英国文学讲义1

Lecture 1

The Old English Period and the Middle English Period:

The Old English Period

Teaching Process

1 The early history of England

●The beginning of settlement in Britain took place in about 700 B. C. The settlers were

Celtic-speaking tribes called Britons (or Celts), from whom the island get its name—Britain (the land of Britons). The Britons were a primitive people, a bronze-age people entering an age of iron.

●In 55 B. C., Britain was invaded by the Roman general Julius Caesar. The Celts were

subjugated to the role of Rome for nearly 400 years. In 410, the Romans abandoned the island, which marks the end of “Roman Conquest” (55 B. C.—410 A. D.)

●After the withdrawal of the Roman troops, England was soon invaded by three

Germanic tribes: the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, who came from the Northeast of Europe. The Anglo-Saxon invaders established some small kingdoms in Britain which by the 7th century were combined into a United Kingdom called England (the land of Angles). Its people were called the English. The three dialects spoken by them naturally grew into a single language called Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, a derivative of Low German.

●The Anglo-Saxons admired the wisdom and courage of their war leaders. In

Anglo-Saxon society, the king was essentially a warrior, whose duty was mainly to lead the tribe to fight against any possible foreign or hostile tribes. The Anglo-Saxons were a heathen people before they accepted Christianity. They believed in the old mythology of Northern Europe. That is why the Northern mythology has left its marks upon the English Language. (e. g. some of the names of the week in English derive from the names of Northern gods: Tuesday—Tiu战神, Wednesday—Woden主神, Thursday—Thor雷神, Friday— Frigg爱情女神). In 597, St. Augustine and his monks landed in Kent. Then England was Christianized part by part in the following century.

Monasteries were built all over the country. It was in these monasteries that the earliest English books were written down, because at that time few except monks could read and write. The conversion of The Anglo-Saxons to Christianity changed their intellectual outlook. Christianity offered some values that were more consiste nt and solid than their pagan beliefs. It also enabled them to learn book knowledge in monasteries or schools from the Scriptures and the classical writings of Virgil (a great roman poet) and the ancient Greeks. They travelled long distance to Rome on pilgrimages, and these experiences enriched their understanding of the world, broadened and deepened their mental and spiritual power.

●From 787, the English began to be troubled by bands of Danish Vikings (Scandinavian

sea robbers). At first they just invaded parts of the country from time to time. Gradually, however, they came to make permanent settlement and ruthlessly destroyed many of the monasteries. The great hero of the time was King Alfred the Great (849-901) of the Kingdom of Wessex in the south, who succeeded in driving off the Danes. It is to him that we owe much of the preservation of Older Anglo-Saxon Literature. Equally important is the fact that he started the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical register of national events from dim past to his own age. This work was continued by monks long after his death. The Danes were eventually defeated, and the Anglo-Saxons returned to rule in 1042. England did not have peace for long. Soon they were conquered in 1066 by the Norms from France. This is the end of the Anglo-Saxon period.

The following is a formula for the nation:

Original Angles

+ Saxons +Danes +Normans=English

Britons Jutes

2 The early English Literature

●The Britons (Celts) had no written language, so their myths and legends were not

recorded for many centuries. (e.g. The Adventures of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table is about a Celtic Chieftain of the 5th or 6th century, but these legends were not written down until they reached eleventh century France and were circulated after the 13th century.) Therefore, English literature actually began with the Anglo-Saxon