History of English Literature_overview_MiddleAges_AngloSaxon_Norman_V4.pptx
History of English Literature
The Middle Ages
Anglo-Saxon & Norman England
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History of English Literature
The Middle Ages
Anglo-Saxon & Norman England
Periods in the History of English Literature
500 – 1066 Old English Period
1066 – 1500 Middle English Period
1500 – 1660 Renaissance
1660 – 1700 Restoration
1700 – 1740 Age of Reason/ Neo-classical period
1740 – 1832 Romantic Age
1832 – 1900 Victorian Age
1900 - Modern Age
The Middle Ages:
500 – 1066 Old English/Anglo-Saxon Period
1066 – 1500 Middle English Period
A (small) taste of medieval literature:
Beowulf - Anonymous
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
Text
About the English language..
700 – 1100: Old English (Anglo-Saxon)
A pure Germanic language, with many cases.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L7VTH8ii_8&feature=related1100 – 1500: Middle English (Chaucer’s English). Most cases dropped. Many French loanwords.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE0MtENfOMUFrom 1500: Modern English
Many changes in pronunciation (but not in spelling). Numerous loanwords from other languages.
Before the year 500…
Earliest inhabitants: Celts (Britons)
language: gaelic & celtic Welsh, no relation with the English language
Still spoken in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwQbxuwXGhc
50 BC – 450 A.D. Britain occupied by the Romans.
Anglo-Saxon England 500 - 1066
(the Old English period)
450 – 600 Migration of the Peoples
Britain invaded by Angles, Saxons and Jutes (tribes from Northern Germany)
Britons driven back to North and West (Scotland/Wales/Ireland)
Anglo-Saxon heptarchy: the newcomers settle and establish 7 kingdoms (always at war with each other)
Anglo-Saxon England 500 - 1066
(the Old English period)
600 – 700 Anglo-Saxons converted to Christianity (<> pagan/heathen)
Establishment of monasteries; writing done in Latin mostly.
793 start of the Viking raids (monastery of Lindisfarne)
Anglo-Saxon England 500 - 1066
(the Old English period)
Viking raids and settlement continued into the 10th century
886 - 954 Danelaw
King Alfred ruled the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
of Wessex & Mercia
Anglo-Saxon England 500 - 1066
(the Old English period)
954 Athelstan defeats the Vikings and
becomes the first king of England
Anglo-Saxon England 500 - 1066
(the Old English period)
1002 King Ethelred marries Emma, great-aunt of the Duke of Normandy
Their son Edward (the Confessor) rules from 1043 – 5 Jan 1066. No children.
Succeeded by his brother-in-law (his sister’s husband) Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon king.
Anglo-Saxon England 500 - 1066
(the Old English period)
Meanwhile….. the Duke of Normandy, (Edward’s cousin-once-removed) had set his eyes on the English throne…..
The end of Anglo-Saxon England..
1066 Battle of Hastings
King William I
“the Conqueror”
Old English Literature
Beowulf
Beowulf
An epic poem about Beowulf of the Geats (Goths)
A heroic narrative
Dating from the 6th century
set in pagan Scandinavia
Manuscript from the late
10th century
Beowulf
From the era of oral tradition
Oldest European (!) literary text in a vernacular language (the West-Saxon dialect of Old English)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRhe329kzwk
Once upon a time…
Hwæt, we Gar-dena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Opening Lines of Beowulf In Old English (youtube.com)
_____________________________________
So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness
We have heard of those princes’ heroic campaigns
Beowulf
3182 lines of alliterative verse (beginrijm)
Metre: four stressed syllables to every line
Every line divided into two halves by a caesura
Three parts, 43 stanzas
Extensive use of metaphors
The Late Middle Ages 1066 – 1500
(The Middle English period)
Introduction of the feudal system;
lords & vassalsThree estates of the realm (Middeleeuwse standenmaatschappij)
- clergy (those who pray)
- nobility (those who fight)
- commoners (those who labour)
Feudalism
The dominant social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility (lords) held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles,
while the peasants (villeins or serfs) were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him homage, labour, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection.
The Late Middle Ages 1066 – 1500
(The Middle English period)
The House of Normandy (Duchy) rules England from 1066 – 1135
The House of Blois (King of France) rules England from 1135 – 1154
The House of Plantagenet (King of France) rules England from 1154 – 1485
- included the Houses of York and Lancaster
The Late Middle Ages 1066 – 1500
(The Middle English period)
The House of Normandy (Duchy) rules England from 1066 – 1135
The House of Blois (King of France) rules England from 1135 – 1154
The House of Plantagenet (King of France) rules England from 1154 – 1485
- included the Houses of York and Lancaster
The Late Middle Ages 1066 – 1500
(The Middle English period)
The King had absolute power until:
1215 Magna Carta (Libertatum)
- limiting the power of the king (John)
The Late Middle Ages 1066 – 1500
(The Middle English period)
1095/1147 First Crusade/ Second Crusade
1348 the Black Death (the plague)
- killing 40 % of the European population1381 Peasants’ Revolt
1440 invention of the printing press by John Gutenberg, introduced in England by
William Caxton in 1475
The Late Middle Ages 1066 – 1500
(The Middle English period)
Zeitgeist
Memento Mori
The Late Middle Ages 1066 – 1500
Literature - poetry
(Arthurian) romances
Ballads and ditties (which were sung)
Geoffrey Chaucer:
The Canterbury Tales
The Late Middle Ages 1066 – 1500
Literature - prose
Thomas Malory – Le Morte d’Arthur
- about the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
The Late Middle Ages 1066 – 1500
Literature - drama
Liturgical plays developed into >
- miracle plays - morality playsInitially inside the church, but gradually moving outside to the town squares.
Initially actors were members of the clergy, later on they came from guilds.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Born ca 1343 – died 1400
Fought in the Hundred Years’ War (at 16!)
Worked for the king for most of his life.
Married at 23 to lady-in-waiting Philippa Roet, 2 sons
Well-to-do
Influenced by Italian writers Petrarch and Boccaccio.
Boccaccio
Writer and poet (and correspondent of Petrarch) of the early Italian Renaissance
One of the earliest humanists
Masterpiece: The Decameron (the ten days)
Chaucer met him (and Petrarch) on one
of his diplomatic missions to Italy.
The Canterbury Tales
A frame story inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron
Pilgrimage to Canterbury, to the grave of Saint Thomas Becket, a former bishop
28 pilgrims from all walks of life
vernacular English, in verse
Narrator: Chaucer himself
The Canterbury Tales
General Prologue and 22 tales
the tales have their own prologue
Incomplete
Themes: love and lust/ marriage/ religious malpractice/ courtly love/ chivalry/ separation between the 3 estates/ greed/ deceit/ treason/ social status of the woman
The Canterbury Tales
Reader:
(the Knight’s tale)
the Miller’s tale
the Wife of Bath’s tale
the Pardoner’s tale
The Canterbury Tales
The Knight’s tale
the first of the tales
no prologue
an elegant story set in ancient Greece
themes: war, love, honour ,chivalry
about noble warriors like himself
In stark contrast to the Miller and the Miller’s tale
The Canterbury Tales
The Miller’s tale
the second of the tales
The (drunken) miller demands to go next
The tale he tells is a fabliau;
a short comical and satirical narrative about ordinary people (often about cuckolded husbands) written in coarse language
The Canterbury Tales
The Miller’s tale
His tale tells the story of a rich, old carpenter from Oxford who is cuckolded by his 18-year-old wife Alison
with their tenant; a young university student
very coarse language
The Canterbury Tales
The Wife of Bath – Prologue (p. 17)
her own life story
married at 12
5 husbands;
- 3 good ones (rich, old and submissive)
- 2 bad ones (a party animal with a mistress and a wife-beater 20 years younger)an expert on marriage, love, lust and sex
The Canterbury Tales
The Wife of Bath’s – Prologue (p. 17)
let’s read…..
question: what is it that the Wife of Bath wants?
The Canterbury Tales
The Wife of Bath’s – Tale (p. 18)
The days of King Arthur
A young lusty knight rapes a beautiful young maiden
He can save his life if he can find out what women truly want within 1 year.
On his quest he meets an ugly old woman.
The Canterbury Tales
The Wife of Bath’s – Tale (p. 18)
In return for his help she tells him that what women really want is:
- control over their own lives
- to be in charge of their husbandsupon delivering his answer to the queen
the old woman appears; he must marry her…..
The Canterbury Tales
The Wife of Bath’s – Tale (p. 18)
on their wedding night the old woman asks an important question….
Let’s read what he answers…..
The Canterbury Tales
The Wife of Bath’s – Tale (p. 18)
She offers the knight a choice: either he can have her be ugly but loyal and good, or he can have her young and fair but also coquettish and unfaithful.
He replies that he would rather trust her judgment, and he asks her to choose whatever she thinks best.
Because the knight’s answer gave the woman what she most desired, the authority to choose for herself, she becomes both beautiful and good.
The Canterbury Tales
The Pardoner’s - Prologue (p. 20)
de aflaatverkoper (pardon)
by buying a pardon(s) one could “buy” forgiveness for one’s sins and decrease your time in purgatory (vagevuur).
originally written out by the (Roman Catholic) church
much illegal trading and many forgeries
