RECAP Early Middle Ages + intro Green knight

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Welcome V4

What do you still remember
about the literary history classes?

www.alquin.com

English Literature

PTA exam in VWO 6
This year: The Middle Ages (period 4)
Also tested at the end of period 4.

• Beowulf
• Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Robin Hood
• Canterbury Tales

Beowulf?

Seven kingdoms

• In the Anglo Saxon period, society was dominated by lords and retainers, as depicted in Beowulf.
• Poets provided entertainment by reciting well-known poems from memory.

Beowulf

• Heroic epic poem (3,182 lines).
• Oldest European text in vernacular language (Old English).
• Dates from the 6th century(?)
• Oldest copy is a manuscript from the late 10th century (British Museum) by an anonymous monk.
• Lines aren't linked by rhyme, but alliteration.
• Setting is Scandinavia.

Timeline Early Middle Ages (450-1066)

• 55 BC - 450 AD: Great Britain under Roman rule

• After 450 AD: Celts attack, Romans withdraw --> Migration of the people --> Anglo-Saxon settlers

• 7th century turn to Christianity --> increase Latin & Old English literature --> 793 Vikings attack --> Viking settlers

•  8th-11th century Wars for the crown --> 1066 end of Anglo-Saxon era and beginning of Norman period

Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle?

Anglo Saxon Chronicles: 9th-12th century

Alquin, page 11

• literary genre
• annualised record of events covering 1-1154 AD

• independently written in different monasteries
• not 100% reliable

• writers' identities unknown

• writing became increasingly personal and informal over time
• taking information from various sources

"one of the main windows on this period in English history" 

1066 

The Battle of Hastings

Anglo Saxon Chronicles: 9th-12th century

Alquin, page 12-14

1. Why is 1066 a momentous year for the English language?

2. Compare the style of the Petersborough chronicle to the Worcester chronicle? Are both equally objective?

3. What do the descriptions of king Harold and king William suggest about the writer of the Worcester chronicle?

1 Norman conquest. New English language was formed under French influence.

2 The Petersborough account is concise, businesslike, objective, and even distant.

The Worcester passage is longer and more detailed. It does not limit itself to the bare facts, but is laced with matters of the author’s opinion (all adversity is a consequence of human sin). The writer is full of praise for Abbott Leofric and blames the monastery’s present plight on Leofric’s successors. He even appeals to God to have pity on the monastery. Because of all the detail, the Worcester passage is in stark contrast to the briefer and apparently more objective entry in the Peterborough Chronicle.

3 The writer of the passage clearly did not support William. It is likely that this chronicle entry was penned shortly after the events described and that Worcester Abbey had suffered under the high taxes and strict rule of the new king.

- Write down three things you've learned about literary history so far.
- Which questions do you still have?

Sir Gawain

and the Green Knight

- watch a video and make notes!

- summarise the story afterwards