1. Unit 1 The Anglo-Saxon & medieval periods 449-1485

2. Questions of the times
What do you believe are the qualities of a true hero?
What do you think truly shapes society? Is it the power of the few or the struggles of many?
Do you believe people can determine their own futures, or does chance or fate play a part?
Is it possible to live up to such high ideals? Is it worth trying?

3. The Anglo-Saxon Period: Historical Context – Centuries of invasion
Britons are a Celtic people who lived the British Isles/Great Britain.
Picts are a tribal people who lived in what is now eastern & northern Scotland.
Gaels are a people who were neighbors of the Picts & Britons who lived in northwestern Europe.
Julius Caesar is a Roman general who tried to conquer the British Isles but was turned back by Britons, Picts, and Gaels.
Angles & Saxons are Germanic tribes from northern Europe who invaded Britain.

4. The Anglo-Saxon Period: Historical Context – Centuries of invasion
Old English is the guttural, vigorous language of the Anglo-Saxons who invaded and took over Britain renaming it England.
Vikings are fearsome warriors from Denmark & Norway who invaded in the 790s and took control of most of north & east Britain/England.
Alfred the Great, an Anglo-Saxon king of the south defeated the Vikings & unified Britain/England.

5. The Anglo-Saxon Period: Historical Context – The Norman Conquest
Edward the Confessor, a descendent of Alfred, took the throne in 1042, had no kids & made his cousin William, the duke of Normandy heir to the throne.
When Edward died, nobles named earl Harold king of England/Britain instead of William.
Angered, William led his Norman army in a successful invasion of Britain against Harold, which was the Norman Conquest.
Harold was killed in 1066 on Christmas Day & William was crowned king of England as William the Conqueror.

6. Cultural Influences: The Spread of Christianity
The violent seafaring Anglo-Saxons eventually settled down and their beliefs on life changed from one of a belief in fate (wyrd) and bleak fatalism that ended in death to a belief earthly suffering was a prelude to eternal happiness as promised by Christianity.
In 597 Roman missionary Augustine arrived in the kingdom of Kent & established the monastery at Canterbury which helped the spread of Christianity.
Monasteries became centers of intellectual, literary, artistic, & social activity. They offered the only chance for education.
Venerable Bede is a monk who is famous for recording English history.

7. Literature of the Times: The Epic Tradition
Epic poems praised deeds of heroic warriors; poems were recited by scops in mead halls; poems instilled cultural pride.
Mead halls are places Anglo-Saxon kings & nobles celebrated in style.
Epic poems are long and praise the deeds of heroic warriors; they reflected the brutal life and times of Anglo-Saxons.
Scops are professional poets who brought epic poems to life in mead halls.
Oral art form is the method of memorizing and performing poetry that aren’t written down; lyric poems reflected common everyday life.

8. Literature of the Times: The Epic Tradition
Early writers of the Anglo-Saxon period include Caedmon, Venerable Bede, Margery Kempe, and Margarat Paston.
They all wrote about different aspects of common life and everyday concerns of regular people.

9. The medieval Period: Historical Context
The Doomsday book created by William the Conqueror was a tax record of every piece of property people owned.
Henry II is the great grandson of William who took the throne in 1154 and kept England out of chaos; he set up royal courts throughout England.
Richard the Lion Hearted is Henry’s son who took the throne for 10 years.
King John, plotted against his older brother Richard, raised taxes, & was made to sign the Magna Carta in 1215 which limited royal authority. It was a step towards democracy.

10. War and plague
The Black Death was a plague that killed a third of England.
Starting in 1337, the Hundred Years War was fought between England & France during the reign of Edward III.
By the end of the Hundred Years War, two rival families (the House of York/white rose & the House of Lancaster/red rose) fought the Wars of the Roses for control of England; the war ended in 1485 when Lancastrian Henry Tudor killed the Yorkist King Richard III and became King Henry VII. This marked the end of the Middle Ages.

11. Cultural influences: Three social forces
Feudalism is a political & economic system introduced by William the Conqueror after the Norman Conquest; the king owned all land, he kept a fourth, granted a fourth to the church, and divided the rest to loyal barons who either paid the king or supplied him with knights. Each individual swore loyalty to the person in rank above them. At the bottom of the hierarchy were conquered Anglo-Saxons, the serfs.
The church was outside the feudal system hierarchy. It was led by the pope in Rome. The church was very powerful because it could levy taxes, make its own laws, run its own courts, and keep kings and nobles in line with the threat of excommunication.

12. Cultural influences: Three social forces
Henry II’s wife, Eleanor brought the concept of chivalry to England from the French court circles; it’s a code of honor intended to govern knightly behavior (brave, generous, honest, pious, honorable, holy quests).
Courtly love was created by Eleanor & her daughter Marie; it centered around the proper conduct of a love affair.

13. Literature of the times: The age of chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer is famous for his narrative poetry.
A frame story is a concept that involves a story within a story.
William Langland like Chaucer wrote in English and about ordinary people in his poetry.
Ballads are narrative songs telling of the lives of common folks.

14. Literature of the times: Medieval romance/The Epic
Medieval romances are stories of adventure, gallant love, chivalry, and heroism.
An epic is a long narrative poem that celebrates a hero’s deeds.
Stock epithets are adjectives that point out special traits of particular persons or things (swift-footed).
Kennings are poetic symbols found in Germanic poems; the are descriptive phrases or compound words that substitute for nouns (sin-stained, the almighty’s enemy).
Character traits are qualities that reflect important ideals of a society.

15. Literature of the times: The Epic
Conventions (setting, plot, dialogue, theme, & style).
Settings of epics are vast in scope and include a variety of places and times.
Plots of epics are complicated by supernatural beings or events and involve a long dangerous journey through foreign lands.
Themes of epics reflect values such as courage, honor, and ideas such as good, evil, life, or death.
The style of epics includes formal diction (choice of words & sentence structure), and serious tones (the writer’s attitude toward the subject).