English literature in the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Restoration Hadrian’s Wall --Built on order of the Roman emperor Hadrian in 122 AD --largest Roman artefact --extends 73 miles

--43 AD: Roman Conquest of the British Isles under Emperor Claudius Old English Period --43 AD: Roman Conquest of the British Isles under Emperor Claudius --208-210 AD Romans invade Caledonia (Scotland) but defeated by guerrilla warfare

End of Roman occupation/beginnings of Christianity --367 AD, the Roman garrison on Hadrian's Wall rebels, allowing Picts from Caledonia to enter Britannia (the Great Conspiracy) --at least one year of chaos, mass murder and unrest --arrival of Flavius Theodosius, order restored, Hadrian’s wall retaken --409 AD Constantine loses control of the empire --divided kingdoms until Egbert of Wessex became the first king to reign over united England in 827 AD

--The first archaeological evidence and credible records show a Christian community large enough to maintain churches and bishops around the 3rd and 4th centuries (Saint Patrick) --a British delegation was sent to the 353 Council of Rimini in Rome --Augustine, the prior of a monastery in Rome, was chosen by Pope Gregory the Great in 595 to lead a mission, usually known as the Gregorian mission, to Britain to Christianize King Æthelberht and his Kingdom of Kent --became first Archbishop of Canterbury in 597

Canterbury Cathedral in Kent

Caedmon (657-684): „Father of English sacred song” Ruthwell cross (8th century) containing excerpts from the Dream of the Rood in runic script

731 AD: Bede the Venerable (672-735) completes his Ecclesiastical History of England= the „Father of English history” (mentions Caedmon): "[t]here was in the Monastery of this Abbess a certain brother particularly remarkable for the Grace of God, who was wont to make religious verses, so that whatever was interpreted to him out of scripture, he soon after put the same into poetical expressions of much sweetness and humility in Old English, which was his native language. By his verse the minds of many were often excited to despise the world, and to aspire to heaven." Cædmon's only known surviving work is Cædmon's Hymn, the nine-line alliterative vernacular praise poem

one of the most important original references on Anglo-Saxon history The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Latin: Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum) one of the most important original references on Anglo-Saxon history played a key role in the development of an English national identity

Lindisfarne Gospels one of the finest works in the unique style of Hiberno-Saxon or Insular art the work of a monk named Eadfrith (Bishop of Lindisfarne 698) produced in honour of St. Cuthbert.

Saint Cuthbert 634-687 AD saint of the Northumbrian church

Lichfield Gospels (8th century) Latin and Old Welsh some of the earliest known examples of written Old Welsh, dating to the early part of the 8th century

The Benedictine Revival (10th century) --St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, brought education and culture still closer to England through his monastic reforms. The Benedictine Revival was the summing up of the process that had begun in the 6th c., and had produced a large body of English prose by 1066 (devotional, annalistic, administrative works, translations).

Four major poetic codices dating from 9th/10th century The Bodleian manuscript of biblical poems (Exodus) The Vercelli manuscript (The Dream of the Rood—at least 8th century) Cynewulf The Exeter Manuscript (Advent lyrics, Riddles) Beowulf (Hrothgar, Grendel) 975-1025

Anglo-Saxon heroic ideal of excellence, skill and courage in battle, ensuring fame after death Alliteration, not rhyme Court poets (scops) Earliest written records: inscriptions in Runic letters (Ruthwell cross) Use of an alphabet based on the Latin script with extra characters for Anglo-Saxon sounds

Anglo-Saxon alphabet

Isaiah 28:16 [Full Chapter] So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic. Psalm 118:22 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 1 Peter 2:6 For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”