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Background to Beowulf

Background to Beowulf. with a brief description of How English Began. Early Inhabitants of Britain.

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Background to Beowulf

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  1. Background to Beowulf with a brief description of How English Began

  2. Early Inhabitants of Britain • The first humans entered the territory that is now England when the island was still part of the mainland, during the Stone Age. (Note: Be sure to distinguish between “Britain” and “England.”) • The “Beaker Folk” came to Britain from the continent ca. 2,500 B.C. (early Bronze Age).

  3. Early Inhabitants of Britain “Beaker Folk” built Stonehenge (ca. 1,500 B.C.)

  4. Early Inhabitants of Britain Celts lived in Britain during the Iron Age (after 1,000 B.C.) Spoke Gaelic and Cymric branches of Celtic

  5. Early Inhabitants of Britain Romans in Britain: 43 A.D. until 410 A.D. (Julius Caesar visited Britain in 55 B.C.) Languages: Latin coexisted with Celtic

  6. Early Inhabitants of Britain Hadrian’s Wall (Romans) 122 A.D.

  7. Early Inhabitants of Britain The Romans withdrew from Britain in 410 A.D.

  8. Invasion of the Teutons, 450 - 550 Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, Franks

  9. The Setting of Beowulf

  10. The Three English Languages • Old English, or Anglo-Saxon: 450-1150 • Beowulf • Caedmon’s Hymn of Creation • Middle English: 1150-1500 • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight • Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales • Modern English: 1500 to present • Shakespeare • Swift and Pope

  11. Important Dates • Events of the poem: before 450 • St. Augustine introduced Christianity into Britain and baptized King Ethelbert of Kent: 597 • Beowulf written down: ca. 750 • Battle of Hastings: 1066

  12. St. Augustine • Introduced Chrisitanity to Britain in 597 • Baptized King Ethelbert of Kent

  13. Caedmon • First English poet whose name we know • Lived as a monk at Whitby • Died about 680

  14. Caedmon’s Hymn Nu sculon herigean     heofonrices weard, meotodes meahte        and his modgeþanc, weorc wuldorfæder,  swa he wundra gehwæs, ece drihten,         or onstealde. He ærest sceop         eorðan bearnum heofon to hrofe,       halig scyppend; þa middangeard       moncynnes weard, ece drihten,         æfter teode firum foldan,        frea ælmihtig.

  15. Caedmon’s Hymn Now we shall praise the heaven-realm’s Keeper, God’s might and his mood-thought The work of the Glory-Father, as he of each wonder, The eternal Lord, the beginning ordained. He first made to the children of men heaven for roof, the holy Creator. Then the middle-yard mankind’s Keeper, the eternal Lord, afterwards created For men, the earth, the Ruler Almighty.

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