英国文学 Part 1 知识点总结

Part 1 Old and Middle English Periods

Old English Period and Beowulf

1.BC 600, Celts(tribal people at early stage of Iron Age) came to British Isles.

2.BC 400-BC 300, Britons came to the Isles.

3.BC 55- AD 407, the conquest of Roman led by Julius Caesar.

4.At the beginning of 5th century, the Roman Empire declined. In AD 410, all Roman troops

were withdrawn.

5.AD 450, the conquest of Angles, Saxons and Jutes. These people were a seafaring people

who orginally lived along the coast of Denmark and Germany.

6.By the end of 6th century, a fedual society replaced the primitive tribal life.

7.Modern English orginates from Anglo-Saxon.

te 8th century, Vikings invaded English. In the second half of the 9th century, English

people led by Alfred drove the Vikings off. But they invaded again in 1013 and were brought to a stop until 1036.

9.The first Anglo-Saxon chronicle was a landmark of the Old English periods.

10.In 1066, the Norman conquest and it made influence on the English language. The year 1066

was also a dividing part in English history (from old English to middle English ).

11.In 1349, English was officially introduced in school and in 1362 in courts of law.

12.In 597, Christianity was taken to England by Augustine. And it took Roman Catholic Church

about a century to Christianise all England.

13.Venerable(father) Bede 彼得神父: the greatest Latinist of Northumbrian School(诺桑波雷

恩学派). His most outstanding work is The Ecdesiastical History of Angles(《英国教会史》).

14.Caedmon: an Anglo-Saxon poet, who wrote in Anglo-Saxon a poetic paraphrase of the Bible.

15.Cynewulf: the author of poems on religious subjects during Old English periods.

16.Beowulf or The Song of Beowulf, is the great national epic poem of 3182 lines and it tells

events that took place on European Continent before Anglo-Saxon's moving.

17.There are two parts in Beowulf: ①fighting against Grendel and then against Grendel's

mother; ②fighting against a firedragon.

18.Artistic features of Beowulf: alliteration, kennings, solemn and animated mood.

Middle English Period and Chaucer

1.During Anglo-Norman period, there is the coexistence of three languages: Latin, Old English

and French.

2.The 1381 peasant uprising was led by Wat Tyler, but finally they were betrayed and Wat

Tyler was executed.

3.Two wars : ①War of the Roses(1455-1485) broke between the House of York(white) and

the House of Lancaster(red); ②Hundred Years War(against French), happened during 1337-1453, and finally the French won.

4.Trouvers brought romance from French to England.

5.Three subject matters of Romans(传奇故事): matter of France, matter of Rome and

matter of Britain.

6.Arthurian cycle(组诗) is the representative work in the group of matter of Britain.

7.One of the most well-known stories in Arthurian cycle is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight(高