Medieval Literature: Anglo-Saxon Literature

1. Timeline
43- c. 420: Roman invasion and occupation of Britain >>ca. 450: Anglo-
Saxon conquest >> 597: St. Augustine – Kent (the beginning of conversion
to Christianity – c. 75 yrs) >> 871-899: King Alfred >> 1066: the Norman
Conquest >> 1154-1189: Henry II >> c. 1200: Middle English literature >>
1360-1400: Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight >> 1485: beginning of print culture in Britain (William Caxton),
accession of Henry VII and the beginning of the Tudor dynasty

2. The Middle Ages (Lat. medium aevum): (a) names (medieval, early modern,
Renaissance, Reformation); (b) Anglo-Saxon literature (>1066) – heroic and
Christian stories shared with other Germanic literatures, 10th-century
transcription of an Old Saxon poem from the Continent into Old English,
Anglo-Norman literature (>1336) – 12th century interest in Arthur, Middle
English literature (14th & 15th centuries) – a sense of English identity, a
sense of English as a medium for literature capable of elegance and
seriousness (Chaucer, Gower).

3. Anglo-Saxon literature: (a) the Anglo-Saxon invasion; (b) conversion to

Christianity and literacy; (c) Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English
People (731), The Battle of Maldon, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; (d)
contamination – Germanic heroic code and Christianity