ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY

Untitled Slide

MIGRATION

• Who were the Angles and Saxons?
• What was happening in 449 AD?
• Where does English derive from?
• Who were the original inhabitants of the British Isles?
• Who were the druids?

THE PEOPLES

• 3-4 million people in Roman-Britain
• Most towns - 2,000 to 10,000
• Roman legions were recalled from Britain in 407 AD
• Anglo-Saxons invaded, built camps, then waged war

SOCIETAL STRUCTURES

• How were the Anglo-Saxons Organized?
• Belief system?
• Why do you think Christianity took hold in these lands?
• How did the church effect Anglo-Saxon society?
• What was happening in Scandinavia in the 9th c. AD?

DANISH INVASIONS

• Why did they leave?
• Alfred the Great- how did he change the course of English?
• Death of King Edward - 1066 AD

ORIGINS OF LIT

• What were inflences?
• Purpose?
• Use?
• Text? Why poetry before prose?
• What categories of lit were there?

VERSE

• Germanic verse: continuous
• Each line has 3 words whose first syllables are stressed/alliterated
• Words beginning with the same letter or sound
• Read or sung, accompanied by a harp
• Kennings: descriptive metaphors - "whale-road", "sea-stallion"

BEOWOLF

• "Bee-wolf" = Bear, Swedish prince
• Lines of the Aeneid
• Christ does not appear, but is alluded to
• Wyrd- more powerful than the gods themselves
• Denmark -> southern Sweden

BEOWULF

• Topics: hospitality, manners, gift-giving, minstrels/bards/scops
• Colder climate
• Fantasy + realistic details, genealogy
• Sentiment for the natural world- fearsome, hostile
• Beowulf = braggart? The Northern Hercules