NBB AN128 K1 History of English Literature 1. DP
(1) From Anglo-Saxon to Renaissance: an Overview of English History and Literature. Contexts for Medieval and Renaissance literature
A concise list of important dates:
800-100 BC: Celts
Romans: 55-54 BC: Caesar’s campaign; 43 AD: Roman conquest begins > province of the Roman Empire; 410: end of Roman rule
449: Anglo-Saxon invasion begins
the end of the 8th century: Viking raids; 1016: Cnut: the first King of all England
1066: Battle of Hastings, Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror; the beginning of a new period
1215: Magna Carta
1295: First Complete Parliament
1337-1453: The Hundred Years’ War
1455-1485: Wars of the Roses
1485: accession of Henry VII – Tudor Dynasty
1558-1603: Elizabeth I – the Golden Age of England
1603: James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England – the Stuarts
Overview of literary periods:
5th century–1066: Anglo-Saxon or Old English period. The beginnings of literacy in Latin and in English; it is an oral tradition which is written down by servants of the Church
1066: beginning of Middle English period. The proper medieval tradition; 14th century: a revival of interest in English > Middle English Literature
16th century: English Renaissance, belated but of great significance
Contexts for Medieval and Renaissance Literature
Middle Ages: 18th century term, often derogatory, implying transition between two great periods – Classical and Modern. BUT: Christian Europe, gradual change, great achievements (e.g. architecture) in spite of the generally held view of a ‘dark’ period
Renaissance: the beginning of the Modern or the culmination of the Middle Ages? The present-day usage of the word dates only from the 19th century. Not so much opposition but rather development and continuity with shifts in emphasis
Anglo-Saxon Literature – Pagan and/or Christian
ca. 449-1066: Anglo-Saxon Period /Old English/. Invasion of Britain by related tribes of Germanic people – Angles, Saxons, Jutes; pagan and illiterate people, oral culture. Christianity from the 7th century on > literacy in Latin and in English only after this but mainly for the clergy
Anglo-Saxon Literature: from about the 8th century onwards; perhaps the richest literary heritage of early medieval Europe. Types: heroic and religious poetry; prose
Anglo-Saxon literature reflects a predominantly harsh world. Main themes: feasting in the mead hall – thinking of wars, of possible triumph and of more possible failure; the motif of romantic love is totally missing; praising the glory of God and His champions, lamenting the pain and sorrow of this world
Style: special vocabulary – synonyms, repetitions; alliterative verse (lines of four stresses and varying number of unstressed syllables, divided into two half-lines of two stresses by a marked caesura, linked by alliteration of stressed words.)
/ x x / (x) || / x x /
‘Bid man of battle build me a tomb
/ x x / || x x / x x x /
fair after fire, on the foreland by the sea
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