Engels literary history
Literature are all plays, poems, books etc that people think have
value.
The old English-period (450 – 1066)
This period is also called the Anglo-Saxon period, the old English
language developed from dialects spoken by the Angles, Saxons and
Jutes. This is because when the Romans left Britain, the Angles,
Saxons and Jutes raided Britain and settles there. Later on, more
groups from Scandinavia came, Vikings, Danes.
At first the celts, a group that lived in Britain, were protected by the
Romans, when they had to withdraw their defends the Celts asked
for protection from the Angles, Saxons and Jutes but they raided
England instead.
The influences from the old English language are Celtic (spoken by
the celts), Latin (Romans) and Norse (Vikings). People took hints from
the Roman alphabet, modern words, language evolution and poetic
evidence like rhyme, alliteration and patterns to guess how the
language sounded like. The influences changed the language, from
the Celtic language only bout 24 words remain. Those are mainly
place names like Thames and London.
Old English had a much more varied word order, the language was
inflected (verbogen zodat het leek op Duits) and there were more
irregular verbs. The language had also a frequent use of Kennings,
those were used to described things indirectly and often with
compounds. Examples are Hronhrãd (whale road) = sea and Bõnh~us
(bone house) = body. Compounds are words witch are compiled from
two different words. There were also a lot of different words and
terms for one word.
, The results of Viking invasions on the language were
Settlements with Danish names: thorp (village), by (farm)
Personal names of Scandinavian origin: Johnson, Davidson
New general words: landing, score, take.
Many sk-words, skirt, sky, skin
Many Danish words: both, same, get, give
Remains of old English:
During Vikings invasions many words where lost
Most famous work to survive Beowulf written around 1000
Few texts remain because king Alfred had a lot of texts
translated
Beowulf:
Beowulf is the oldest remaining literary work in the English language.
It is epic poetry, a long poem about heroism from a culture or nation.
It is about revenge, honour, mutual responsibility, loyalty, boasting.
Set in Scandinavia.
Characteristics of heroic poetry: lord and his band with warriors,
kingship, feasting, dedication in battles, boasting of bravery, fighting
to death, receiving and giving rewards and desires to achieve
immortal glory.
Beowulf is the hero of the Geats (North-Germanic tribe) in
Scandinavia, he is there to help the king of the Danes because his
mead hall and people were attacked by Grendel, a monster. Beowulf
kills him and Grendel’s mother attacks but is also defeated. Beowulf
goes home victorious and became the king of the Geats. 50 years
later he defeats a dragon but Is fatally wounded in the battle.
