The formation of English and the

epic poem ‘Beowulf’

Literatura de Língua Inglesa I /2017
 EARLY MIDDLE AGES

BATTLE OF STAMFORD BRIDGE (1066)

ROMAN MILITARY DEPARTURE (407)
Germanic Tribes
The departure of the Roman military left Britain open to invasion by
pagan warriors and sailors from northwestern Europe, especially the
Saxons, Angles and Jutes.

These had already attacked the coasts of the Roman province and began
to settle, initially in the eastern part. Its advance was contained for a few
decades, but subsequently resumed, surpassing the fertile plains of
Great Britain and reducing the Welsh-controlled area to a
series of regions of rugged terrain separated in the
west by the end of the sixth century.
"In spite of continued
resistance (the legends
and folklore of King
Arthur and the Knights of
the Round Table date
back to this time), over
time, the Germanic tribes
began to establish
permanent bases and to
gradually displace the
native Celts."
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/
anglo_saxons/who_were_the_anglo-saxons/)
Hate at First Sight
Originally sailors, the invaders began to settle down as farmers, exploiting
the rich English farmland. The Celts referred to the European invaders as
“barbarians” (as they had previously been labelled themselves); the invaders
referred to the Celts as weales (slaves or foreigners), the origin of the name
Wales.

The Germanic tribes settled in seven smaller kingdoms, known as the

Heptarchy: the Saxons in Essex, Wessex and Sussex; the Angles in East
Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria; and the Jutes in Kent.
The Birth of a Nation
Although the various different kingdoms grew and diminished in their power
and influence over time, it was the warring and pagan Saxons that gradually
became the dominant group. The new Anglo-Saxon nation, formerly known
as Albion and then Britannia, became known as Englaland (Land of the
Angles), later shortened to England.

It is impossible to say just when English became a separate language, rather

than just a German dialect, although it seems that the language began to
develop its own distinctive features in isolation from the
continental Germanic languages, by around 600AD.
Without Roman Empire, but with Roman Culture
Disappeared from the conquered territories, but was reintroduced by
missionaries from Rome led by Augustine from 597. Disputes between
the forms of Roman and Celtic Christianity ended in victory for Roman
Christianity at the Whitby Council (664), which was about haircuts, the
date of Easter and differences in forms of authority, theology and
practice.
New Barbarians: The Vikings
By the late 8th Century, the Vikings began to make sporadic raids on the
east coast of Britain. They came from Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Notorious for their ferocity, ruthlessness and callousness, they pillaged
and plundered the towns and monasteries of northern England. By
about 850, the raiders had started to over-winter in southern England
and, in 865, there followed a full-scale invasion and on-going battles for
the possession of the country.
“In 878, a treaty between the Anglo-
Saxons and the Vikings established
the Danelaw, splitting the country
along a line from London to Chester,
giving the Norsemen control over
the middle and east and the Anglo-
Saxons the south, west and north.”

http://icelandmag.visir.is/article/vikings-left-their-mark-european-
map-here-our-guide-help-you-find-them
 A Dispute for the Throne
Æthelred took power in 978, but England was invaded by Sweyn Forkbeard,
the son of a Danish king. Attempts to bribe Sweyn not to attack using
danegeld failed, and he took the throne in 1013. Cnut Forkbeard liquidated
many of the older English families following his seizure of power in 1016.
Æthelred's son, Edward the Confessor, had survived in exile in Normandy and
returned to claim the throne in 1042. England became dominated by the
Godwin family, who had taken advantage of the Danish killings to acquire
fortune. When Edward died in 1066, Harold Godwinson claimed
the throne, defeating his rival Norwegian claimant, Harald
Hardrada, at the battle of Stamford Bridge.
 The Anglo-Saxon or Old English Language
Old English was a very complex language, at least in comparison with
modern English. Nouns had three genders (male, female and neuter) and
could be inflected for up to five cases. There were seven classes of “strong”
verbs and three of “weak” verbs, and their endings changed for number,
tense, mood and person. Adjectives could have up to eleven forms. Even
definite articles had three genders and five case forms as a singular and four
as a plural. Word order was much freer than today, the sense being carried by
the inflections (and only later by the use of propositions).
“It is estimated that about 85% of the Anglo-Saxon
words gradually died out under the cultural
onslaught of the Vikings and the Normans who
would come after them. But it includes some of the
most fundamental and important words as well as
the most important “function” words. Because of
this, up to a half of everyday modern English will
typically be made up of Old English words, and, by
some estimates, ALL of the hundred most
commonly-used words in modern English are of
Anglo-Saxon origin.”

http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126510.html
 The Anglo-Saxon or Old English Literature
About 400 Anglo-Saxon texts survive from this era, including many poems,
telling tales of wild battles and heroic journeys. But by far the best known is
the long epic poem “Beowulf”.

"Beowulf" was written anytime between the 8th and early eleventh centuries
by an unknown author or authors. It was probably originally written in
Northumbria, although the only manuscript that came to us (dating to about
1000) contains a bewildering mix of Northumbrian, West
Saxon and Anglian dialects.
Beowulf, the Hero of All Heroes
MAJOR THEMES
- Loyalty
- Reputation MAJOR SYMBOLS
- Envy - Heorot
- Revenge - The Cave
- Grendel’s claw and head
- The Dragon’s Treasure
Trove

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/b/beowulf/
character-analysis/character-map
The 3,182 lines of the work shows that Old English was already a fully
developed poetic language by this time, with a particular emphasis on
alliteration and percussive effects. Even at this early stage, the variety and
depth of English vocabulary, as well as its predilection for synonyms and
subtleties of meanings, is evident. For example, the poem uses:
- 36 different words for hero, - 20 different words for man,
- 12 different words for battle, - 11 different words for ship.

There are also many interesting kennings or allusive compound words, such
as hronrad (whale-road = sea), banhus (bone-house = body) and
beadoleoma (battle-light = sword). Of the 903 compound
nouns in Beowulf, 578 are used once only, and 518
of them are known only from this one poem.