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    Anglo Saxon Period

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    hoarmurath
    The document provides context around the term "Middle Ages" and discusses the period from 449-1485 in England. It describes this time as one of enormous change, featuring famous and infamous kings and internal and external wars. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the establishment of kingdoms like Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex after the Germanic invasions displaced the Britons and Celts. Literature from this era, like Beowulf, provides insight into the culture and ideals of the time. The Middle Ages saw the development of new social and political structures to replace the Roman Empire, including the rise of the Roman Catholic Church and feudal systems of power.

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    Anglo Saxon Period

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    hoarmurath
    340 views23 pages
    The document provides context around the term "Middle Ages" and discusses the period from 449-1485 in England. It describes this time as one of enormous change, featuring famous and infamous kings and internal and external wars. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the establishment of kingdoms like Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex after the Germanic invasions displaced the Britons and Celts. Literature from this era, like Beowulf, provides insight into the culture and ideals of the time. The Middle Ages saw the development of new social and political structures to replace the Roman Empire, including the rise of the Roman Catholic Church and feudal systems of power.

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    The document provides context around the term "Middle Ages" and discusses the period from 449-1485 in England. It describes this time as one of enormous change, featuring famous and infamous kings and internal and external wars. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the establishment of kingdoms like Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex after the Germanic invasions displaced the Britons and Celts. Literature from this era, like Beowulf, provides insight into the culture and ideals of the time. The Middle Ages saw the development of new social and political structures to replace the Roman Empire, including the rise of the Roman Catholic Church and feudal systems of power.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    340 views23 pages

    Anglo Saxon Period

    Uploaded by

    hoarmurath
    The document provides context around the term "Middle Ages" and discusses the period from 449-1485 in England. It describes this time as one of enormous change, featuring famous and infamous kings and internal and external wars. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the establishment of kingdoms like Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex after the Germanic invasions displaced the Britons and Celts. Literature from this era, like Beowulf, provides insight into the culture and ideals of the time. The Middle Ages saw the development of new social and political structures to replace the Roman Empire, including the rise of the Roman Catholic Church and feudal systems of power.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Middle Ages 449-1485

    The Anglo-Saxon Period 449-1066

    The Medieval Period 1066-1485

    The Middle Ages 449-1485


    Characteristics of the period Enormous upheaval and change in England Reigns of some of the most famous and infamous kings Time of disastrous wars, both internal and external Time of foreign invasion Time of painful reconsolidation and emergence of England as nation

    Anglo-Saxon Period
    Anglo-Saxon England was born of warfare, remained forever a military society, and came to its end in battle. - J. R. Lander
    In a society dominated by aggression, what would you expect to be the Anglo-Saxon attitude toward family life, the role of women, art, literature, ethics and work?

    Celtic Invasions
    Around 500 BC two groups of Celts invaded British Isles Brythons (Britons) settled island of Britain Druids thought that the soul was Gaels settled on Ireland immortal, passing in death from Picts settled in Scotland
    death from one person to another. Considered mistletoe and oak trees sacred and generally held their rites in old oak forests.

    Organized into clans; loyal to chieftain

    Religion animism (from Latin for spirit) Believed spirits controlled every aspect of life Druids priests who settled arguments, presided over religious rituals, and memorized and recited poems about past Conquered by Romans in the first century A.D. and became part of the Roman Empire.

    Roman Invasions
    55 BC Julius Caesar invaded Britain Roman 43 AD Emperor Claudius invaded; Helmet marks beginning of Roman Britain Began to Christianize the Celts; Celtic religion vanished Controlled world from Hadrians Wall to Arabia

    Roman Invasions: What legacy did the Romans leave?


    System of roads/highways height of the empire, one could travel on post roads and use same currency from Northumbria to Middle East; not possible since Provided an organized society which kept other invaders out for several centuries 410 Rome threatened and Romans pulled out of Britain

    Germanic Invasions - 449

    Angles/Saxons from Germany

    Angles, Saxons, and Jutes Jutes from Denmark Deep sea fishermen and farmers Britons no match, but didnt go quietly Pushed west to Wales King Arthur was probably a Celtic chieftain Language Common language now known as Old English (similar to Dutch and German) Religion pagan similar to Norse mythology

    Germanic Invasions - 449


    Created the Anglo-Saxon England (Engla land) that lasted until 1066 Divided into separate kingdoms: Kent, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex most important United themselves in last two centuries to resist invasions from Vikings, or Norsemen (whom they called Danes).
    Seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Period: Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, East Anglia, Essex, Sussex, and Kent

    Viking Invasions 8th-12th Centuries


    Invaders from Norway and Denmark Anglo-Saxons unprepared for ferocity of Vikings Common prayer: From the furor of the Norsemen, Oh Lord protect us.

    Viking Ship, known as the Oseberg Ship, dates 825 AD.

    Viking Invasions 8th-12th Centuries


    Vikings destroyed monasteries and sacred object Slaughtered everyone in settlements that couldnt pay enough to them King Alfred of Wessex (871-899) forced Vikings to northern England Danelaw dividing line between Viking Britain and Anglo-Saxon Britain

    Anglo-Saxon Literature
    Oral tradition poems and song committed to memory and performed by scops, bards, gleemen, or minstrels With coming of Christian Church, written literature began to evolve Two important traditions in literature heroic tradition celebrates heroes elegiac tradition passing of earlier, better times

    Anglo-Saxon Civilization
    Common language Shared a heroic ideal; set of traditional heroes Admired men of outstanding courage Loyalty to leader and tribe Fierce personal valor

    Anglo-Saxon Civilization
    Persons of rank received with grave courtesy Ruler generous to those who remain loyal Everyone aware of shortness of life & passing of all things in the world Impersonal, irresistible fate determined most of life (Wyrd or Fate) Heroic human will & courage allowed individuals to control their own response to fate

    Anglo-Saxon Literature
    Beowulf one of few pieces that survived.
    Priests and monks were the only ones who could write; stories survival depended upon them. The church was not too eager to preserve literature that was pagan in nature, so historians believe they either ignored it or changed it. This may account for the mixture of Christian and pagan elements in Beowulf.

    Anglo-Saxon Literature
    Beowulf: England:: Iliad and Odyssey : Greece
    Oral art handed down with changes and embellishments Composed in Old English probably in Northumbria in northeast England sometime between 700750 Depicts a world from the early 6th century

    Anglo-Saxon Literature
    Poem based on early Celtic and Scandinavian folk legends Scenery described is from Northumbria; assumed that poet was Northumbrian monk Only manuscript available dates from the year 1000; discovered in the 18th century

    Characteristics of Epic Hero


    Is significant and glorified Is on a quest Has superior or supernhuman strength, intelligence, and/or courage Is ethical Risks death for glory or for the greater good of society Performs brave deeds Is a strong and responsible leader Reflects the ideals of a particular society

    Old English Poetics


    Alliteration repetition of consonant and vowel sounds at the beginning of words Caesura a natural pause or break in the middle of the line of poetry and joined by the use of a repeated vowel or consonant sound
    Out of the marsh // from the foot of misty Hills and bogs // bearing Gods hatred Grendel came // hoping to kill Anyone he could trap // on this trip to high Herot

    Old English Poetics


    Kennings a metaphorical phrase used to replace a concrete noun. Ready made descriptive compound words that evoke vivid images Kennings are formed by prepositional phrases possessive phrases compound words
    Preposition phrase Giver of knowledge

    Possessive phrase mankinds enemy


    Compound word sea path

    Why the Middle Ages


    The term Middle Ages as a description of the thousand-year period between the 5th and 15th centuries between the end of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance is at once an oversimplification and a distortion of a long and complex period of European history. Coined by Renaissance and Enlightenment thinkers, the label Middle Ages (or its Latin form, the Medieval period) implies a mere transitional era, a long interruption in the continuity of Western history during which the classical culture of Greece and Rome, waiting to be revived in the Renaissance, lay dormant or dead.

    Why the Middle Ages


    From our perspective, we can see the Middle Ages in more positive terms, not as an interruption but as a fertile and dynamic period that produced a distinctive and permanently valuable culture of its own. It was more varied that a single, reductive label would imply. There is a certain unity in this long span of history that justifies our considering it as a single period, but within this unity was enormous diversity. Only the very early Middle Ages, from the sixth to the ninth centuries, were characterized by the cultural inertia often attributed to the whole period.

    Why the Middle Ages


    The collapse of the Roman Empire left Europe for a time in chaos, with its economy, its social organization, and its culture brought almost to a halt. But even these Dark Ages were not without their rays of light, especially in areas where survivals of the Roman heritage or the Church preserved pockets of culture. In retrospect, we can see forces working during this fallow period that were to emerge later in a new and vital form of social organization. The new organization began to take shape in about the tenth century and led by the thirteenth century to a flowering of art and culture that anticipated and rivaled the Renaissance without forfeiting its own distinctively medieval character.

    Why the Middle Ages


    The formidable challenge to the early Middle Ages was to find a mode of social organization to replace the Roman Empire and to weave together the various threads of European culture: the remnants of Latin civilization, Christianity, and the northern, Germanic, barbarian tradition. The solution that gradually emerged over a period of several centuries lay in two institutions, the Roman Church and feudalism.

    Literature of The Western World Volume I: The Ancient World Through the Renaissance. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James
    Hurt. New York: University of Illinois, 1984. 1097.

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