Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Invaders:
1. Neolithic People: (3000 BC)
2. Beaker people (2400 BC)
3. The Celts ( 700 BC)
4. The Romans (55BC
Full occupation 43 AD)
-They brought an urban civilization
-built good roads
-brought peace and prosperity.
Even today the ruins of Roman buildings,
forts, roads and baths can be found all
over Britain.
5.Anglo-Saxons
-Angles
-Saxons
-Jutes
(Germanic Tribes)
smaller kingdoms
1. Wessex (West Saxons
& south and sw of Eng).
2. Mercia (Midlands)
3. Northumbria(North Eng)
KINGS
1. 1st King----Offa of Mercia
Witans : (Royal Council) Consisted of a group of leading
warriors and religious figures
(function as advisors of Kingissue law)
2. King Alfred the Great: brought peace, promoted the use
of written English rather than Latin. He improved the
state of education. He knew how to write good clear
prose. With helpers he translated much Latin into
English (including the Ecclesiastical History of Bede)
3. King Edward (Saxon King from Normandy - North of
France
4. Duke William of Normandy
He won a great victory at Hastings in 1066
Known as William the Conquerorcrowned as King of
England.
RELIGION
During the Roman Occupation: Christianity
Anglo-Saxons: Believed in Germanic Gods
Christianitythrough the Celtic church
Anglo-Saxon society
Organised in small units --- huts
Literary Context
Oral Literature - oral poetry
Deals with heroic or legendary episodes
from history of Germanic Tribes
Performed by a scop (poet) and
accompanied by harp
Beowulf
The oldest poem in the English language is
Beawulf. It was not composed in England, but
on the continent of Europe. The new settlers
brought it over.
It is an epic poem consisting of over 3000 lines.
It is essentially a warriors story. It is about the
hero who gives his name to the poem and his
struggle with a foul monster (half-man, halfdevil) called Grendel.
It contains supernatural elements and historical
facts, and offers hints of Christian teaching,
Anglo-Saxon society and its values.
The Wanderer
The Wanderer is an Old English poem
preserved only in an anthology known as
the Exeter Book, a manuscript dating from
the late 10th century. It counts 115 lines of
alliterative verse.
The Seafarer
The Seafarer is an Old English poem
recorded in the Exeter Book, one of the
four surviving manuscripts of
Old English poetry. It contains 124 lines
and has been commonly referred to as an
elegy, a poem that mourns a loss, or has
the more general meaning of a simply
sorrowful piece of writing.
The climate on land then begins to resemble that of the wintry sea,
and the speaker shifts his tone from the gloomy of the winter voyage
and begins to describe his yearning for the sea.
Time passes through the seasons from winterit snowed from the
north (31b)to springgroves assume blossoms (48a)and to
summerthe cuckoo urges (53a). It is here that the speakers soul
flies out over the sea in search of heaven and comes back eager
and ready to depart.