ANGLO SAXON

HISTORIC BACKGROUND
LITERATURE
55 bc- 410 a.d
briton britain
(Original inhabitants)

410 a.d

gERMANIC Group
invaded britain
cOMPOSED OF 3 TRIBES
ANGLES- DOMINANT POPULATION

SAXONS- MERGE WITH

JUTES- LESS POPULATION

ANGLE LAND -
ENGLAND
 OLD
ENGLISH
BASICALLY A COMBINATION OF ORIGINAL language SPOKEN BY
BRITONS AND THE LANGUAGE SPOKEN BY THE GERMANIC GROUP
LITERARY CHARACTERISTIC
600 YEARS, NO GOOD REMARKABLE LITERATURE (LITERARY
PEICE)
-”DARK AGES” PERIOD
-eNGLAND WAS AT CONSTANT WAR WITH SO MANY INVADERS
-”VIKING INVASION” (KILLING, TERRIFIED EVENTS)
 ”DARK AGES” PERIOD
- coined by an Italian scholar Francesco Petrarch to describe what he perceived as a
lack of quality in the Latin literature of his day.
- the fall of Western Roman Empire
- decline in culture and science
- characterized by Feudalism, the introduction of plow to farming, and the Black
Death plague
- time for superstition and fear
- famine and disease
-”VIKING INVASION” (KILLING, TERRIFIED EVENTS)
NO PRINTING PRESS

major works lost due to oral transmission

major literary works:

people living in britain

britons germanic tribes

((pagans)
(christians)
Heroism/knight
religious
 Genres of literature

heroic religious
poetry poetry
 Main features of anglo-Saxons
literature
1. Love for personal freedom
2. responsiveness to nature
3. religion
4. reverence for womanhood
5. struggle for glory
 BEOWULF
-sT. AUGUSTINE (5TH CENTURY) TRY TO CONVERT ENTIRE
EUROPIAN INTO CHRISTIANITY.

-POETRY (CHRISTIANITY/IDOLS-CROSS) - DOMINANT IN POETRY

-MANUSCRIPT PUBLISHED (”the exeter book”)

-normal day-to-day challenge in life
-life problems of people living there

-king alfred (pioneer in prose writing)

 facts:
1. girls
• cloth wearing, meal cooking, cheese making, oil brewing.

2. boys
• tree chopping, field plow ing, cattle hardening.
• tough in looking for wolves
3. skilled craftSmen

• metal workers who made iron tools (knives and swords)

• wood worker who made furnitures and carves

• potters
• jewelries, gemstone, glass
references:
https://youtu.be/R0eLomcjt6A
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/33/35/62/333562701539d62bd465c1c5855045ee.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/af/77/ae/af77ae5edcb72a7aec56961727e6b667.jpg