Engels middeleeuwen
Britons, celtic race: first inhabitants of england:
Invasion romans
55/54 B.C (unsuccessful)
43-50 A.D -> britain becomes a roman province
- Country became more civilised
- Agriculture and trade flourished
- cities were built, roads construction
- Bath houses were built by romans
Romans did not succeed conquering the tribes in (nowadays) Scotland
The tribes kept attacking Romanised celts in north -> romans built Hadrian’s wall
410: Roman legions called back to defend Italy against the Goths
- England no defence against Scotland -> help from Angels (denmark) and Saxons
(north Germany)
- Angles and Saxons didn’t accept payment in goods -> demanded land
- England did not give it -> took it by force
- Destroyed towns and villages
- Slaughtered the native population
King arthur not actually a king -> a general, distinguished himself in battles against angles
and saxons
Angles and Saxons ancestors of english people and language (anglo saxon)
England refused christianity
Irish missionaries came over to England and introduced Christianity.
The people
English people were not used to living in towns
The Germania (book, written by roman historicus Tacticus, 98 AD)
- Describes customs, religions, methods of warfare of the batavii, anglii
- Every tribe had a chief -> attracted a band of followers, called comitatus by tacitus
- Chief gave food, swords and presents
- Followers gave, if necessary, their lives for the chief
The language
Old English was a Germanic language.
The cases started disappearing in the 11/12th century
Literature
Best known poems are complaints of comitatus members who lost their chief.
- Mostly sad and lovely poems
- The wife’s complaint
, ● The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- Monks wrote down all the important events
- Example: burials of kings, how many people were killed
● Beowulf
- An epic that is a poem narrating continuously the achievements of one or
more heroes
- Swedish hero
- Danish king Hrotgar asks him to destroy two monsters (Grendel and his
mother)
- Beowulf arrives with his comitatus
- He becomes king in Sweden
- Last deed is fighting a dragon -> dies after killing the dragon
- Bc of poisonous breath
- Written in alliterative verse, the lines consist of two half lines
- Poem recited by the lyre
The Anglo-saxon Chronicles
- Information about important events
- As the years pass by there is more information to be found. The monks wrote more
detailed about what had happened.(more people could read and write)
- There is no information about womans for example
Also no personal information
Beowulf
- Beowulf is praised
- Grendel is a “devil’s creature”
- Importance of germania
- Customs of the tribes (hoe ze omgingen met bepaalde onderwerpen)
- If you have the germania you can understand the story setting of beowulf
better
- Kind of a demi-god (ripped arm out with bare hands)
- Story written slow to create tension (super spannend)
- Mondeling eerst daarna 10th century written down
- Only one manuscript survived -> we are lucky to have the story
- Edith Pretty and Basil Brown
- She was a lady with the land, archeologist hired by edith of sutton
- Link between beowulf and Sutton Hoo
- The stories begins with a mention of a ship, most likely the Sutton Hoo
- There were no bodies found in the Sutton Hoo
- swedish norm-> buried ship with for example captain buried underneath
- Finding of the sutton hoo shows us that there were travels between northern europe
countries to england
- Monsters mother “seed of Cain”
- Story popular in 1999 -> translated and written by nobel prize winner
Britons, celtic race: first inhabitants of england:
Invasion romans
55/54 B.C (unsuccessful)
43-50 A.D -> britain becomes a roman province
- Country became more civilised
- Agriculture and trade flourished
- cities were built, roads construction
- Bath houses were built by romans
Romans did not succeed conquering the tribes in (nowadays) Scotland
The tribes kept attacking Romanised celts in north -> romans built Hadrian’s wall
410: Roman legions called back to defend Italy against the Goths
- England no defence against Scotland -> help from Angels (denmark) and Saxons
(north Germany)
- Angles and Saxons didn’t accept payment in goods -> demanded land
- England did not give it -> took it by force
- Destroyed towns and villages
- Slaughtered the native population
King arthur not actually a king -> a general, distinguished himself in battles against angles
and saxons
Angles and Saxons ancestors of english people and language (anglo saxon)
England refused christianity
Irish missionaries came over to England and introduced Christianity.
The people
English people were not used to living in towns
The Germania (book, written by roman historicus Tacticus, 98 AD)
- Describes customs, religions, methods of warfare of the batavii, anglii
- Every tribe had a chief -> attracted a band of followers, called comitatus by tacitus
- Chief gave food, swords and presents
- Followers gave, if necessary, their lives for the chief
The language
Old English was a Germanic language.
The cases started disappearing in the 11/12th century
Literature
Best known poems are complaints of comitatus members who lost their chief.
- Mostly sad and lovely poems
- The wife’s complaint
, ● The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- Monks wrote down all the important events
- Example: burials of kings, how many people were killed
● Beowulf
- An epic that is a poem narrating continuously the achievements of one or
more heroes
- Swedish hero
- Danish king Hrotgar asks him to destroy two monsters (Grendel and his
mother)
- Beowulf arrives with his comitatus
- He becomes king in Sweden
- Last deed is fighting a dragon -> dies after killing the dragon
- Bc of poisonous breath
- Written in alliterative verse, the lines consist of two half lines
- Poem recited by the lyre
The Anglo-saxon Chronicles
- Information about important events
- As the years pass by there is more information to be found. The monks wrote more
detailed about what had happened.(more people could read and write)
- There is no information about womans for example
Also no personal information
Beowulf
- Beowulf is praised
- Grendel is a “devil’s creature”
- Importance of germania
- Customs of the tribes (hoe ze omgingen met bepaalde onderwerpen)
- If you have the germania you can understand the story setting of beowulf
better
- Kind of a demi-god (ripped arm out with bare hands)
- Story written slow to create tension (super spannend)
- Mondeling eerst daarna 10th century written down
- Only one manuscript survived -> we are lucky to have the story
- Edith Pretty and Basil Brown
- She was a lady with the land, archeologist hired by edith of sutton
- Link between beowulf and Sutton Hoo
- The stories begins with a mention of a ship, most likely the Sutton Hoo
- There were no bodies found in the Sutton Hoo
- swedish norm-> buried ship with for example captain buried underneath
- Finding of the sutton hoo shows us that there were travels between northern europe
countries to england
- Monsters mother “seed of Cain”
- Story popular in 1999 -> translated and written by nobel prize winner
