...OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE DURING THE DARK AGES ABSTRACT This period extends from about 450 to 1066 A.D. The sources of Old English literature, as we know it, are rooted in their Teutonic origins and were evolved by the spirit that drove the times. In addition to reflecting the violence of the age, however, Old English literature also provides insight into the hearts and souls of a culture that had a strong attachment to nature; where loyalty and honor were more important than life. And for a culture that did not believe in the immortality of the human soul. Beowulf is the oldest and longest known poem of the Old English period. The passionate struggle between Beowulf and the sea monster Grendel is a reflection of the struggle between man and the forces of nature. INTRODUCTION The Medieval Times encompass one of the most turbulent periods in the History of England and scatter the Medieval History books and other historical documents. Middle Ages embraced two quite different periods of literary history, the Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) and the Middle English, sharply divided from each other by the Norman duke William´s conquest of the island in 1066. Both English culture and the English language changed radically in the years following this event, and English literature was given a new spirit. (The Norton Anthology of English Literature) Old English was the West Germanic language spoken in the area now known as England between the 5th and 11th centuries. Anglo-Saxon...
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...Religion and Theology SUMMARY AND ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM IN THE LITERATURE OF GREAT BRITAIN BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST An Assignment Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course, ENGL 245: Survey of English Lit. I by Lascelles James October 2007 Even though archeology reveals a lot about the Neolithic and Iron-Age era in Britain, Literature tells more about the life and culture in the region, especially after the coming of Germanic Indo-Europeans from the continent in A.D 449, as reported in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. England, then a province of the Roman Empire, was named Britannia after its Celtic-speaking inhabitants, the Britons. The Britons were actually Romanized Celts. They left their greatest linguistic legacy in place names, such as Avon, Dover, Thames, and probably London. [1] The Anglo-Saxon invaders brought with them their own tradition of oral poetry, but there is no evidence of literacy before their conversion to Christianity. There is only circumstantial evidence of what the poetry must have been like. Aside from a few short inscriptions on small artifacts, the earliest records in the English language are in manuscripts produced at monasteries and other religious establishments, beginning in the seventh century. Literacy was mainly restricted to servants of the church, and the bulk of Old English literature is religious with Latin origins. As literate culture developed, ethnic Germanic...
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...LITERATURE OF THE OLD ENGLISH AND THE OLD IRISH PERIODS (600-1100 A.D.) 1- OLD ENGLISH HISTORY AND LANGUAGE Initial literatures are spoken and that oral literature have been many amplifications, later appear the texts. Beowulf was oral first and then became written. There are lots of fragments written literally. Some texts were lost and now we only have fragments. These texts are writing in manuscripts, there weren’t books in that period. In particular there are four manuscripts that contain most of English literature: Cotton Vitelius, Exeter Book, Junius Manuscript and Vercelli Manuscript; they are from 10th century. However the poetry and the texts contain the literature from 9th century, but they originated in 7th century orally (all of them originated orally before they appear written). That manuscripts tell some things about the society of this period of time, so we know details of this century. This period is the Anglo-Saxon period, before them there were the Britons who were invaded by some different people. They spoke different dialects of old English, the stronger kingdom was Wessex, which dialect was the most important and it called “west saxon”. Beowulf was writing in this dialect. In 597 appeared the Christianization. This means that the English became Christian, it became familiar with the church language: Latin. Latin is the culture language. The entry of Christianity is the entry of the culture in Britain. 2- WRITTEN RECORDS OF THE ANGLOSAXON PERIOD ...
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...English literature - English Literature is divided into 4 Main Periods; Anglo-Saxon Literature, Medieval Literature, Renaissance Literature and Modern Literature Old English Literature or Anglo-Saxon Literature Encompasses literature written in Old English in Anglo-Saxon England in the period after the settlement of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes in England after the withdrawal of the Romans and “ending soon after the Norman Conquest” in 1066. Is the term applied to the English speaking inhabitants of Britain from around the middle of the fifth century until the time of Norman Conquest, when Angelo-Saxon line of English kings came to an end. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has also proven significant for historical study, preserving a chronology of early English history. The lyric and epic poetry they wrote told of the hardships of survival and the importance of courage in performing heroic deeds. English Literature during the Medieval Period Is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages. The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as secular works. Just as in modern literature, it is a complex and rich field of study, from the utterly sacred to the exuberantly profane, touching all points in-between. Works of literature are often grouped by place of origin, language, and genre. Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic Church, which dominated Europe. ...
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...LINGUISTIC SITUATION IN OLD ENGLISH AND MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD……………………………………………………………..5 1.1 THE DEVELOPMENT OF FUTHARK……………………………………5 1.1.1 THE RUNIC ALPHABET AS AN OLD GERMANIC WRITING TRADITION……………………………………………………………………6 1.1.2 OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE PERIOD OF ANGLO-SAXON ETHNIC EXTENSION…………………………………………………………7 1.2 LINGUISTIC SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE ENGLISH………………..11 1.2.1 LINGUISTIC SITUATION IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND AFTER THE NORMAN CONQUEST……………………………………………….……….11 1.2.2 DIALECTAL DIVERSITY IN THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD.…...13 1.3 THE MIDDLE ENGLISH CORPUS……………………………………….15 1.3.1 GEOFFREY CHAUCER AND HIS LENDING SUPPORT OF THE LONDON STANDARD’S DIFFUSION……………………………………….17 1.3.2 THE ROLE OF THE PRINTING IN THE FORMATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE………………………………………………….…….19 1.3.3 PRINCIPAL MIDDLE ENGLISH WRITTEN RECORDS AS A REFLECTION OF ONGOING CHANGES IN STANDARDIZATION………25 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………….…………....28 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………….30 APPENDIX 1……………………………………………………………………33 INTODUCTION linguistic history english language The English language has had a remarkable history. When we first catch it in historical records, it is a language of none-too-civilized tribes on the continent of Europe along the North Sea. From those murky and undistinguished beginnings, English has become the most widespread language in the world, used by more peoples for more purposes than any language on Earth. The early part of the Modern English saw the establishment...
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...Characteristics of Old and Middle English Literature In many works from the Old English period, which was approximately between 600-1100, there were many distinguishing characteristics, which included heroism, a strict class system, religion, and teachings of moral behavior. Some different characteristics of Old English literature, which is a language derived from Old German, include a strong belief in fate in a very poetry dominated era. Many of the poems are called elegies of that time, which were sorrowful poems, such as “The Wanderer.” Another large characteristic of Old English literature is that of praising or honoring heroes of any kind, especially ones that prevail in battle. Some of these include the Cross from, “Dream of the Rood,” Beowulf from Beowulf, the lost hero in “The Wanderer,” Judith from “Judith,” and the biggest hero who is included in almost all poems and pieces of Old English literature, Christ. Many of these works express much religious faith having to do with Christianity. The Anglo-Saxon people also had a very strict class system. Going along with the faith they believed in the Great Chain of Being, which said that when God made the entire world each creature was put in their position. God made a monarchy and put the members of that high status position there for a reason and did the same for a person who was a slave, God made them that and put them in that position in society. The people on the top of the chain are supposed to help the others...
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...The following commentary is cut/pasted with gratitude from the Norton Anthology of English Literature and may be found online at: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/middleages/topic_4/welcome.htm | From our point of view, it is appropriate to think of the language and literature of Anglo-Saxon England as "Old English," because the language is the remote ancestor of the English spoken today. Yet for the inhabitants of Anglo-Saxon England, the language was, of course, not old, and did not come to be referred to generally as "English" until fairly late in the period. The earliest reference given in the Oxford English Dictionary is 890. Bede's Latin Ecclesiastical History of the English People refers collectively to the people as gens Anglorum, which in the vernacular translation becomes angel-cynne (English-race). However, in Bede's time the England of today was divided into a number of petty kingdoms. Language, the Roman Church, and monastic institutions lent these kingdoms a certain cultural identity, but a political identity began to emerge only during the ninth century in response to the Danish invasions, and through King Alfred's efforts to revive learning and to make Latin religious and historical works, such as Bede's History, available in vernacular translations.Most of the surviving vernacular poetry of Anglo-Saxon England consists of free translations or adaptations of Latin saints' lives and books of the Bible, such as Genesis, Exodus, and Daniel. But with...
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...Everyman lecture – 10:00 (23.0.50) The Origins of the English Language and Its Literature English literature almost precedes the english language. Modern english starts to show up around the 1600’s. Shakespeare writes in modern english. What we see today as modern english is a very new revival. There is no systematized spelling, it’s not until Gutenbergs printer that it’s shaped as a whole. It gets systematized with the printer. Campion wrote in the ”golden age” in english. The theme of love is very common in this period. He wrote before Shakespeare. Campion ”stole” it from Catullus. Rebirth of classical learning. The right place to go is to the source, the roman poets. During the renessance. English had to find itself, therefore it had to go look for inspiration abroad. The first time English could say this is ”our” invention. Homer – The Odyssey. James Joyce – Ulysses. They’re ”borrowing” a lot from the greeks and the romans. Milton is desperate to make english latin. We have got to be latin, if it’s not latin it’s not literature. The language comes really late into the game. English always tries to catch up. Languages comes from a conquerer taking a country and forcing his language onto the native language. English is a mishmash language. Grammar is also merged. The vikings/barbarians invaded England, and beat down all culture/cities/religion. They wiped out the latin culture. And settled. Anglo-saxon 450-550 AD. Britain becomes a series of tribal bands. Britain...
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...A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LITERARY (STANDARD) LANGUAGE ( From: I.R.Galperin. Stylistics. Moscow: Higher School, 1977. pp. 41-57) Up till now we have done little more than mention the literary (standard) language, which is one of the most important notions in stylistics and general linguistics. It is now necessary to elucidate this linguistic notion by going a little deeper into what constitutes the concept and to trace the stages in the development of the English standard language. This is necessary in order to avoid occasional confusion of terms differently used in works on the history, literature and style of the English language. Confusion between the terms "literary language" and "language of literature" is frequently to be met. Literary language is a historical category. It exists as a variety of the national language.' "It must be remembered," said A. M. Gorki, "that language is the creation of the people. The division of the language into literary and vernacular only means that there are, as it were, a rough unpolished tongue and one wrought by men-of-letters."1 The literary language is that elaborated form (variety) of the national language which obeys definite morphological, phonetic, syntactical, lexical, phraseological and stylistic norms2 recognized as standard and therefore acceptable in all kinds and types of discourse. It allows modifications but within the frame work of the system of established norms. It casts out some...
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...History of English literature & Henrik Ibsen History of English literature is started from 325 BC. The oldest genre of literature is poetry. Though there is no pet however historically we divide history in four categories as old English, middle English, renaissance, modern literature, post modern literature. We have one of the old piece of literature as “ BEOWULF”. King Alfred and Aelfric are the pioneer of literature. Middle English literature is is also res round poetry, the key figure is Chaucer with his famous work “The Canterbury Tales”. William Langland is also contemporary to Chaucer. once we travel to 16th century we find the majestic features of English literature, Christopher Marlow, Sydney, Spencer and Shakespeare, they contributed a lot not only in poetry but also revolution of drama was brought about in the field of literature. History, tragedy, comedy plays were written. The King Lear are the great dramas of the age. Poetry also introduced romantic, classical, natural, metaphysical and super natural in subject; epics are also originated by Dryden and Pope also got popularity in 18th century. Jane Austen and Walter Scot are the prominent figures. Nineteen century brought slight changes. Now women got entered in the writers family. Emily Bronte and Charlotte Bronte also earned the fame. G.B. Shaw and E.M Foster participated in the field of essay writing. Though puritan age is one of the dark age in English history but after the restoration English literature got flourished...
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...influenced by other native languages which included Celtic languages, Greek, and Etruscan (University of Calgary, 1996). Latin was continuously developed because there were significant differences in each period. These differences included those in the literary written language, and also in the differences in the spoken language of the educated and the less educated populace. Between 500 – 100 after the Empire, the peninsula was also using the vernacular language in the form of popular celebrations of religious festivals, improvisational troupes of actors, story-tellers, etc (Matthews, 2011). However none of the literature was written down and handed down to the generations. However, although none of the literature was written down, there was enough from around the year 1200 to prove that the common language could be produced into real literature of the common people. There were also other vernacular languages being developed before the twelfth century...
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...Министерство образования и науки Республики Казахстан Кокшетауский государственный университет им. Ш. Уалиханова An Outline of British Literature (from tradition to post modernism) Кокшетау 2011 УДК 802.0 – 5:20 ББК 81:432.1-923 № 39 Рекомендовано к печати кафедрой английского языка и МП КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, Ученым Советом филологического факультета КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, УМС КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова. Рецензенты: Баяндина С.Ж. доктор филологических наук, профессор, декан филологического факультета КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова Батаева Ф.А. кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры «Переводческое дело» Кокшетауского университета им. А. Мырзахметова Кожанова К.Т. преподаватель английского языка кафедры гуманитарного цикла ИПК и ПРО Акмолинской области An Outline of British Literature from tradition to post modernism (on specialties 050119 – “Foreign Language: Two Foreign Languages”, 050205 – “Foreign Philology” and 050207 – “Translation”): Учебное пособие / Сост. Немченко Н.Ф. – Кокшетау: Типография КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, 2010 – 170 с. ISBN 9965-19-350-9 Пособие представляет собой краткие очерки, характеризующие английскую литературу Великобритании, ее основные направления и тенденции. Все известные направления в литературе иллюстрированы примерами жизни и творчества авторов, вошедших в мировую литературу благодаря...
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...H. Hawkins English IV Room G113 Welcome to English IV! English IV is designed to give you the opportunity to explore the history of British culture through reading informational texts and literature including novels, poetry, essays, and plays. We will look at works from the following periods in Western European History: Old English and Middle English periods The Renaissance The Enlightenment and Romantic periods The Victorian Age Post Modern period In addition to literature and grammar, you will complete multiple writing assignments, study grammar and vocabulary, and create projects that will count as major assignments. Expectations You will be expected to be an integral part of the classroom through active participation in class discussions, activities, and through completion of your assignments. Our class can only be as good as our weakest link. So hopefully you will be a strong contributor to our class and in turn you will learn a lot and have fun in the process. Rules Be Prepared o You come prepared with all materials and homework daily Be Polite Be Prompt o You must be in your seat working when the bell rings or else you will be marked tardy Follow all school rules These rules cover everything and they will be discussed in greater detail on the first day of class. *Remember that the bell does NOT dismiss you. You should not begin packing your belongings until I have dismissed you after the bell. Bathroom Policy You will...
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...1. Old English Poetry Old English poetry was written during A.D. 650 to 1100. Often called Anglo-Saxon literature, the poetry was written in the old English language. The first characteristic is structure of the poetry. In Old English poetry, each line is broken into two sections called verses or half lines. The first verse is called the on verse, and the second is called the off verse. A pause called a caesura is between the on and off verses. The second is alliteration. Because, one of the most predominant characteristics of Old English poetry is the use of alliteration. Alliteration is the repeated use of the same consonant or vowel sound in different words. In Old English poetry, the alliteration was completed on stressed words beginning with the same consonants or on any vowel sound. The third characteristic is Meter and Rhythm. In Old English poetry, five rhythm types were common. The rhythms were represented by "lift," which means stressed syllable, and "drop," which means unstressed syllables. The five patterns are (1) lift, drop, lift, drop; (2) drop, lift, drop, lift; (3) drop, lift, lift, drop; (4) lift, lift, half-lift, drop or lift, lift, drop, half-lift; and (5) lift, half-lift, drop, lift. The last characteristic of poetry in old English is compound. It was useful to poets focusing on creating alliterations and keeping the rhythm and meter of the poem itself consistent. Three types of compounds occur in Old English poetry. In one type of compound, one...
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...The Development of English Throughout time the English language has been subject to an ever-changing evolutionary process, adjusting and adopting to its geographical circumstances, cultural influences and niches. The English language has undergone a series of transitional changes since its origins dating back to c.400 A.D. whilst Britain was under occupation by hosts of Germanic tribes. Detailed throughout the literature that still exists in our modern world, it is possible to trace links between the English language and its development throughout different cultures and historical time periods. The study of the development of the English language has been used to represent the specific ideals and notions that pertain to particular cultures throughout history. Anglo-Saxon poetry express its cultural identity and values that underpin Anglo Saxon society, through ancient texts such as Beowulf exploring notions of heroism and servitude. Middle English literature such as The Millers Tale, unmasks the inner feudal system that deciphers the hierarchal structure within Middle England. The Holkam bible through both visual representation and literature highlights the Biblical understanding at the time and cultural barriers that were associated. The Miller’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer is an example of Middle English poetry that represents the societal structure of the time through language. The Miller’s Tale expresses the hierarchal structure in Middle England through denoting each individual...
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