Lecture 1 English Literature: Early-middle Ages

---

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.