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Philology 2
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Week 1Outline:
What is Old English?
Why study Old English?
History of Britain until the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons
What is Old English?
There are words which we recognize today in Modern English, but some have been
lost because English borrowed heavily from French and Latin.
Some words have inflections like in German.
It’s a Germanic language which came with the Anglo-Saxons (Angles, Saxons, and
Jutes).
Why study Old English?
Many of the peculiarities of Modern English originate from Old English.
Modern English spelling represents medieval pronunciation.
English literature didn’t start with Shakespeare but with Old English literature, e.g.,
Beowulf. These masterpieces have had a lasting impact on modern culture, in the
form of writers like J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling.
It opens a window to a fascinating bit of history, with Anglo-Saxons, Vikings,
Normans, and Christian missionaries.
History of Britain until the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons:
Inhabitants of Britain:
Cheddar man (ca. 8000 BC); a prehistoric caveman, a hunter-gatherer. Some of his
descendants still live in Britain today.
First migration/invasion: Bronze Age farmers
o Beaker people (2500 BC); they came from France and brought disease with them
so 90% of the original population of Britain died out.
o They left some stone age monuments behind, namely Stonehenge.
Second migration/invasion: Celtic tribes
o They came from mainland Europe and reached Ireland and Britain around 600-
500 BC.
o Spoke Celtic languages (a branch of Indo-European).
o Traces of Celtic tribes can still be found in placenames today.
Third invasion: Romans
o Attempts by Julius Caesar in 55 and 54 BC – no success.
o Claudius succeeds in 43 AD.
o Britain is a Roman province, 43 – 410 AD.
o They introduced stone houses, villas.
o They also built a network of roads, some of which are still being used today.
o In the north of Britain, they built Hadrian’s wall to keep out the Celtic tribes like
the Picts.
o They also introduced Christianity to Britain.
o End of Roman Britain comes with the sack of Rome by the Visigoths, as a result
the Romans pull back their troops from Britain.
o The Picts and Scots start invading Britain.
, Fourth migration/invasion: arrival of Anglo-Saxons, c. 449 AD
Week 3
Conquest, conversion, and conflict:
Outline:
Conquest
Conversion
Conflict
Anglo-Saxon invasion:
According to Bede (731):
o Three ships
o Three tribes:
Jutes: Kent
Saxons: Essex, Sussex, Wessex
Angles: East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria
Oversimplification!
How it really happened:
o The invasion is a very gradual process; it takes 250 years.
o The Anglo-Saxons are not a unified whole; they consist of different tribes who
found various kingdoms.
o In the last stages of this invasion, the little kingdoms fight amongst themselves
and form bigger kingdoms.
Heptarchy:
7 kingdoms:
o Northumbria
o Mercia
o Wessex
o Sussex
o Essex
o East Anglia
o Kent
British resistance:
Gildas, De excidio et conquest Britanniae (6th century): Britons, led by Ambrosius
Aurelianus, defeat Anglo-Saxons at Battle of Badon Hill (end of 5th century)
Pseudo-Nennius, Historia Brittonum (c. 828)
What happened to the Britons?
It has been said they were pushed to the fringes, like Wales.
There is not a lot of linguistic evidence of the Britons, so some believe they were
wiped out by the Anglo-Saxons.
There is more evidence being discovered though which could point to some co-
habitation between the Anglo-Saxons and Britons; Britons could have been forced to
adopt Old-English.
, Anglo-Saxon Paganism:
Names for days of the week: Tiwesdaeg, Wodnesdaeg, Thunresdaeg, Frigedaeg
Placenames: Tuesley, Woodnesborough, Thundersly
Festivals: Yule, Easter
Tacitus’s Germania
Old English ‘magic’ charms
Old English Martyrology (9th century)
Evidence of people being buried with property they could take to the afterlife; this is a
strictly Pagan, not Christian, practice.
Ancient Pagan amulets were also found.
7th century ship burial at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk; there was a king buried there with
things to take to the afterlife. Among those were Christian artifacts this points to a
transition in religion.
Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons:
Conversion was a top-down process; missionaries try to convert the kings and nobility
and then let this trickle down further down the social ladder.
It’s a story of not one mission, but two separate missions; the Irish and Roman
mission.
The Irish mission
From 565 onwards: Irish missionaries, led by St. Columba, try to convert Britons in
the North (Scotland).
Oswald, king of Northumbria (635 – 642), converted by Irish missionaries.
o Gives Lindisfarne to monks, build a monastery.
The Roman mission
597: St. Augustine arrives in England.
Augustine in England:
o Converts king Aethelbert, King of Kent.
o Builds church and abbey in Canterbury (Now St. Augustine’s, Canterbury).
o Establishes bishoprics in London.
o Libellus Responsionum: Augustine compiles all the questions the English
people have about Christianity in a book which Pope Gregory answers.
“All these things the ignorant English people need to know”.
Conflict:
Relapses into Paganism.
Religious conflict: Irish vs. Roman Christianity.
664: Synod of Whitby; meeting between high-ranking church officials deciding to go
the Irish or Roman way.
In the end, Roman Christianity wins.
Between 650 – 700, Christianity was established in all Anglo-Saxon kingdoms;
conversion is complete.
Proliferation of monasteries issues in ‘Golden age of Anglo-Saxon learning’ with
leading figures Theodore of Tarsus and Hadrian of Cantebury.
Then: Anglo-Saxon chronicle, 793: dark omens for dark times to come…
Week 4
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