The document provides an overview of the history of the English language from its origins with the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century AD through the Norman conquest in 1066. It discusses the various tribes that invaded Britain and influenced Old English, including the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians. It also summarizes the epic poem Beowulf, dating from the late 10th century, which depicts Scandinavian history and mythology through the story of the Geatish hero Beowulf's battles with the monsters Grendel and Grendel's mother.

1. English is a melting pot of indo-european
languages
Celtic Latin German
French

2. History of English Language
 400 A.D. to 1066 - Old English (OE)
dates
 1066-1485 - Middle English (ME)
Distinction:
 Old English is nearly impossible to
read or understand without studying it
much
They are different to the eye and ear.
 Middle English speaker would study

3. Old English
 Old English is also known as SAXON
 The principle invading Germanic Tribes
were the ANGLES, SAXONS, JUTES,
and FRISIANS
 Anglo- Saxon dialects developed into
Old English
 The most commonly used words today
derive from those early Anglo- Saxon
roots
 Later the language was influenced by
the French speaking NORMAN

4. ANGLO-SAXON ALPHABET

5. pronunciations
Old English Modern English
Scip ship
Fisc fish
Cild child
Cyning king

6. Overview of Periods of Early
English History
Pre-History—1066 A. D.
1. Pre-Roman/Pre-Historical  55
BC
2. Roman Occupation  55 BC –
410 AD
3. Anglo-Saxon Period  410 –

7. Pre-Historical / Pre-Roman

8. Roman Occupation

9. The Conquest of Briton
 Between 800 – 600
B.C.: Celts
 55 B.C.: Romans
 About 407 A. D.:
Anglo-Saxons/
Jutes

10. Celts
Nature-Lover , Peace loving, Skilled
craftsmen of iron, Animism
"spirit” in rivers & rocks, War-like
Druids - Priests
Demanded total dedication
Mistletoe (sacred) and oak
Voluntary human sacrifice
Use of stones in worship

11. CELTIC LEGENDS
 King Arthur- celtic warrior
 Filled with strong women
 Tall, fierce, beautiful
 Bloody
 Magical

12. romans
 55 BC Julius
Caesar
 43 AD
Emperor
Claudius

13. Romans
 Conquered
celts
 Established
cities
 Organized law
 Roadways
 Roman baths
romans

14.  61 ad queen Boadecia
 Queen of a briton Tribe
 Killed 70,000 Romans
 409 Romans withdrew from
Britain leaving no central
gov’t.

15. BEDE THE VENERABLE
673-737
A monk and
scholar,
who recorded
knowledge
of England before
the 8th century

16. ANGLO-SAXON
449-1066AD

18. Angles
Angles
 Germanic
 Migrated from
Germany 5th
Century
That land was
later called as
“Anglo-land”
now England

19. saxons  Large and powerful
Germanic people
from Northwestern
German and the
Eastern Netherlands
 invaded Britain in
the early Middle
Ages, giving their
names to the
kingdoms of Essex,
Sussex and Wessex

20. JUTES
 from Jutland
now known
as Denmark
 less well
known than
the Angles
and Saxons

21. Anglo-saxons

22. 7 KINGDOMS
OF THE
ANGLO
SAXONS

23. Anglo-Saxons
 Blond-haired, blue-eyed
 Fair, sturdy
 Loved nature and the sea
 Sense of honor
 Generous: Love to eat and
drink
 Loved glory of battle
 Braggarts

24. Anglo-Saxon Society
 Mead hall (communal hall)
 Mead - potent drink made from honey
 Women as decorative element of the
society
 Scops told stories/riddles in the halls
 King received power from gods (Woden)
 Government system is democratic
 Justice System: “Eye for eye a Tooth for a
Tooth”
 Pagan religion / mixed with Christianity
later

25. Mead hall

26. Pagan gods
 Woden - Wednesday
 Fria - Friday; goddess of love
 Tui - Tuesday; god of war
 Thor - Thursday; god of thunder
 Eostre - goddess of dawn and new
life
 Wyrd - god of fate

27. Hierarchal system
KING
Power from Gods
EARL
ATHELING
Young Males
NOBLES
THANES
FREEMAN
CHURL

28. THANES
 LIKE MEDIEVAL
KNIGHTS
 SWORN TO
PROTECT KING
 FOUGHT FOR
GLORY, FAME, &
HONOR

29. WERGILD (WIERGILD)
“MANPRICE”
VICTIM’S RELATIVES
WOULD SEEK REVENGE
IN FORM OF WERGILD.
FAILURE TO DO SO
WOULD KEEP FAMILY
FROM EVER BEING ABLE
TO SATISFY THEIR GRIEF

30. wiergild
Wiergild system
The value of the life of every Anglo-
Saxon (Germanic and Scandinavian)
was based on his rank.
e.g. The life of a churl was worth two
hundred shillings; that of a thane ... six
times as much, and the price to be paid
for injury, like the loss of a hand or a leg,
was calculated in proportion."

31. treasures

32. scops
Old English poetry was
meant to be read/sung
aloud before an
audience.
The Scop, would
entertain with tales of
past deeds, battles of
old and history was
kept alive for the Anglo-
Saxons
The scop was a master
of his art, can recite
thousands of lines from
memory (the epic
Beowulf has 3182 lines)
Some more experienced
scops would add to the
stories as they were told

33. Christianity
 Arrived in Britain in the 6th Century -
St. Augustine
 Converted population in the 9th
Century when most Britons were
Christian
 Latin introduced to Anglo Saxons who
integrated Old English with Latin
Vocabulary
 Centers for learning
 Preservation of manuscripts

34.  871 alfred the Great unified
tribes
 1066 norman french invasion
 King Harold vs William, the
conqueror

35. The site of sutton hoo
1930’S the site of the grave was on the
land of Edith. She was convinced the
site contained treasure. She had a
dream in which she saw an ancient
funeral procession

36. The graves of a warrior and his
horse were found in one of the
smaller mounds

37. Anglo-saxon literature
 Oral
Tradition
 Beowulf
 Epic
 Latin

38. Characteristics of anglo-saxon poetry
 Love of freedom
 Responsiveness
to nature
 Devotion to glory
as ruling motive
in warriors’ lives
 Brooding
melancholy

39. The epic
 Narrative poem
 Gives“biography”
of great hero
 Based on myth
and tradition
 Sung by the
minstrels

40. epic
 Long, majestic
narrative poem
 Legendary or
historical events
 Ideals of an entire
nation at a critical
point of its history;
gratifies national
pride

41. CHARACTERISTICS OF EPIC
 Supernatural forces
 Conflict in form of
combat
 Stylistic
conventions

42.  Characters experience
universal emotions
 Hero is demigod
 Begins in media res
 Contains good vs evil battle
 Exaggeration and superlatives
CHARACTERISTICS OF EPIC

43. KENNINGS
 POETIC DEVICE
 Composed of 2 WORDS
IN PLACE OF ANOTHER
 EXAMPLES:
 Bait gallows=hook
 Blood worm = sword
 Feeder of ravens =
warrior

44. Epic hero
 Represents a whole culture
 Universal aspects of human condition
 Embodies qualities of human greatness
 Exists for the sake of community and
protect community from evil
 Larger than life
 Shows proof of victory
 Boasts of prowess
 Acclaimed after death

45. End of anglo-saxon period
 Norman French
Invasion 1066

46. Beowulf

47. beowulf
 Anglo-Saxon epic
poem
 Dates from late 10th
century
 Considered work of
anonymous 8th-
century poet
(English monk)
 Fuses Scandinavian
history and pagan
mythology

48.  It is neither about Englishmen nor
Christians
It is about several Scandinavian people
(tribes), mainly the Geats and the Danes,
but also the Swedes.
It was written down, in the kingdom of
Mercia (East Central England today) at
around 700 AD
 The plot is in Geatland and Denmark (the
island of Zealand and in Southern Sweden) .
. . Or more generally, in the Baltic region of
beowulf

50. The scary pLOT
Beowulf takes place in a “once upon a time
world” and that it taps into “three archetypal
sites of fear”:
 The barricaded night house (Grendel)
 The infested underwater current
(Grendel’s mother)
 Reptile-haunted rocks of a wilderness
(dragon)
 A murky lake
 The dark recesses of the earth

51. Main characters
 Beowulf (Geat)
 Hrothgar (Dane)
 Unferth (Dane)
 Wiglaf (Geat)
 Grendel
 Grendel’s mother
 The dragon