Unit One The Anglo-Saxon Period
⏹ I. Historical Background
⏹ II. Anglo-Saxon Poetry
⏹ III. Anglo-Saxon Pro
I. Historical Background
The English people are a complicated race.
The first inhabitants of the island were commonly known as the Celts (or Kelts).
⏹ 55 BC saw the invasion of the island headed by Julius Caesar.
ikuoDuring the invasion the aborigines（ 土著人）Celts withdrew to the Welsh and Scottish mountains and left a great part of England to the Romans.
⏹ Not until the 5th century did the Romans withdrew. England had been made a Roman
Province since 80 AD.
As the Roman legions withdrew, the Celts came back.
⏹ Originally the name Anglo-Saxon denotes two of the three Germanic（日尔曼）tribes --- Angles, Saxons and Jutes -- who in the middle of the 5th century left their homes on the shores of the North Sea and the Baltic（波罗的海） to conquer and colonize distant Britain.
They lived in the northern top of Germany and the southern part of Denmark at that time.
⏹ The historical date that is worth memorizing is 449 AD.
⏹ The three invading tribes came to ttle down: Angles in the north of Thames, Jutes mainly in the southwest called Kent（英国东南部郡）, and Saxons in the other places.
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English literature originated in the Angles and Saxons who formed a literary tradition of their own.
⏹ Important historical events:
1. Heptarchy（七王国）:
⏹ The informal confederation（联邦）of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the fifth to the ninth century, consisting of Kent, Susx, Wesx, Esx, Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia.
favor2. the Vikings invasion: dovetail
⏹ Vikings, collective designation of Nordic（北欧人）people— Danes, Swedes, Norwegians—who explored abroad during a period of dynamic Scandinavian expansion from about AD 800 to 1100.
⏹ Land shortage, improved iron production, and the need for new markets probably all played a part in Viking expansion.
3. King Alfred the Great:
⏹ In 871, Ethelred of Wesx is defeated by Danish forces January 4 at Reading, gains a brilliant victory 4 days later at Ashdown, is defeated January 22 at Basing, triumphs again March 2 at Marton in Wiltshire, but dies in April.
⏹ His brother, 22, pays tribute（贡物）to the Danes but will reign until 899 and be called Alfred the Great.
4. Canute (994?-1035):
荆豆⏹ King of England(1016-1035), Denmark (1018-1035), and Norway (1028-1035) who reign, at first brutal, was later marked by wisdom and temperance.
⏹ He is the subject of many legends.
5. The Norman Conquest in 1066
qantas⏹ The year 1066 was a turning point in English history. William I, the Conqueror, and his sons gave England vigorous new leadership. Norman feudalism (封建制度) became t
he basis for redistributing the land among the conquerors, giving England a new French aristocracy and a new social and political structure. England turned away from Scandinavia toward France, an orientation (倾向性) that was to last for 400 years.
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6. St. Augustine:
⏹ Italian-born missionary and prelate (高级教士) who introduced Christianity to southern Britain 597 and was ordained as the first archbishop (大主教) of Canterbury 598. Died c 604.
II. Anglo-Saxon Poetry
1. Beowulf --- the national epic
⏹ Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon epic poem, the most important work of Old English literature.
The poem consists of 3183 lines, each line with four accents marked by alliteration and divided into two parts by a caesura汽车美容装饰学校 (节律的停顿).
⏹ The structure of the typical Beowulf line comes through in modern translation, for example: Then came from the moor under misted cliffs Grendel marching God's anger he bore . . .
⏹ The somber (昏暗的,忧郁的) story is told in vigorous, picturesque (独特的) language, with heavy u of metaphor; a famous example is the term “whale-road” for a.
⏹ The poem tells of a hero, a Scandinavian prince named Beowulf, who rids the Danes of the monster Grendel, half man and half fiend (魔鬼) and Grendel's mother, who comes that evening to avenge Grendel's death.
⏹ Fifty years later Beowulf, now king of his native land, fights a dragon who has devastated his people. Both Beowulf and the dragon are mortally wounded in the fight.
⏹ The poem ends with Beowulf's funeral as his mourners chant his epitaph.
⏹ Beowulf is a long ver narrative on the theme of “arms and man” and as such belo
ngs to the tradition of a national epic in European literature that can be traced back to Homer’s thmIliad (荷马史市诗,描写特洛伊战争)and Virgil’s (古罗马诗人) Aeneid (埃涅伊德叙事诗).
lucky boys⏹ The earliest poets, who names have long since been forgotten performed as storytellers and minstrels before gatherings of listeners.
