The Anglo-Saxon Period of British Literature

  1. I. Anglo-Saxon Beginnings

A. Pre-449 A.D. Original native tribes inhabited Britain.

i. The _Gauls______.

ii. The __Brits______.

iii. The ___Picts______.

  1. 449 A.D.: The Angles, Saxons, and the Jutes(Frisians)
  2. Occurred over many years
  3. Native tribes slowly pushed to ____Cornwall______, __Wales______, _____Brittany______, and ___Scotland______
  4. Slowly, the tribes ___organized______to become the Anglo-Saxon people.
  1. II. Anglo-Saxon Society
  2. Consisted of many small _____kingdoms______throughout Britain.
  3. King (chief): Ruled over his kingdom with great ___pride/strength/generosity______.
  4. __retainers______: the king’s chosen men (knights).
  5. Pledge of loyalty: ____comitatus______.
  6. The retainers pledged complete loyalty to the king.
  7. The king lavished his retainers with ___treasure______, __land______, and ___Protection______.
  8. E. Goal of all retainers and kings: __loyalty to the death______.
  9. Heroic___ ideal: excellence in everything; striving to be better than others.
  10. Primary qualities: ___strength__ and ____loyalty______.
  11. Primitive system of laws, mainly consisting of __weirgeild______:
  12. The price of a murdered man, to be paid by the murdered, in order to escape __blood vengeance______from the victim’s family.
  13. Price determined by the man’s ____status_____ in society.
  14. III. Anglo-Saxon Religion
  15. Belief in ___wyrd_____ (Fate).
  16. Immortality was achieved through enduring ______oral tradition______.
  17. Great deeds and a glorious ____battles______brought enduring remembrance.
  18. Traveling bards (scops) retold warrior’s deeds through ____epic poems______told at night in the castle.
  19. Beowulf: The Poem
  20. A. Oldest surviving long poem written in ____Old English______.
  21. 500A.D. : date of the _____setting______of the poem.
  22. 700 A. D. : date the poem was ___introduced by the scops______.
  23. 900 A. D. date of the oldest known ____writing______of the poem.
  1. B. Epic poem: memorized and sung by bards (like The Iliad and The Odyssey) with the following characteristics:
  2. Hero—male of noble birth
  3. Hero’s character traits reflect values of society
  4. hero performs courageous—sometimes even superhuman deeds---the reflect values of the time
  5. actions of the hero determine fate of the people or nation
  6. setting is vast in scope
  7. poet uses formal diction and a serious tone
  8. the plot is complicated by supernatural beings, events may include long journey(s)
  9. poem reflect timeless values, such as courage and honor
  10. poet treats universal themes such as good and evil, life and death
  11. The poem begins in “media res” (in the middle of the action).
  12. Characters:
  13. Danes: from the Danish island of Zealand
  14. Geats: from southern Sweden.
  15. Beowulf (a Geat) may have been an ancestor to the people who first heard the poem.
  1. Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon Poetry
  2. Poetry rarely _rhymes______.
  3. Lines have a strong rhythm, with each line divided by a ___caesura______(a pause in the middle of the line).
  4. _____alliteration______(The repetition of similar consonant sounds at the beginning of words) used to unify the poetry.
  5. ___kennings______: hyphenated words to describe nouns (e.g., “gift-giver,” “she-wolf”).
  6. Poetry is filled with ______sensory images______or words that appeal to the reader’s five senses.