English Literature: from the Origins to the Vikings

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History and culture

From the Origins to the Vikings

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From the Origins to the Vikings

4000 BC

V century

55-54 BC

871

Pre-Celtic Britain

The Anglo-Saxons

Julius Caesar leads the Roman invasion

Alfred The Great becomes King of Wessex

IX century

43-47 AD

The Vikings, called "Danes" invade Britain

Britain is conquered by the Roman Empire

1066

700 BC

The Norman conquest

The Celts

SIx thousand years ago Britain was inhabited by a population who began to burn and cut down the forests, to grow cereals and to breed cattle, pigs and sheep. They also built ritual sites, like Stonehenge in southwest England.

Pre-Celtic Britain

The Celts

From 700 BC the Celts began to arrive from Germany and settled in Britain:

• they were farmers, hunters, fishermen and metal workers, and they introduced the iron plough; they also built hill forts.
• women were almost equal to men.
• they worshipped the natural elements.

The Romans

In 55 BC Julius Caesar decided to invade Britain. However, the country was not actually conquered until 43 AD.

The Anglo-Saxons

The Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes came from the North Sea regions of Northern Europe. They formed seven kingdoms known as the Heptarchy. They also reintroduced pagan values. Anyway, in 597 Pope Gregory I the Great sent a monk, Augustine, to bring Christianity back to England.

The Kingdom of Wessex became the most important in 829.

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The Danes

• The Vikings, called "Danes" by the English, were sea people coming from the southern Scandinavia.
• They set up colonies creating a "Norseman" culture.

• By the 9th century the Viking invasion became an occupation and they established Danelaw.

• When they reached Wessex, they met with opposition from Alfred the Great.

Statue of Alfred the Great by sir Hamo Thornycroft in Whinchester

Alfred became King of Wessex in 871 and united opposition to the Vikings.He also:

• reorganised the army;
• built a fleet;
• established his capital at Winchester;
• commissioned the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

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The last Anglo-Saxon kings

• Alfred the Great died in 899.
• His son Edward and then his grandson Athelstan succeeded to the throne.
• Athelstan created a kingdom of all England by establishing the idea of royal authority, law and coinage in 927.
• Large-scale Viking violence returned in the 990s and marked the beginning of the collapse of Anglo-Saxon England.

The last Anglo-Saxon king was Harold. He was defeated and killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 when the Normans invaded Britain under William, Duke of Normandy. He was crowned William I in Westmister Abbey. The Norman conquest is considered tha last succesful foreiign invasion of Britain

The Norman Conquest

The Norman conquest was depicted in the famous Bayeux Tapestry.

From the Origins to the Vikings

4000 BC

V century

55-54 BC

871

Pre-Celtic Britain

The Anglo-Saxons

Julius Caesar leads the Roman invasion

Alfred The Great becomes King of Wessex

IX century

43-47 AD

The Vikings, called "Danes" invade Britain

Britain is conquered by the Roman Empire

1066

700 BC

The Norman conquest

The Celts

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Literature and Genres

Anglo-Saxon literature: the epic poem

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Anglo-Saxon poetry

Anglo-Saxon literature was anonymous and oral and was formed in a long process of collective memorisation.

The poet, called "scop" sang epics celebrating cultural values on occasions of great ceremonies and festivities.

The main features of Anglo-Saxon poetry

Poetry had two complementary models: the epic poem and the elegiac. The main formal aspects of Anglo-Saxon poetry were:

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Kenning

Alliteration

Stress

The epic poem

long narrative poetical composition

recollection of a glorious past and the deeds of heroes

aristocratic and military society

presence of type-scenes

elevated style, rich and vivid language

Beowulf

It's the oldest surviving epic poem in the English language. It is written in Old English.

Beowulf: plot

The plot is divided into three parts linked by the presence of the hero.

Beowulf: plot

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the fight against Grendel's mother

the fight against Grendel

the dragon

Beowulf: themes

The importance of the warrior code:

loyalty to the king, who is generous, hospitable and protected by his warriors/thanes

the thanes are loyal, brave, courageous;

the need to take revenge;

physical strength and courage;

the search for glory in this life.

Beowulf: style

Alliteration He rippled down the rock, writhing with anger

Extensive use of kennings:The hoard-guardian (the guardian of the treasure = the monster) The ring-giver (the king)

Elevated languageThey extolled (praised) his heroic nature and exploits (deeds) and gave thanks for his greatness

Long lists of leaders and warriors

The first actions take place in Denmark, ruled by King Hrothgar. Beowulf, the war leader of the Scandinavian Geats, fights against Grendel, the monster that represents evil, and succeeds in killing him in Heorot, the hall of the king.

• They were organised in family groups or clans.
• Loyalty to family and lord was the most important value.
• The centre of communal life was the hall.

The hero fights against Grendel’s mother, who wants to avange her son.Beowulf manages to kill her in the murky lake where she lives.

Alliteration

It's the repetition of the same initial consonant sound in consecutive or closely connected words:

"Gave thanks to God that His grace had granted"

• The poet is unknown.
• It deals with a time following the initial invasion of England by Germanic tribes in 449 (5th-6th cent.)
• The date of composition is unknown probably composed as an elegy for a king who died in the 7th century and written down in the 11th century.

Kenning

It's a formulaic phrase that is used in place of a name or noun. e.g. the sea in Beowulf is called "the whale-road"

• In 122 AD the Hadrian's Wall was built to mark the border between the conquered Britons and the unconquered Scots and Picts in the North;
• A new settlement called Londinium was built on the Thames and became the most important town;
• The Romans brought Latin and Christianity.

After fifty years, the hero, who is the King og Geats now, kills a fire-breathing dragon in Scandinavia but is mortally wounded.

The Druids

The Druids were the Celts' priests.They were important not only in religion, but also in justice, education and medicine. They held ceremonies in the heart of the forest and not in temples.

Stress

Each line was divided into two halves by a break (or caesura) and had four stresses.

"Of living strong men he was the strongest, Fearless and gallant and great of heart."

Roman invasion

Why did the Romans invade Britain?

• They were attracted by the rich agriculture, the tin and the lead;
• There were lots of potential slaves;
• Britain had a strategic position as an offshore base.

The Romans also built paved roads and towns, which were developed as administrative and trading centres.

Christianisation

• Canterbury Cathedral was founded in 602. Augustine was the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
• Monasteries became important cultural centres.
• A monk, Venerable Bede, wrote The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and he was the first person to use the word "Angle-Land"