A.D

 The British Isles were invaded by different groups of invaders—each of whom brought their own language and culture ◦ Celts invaded 500 B.C. ◦ Romans invaded 55 B.C., A.D. 43, left A.D. 407 ◦ Anglo-Saxons invasion began A.D. 449 ◦ Scandinavians invaded in late 700s, 800s, end of 900s ◦ Normans invaded 1066  William the Conqueror

 Language is a breathing, constantly evolving thing—the English language has changed from Old English to Middle English to Modern English  Primarily Germanic in origin with influence from multiple other languages.

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open eye-

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whole misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

 Several Roman occupations  Group of Germanic tribes, the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea. ◦ “Angle land” became England  Several more invasions  Last successful invasion: William the Conqueror in 1066 ◦ Brought the French language with them

 For a millennium, England experienced successive waves of invasion.  The last invaders, the Normans, brought with them the French language and feudalism.  After a turbulent period, England eventually became a unified state with one language.

 Lines do not rhyme (except by coincidence)  Rhythm depends on number of beats per line; each line has 4 strong beats  Number of unaccented syllables in a line varies  Each line has a caesura—a break or pause— after the 2 nd beat

 Alliteration—the repetition of initial consonant sounds in a line of poetry—plays an important role. It binds together the two halves of each line, as in ◦ Beats in my bosomand bids me try ◦ The tumble and surgeof seas tumultuous  Onomatopoeia—the use of a word of phrase whose sound in some degree imitates its meaning

 Also important in Anglo-Saxon poetry was the use of kennings—phrases that are an elaborate and indirect way of naming persons, things, or events, as in “pathless deep” for “sea” or “soul’s prison house” for “body.” ◦ Used in 2 ways  Sometimes unusual and used as an attention getter  Sometimes used so frequently as to be almost synonyms of the word they replaced

 Assonance—repetition of vowel sounds ◦ “An abbot on an ambling pad”  Consonance—repetition of consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of words ◦ “And all the air a solemn stillness holds”

 Author unknown  Composed probably in early 8 th century  Two opposing attitudes, but same speaker throughout the poem  Anglo-Saxon poetry comes from a strong oral tradition ◦ Scops—wandering poets/minstrels who chanted their poems in mead halls of kings or noblemen  Comes from The Exeter Book  British poetry frequently connected to the sea