The Old English(Anglo-Saxon) period

Anglo-Saxon(盎格鲁-撒克逊) Conquest: Three tribe from Northern Europe: Angles, Saxon and Jutes
The Old English(Anglo-Saxon) period
Beowulf

Story: Beginning and ending with the funeral of a great king, and set against a background of impending disaster, Beowulf describes the exploits of a Scandinavian hero, in fighting against the monster Grendel, his revengeful mother, and a fire-breathing dragon. P4
Geoffrey Chaucer: His contributions
Chaucer was the first most significant poet in English literary history to write in Middle English. He greatly increased the prestige of English as a literary language and extended the range of its poetic vocabulary and meters. He, for the first time in English literature, presented to us a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society of his time and created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life in his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales.

The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales《坎特伯雷故事集》


The Canterbury Tales is one of the landmarks of English literature, perhaps the greatest work produced in Middle English; The structure of The Canterbury Tales is indebted to Boccaccio's Decameron《十日 谈》;
Medieval Romance
Matter of France and Rome
Medieval Romance
Matter of Britain: the legendary history of Britain.
2.2.2 Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Beowulf
Beowulf

Theme: It is an adventure story about a hero killing monsters to make the world safe for people. It also serves to add testimony to a universal tradition that the human always manage to get a sense of control over live with the help of their imaginative powers. P5
The Old English(Anglo-Saxon) period


The early inhabitants---Britons, a tribe of Celts. 700BC,Celtic（凯尔特人） people from northwestern Europe, bringing iron-working, Gaelic（盖 尔语） language. “Britain”, the land of Britons
British Literature
The Old and Medieval Periods
Instructor Kong Xiaojing
Key points:
1. The Old English(Anglo-Saxon) period 2. The Middle English(Anglo-Norman) period

King Alfred the Great
The Middle English(Anglo-Norman) period

The Norman Conquest (1066):
P7-13
The Norman Conquest (1066)


Politically, a feudalist system was established in England; Religiously, the Rome-backed Catholic Church had a much stronger control over the country; On language, three languages co-existed in England. French became the official language used by the king and the Norman lords; Latin became the principal tongue of church affairs and was used by the clergymen and scholars in universities; Anglo-Saxon (old English) was spoken only by the common English people.

3. Beowulf 4. Geoffrey Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales

The Old English(Anglo-Saxon) period

Explain the following terms:
P1-4

Britons, Anglo-Saxons
2.1 Old English Period Beowulf 《贝奥武夫》 Beowulf is the first great English literary work and is regarded today as the national epic of AngloSaxons. P4-6


Chaucer was born urban middle class. His father and grandfather were both London vintners(酒商). His name is derived from the French chausseur, meaning shoemaker. He received a very solid education. A colorful experience with life and people: In the service of the ruling class； The diplomatic mission that sent Chaucer to Italy in 1372 was a milestone in his literary development. He had direct contact with the Italian Renaissance.
The Old English(Anglo-Saxon) period

The Roman Occupation (55BC-410): In 55 B.C., Britain was invaded by Julius Caesar, the conqueror. Left behind: laws, architecture, social system, Latin, Christianity, churches.

The Old English(Anglo-Saxon) period

Anglo-Saxon Conquest:
The native Britons (Celts) were finally confined to the mountainous region of Wales where the modern form of their language is spoken alongside English to this day. In defeat, the Britons produced a body of stories revolving a legendary ruler called Arthur who had fought heroically against the Anglo-Saxon invaders.

Anglo-Saxon Conquest: By the 7th century these small kingdoms were combined into a united kingdom called England. The dialects spoken by the them naturally grew into a single language called Anglo-Saxon, which is now called Old English.