Anglo-Saxon Period: Celts to Normans

Anglo-Saxon Period Notes The Celts = 900 BCE - Celtlic speaks arrived in England in about 900 BCE - Two Tribes: - - The brythons, inahtied what is currenlt Britain - The Galels, settled in present day Ireland Both Cethlic group apple lang from the Celthic family which is far different from Germanic lang - Live in closely tied clans - Their leaders were often Druids (priest) - The druids preserved the peioplts myths Romans = 55 BCE - 407 CE - Next group to invade England was the Roman - They established roads and towns that served the island for centuries - Their rule ended becaused Italy was under attack from northern invaders. Basically, the troops were called home - Vandals - Visigoth (northern invaders) - Brought Christian - The last troops left in 407 and the staeg was set for Anglos and the Saxons Anglo-Saxons = 449 - 1066 - Were able to over take Britons by simply rowing up English rivers - Three groups: the Angles, Saxons, and the Jutes - - - - English - comes from the word Anglo British tribes went to edges of the island - Cornwall and Wales - Some to Ireland and Scotland - This movement proved to preserv edthe Cleitc lang Danish Invasions (Vikings) - Took place between 9th and 12th century - English king Alfed the Great was able to resist the first invasion - Vikings ended up practicing “hit-and-run” raids, but their influence was not large Anglo-Saxon Hierachy - - - King - was expected to be generous to his loyal subjects - Thanes - claimed kinship to founder of tries - Often related to the king - Were expected to be loyal The Mead Hall - were the king live/held court - Often shows drunkeness and partying - Seen in Beowulf Religions - They came to Britain with their own pagan beliefs - They had a firm belief in fate - They worshipped ancient Germanci gods like Tui, fod of war and the sky; Woden, chief of the gods; and Fria, Woden’s wife and goddess of the home - Christainity introduced by the Romans and the Celts were converted - Irish monks helped establish a strong Christian hold on the island - Scots were converted easily, and many monasteries were built in Scotland - Roman cleric Saint Augustine arrives in 597 - Was able to convert King Ethelbert of Kent; led to the kingdom being converted - Church promoted peace, and that helped unite English peole - Also brought education and a written literature - Monks often worked as scribes, recording and duplicating handwritten work - Venerable Bede (673-735) = “The Father of English History” - Wrote a History of the English Church and People - the clearest account of early Anglo-Saxon times. - Literature - Spreaded by scops who recited long epic poems. These poems were either heroic or literary - The verses were easy to memorize - Characters - Caesuras - pauses in a line - Alliteration hoins the 3 parts of the line - Kennings - metaphorical phrases - This is where they had their “stock epithet,” a work of phrase characterizing a person or thing - Reading poetry - Dont stop at the end of a line. Stop at the punctuation mark. - The end of the line has to do with the “beat” of the line; it has nothing to do with the “meaning’ of the line - The Norman Conquestion - 1042, the Danes were out of power, and Eeward the Confessor was on the throne - Edward was very religious and had studied in Normady, which is inn France - Died in 1066 and Normans overpowred the Anglo-Saxons