Lecture 1
English Literature: Early-middle Ages
.
Plan:
1. The Ancient Britons and their language.
2. How the Romans came.
3. The Invasion by Germanic Tribes.
4. Their Pagon Gods.
5. Beowulf.
6. Literature of the Norman period (12-13 centuries)
7. Literature of the 14th century (Geoffrey Chaucer 1340-1400) “The Canterbury Tales”
8. Literature of the 15th century.
Many hundred years ago about the 4th century before our era
the country we know call
England was known as Britain.
The people who lived there were Britons. They belonged to the Celtic race. The language
they spoke was Celtic. They believed that different gods lived in the thickest and darkest part of the
woods. A class of priests called the Druids [dru:idz] governed the Britons.
They had great power
over them.
In the 1st century before our era the powerful State Rome conquered Britain. The Romans
lived on the peninsula, which is now called Italy. Their language was Latin. They were very
practical and very clever men. They made hard roads and built bridges and many storied houses.
The Romans had heard very much about Britain from travelers. They decided to occupy the island.
The Romans sailed across the sea and the general who commanded them was Julius Caesar. He
wrote many interesting accounts of Britain. The art of writing was very much advanced in Rome.
Many things the Romans taught the Britons were given Latin names- Ex. The word “wall“ comes
from the Latin “vallum“, “street” from “strata” which means “road”
Towards the end of the 4th century they had to leave Britain. Because they were needed to
defend their own country. The fall of the Roman Empire followed soon after.
Sea robbers came
sailing in ships from other countries and the Britains were always busy trying to defend themselves.
Among these invaders were some Germanic tribes called Angles, Saxons and Jutes [d u:ts]. They
spoke different dialects of the West Germanic language from which modem Germanic developed.
Anglo- Saxons conquered Britain in the 15th century and they gave the name England. The
Angles, Saxons and Juts were pagans (they believed in many gods), The gods of the Anglo-Saxons
were To or Tuesco - God of darkness, wooden god of war, Thor - the Thunderer, Freia - goddess of
Prosperity. When people learned to divide up time into weeks and the week into seven days, they
gave the days of their gods. It is not hard to guess that Sunday is the day of the Sun; Monday is the
day of the god Moon; Tuesday is the day of the god Tuesco, Wednesday - Woden's day, Thursday-
Thor's day, Friday- Frea’s day, and Saturday Saturn's day. The invaders made the Britons learn their
customs and their language. By the time Anglo-Saxons conquered Britain they already had their
own letters which were called " Runes". They carved on stone and wood
but they had no written
language yet and the stories and poems they made up had to be memorized. One very beautiful
poem called “Beowulf” [beiwulf] has reached our days. This period
may be called the dawn of
English literature.