Summary Old english, Middle English and Renaissance
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Course
Engels
Level
VWO / Gymnasium
Useful summary for a test or presentation. It is an English summary of the history, language, and literature of Old English, Middle English and the Renaissance. It covers poetry, the history of England, how the language came about and much more!
Summary Old english, Middle English and Renaissance
History old english (500-1066)
- Original inhabitants; kelts (not much left of their language), pre-literate society, oral
tradition (told stories, not write down), pagan (weren’t christian, probably nature
gods)
- 55 BC (Julias Caesar attacked Great-Britain) - 410 AD → Roman period. In 410
Roman was being sacked, roman had to return tropes back home to try and save
Rome, so left Britain. Left behind the city, roads and aqueducts. They focused on the
lowlands of Britain. Also left Hadrian’s wall, built to keep savage tribes of Scotland
out.
- In some city names there’s still -chester which comes from castra (legerkamp). No
more Latin from that period in England.
- 500 → settlement of Germanic tribes in Britain, tribes from mainland Europe, invited
by the British king. Hired them as a personal army to become the most powerful men
in England. But Germanic tribes thought they were most powerful so all of them
came. Kelts were driven to Wales and Scotland. The germanic tribes - angles, saxons,
(Dutchland) jutes (Denmark), frisians (Denmark) and geats (Sweden). They brought
the basics of the English language. Parts of the country were named after them.
- 597 → Christianity came to britain. Augustine (missionary from the church, was sent
by Pope in Rome) was sent to England to convert the tribes to Christianity. Before
they were pagan, non christian, and believed in other gods. Conversion was a
successful and religious text available in Latin and Old English. Bede, a church father,
wrote sermons in old english. History continues in 739 by invasian by the deens.
Whole christian old England was scared by vikings. They started by rating the coast,
sailed to the North-East and burned city’s. After a century they came to stay and
settled the North East of England and took their families. Slowly taken over the entire
island. 878 king Alfred defeated them, which led to a treaty and division of the land.
Deenlaw and the area below belonged to Saxon England. Over time these two
emerged again. In 1044 with the Anglo-Saxon king Edward the confessor, he died.
Didn’t really have a successor. So Harold Gotwinson, anglo-saxon and William, also
anglo Saxon lived in France, duke of Normandy. Both wanted to be king. In 1066
William defeated Harold in the battle of Hastings so he became king. End of the old
English period, now French king.
Language old english (500 - 1066)
- Language came from mainland Europe, invaded by the Romans, but not a lot of
letting left that was there before the germanic tribes. Germanic tribes between 400
and 500. Jutes from Norden Denmark. Separate tribes with their own language,
languages classify as west germanic languages. English, Frisian, Dutch and German
are related, all from west-Germanic and then Anglo-Frisian and
Nederlandic-German.
- Old English sort of sounds scandinavian.
Literature old english (500 - 1066)
, - There is a lot of old English is a lot. Important works → Anglo-Saxon chronicle
(historical record in Old English, from 878 - 1150, facts of what happened over years)
& Beowulf (oldest epic in any of the Germanic languages, really stories)
- Beowulf is a story about a superhero, who is a prince from South of Sweden, well
known for performing feats of strength, tries to help people, bands of warriors,
solving people's problems. One man with a problem was Danish king Rothcar, who
has the ones to monster Grendel, who keeps attacking his beer, meat hal and killing
his warriors. Beowulf and warriors fight with Grendle, a monster, in a way he decides
to be honorable. Because once he confronted the monster and he saw the monster
had no weapons so he decided he wanted it to be a fair fight, so Beowulf will fight by
hand too. Fight is very grossum, Beowulf rips Grendel's arm. Grendel is defeated and
Beowulf defeats the mother as well, with a magical sword in her underground cave
under a lake. The story skips 60 years. Beowulf king of his own country. He has a
problem with a dragon who is holding all the gold and threatening the people.
Beowulf thinks it is his duty to defeat him, although he is old. But warriors are
enjoying luxury life and don’t want to go with him. Only a young warrior Witlaf
assists Beowulf. Beowulf dies when fighting the dragon, he asks Witlaf to go back, tell
the story and become the next king.
- Terminology;
- Epic → a poem about a hero performing superhuman deeds, story with a rhythm
when it is told. Told by a scop, a travelling entertainer accompanied himself by a
musical instrument while telling the story. Meadhall sort of bearhall, alliteration was
important, to create rhythm in the story, repetition of the first letter. Kenning, typical
from Old English, is a metaphor for something by combining two words.
- We also know there was a social structure in Anglo-Saxon times called the comitatus,
fulliers and warriors of a lord. Beowulf and warriors form comitatus, they were
committed to each other. Feudal system came around in the middle ages, and it’s an
exchange of services → warriors fight for their lords until death, loyal to him. If the
lord was killed himself, warriors were supposed to wipe out the enemy or die
themselves. And the lord gave them food, gold etc. (took care of them). So loyalty
until death and if not there was austracism, shunned by your society, so the rest of
the village didn’t want to talk to you anymore. So it’s sort of abaneshing, so they
usually kill themselves or move far away.
Middle english history (1066-1500)
- 1042 Edwerd the confessor dies → no heir, no one takes the throne after him, so
chaos in the country. One man Harold was duke and thought he had a claim to the
throne, he had an army so he thought he should try and capture the throne. Out of all
the battles between 1044 and 1066, these were the best; Harold Gotwinson and
William of Normandy. They met at the battle of Hastings, King Harold dies. William
was the winner and known as William the Conqueror, all in regular history terms
William the first. William Norman, means coming from Normandy, France. He
brought his French court to England and this meant new ideas and new social
structures. Influence on the language and how society was structured. Because of the
changes we term 1066 as the end of the old English period and the start of middle
english.
- Social structures → Structure of comitatus was emplaced by a feudal system. The lord
provided money, gifts and safety to the retainers as long as they promised to follow
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