内容

I. Historical background

II. Anglo-Saxon literature:

•  Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon literature

•  Poetry

•  Prose

Module 1 Anglo-Saxon Period PPT 图片来源

1. King Alfred —Alfred the Great

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2. William the Conqueror

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3. Beowulf

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讲义

 I. Historical Background

As a civilized country in the world, Britain has a long history and the English people are a complicated race. Several races of people came and left, and finally the Anglo-Saxon people became the real ancestors of the country.

1. Celts: In recorded history, the first inhabitants of the island were commonly known as the Celts . From about 750 B.C., the Celtic tribes crossed from Europe and began to settle in the country.

2. Romans: In about 55 B.C., Julius Caesar , the Roman general, invaded England . The Celts were defeated and were driven to the Welsh and Scottish mountains. In the following several centuries, the Romans transplanted their civilization to the land. The Roman power in England collapsed in 5 th century and the Roman legions gradually withdrew from the country. Then the Celts came back.  

3. Anglo-Saxons: From about the 5 th century, the northern tribes from part of Germany and Denmark came to invade Britain. They were the Germanic tribes—Angles, Saxons and Jutes. In spite of brave struggle led by King Arthur , the Celts were wholly defeated. These three invading tribes came to settle down. Before long the distinctions among these three tribes lost, and by the end of the 7 th century they regarded themselves as “ The nation of the English ”. But they lacked unity and were roughly divided into 7 kingdoms. The kings of these kingdoms fought with one another for supreme power for about 200 years. And historians call this “ Heptarchy ”( 七国争雄 ). In this process, they developed their own language and culture. English literature gradually formed a literary tradition with its unique characteristics.

•  The Vikings invasion: The Vikings are the collective name of Danes, Swedes and Norwegians. They began their Viking expansion from about 800 to 1100. Land shortage, improved iron production, and the need for new markets probably all played a part in the Viking expansion. They invaded England and seized many parts. When the English were almost defeated, King Alfred from the kingdom of Wessex defeated a new wave of the Viking invasion and brought peace and prosperity to his kingdom. He was considered as the first national hero in English history.

•  King Alfred was a very capable and ambitious man. He founded a strong fleet and is known as “the father of the English navy”. Apart from being a brave warrior and an army commander, he also made great contributions to the development of the English society. He built schools, imported teachers, wrote chronicle and encouraged cultural growth. He translated numerous Latin books into English and formulated a legal system. All of these earned him the title “Alfred the Great .”

•  Danish ruling:

In the successive wars between England and Denmark, English people fought bravely, but they couldn't drive all the enemies out. So the English king Edmund made an agreement with the Danish king---Canute that the country should be divided between them. Soon after the treaty, Edmund died mysteriously. And Canute became the ruler of England. And soon, he became the King of England, Denmark and Norway. After his death, his two sons succeeded to the throne. Later, no capable Danish can claim the throne and English people again ruled England.

•  The Norman Conquest

In the 11 th century there happened an important event which had a far-reaching significance in English history, that is, The Norman Conquest.

In the year of 1066, in Hastings, the Norman Duke William led his army and fought a war with England. The result was that England was completely defeated. The Battle of Hastings paved the way for the conquest of England. And William was known as William the Conqueror in history. After the Norman Conquest, Feudalism was established in England, and a strong centralized government was built.  

II. Anglo-Saxon Literature        

•  Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon Literature

The Anglo-Saxon literature is almost a verse literature in oral form. It could be passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation. Its creators are mostly unknown. It was only given a written form long after its composition.

There were two groups of English poetry in Anglo-Saxon period. The first group was the pagan ( 异教徒的 ) poetry represented by the poem Beowulf , the second was the religious poetry represented by the works of Caedmon and Cynewulf.

In the 8th century, Anglo-Saxon prose appeared. The famous prose writers of that period were Bede and King Alfred.     

•  Anglo-Saxon Poetry

•  Beowulf ---the national epic

Position ： Beowulf is a long epic poem of 3183 lines. It is the oldest surviving epic poem in the English language and the most important work of Anglo-Saxon literature. It is generally considered to be the work of an anonymous 8th-century Anglican poet. The existing manuscript of the poem dates back to 10th century. It fuses Scandinavian history and pagan mythology with Christian elements.

Contents: The poem tells of the story of a Scandinavian hero Beowulf in the 6 th century. It is basically two-part narrative. The first part is about Beowulf's fight with the sea-monsters Grendel and his mother. In the second part, it deals with his killing of a fiery dragon and his death. The poem ends with his funeral.  

Writing Features of the Poem Beowulf:

First, it is a pagan poem, the product of all advanced pagan civilization.

The second feature is the use of the strong stress and the predominance of consonants.

The third notable feature is the use of alliteration.

And fourthly, the language is vigorous and picturesque with heavy use of metaphors. A famous example is the term “whale-road” for sea .

•  Religious poems :

In 597 AD, when the Italian-born missionary St. Augustine introduced Christianity to southern England, the popular pagan poetry began to be fused with religious spirit. In this period, there appeared some religious poems. The representative poets are Caedmon and Cynewulf.

Caedmon was the first known poet in English literary history. He was an illiterate herdsman. There is a legend about him. One night, he had a dream. In the dream, an angel told him to sing of Creation. When he woke up, he wrote down what he sang in his dream. Later, Caedmon wrote many poems based on the Biblical stories.

The second poet was Cynewulf. He was possibly a minstrel. He was a scholar and knew Latin literature. He wrote excellent poetry and in his poetry, he was revealed as a man of learning familiar with the religious literature of his day.

3. Prose

Apart from poetry, prose was another popular literary form in this period. There are two writers worth mentioning.

The first writer was Bede. He was a monk and scholar and was called “The father of English history”. He was chiefly known for his The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. This work is the only source of information about the most momentous period in English history—the period of change from barbarism to civilization.

The second writer was King Alfred. His main work was Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It was the earliest of its kind in Europe. And he developed a natural style in English.

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More information about Beowulf

Beowulf is the conventional title of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines , set in Scandinavia , commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature .

It survives in a single manuscript known as the Nowell Codex . Its composition by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet is dated between the 8th and the early 11th century. In 1731, the manuscript was badly damaged by a fire that swept through a building housing a collection of Medieval manuscripts assembled by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton . The poem fell into obscurity for decades, and its existence did not become widely known again until it was printed in 1815 in an edition prepared by the Icelandic-Danish scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin .

In the poem, Beowulf , a hero of the Geats in Scandinavia, comes to the help of Hroðgar , the king of the Danes , whose mead hall (in Heorot) has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel . After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland in Sweden and later becomes king of the Geats. After a period of fifty years has passed, Beowulf defeats a dragon , but is fatally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants bury him in a tumulus , a burial mound, in Geatland.

The somber story is told in vigorous, picturesque language, with heavy use of metaphor; a famous example is the term “whale-road” for sea.