ENGLISH LITERATURE

The Dawn of English Literature

The Ancient Britons and Their Language

We find Celtic in geographical names:

dun/dum = down, dune (the towns of Dunscore, Dunedin, Dumbarton)

avon=river (Stratford-on-Avon)

kil=wood (Kilbrook)

The Roman Invasion

• 55 B.C.: •the Roman(Latin) till 407 A.D.• Julius Caesar - the first Roman• castra=camp (Lancaster, Manchester, Worcester)

The Invasion by Germanic Tribes

410: Angles, Saxons, Jutes

West Germanic language

They were pagans, believed in many gods:

Tuesco (god of darkness) – Tuesday…

Beowulf

the first page of Beowulf in Cotton Vitellius A. xv.

Remounted page, British Library Cotton Vitellius A.XV

An illustration of Grendel by J.R. Skelton from Stories of Beowulf. Grendel is described as "Very terrible to look upon."

An illustration of Grendel's mother by J.R. Skelton from Stories of Beowulf (1908) described as a "water witch" trying to stab Beowulf.

A 1908 depiction of Beowulf fighting the dragon by J. R. Skelton.

Beowulf is challenged by a Danish coast guard, Evelyn Paul (1911).

Anglo-Saxon literature (the 7th-11th Centuries)

Caedmon (poet) - the 7th century - wrote in Anglo-Saxon “The Paraphrase”

Bede - the father of English history ”The History of the English Church”

Alfred the Great (849 – 901) Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – the first prose in English literature

The Norman conquest

The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings and the events leading to it.

William the Conqueror and Harold at the Battle of Hastings

King Harold Kern Norman archer

Norman knights riding

Model of the Anglo-Norman castle

William of Normandy go ashore in England, French drawing from 1883.

William Bastarden invades England. Illustration of French manuscript from 1400-1410

Merlin kidnaps baby Arthur. (N.K. Wyatt, 1922) King Arthur by

Charles Ernest Butler (1903)

King Arthur

Mark Twain. "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1889)

Lady of the Lake presenting Excalibur

Culhwch entering Arthur's Court in the Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen, 1881

The Round Table experience a vision of the Holy Grail. From a 15th century French manuscript.

The combat of Arthur and Mordred, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth for The Boy's King Arthur, 1922

Mordred, Arthur's final foe according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, illustrated by H. J. Ford for Andrew Lang's King Arthur: The Tales of the Round Table, 1902

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century.

The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer, 1380, New Catholic Encyclopedia.

The first page of the Hengwrt Chaucer manuscript with the beginning of theGeneral Prologue.

Then said the first of them when this was done:

“Now for a drink. Sit down and let’s be merry…”

He took a bottle full of poison upAnd drank; and his companion, nothing loth,Drank from it also, and they perished both,Thus the two murderers received their due,So did the treacherous young prisoner too

Woodcut from William Caxton's second edition of The Canterbury Tales, ca 1484.

Chaucer as a pilgrim from the Ellesmere Chaucer manuscript in the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

A story from Il Decameron by John William Waterhouse.

The English Peasant Revolt of 1381 is mentioned in The Canterbury Tales.

The dilemma of Bors - he rescues a girl instead of his brother Lionel. The murder of Thomas Becket.

Ezra Winter, Canterbury Tales mural (1939), Library of Congress John AdamsBuilding, Washington, DC

The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485)

The White Rose of the House of York

The Red Rose of the House of Lancaster

The Tudor Rose, created at the end of the Civil War, joining the two emblems.

Robin HOOD

The title page of Howard Pyle's 1883 novel, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

Robin Hood statue in Nottingham

"Robin shoots with Sir Guy" by Louis Rhead

Douglas Fairbanks as Robin Hood; the sword he is depicted with was common in the oldest ballads

Robin Hood and Maid Marian(Robin Hood wife)

When was England called Britain?

in the 7th century B.C.

about 25 centuries ago

in the 4th century A.D.

What Christmas tradition originated from the Druids?

to go to the darkest parts of the woods

to hang mistletoe in the houses

to eat the leaves of an oak-tree

How long did the Roman occupation last?

from 55 B.C. to 704 A.D.

more than 40 years

more than 400 years

What interesting remains of Roman times can you still find in England?

some ruins of public baths and tiled floors of Roman villas

the highways have been built on the military roads made by the Romans

a large number of English words come from the Latin language

What dialects did Angles, Saxons and Jutes speak?

of the Latin language

of the English language

of the West Germanic language

What traces of the Germanic tribes’ language can we see in the modern English?

the names of many people

the names of the week-days

the names of fruit

Find the odd one:

The Roman invasion, the Danes invasion, the Norman invasion, the French invasion

Celtic, Latin, West Germanic, Roman

THE END