1 / 21

The Anglo-Saxon Era

The Anglo-Saxon Era. 449-1066. Small but powerful! . Despite being so isolated, England still managed to become the origin of a legal and political system that many other countries have since imitated, including…. The key to England’s national identity lies in its history of being…. INVADED!.

gavan
Download Presentation

The Anglo-Saxon Era

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Anglo-Saxon Era 449-1066

  2. Small but powerful! Despite being so isolated, England still managed to become the origin of a legal and political system that many other countries have since imitated, including…

  3. The key to England’s national identity lies in its history of being…

  4. INVADED!

  5. The first settlers were the Celts. Characterized by: * a magical religion and a rich mythology

  6. The Romans were next. Julius Caesar led the first invasion in 55 B.C.E.

  7. 100 years later, Claudius led a more organized group that finally conquered the Britons.

  8. The Roman’s lasting legacy… Organization and administration! Roads!

  9. Hadrian’s Wall! Hadrian became Emperor in 117 AD By then, the Roman Empire had ceased to expand. Hadrian was concerned about consolidating his boundaries. He visited Britain in 122 AD, and ordered a wall to be built between the Solway Firth in the West and the River Tyne in the east "to separate Romans from Barbarians". It originally ran for 73 miles.

  10. Christianity! It took hold and the Celtic religion began to vanish…

  11. 409 A.D. The Romans finished withdrawing from England.

  12. Next came the Anglo-Saxons …as well as the Jutes, a Viking tribe from Denmark, which began periodic invasions in the late 4th century A.D.

  13. They fought…a lot! So, there existed several independent principalities, until…

  14. Alfred the GreatKing of Wessex from 871-899 He led the Anglo-Saxons against the Danes, using Christianity—which gave them all a common faith and a common system of morals—to unify them.

  15. Battles against the Danes lasted until 1066. William, Duke of Normandy, a.k.a. William the Conqueror, led his invading force of Normans and defeated the Danes in the Battle of Hastings.

  16. Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon Society Strong kinship groups led by a strong chief • Mead halls • Bards/scops Spoke Old English, which is the language in which Beowulf is written. Became Christian, but still valued heroic ideals and traditional heroes. Their culture valued human contact, virtue, family, and a good story. They feared humiliation and loneliness/exile. In addition, they desired wealth and power, and appreciated heroic actions of warriors.

  17. Pagan vs. Christian Pagan: strong nature presence and the strength of the warrior Christianity, which eventually replaced the old Celtic religion, linked England to Continental Europe.

  18. Monasteries • These were the centers of learning during this period. • Monks were the ones who preserved works from the older oral tradition. • English gained respect as a written language.

  19. “The Seafarer” and “The Wanderer” • Two poems that contain both Christian and non-Christian elements • Found in the so-called Exeter Book • Comprised of poems, including numerous elegies, as well as many Anglo-Saxon riddles • Elegy: a poem that mourns the death of a person or laments something lost. The Exeter Book is now preserved in Exeter Cathedral

  20. The sea… “Medieval English writers' myths of the sea betray their anxieties about their own insular identity; their texts call on maritime motifs to define England geographically and culturally against the presence of the sea.” Source: www.boydellandbrewer.com

  21. Important literary terms A specialized metaphor made of complex words. Commonly used kennings in Old English and Norse poetry include whale-road (for sea), sea-horse (for ship), and iron-shower (for the rain of spears or arrows during a battle). Kenning Half-lines and Caesura A “line” of poetry from this period is really two half-lines put together. Usually, a comma conveniently separates the half-line, but this isn’t always the case. The intentional pause between half-lines is known as a caesura. In period, the caesura was generally a natural pause (such as the end of a sentence), and it is possible a harp strum or other musical “break” would separate the half-lines when a speaker recited the poem; Anglo-Saxon poetry was an oral tradition more than a written one. In modern transcription, the caesura is usually denoted by two vertical lines or by an exaggerated space: “There Théoden fell, || Thengling mighty.” “The elder warrior, unwounded, sinks down.”

More Related