Transcript English 4 British Literature - High School English Tutoring

English 4
British Literature
Unit 1: Anglo Saxon Period
449-1066
Ancient Period (5000 BC-449 AD)
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Neolithic period, c. 5000-2000 BC, agriculture, mound tombs
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Non-Indo-European inhabitants
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New Grange, Ireland, 3200 B.C., passage grave.
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Stonehenge I & II (2800-2000 B.C.)
Bronze Age, 2000-500 B.C.
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Indo-European language, burial with drinking vessels, flint, metal, farms, circular huts, oblong fields
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Celtic inhabitants arrived around 750 B.C., hill forts
Iron Age (begins in England around 500 B.C.)
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Celtic people in England: Britons (hence the name Britain/Britannia) (other Celtic tribes: Atrebates,
Belgae, Brigantes, Catuvellauni, Dumnonii, Ordovices, Silures)
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Celtic languages: Gaelic, Brythonic (Britannic)
Roman Britain (55 BC-410 AD)
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Julius Caesar invades Britain, 55 BC
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Roman conquest of Britain takes place gradually; Celtic peoples become Romanized
under the influence of Roman administration, Latin culture and language
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ongoing conflicts with tribes of Picts and Scots living in northern Britain; Hadrian's
Wall (73 miles long), built 121-127 AD as a fortification against Picts and Scots
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some degree of Christianization of the Britons took place after Emperor Constantine's
adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire (313 AD)
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Roman-Celtic-Christian culture of Britain
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Roman departure from Britain in 410 AD (Romans forced to withdraw their troops
from Britain due to Germanic invasions of the Roman Empire)
Julius Caesar
Germanic Invasions
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Beginning around 375 the Huns from Central Asia attacked the Germanic tribes (Goths,
Ostrogoths) settled in eastern Europe and drove them to invade the Roman Empire. The Roman
Empire was destabilized by attacks from the Huns and Germanic raids involving tribes such as the
Goths, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians, Vandals, Lombards, etc. Rome was sacked by
the Visigoths in 410 AD. The Western Roman Empire finally fell to the Germanic invaders in 476
AD.
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Abandoned by the Romans in 410 AD, Britain is besieged by Picts and Scots
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British leader Vortigern (c. 425-450 AD) invites Germanic Saxons into alliance against Picts and
Scots
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Saxons turn against their British allies and begin their conquest of Britain (442 AD)
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Large-scale Germanic invasions of Britain by Saxons, Angles, and Jutes (449 AD)
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British resistance. King Arthur was likely a British general fighting the Saxons, Battle of Mt. Badon
(500 AD). Death of Arthur at Battle of Camlann (c. 537 AD)
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Britons defeated by Germanic invaders and driven away into Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, and Brittany
(on northwest coast of France)
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Anglo-Saxons in control of Britain by sixth century; land renamed "England"
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Roman, Celtic, and Christian culture displaced from England.
Germanic (Anglo-Saxon)
England (449-1066 AD)
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Germanic culture dominant in England (pagan, warrior society centered on institution of kinship
band or comitatus; worship of wild animals like boar, bear, and wolf; blood revenge and wergild
(man-money); importance of acquisition and distribution of treasure; emphasis on pride and glory
in battle; heroic poetry; mead drinking and social gatherings in banquet hall; belief in fixed
destiny or wyrd)
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Co-existence of seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (Heptarchy): Northumberland, East Anglia, Mercia
(Angles), Kent (Jutes), Essex, Sussex, Wessex (Saxons); seventh century Northumbrian
dominance, eighth century Mercian dominance, ninth/tenth century West Saxon dominance
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Pope Gregory sends to Kent a Benedictine monk named Augustine (not to be confused with the
more famous St. Augustine of Hippo c. 354-430 A.D.) in 597 AD. Beginnings of the
Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons.
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Aethelbert I of Kent (Jutes), converted to Christianity by Augustine, first Christian king of AngloSaxon England; also compiled law code (c. 600) (including definitions and rules of kinship, use of
wergild, status of slaves, freemen, and nobles)
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Gradual Christianization of Anglo-Saxons by Roman and Irish missionaries (St. Aidan and others,
635-655); coexistence of Christian and pagan beliefs, Wyrd and Divine Providence; persistence of
pagan customs (e.g. the ship burial of East-Anglian king Raedwald at Sutton Hoo,c. 625 AD)
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first Viking attacks 787AD
Germanic (Anglo-Saxon)
England (449-1066 AD)
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Alfred the Great, king of Wessex (r. 871-899), victories over Vikings at Ashdown (871) and
Edington (878);Treaty of Wedmore (878) forcing Danish king Guthrum to accept Christianity and
retreat to Danelaw (in east England); Alfred captures London (886) and is recognized as king of
all England (except for Danish parts)
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West Saxon dialect became literary standard of Old English literature
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renewed Scandinavian invasions in late 10th and early 11th centuries
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Aethelred II Unraed (the "unwise" or "un-ready") (r. 978-1016), king of England, very ineffective
in resisting Scandinavian invasions; lost his throne to Danish leader Canute
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Canute, Danish king of England (r. 1016-1035), married Aethelred's widow Emma and fathered
Hardecanute, king of England (r. 1040-1042)