been divided by linguistics in Anglo-Saxon period, also known as Old English, and Middle English period. The Old English period began with the invasion of England by Jutes, Angles and Saxons from Denmark and northern Germany. Among the earliest inhabitants of Britain were Celtic tribes.

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Celtic Expansion

Anglo-Saxon period

Subdued in the first century by the Romans under Julius Caesar and Claudius, they remained under Roman rule until the early fifth century, were the Roman legions were required at home to protect the capital.

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Anglo-Saxon period

Traces of the Roman occupation can be found in English geographical names ending in -caster or -chester: Lancaster, Dorchester, which are derived from the Latin "castra" = camp.

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Lancaster and Dorchester these days

Anglo-Saxon period

With the Romans gone, succesive waves of Anglo-Saxons gradually conquered the south of England. The Celtic Britons were killed or forced into slavery; many escaped to Cornwall, to the mountains of Wales and Scotland, or across the sea to Brittany. It was during this period when the Celts retreated that the legends of King Arthur and his knights were invented.

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Excalibur the sword - King Arthur

Celtic languages (Welsh in Wales and Gaelic in Scotland and Ireland) are still spoken today. The Germanic tribes brought with them a common language called Anglo-Saxon, although different dialects existed in the various kingdoms, among which the most important were Kent, Mercian and Wessex. Under the Wessex, King Alfred (871-99) the West Saxon dialect gained leading role.

Alfred made his capital Winchester an intellectural centre in England and forced the Vikings (Danes) to retreat to the norhteast.

Roman and Irish missionaries brought England into contact with Christian Latin culture.

Saint Augustine of Canterbury arrived in 597 and made Canterbury an important seat of Latin literature and learning.

In Northumbria, Irish monks founded monasteries that became famous throughout Europe.

The first religious poets, Caedmon and Cynewulf lived in the northern half of England. Anglo-Saxon culture and literature came to an end with the Battle of Hastings (1066), when King Harold and his noblemen were defeated by William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy.

the anglo saxon period

Poetry

Anglo-Saxon poetry includes short and often witty riddles and magic formulas and the longer epic or elegiac poems telling of heroes and courageous deeds. Beowulf, a narrative poem of more than 3,000 lines, is the best known Anglo-Saxon saga. It contains elements of earlier sagas and blends the mythical and supernatural with the real.

the anglo saxon period

Beowulf is a poem that provides vivid picture of the life and the way of thinking of the Anglo-Saxons. Interwoven with the pagan story are also some Christian element.

The alliterative power of OLD ENGLISH poetry, which used head-rhymes* has had some influence on English and American poets in the modern period. For example John Donne and Gerard Manely Hopkins. Ezra Pound was impressed by this kind of poetry and employed its techniques in his own verse.

* End rhymes were introduced by the Normans after 1066.

Ezra Pound translated into modern English the first half of an Old English elegy -THE SEAFARER- trying to preserve the poetic techniques of the original. THE SEAFARER is one of several elegiac poems in THE EXETER BOOK, a collection of Old English verse from the tenth Century. The monks CAEDMON (d.680) and CYNEWULF (late eighth century) both wrote religious poetry in Old English. Other church men wrote many poems in Latin

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The Anglo-Saxon monks were the major authors during this period. They wrote in Latin, the official language of Medieval Europe. The outstanding writer among them has come to be known as the VENERABLE BEDE (673-735). He left about 45 works, in which all the knowledge of his time is accumulated: medicine, arithmetic, astronomy, metereology, music, rhetoric, philosophy and theology.

Prose

The work for which VENERABLE BEDE is best rembered is the HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA GENTIS ANGLORUM, which was finished in 731.

Two centuries after Bede, English prose received a splendid impetus through the activity of KING ALFRED (871-901). He defended his country against the Danes and gathered round him scholars and educators from England. He founded an abbey in Winchester and promoted the use of written English rather than Latin.

Prose

In that way, King Alfred initiated the first historical record of English laws in the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE.

Alfred also arranged for a number of Latin works, included Bedes's Ecclesiastical History, to be translated.Sermons in Old English prose have come to us from the pens of AELFRIC, a Benedictine abbot, and WULFSTAN, Archbishop of York, who lived in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries.

1. How long did the Anglo-Saxon period last?2. Who was the king that foster Literature in England?

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