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Honors English September 14, 2006 Agenda:
Background notes - The Old English and Medieval Periods: Anglo Saxons
A.D. 449 - 1485
From Legend To History: Unit 1 - Prentice Hall Literature, The British Tradition
Pages 1 - 12
Timeline A.D. 449-1485 British and World Events 449 - Anglo Saxon Invasion
476 - Fall of the Roman Empire
552 - Buddhism introduced (Japan)
591 - Book printing (China)
653 - Celtics spread Christianity
771 - Charlemagne
800 - Machu Picchu
c. 810 - Algebra (Baghdad)
1040 - Macbeth kills Duncan I
c. 900 - Feudalism
982/c.1020 Vikings in Greenland and N. America
Timeline A.D. 449-1485 British and World Events 1066 - Norman Conquest
1096 - First Crusade
1170 - Thomas Becket murdered
c. 1150 First paper (Spain)
1215 - Magna Carta
1214 - Genghis Khan
1275 - Marco Polo
1291 - End Crusades
1307 - Divine Comedy
1325 - Aztec calendar
1337 - Hundred Years War
1348 - Black Death (Plague)
Timeline A.D. 449-1485 British and World Events 1381 - Bible translated to English
1386 - Canterbury Tales
1429 - Joan of Arc
1453 - Hundred Years War ends
1453 - Gutenberg Bible
1455 - 1485 = War of the Roses
1484 - Botticelli = The Birth of Venus
c. 1470 - Morte d’Arthur
1485 - Height of Inca Empire
From Legend To History 800 - 600 BC - Celts invade the British Isles
Britons (Britian)
Gaels (ireland)
Celts = farmers, hunters
live in clans - chieftains, druids
55 BC - 407 AD = Romans (Christianity)
church established (Canterbury) 597 AD
407 AD = Anglo Saxons (Germanic)
brought feudalism (farmers and fishermen)
From Legend To History c. 800 AD - The Danish Invasion (Vikings)
King Alfred (“The Great”) saved so. Britian
886 - no. Britian = Danes; so. Britian = Saxons
Alfred encouraged learning and education
1042 - King Edward (“The Confessor”)
1066 - The Norman Conquest
Viking decendents in no. France
William claimed ancestry rights to throne
Battle of Hastings = William prevailed
Language = No. French or Latin
Feudalism
From Legend To History 1154 AD - The Plantagenets
Henry II
appointed Thomas Becket to Canterbury
1170 - Henry establishes pilgrimage to Canterbury (seeking atonement) following the murder of Becket
Magna Carta (“The Great Charter”)
Richard I (focus on wars - Crusades)
King John - taxed to repay Richard’s debts, resulting in impending civil war . . .
MC = restrictions on royal power; beginning of constitutional government in England
Literature of the Period Anglo-Saxon Literature -
Oral
poetry - heroic poetry; elegiac poetry
Beowulf = epic poem; National epic of England
author = unknown - likely recited orally (c. 6th C)
Evolved values - Christian and Latin influences
values of warrior society evident
Prose -
written in Latin; transcribed by monks in “vernacular”
731 - History of the English Church and People (Bede)
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles = written in Old English
Drama -
Geoffrey Chaucer
Miracle Plays (Mystery Plays)
Morality Plays
Literature of the Period An Emerging National Identity -
1454 - Johann Gutenberg perfects movable type = printing
1476 - William Caxton sets up printing press
prints Chaucer’s works
Geoffrey Chaucer -
served the nobility as an administrator
Opportunity to observe various classes of people
The Canterbury Tales -
cross section of medieval society
First modern writers - greater dimension of realism
Satire
Literature of the Period Romances, Lyrics, Ballads -
romances - tales of adventure, knights, superheroic deeds, unnatural events
King Arthur = great Celtic hero
Morte d’Arthur (Malory)
Lyric poetry -
developed as accompaniment for lyre
Secular: Love and Nature
Religious: Hymns and Prayers
Ballad -
folk song that tells a story
Robin Hood
Two Funerals Evolution of values as portrayed through excerpts -
from Beowulf
from “A Farewell to the ‘People’s Princess’”
The Changing English Language - The Beginnings of English English -
c. 400 AD
Angles, Saxons, Jutes invade Brittania
Low Germanic language
Anglo-Saxon (Old English)
Old English is drastically different from Middle English and Modern English
Some basic words of life survive; others are adapted from other languages, esp. Latin and Greek
Middle English came with Normans (French Vikings)
Infusion of French words in English language
From Legend To History Lancasters, Yorks, Tudors
1399 = Lancaster replaces plantagenets
Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI
York challenges Lancaster rule
War of the Roses (1455 - 1485)
Henry Tudor (from France) = Lancastrian
Led rebellion against Richard III; killed Richard III at Bosworth Field
Crowned Henry VII - married Richard’s niece = Elizabeth Plantagenet - united families and ended War of the Roses.
The Black Death (1348 - 1349)
1381 = Peasant’s Revolt
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