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Early British Literature

Early British Literature. The Celts and the Anglo-Saxons. Who were the Celts?. Gaelic farmers and hunters Organized into clans Ruled by tribal chieftains elected from among pagan priests Chieftains were Druids: composed hymns and poems, recorded history, and led religious rites (Stonehenge).

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Early British Literature

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  1. Early British Literature The Celts and the Anglo-Saxons

  2. Who were the Celts? • Gaelic farmers and hunters • Organized into clans • Ruled by tribal chieftains elected from among pagan priests • Chieftains were Druids: composed hymns and poems, recorded history, and led religious rites (Stonehenge)

  3. Celtic Image • Usually pictured dressed in animal skins, wearing war paint • Produced haunting myths and beautiful artifacts • Made scientific observations of the sky

  4. Roman Britain • Julius Caesar led two successful campaigns against the British Isles, but never established any settlements (54 BC) • Claudius was the Roman Emperor to establish settlements, laws, cultures, and language (Latin) in Britain (AD 43) • Hadrian’s Wall

  5. 5th Century: Celtic Disarray • Early 5th Century: Romans leave Britain to defend their capital at home, Britain left defenseless • Following the Roman Departure: INVASIONS • Jutes: tribe from Danish peninsula, conquer Kent in AD 449 • Angles: Establish Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia • Saxons: Establish Wessex, Essex, Sussex

  6. Anglo-Saxon Culture:Entertainment • Legends: giants, demons, sea monsters, trolls – original fantasy writers • Lays (heroic songs) performed by “Scop” • Court Poetry: Boasts, Oral Tradition • Harps accompanied Scop performances

  7. Anglo-Saxon Culture:Class Structure • Warrior Class: Earls and Thanes • Freemen: Churls • Slaves: Thralls • Council of Elders: Witenagemot • Payment for wrongs: “wergild” = “man money”, blood for blood

  8. Anglo-Saxon Culture:Religion • Wyrd • The Goddess of Fate • Courageous men might be fated to survive • Tiu: God of War • Waden: King of gods • Thor: God of Thunder • Freia: Goddess of Home • Days of the Week

  9. Alfred the Great • Danes and Vikings invade • Ruler of Wessex • Epilepsy • Defeats Danes (AD 878) • Named “bretwalda”, “King of Britain” • Learning and Education • Translations

  10. End of Anglo-Saxon Era • Continuing Danish Invasions • Death of Edward the Confessor • Harold vs. William the Conqueror • 1066 – Battle of Hastings • The Normans conquer England • French language

  11. Anglo-Saxon Literature

  12. Genres: Prose • Sermons: most popular of prose genres • Translations of Latin religious works and Biblical works • Saints’ Lives • Legal texts: wills, records, deeds, laws, etc. • Scientific and Medical texts • Chronicles: historical writing: Anglo Saxon Chronicle

  13. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle • Collection of annals (yearly history) narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain. • First continuous history written by Europeans in their own language. • Probably begun during the reign of King Alfred in the 9th c. • After completion of the original chronicle, copies were sent to monasteries and updated yearly. • Nine surviving MSS. The initial page of the Peterborough Chronicle

  14. Genres: Poetry • Thula: alliterative lists of names or tribes • Gnomic verse: proverbs, traditional wisdom • Spells: invoke natural and supernatural powers • Riddles: what am I? • Religious poetry: retellings of Old Testament stories, saints’ lives, “Dream of the Rood” • Wisdom poetry: lyrical, meditative, elegiac – “The Wanderer,” “The Wife’s Lament,” etc. • Heroic court poetry: celebration of historical events related by scops: Beowulf, etc.

  15. First page of Beowulf from the Cotton Vitellius MS.

  16. Beowulf Prologue

  17. What are those weird-looking letters? Omniglot

  18. Riddles The Anchor I war with the wind, with the waves I wrestle; I must battle with both when the bottom I seek, My strange habitation by surges o’er-roofed. I am strong in the strife, while still I remain; As soon as I stir, they are stronger than I. They wrench and they wrest, till I run from my foes; What was put in my keeping they carry away. If my back be not broken, I baffle them still. The rocks are my helpers, when hard I am pressed; Grimly I grip them. Guess what I’m called. The Exeter Book

  19. Spells and Charms Charm for a Swarm of Bees Take earth with your right hand and throw it under your right foot, saying: I've got it,     I've found it:Lo, earth     masters all creatures, it masters evil,     it masters deceit, it masters humanity's     greedy tongue. Throw light soil over them [the bees] as they swarm, saying: Sit, wise women,     settle on earth: never in fear     fly to the woods. Please be mindful     of my welfare as all men are     of food and land. Trans. Karl Young

  20. Known A-S Poets • Cædmon: herdsman attached to the Whitby monastery during the abbacy of St. Hilda (657–681). Author of “Hymn,” oldest A-S poem • The Venerable Bede (c. 672-735): Benedictine monk at Jarrow; author of the Historia Ecclesiastica: The History of the Church of England and “Bede’s Death Song” • King Alfred (849-99) Depiction of Cædmon carved on a stone memorial cross on the grounds of St Mary's Church in Whitby

  21. Bede’s “Death Song” Fore ðæm nedfere nænig wiorðeðonc snottora ðon him ðearf siæto ymbhycgenne ær his hiniongehwæt his gastæ godes oððe yflesæfter deað dæge doemed wiorðe. Facing that enforced journey, no man can beMore prudent than he has good call to be,If he consider, before his going hence,What for his spirit of good hap or of evilAfter his day of death shall be determined. Beda Venerabilis from an medieval manuscript

  22. Anglo-Saxon Poetic Conventions • Elegiac mood: the transitoriness of life • Ubi sunt: Where are they??? • Heroic mode: active, loyal to kinship group, boastful • The inevitability of Wyrd: fate • Figures of speech • Kennings: two words as metaphor for one: hron-rāde whale-road – sea; hord-cofan word-hoard – mind, thoughts • Litotes: ironic understatement -- "That [sword] was not useless / to the warrior now." (Beowulf) • Variation: parallel appositive phrases – see “Cædmon’s Hymn” • Alliterative verse: alliteration is used as the principal device to unify lines of poetry

  23. Wisdom Poetry • Lyrical: expressions of feelings, meditations on life • Emphasis on transitoriness of fame, glory, kinship, life itself: ubi sunt theme • Most found in Exeter Book: “The Ruin,” “The Wanderer,” “The Seafarer,” “The Wife’s Lament,” “The Husband’s Message” • King Alfred: author of “Lays of Boethius”

  24. Heroic Court Poetry • Narrative oral compositions handed down from generation to generation • Interactive: warriors in the audience were given their turns to boast: to proclaim their self-worth in a stylized solo declamation, which all recognized as a beot or gilph (boast). • Celebrations or commemorations of cultural heroes and historic events • Sung at court feasts which also included mead drinking, gift giving, harp playing and displaying of trophies

  25. Court singer Historian Genealogist Teacher Composer Critic Warrior Reporter The Scop • “The Anglo-Saxon scop was a professional or semi-professional tribal poet who celebrated cultural values by singing epics on occasions of great ceremony and festivity…. He was a man of repute, the equal of thanes.” • Anglo-Saxon Scops

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