Transcript ANGLO SAXON_HISTORY ppt

ANGLO – SAXON HISTORY
The Dark Ages
AD 449 - 1066
OCCUPANTS BEFORE
ANGLO-SAXONS
• 1st to Inhabit = Iberians 700 BC
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– brought late stone-age tools to England
Celts 500 BC
Romans 55-54 BC
– Julius Caesar invades, but returns to Rome to
protect city
– AD 44
– Pagan beliefs (heathen; one who has no religion)
Jutes AD 449
– 1st Germanic tribe to invade
Saxons AD 477
Angles AD 547
Time Periods
STONE AGE
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Dark AGES (Anglo-Saxon)
Middle AGES
(MEDIEVAL TIMES)
Why AD 449? Why England?
• Jutes a small tribe
– Hard to defend
themselves
– Hard to provide for
– Not much say
• AD 449 – for 1st
Germanic tribe
• Angles deem England
“Angleland”
The illustration above shows
the layout of the two
skeletons and some of the
other remains in the photo
above left. The horse (shown
yellow), the warrior (orange)
and the remains of the shield
that the warrior was buried
with (green) can be clearly
seen. Also, the outline of the
position of a sword can be
made out (marked purple)
and the rings from an ironbound bucket (possibly
buried to provide food for
the horse in the afterlife) are
shown in red.
Contributions Of Anglo-Saxons
1. Heroic Qualities
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Bravery
Loyalty
Sternness
Warlike
Love of Glory
3. Pagan Beliefs
• Life was believed
to be in the hands
of fate (Wyrd =
Goddess of Fate)
2. Worshipped ancient
Germanic Gods
• Ruling warlords
• Tiu = God of War &
descended from
Sky (Tuesday)
gods
• Woden = Chief of
• Sought revenge &
Gods (Wednesday)
treated household
• Fria = Wodens Wife/
cruelly
goddess of home
(Friday)
• Valhalla- heaven
4. Runic Alphabet
Runic Alphabet
How Do We Know?
Oral Tradition
(Characterizations of AngloSaxon Poetry)
Used for memorizing
• Strong rhythm
(a good beat)
• Alliteration
– Repetition of initial
consonant sound
– (like a tongue twister)
• Parallelism/ Anaphora
– Repetition of a grammatical
pattern
– “It is I who …”
“It is I who …”
• Caesura
– A pause in the middle of a
poetic line
• Kennings
– Metaphorical phrase
– One thing is spoken of as if it
were something else
– “that long sleep”
– “sky-candle”
– “whale-road”
– “foamy-throated sea-stallion”
• Unrhymed Verse
– If it rhymes, it isn’t AS poetry
• A scop would perform
the poems at victory
celebrations.
•He would be accompanied
by a musician called the
gleeman.
•The celebrations would be
held in large banquet halls
called “Mead-halls”
• Mead was a honey-like
alcoholic beverage enjoyed
by AS warriors.
• An Anglo-Saxon warrior
was also called a thane.
What Is “OLD ENGLISH” ?
• The English language from the middle of
the 5th to the 12th century; also called
Anglo-Saxon language
eowulf - The Funeral of Scyld Scefing
http://www.kami.demon.co.uk/gesithas/readings/bss_oe.html
im ða Scyld gewat
to gescæphwile
felahror feran
on frean wære.
Hi hyne þa ætbæron
to brimes faroðe,
swæse gesiþas,
swa he selfa bæd,
þenden wordum weold
wine Scyldinga;
leof landfruma
lange ahte.
ær æt hyðe stod
hringedstefna,
isig ond utfus,
æþelinges fær.
Aledon þa
leofne þeoden,
BEOWULF
• Heroic Poetry
• Epic (epos- “word
speech”)
– Long narrative poem
about a hero or heroic
deeds/ written in a
dignified style
• National Epic
– Epic poem relating the
deeds of a hero of a
particular people
– Helps people define their
values, mores, social
systems, and relationships
Conventions of Epic Poetry
• Begins in medias res
• Invocation of the
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muse
Statement of theme
or purpose
Supernatural
intervention
Epic questionsanswered by the poet
• Formal, long speeches
• Epic Catalogues of names
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(warriors, ships, armies)
Repetitions of epithets &
kennings
Action= heroic deeds
and journey
Epic Similes- lengthy
comparisons
Epic Hero Traits
• Performs great,
• Descends into
superhuman deeds
lower regions
during quest
• Nation’s fate rests
on outcome of
• Remains mortal
hero’s adventures
(not a god)
• Representative of • Boasts of
most admired traits
accomplishments
of culture
• Extremely
generous & loyal
EPIC GENRE: ESSENTIAL ACTION
• Mimesis = imitation of an action
• Action = movement of the spirit
• the call / the
goal
• the battle /
the struggle
Ind’l in isolation
Discovery of
purpose
Acceptance of
heroic task
(journey and/or
battle
Living for himself
Has powers but
does not know
what they are for
• the
establishment
Part of a community
Result: Leaves a
legacy
RELATION TO LIFE
Mystery Probed: Life’s Direction
Essential Questions:
• What are we called to do?
• What are our goals?
• What is the good life?
• What kind of life worth fighting
for?
• What does it mean to live life
heroically?
• Who are our heroes?
• May have been composed as an
elegy for a king who died in the
seventh century
• The burial rites described in the
epic show a great similarity to the
evidence found at Sutton Hoo.
• The sole manuscript of the poem dates to
c. 1000. Handwriting style reveals that it
was inscribed by two different people.
Whether either scribe embellished or
altered the original story is unknown.
Beowulf Notes
• Setting is 6th century Scandinavia (present
day Sweden and Denmark)
• Author is unknown because the story
passed through oral tradition
• Juxtaposes both Pagan and Christian
elements
Characters of Beowulf
• Hrothgar: King of the Danes (Denmark)
• Grendel: a monster who terrorizes the Danes
• Higlac: Beowulf’s king (King of the Geats •
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Sweden)
Beowulf: A Geat who comes to help the Danes
Herot: The greatest of all Mead Halls in the land
of the Danes
Unferth: one of Hrothgar’s men
Brecca: a friend of Beowulf’s when he was a
young man
Journal 1-6
• What is your definition of a hero? What is
your definition of a heroic act? Give
examples of your definition along with
explanations.
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