Download File - American Studies Radboud University

EON powerpoints summary
1st migration:
2nd migration:
3rd migration:
4th migration:
5th migration:
Early Indo – Europeans
Celtic tribes
Romans
Anglo-Saxons
Vikings
5000 BC
1700 BC
58 BC
449
793
Ceasars Gallic War:
58-51 BC. Fight in summer, retreat in winter. Lost. Claudius’ invasion AD 43.
What Romans did:
- Towns
- Stone houses
- Roads and bridges
- Walls
- Keep out the Picts
Goidelic Celts from Ireland invade North Britain
Goidelic Celts and Picts attack Brythonic Celts and Romans in South Britain
Anglo-Saxon to the rescue
led by the legendary Hengest and Horsa
raid Picts and Goidelic Celts in North Britain
invade and settle in South Britain
drive Celts in South Britain to the West and Continent (Brittany)
What Anglo-Saxons did:
- Introduce Christianity
- Irish mission of St. Columba Northumbria 565
- Roman mission of St. Augustine of Canterbury Kent 597
- Merged small kingdoms into seven bigger
- Kent dominated early on, Northumbria in 7th and 8th century, Wessex after 8th century
Lindisfarne:
Vikings. 793
Vikings:
pirates and traders from Scandinavia
coastal raids in summer, home in winter
first winter camp in 851
“the heathen army for the first time remained over the winter” (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)
first permanent settlement in East Anglia in 865
large parts of Britain overrun
one English kingdom left in 871: Wessex
King Alfred:
- Fought Vikings
- Reorganizes military strategies, guerrilla tactics
- Pease settlement in 878
- Treaty of Wedmore with Viking leader Guthrnum
-
Vikings settle in Danelaw
Reform:
King Alfred:
- Promotes learning
- Important works translated into English
King Athelstan:
- Unites England and subdues North Britain
King Edgar:
- Benedictine reform (The Monastic Reform Movement that restored the Benedictine
Rule to England's undisciplined monastic communities peaked during the era of
Dunstan, Æthelwold, and Oswald)
- Reform of monastic life
- Revival of learning
- English used as language of learning
King AEthelraed Unraed
- Fled to Normandy in 1013, returned in 1014
- Died in 1016
Vikings 2.0:
- King Æþelræd Unræd (978-1013, 1014-1016)
- fresh invasions of Vikings from Dublin
- antagonises Anglo-Saxons (pays Danegeld after Battle of Maldon in 991)
- antagonises Vikings (St. Brice’s Day massacre in 1002)
- Scandinavian kings take over (1013, 1016-1042)
- Svein Forkbeard
- Cnut the Great
- Harold Harefoot
- Harthacnut
Cases:
Nominative
- Subject
- Complement
- Address
Accusative:
- Direct object
- Following some prepositions of motion; duration of time
Genitive:
- Possessive
- Partitive, descriptive, objects of some verbs, expression of time
Dative
- Indirect object
- Following most prepositions
- Objects of some verbs, expression of time
THE/THAT
Nominative(Su)
Genetive(poss)
Dative(iO)
Accusative(dO)
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
se
seo
þæt
þa
þæs
þære
þæs þara
þæm
þære þæm þæm
þone
þa
þæt
þa
Pronouns:
- Personal, demonstrative, interrogative, indefinite, relative, reflexive, reciprocal
Nouns:
- Never change class
- Weak/strong/Athematic
- Feminine/masculine/neuter
Weak:
- Ending –an
Strong:
- Endings –es – as –um
Athematic:
- Affected by i-mutation
Strong long/short stem:
?
3 processes strong nouns you should be aware of:
- Loss of h between 2 voiced sounds
- Syncopation (loss of vowel in 2nd syllable)
- Parasite vowels (-u/-p and /e alternating with -w and-g)
Paganism:
Anglo-Saxons during period of migration (c. 450-600) are pagans (but remember: the Britons
had been Christians since the 4th century!)
Evidence of Anglo-Saxon paganism:
– Placenames, e.g. Tuesley, Woodnesborough
– Archaeological evidence, e.g. Sutton Hoo (ship burial, 6th/7th century)
– Names of weekdays (Tiwesdaeg, Wodnesdaeg, Thunresdaeg, Frigesdaeg)
– Names of feast days (Easter)
Conversion to Christianity:
597: St. Augustine arrives in England (sent by Pope Gregory: ‘Non Angli, sed Angeli’)
– First converts king Æthelberht of Kent, who was married to Bertha, the
Christian daughter of the Frankish king
– Builds church and abbey in Canterbury
627: King Edwin of Northumbria converted through his wife Ethelberga (the daughter of
King Æthelberht!)
633: Edwin’s pagan cousin Osric becomes king
634: Oswald becomes king of Northumbria and spreads Christianity even further
However: Oswald had been converted in Scotland by an Irish missionary and Irish
Christianity (‘Iona Rule’, St. Columba) was not the same as Roman Christianity… It becomes
more complicated: Oswiu (Oswald’s brother, converted by Irish missionaries) succeeds
Oswald in 642 and marries Eanfled of Kent, a Roman Christian (and daughter of Edwin).
664: ‘Clash of the Christianities’ leads to Synod of Whitby, with the Roman Rule as the
victor (points of debate: Easter date, tonsure).
Christianity strengthened ties with continent and brought Latin literature to England. It also
caused the founding of monasteries (e.g. in Lindisfarne): Benedictine Rule (regular vs. secular
clergy)
– Learning
– Wealth
– Art
– 8th/9th century Viking attacks caused trouble, but Alfred the Great forced
baptism of Viking Guthrum in 878
– 10th century Benedictine Reform: power shift to monasteries (which were no
longer double) and regular clergy
– However, fresh Vikings come from Dublin and Norway in the late 10th
century
– After King Cnut ascends the throne (1016), Christianity becomes stable
Anglo-Saxon Christianity:
As Pope Gregory pointed out: Incorporating existing rituals into Christianity is a good idea
(i.e. amalgamation)
Amalgamation is omnipresent:
– Remaining interest in Germanic legends (e.g. Weland the Smith)
– Royal genealogy: According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, King Æthelwulf
descended from both Woden and Adam (with the former being a descendant
from the latter)
– Mixing of Christian and heroic themes in literature (e.g. Dream of the Rood,
Exodus, Life of St. Edmund)
– Magic charms containing both Germanic and Celtic pagan elements as well as
Christian elements
Anglo-Saxon religion in stages:
Heathen age (Germanic and Celtic legacy)
Conversion and expansion (amalgamation)
Struggle for survival (Viking attacks):
Christianity consolidated (union):
c. 450 - c. 600
c. 600 - c. 800
c. 800 – c. 1016
c. 1016 onwards
Similarities Germanic belief system and Christianity:
- Creation myth
- Afterlife (Walhalla (if you die in battle, drinking and feasting)/Niflheim &
Heaven/Hell)
- End of the world (Ragnarok/Judgment Day)
Differences Germanic belief system and Christianity:
-
Culture: honor/shame vs truth/guilt
Society/rule: secular (comitatus) vs religious (omnipotent God)
Gods are ‘unpredictable’ vs God’s commandments
Gods uses Midgard for their own entertainment vs God protects and judges
Summer/winter feast vs Christmas and Easter. Turned winter into Christmas etc. Three
for Christmas is pagan, and bunnies and eggs for Easter.
To help conversion:
- Christian beliefs explored in poems
- Modified stories (Germanic heroic ideals)
Mark Alexander lecture:
4 types Old English word formation:
1. Inherited native Germanic
2. Affixion
3. Compounding
4. Borrowing
1.
Common to Germanic languages. Core of English. Often monosyllabic. Disyllabic word
initial stress. Problem is there is no box with “Old English”. Beginnings and endings are
fussy. Ablaut: 3 parts. Root theme ending. In Old English mixed up. Words can change class.
Germanic process.
2.
Prefixes:
abegeforintensifier
oferinexcess
onhas begun already / to undo
unnegation
suffixes:
-ig
bloodY
-isc
ish
-leas
less
-lice
from adverb to adjective
-dom
state of being
-ung
verb/noun
Suffixoid  sometimes suffix. We don’t know. People do weird things.
3.
SAE mann = sAEman = seaman. Second part is head, what gives you grammatical info. If
that is masculine, so is the compound. Very common in English texts in Old English poetry.
Very fixed structure. They compounded endlessly to keep to that (poetry)form.
Nihthelm
knights helmet
Banhus
body
Frungar
first spear = leader
Nouns are most common.
4.
You don’t learn language from the country you invade.
- Continental borrowings
- Settlement
- Christian. 7th century first wave used for religion. 2nd wave technical, educated,
formal. Few hundred.
Verbs
Non finite (no info about time of action or state):
- Uninflected (helpan)
- Inflected (to …-anne)
Finite (describes action or state of the subject):
Marked for:
- Person (1,2,3)
- Number (singular, past)
- Tense (present, past)
- Mood
- Indicative: factual
- Subjunctive: hypothetical, opinion, condition
Finite – imperative:
Expresses command. Stele pa boc!
The participle (expresses aspect)
- -ing word
- Present  ongoing, linked to auxiliary
- Past  completed or passive, linked to auxiliary
Types of verbs:
- Weak verbs (regular)
o 3 classes
o Dental suffix to form past tense
o Regular sound changes may operate on paradigm
o Infinitive underwent i-mutation
o Past tense underwent another change (-c- > -h- before t)
o Contracted forms may occur
- Strong verbs (regular)
o 7 classes
o Regular changes in stem vowel mark tense and aspect
o Class 4: stelan (pres) stael (past 1) staelon (past 2) stolen (past participle)
o Other sound changes may operate on paradigm
o Stelan  he stil(th)  i-mutation
o Ceosan  curon (past participle)  Verners Law
o Contracted forms may occur
o All regular
- Preterite-present (regular)
o Small group
o Basis for modal auxiliaries
o Resemble strong verbs in present tense and weak verbs in past tense
o All regular
- Anomalous (irregular)
o 4 verbs
o
o
o
o
Don and gan have weird pasts. Don  dyde, gan  eode
Willan has weird inflectional morphology in the present tense
Pu wilt (not wilst), he wile (not wilP)
Sien/beon/wesan is all weird, mix of 3 forms: s and v forms, b forms, w forms.
Negation is usually formed by placing the adverb “ne” in front of the verb. Some verbs
contract with “ne”. Double negation is even more negation.
In Old English society was poverty, feudalism, and life for most people was short, nasty and
brutish.
Comitatus:
Bond between warrior and his lord. Mutual loyalty, military service for weapons, feasts and
treasures.
Anglo-Saxon invaders:
- Groups of warriors led by warlords
- Centred around the hall of the lord
- Warrior society with little distinctions beyond lord and retainer
Later Anglo-Saxon social structure:
Conquest and expansion:
• settlements
• small kingdoms
• bigger kingdoms
• heptarchy
• Anglo-Saxon England
results
• power not only based on force, but on position
• society gets diversified
Feudalism:
• bond between nobleman and his king
• based on mutual loyalty: military service for land ownership
• subdivision of kingdoms into smaller units, e.g. earldoms, shires, hundreds, tithings,
hides
Layers:
• king and witan (counsel of wise men)
• or king and gesithas
• highest king: Bretwalda
• gesithas
• ealdormen, later: eorls
• formed witan
• thanes/retainers
• ceorls (low-ranking freemen)
• slaves, freedmen, serfs (bound or employed)
Diversity:
society is combination of power, religion and workforce
• three estates
• bellatores (those who fight): king and ealdormen/thanes
• laboratores (those who work): ceorls, slaves, serfs
•
oratores (those who pray): priests, monks
position in society precisely defined
• Germanic system of mutual loyalty (comitatus)
• feudalism
• Christian system of law codes
Feuds:
Position inherently based on
• physical power
• connections (kinship, lordship)
So what happens when someone kills someone else or offends their honour?
• necessitates assertion of power
• through feuds
Feuds: ‘conditions of hostility between individuals or groups within the one community
caused by wrongs done by one side to the other’ (Encyclopedia of ASE)
Resolving a feud:
• revenge (regulated violence)
• intermarriage (freoðuwebbe ‘peaceweaver’)
• later: compensation (the bloodless alternative)
Compensation possible through rules
• expressed in law codes
• Christian innovation (alternative to violence)
• offer additional protection
• rules:
• wergild (‘man money’)
• manbot (‘man fine’)
• outlaw
In Anglo-Saxon literature
• Germanic principles of feud, loyalty, kinship (or being friendless)
• not Christian principles of compensation and legal protection
Women:
A tough, oppressed life?
• Anglo-Saxon proverb: ‘A woman’s place is at her embroidery’
• freoðuwebbe
• theme in Anglo-Saxon literature: geomoru ides ‘the sad woman’
• high child mortality
Feminist scholars: “For women, Anglo-Saxon England was a golden age of power and wealth,
culture and education”
• queens and abbesses, e.g. Æðelflæd, Hilda
• morgengyfu
• laws offer explicit protection for women against rape, arranged marriage and
desertion
Adjectives:
• basic form, e.g. god
• declined for
• context and type (strong, weak declension)
• for strong declension: stem length (long or short)
•
•
•
gender (masc., neut., fem.)
number (sg., pl.)
case (nom., acc., gen., dat., instr.)
Type:
Weak declension. Applies when adjective follows (context):
o demonstrative pronoun (þæt gode wif (nom./acc. sg. neut.))
o possessive adjective (=declined gen. of personal pronoun) (þines godan wifes
(gen. sg. neut.))
o genitive noun or NP (þines wifes gyldena healsbeag (nom. sg. masc.))
always weak (type):
o comparative adjectives (ieldra mann (nom. sg. masc.))
o ordinal numbers, except for oðer
o cardinal number an (in meaning: alone) (ic ana wat (nom. sg. masc.))
How to recognize:
• mostly like declension of weak nouns
• so few morphological distinctions
• nom. + ac. pl. all genders is: -an, e.g. godan
Things to look out for:
• contraction
• root final -h- between voiced sounds is lost (heah: gen. sg. masc. heahan >
hean)
• syncopation
• second syllable of two-syllable adjective is shortened (fæger: gen. sg. masc.
fægeran > fægran)
Strong declension. Applies when:
• weak declension does not apply (god wif (vs. weak þæt gode wif))
Always strong (type):
• possessive adjectives (þines godan wifes (gen. sg. neut.))
• the ordinal number oðer (oðer æg (acc. sg. neut.))
• the cardinal number an (in meaning: one) (anre giefe (gen./dat. sg. fem.))
How to recognise?
• mostly like declensions of dem. pronouns and strong nouns
• so more morphological distinctions than in weak declension (including an
instrumental)
• nom. + ac. pl. is distinguished for gender: masc. gode; neut. god; fem. goda
Things to look out for:
• contraction
• root final -h- between voiced sounds is lost (heah: acc. sg. masc. heahne > heane)
• syncopation
• second syllable of two-syllable adjective is shortened (fæger: nom. sg. fem. fægeru >
fægru)
Numerals:
Cardinal:
Things to look out for:
• the cardinal an is declined either strong (one) or weak (alone)
• the cardinals twegen and þrie have their own paradigm
• numbers over 69 have the prefix hund• hundeahtatig (hence Dutch acht, but tachtig)
• hundnigontig, hundteontig (an hund), hundendleofantig, hundtwelftig (hundtwentig)
• points to a duodecimal counting system
Ordinal:
• always adjective
• the second coming
• forms
• forma/fyrmest/ærest, oðer, þridda, feorða, fifta, siexta, seofoða, nigoða, teoða,
endlyfta, twelfta
• -teoða: þreoteoða… nigonteoða
• -tigoða: twentigoða, an and twentigoða…
Things to look out for:
• ordinals are always treated as weak adjectives, except for oðer
• numbers over 69 have the prefix hund• hundeahtatigoða (80th)
Literature:
• OE writings fraction of all writings in ASE
• most is in Latin
• vernacular for literary expression very early for Europe
• earliest post-conversion OE poem: Cædmon’s Hymn
• Golden Age: Latin
• Viking Age: Old English (and Latin)
• Benedictine Reform: Latin and Old English
• c. 3,047 texts in Old English
• heavy losses throughout history
Category of literature is broader, almost everything we don’t see as literature is literature.
Roman mission
St. Augustine starts converting South of Britain (597). King Æthelbert of Kent converted.
Irish mission
St. Columba starts converting Scotland (565). King Oswald of Northumbria (635-642)
converted. Both missions brought Christianity, albeit in different flavours.
Christianity is religion of the book. If you wanted to understand the bible you had to be able
to read:
• Bible
• literacy
• new script
• production of manuscripts
• bureaucracy
• monasteries
Golden Age of learning (600-800):
• coming with Christianity… coming of the Vikings
• literate form of learning introduced to AS
• learning was mainly non-literate before conversion
• school of Theodore and Hadrian
• works of Aldhelm, Bede and Alcuin
• Latin
• focus on elementary education
• focus on learning (sciences, theology)
School of Theodore and Hadrian
Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury (669-690)
Hadrian, abbot of St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury (669-710)
“They attracted a large number of students, into whose minds they poured the waters of
wholesome knowledge day by day. In addition to instructing them in the holy Scriptures, they
also taught their pupils poetry, astronomy, and the calculation of the church calendar… Never
had there been such happy times as these since the English settled Britain” (Bede,
Ecclesiastical History)
Aldhelm (639-709):
• educated by Theodore and Hadrian
• from a noble family, related to the kings of Wessex
• abbot, bishop, scholar and poet
• De laude virginitates
• wrote poetry in Old English?
Bede (672-735)
• entered the monastery at the age of 7
• prolific writer and polymath:
• historiography (Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum)
• hagiography
• theology
• computus
• natural science
• poetry
• orthography, etc.
• influential: read even today
Alcuin (735-804)
• leading scholar at the court of Charlemagne
• advisor to Charlemagne
• writer and polymath:
• grammar
• mathematics
• orthography
• poetry, etc.
• “Quid enim Hinieldus cum Christo?” in letter to Bishop Higbald of Lindisfarne, in 797
Anglo-Saxon class room:
• limited number of pupils
• acquisition of literacy
• reading/writing, clerical/lay, male/female, Latin/vernacular
• knowledge of Bible
• portions by heart: Psalms, etc.
• Anglo-Saxon curriculum
• liberal arts
• trivium: grammar, rhetoric and dialectics/logic
• quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, harmony/music, and astronomy
With Vikings came decline in learning, ruined everything. King Alfred died. Centers of
learning destroyed. Shortage of learned people in England.
King Alfred the Great (Viking age) (849-899)
• sources on Alfred the Great
• Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
• introductions to ‘Alfredian texts’
• Asser’s Vita Ælfredi (893)
Aims:
• gather group of witan from wherever possible
• improve state of learning in monasteries and among laymen
• instill idea of just leadership
• revival of learning (‘Alfredian texts’)
• Gregory the Great, Cura Pastoralis
• Gregory the Great, Dialogues
• Augustine, Soliloquia
• Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae
• Orosius, Historia adversus Paganos
• Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
• Psalms (first fifty)
• Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Benedictine reform (950-1025):
• started in reign of King Athelstan. First quarter of eleventh century
• Athelstan (c. 895-939), the first king of England
• Battle of Brunanburh (937)
• imported relics, books and scholars
• supported scholars and clergy, like Dunstan and Æthelwold
• Dunstan and Æthelwold leading figures of the BR
• revive Benedictine monasticism
• replace secular bishops with monastic bishops
• revive Anglo-Saxon learning
• stress use of English as medium of learning
Scholars:
• Aelfric of Eynsham (c. 955-c. 1010). Monk, and later abbot of Eynsham. Sermons and
religious doctrine. Natural science
• Wulfstan of York (†1023). Advisor to Cnut. State administration.
• Byrhtferth (c. 970-c. 1020). Natural science.
Manuscript culture:
• Junius manuscript
• Vercelli Book
• Exeter Book
• Beowulf manuscript
How does King Alfred describe the state of
learning in England?
So complete was the decay of learning among the English people….
...that there were few this side of the Humber that could understand
their services in English, or even translate a letter from Latin into
English, and I imagine that there were not many beyond the Humber
(Beyond the Humber is Danelaw territory) - Northumbria (= north of the
Humber)).
And how does he propose to remedy the situation?
Therefore it seems better to me. if it seems to you, that we also
should translate certain books which are most necessary for all
men to know into the language that we can all understand...
Who will be educated, and in what and to what extent?
that all the they young freeborn men now among the English
people, who have the means to be able to devote themselves to
it, may be set to study for as long as they are of no other use,
until the time they are able to read English writing well.
Did King Alfred make a literal translation of his original?
When I had learned it, I translated it
into English as I understood it and as I
could interpret it most intelligibly; and
I will send one to every bishopric in
my kingdom; and in each there will be
an æstel worth fifty mancuses.
What are King Alfred’s motives for translating Gregory’s Pastoral Care and other important
works into Old English?
what wise men there were throughout the English people, both in sacred and in
- Our forefathers had knowledge and wealth; we have lost both; if we can get
the knowledge back we will also get wealth!
And all other Christian nations also translated them into their own language.
- Follow a tradition set by Greeks and Romans and 'other Christian nations'.
- propaganda: setting out what good leadership/kingship should be
Why would King Alfred list his teachers (archbishop Plegmund, bishop Asser, mass-priest
Grimbold and masspriest John) in his preface? Does Ælfric do something
similar?
- Ælfred: "Auctoritas", i.e. you always had to back up your
claims by referring to others. (like our present day
footnotes)
- All his teachers are foreigners (Asser is Welsh, for
instance): underlines the seriousness of the situation.
- Aelfric: He gets his authority from God.
What are Ælfric’s motives for writing his book and translating it from Latin to English?
- There are many English books around which speak untruths (heresy)
- People need learning especially now, seeing as the Antichrist is about to arrive
Adverbs:
Also, before, ever, much
Conjunctions:
However, nevertheless, so, therefore, thus
Interrogative:
How, when, where, why
Adverbial:
By day, daily, immediately
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Not declined
Losses and changes of meaning. Loss: eac > also. Change of meaning: sona
(immediately > soon)
basic form
ær, eall (entirely), efne, ne, siððan, swa (so), þa (then). Hu, hwider, hwanon, hwær,
hwonne, hwy
adjective + -e
hraðe, wearme
adjective/noun + -lic + -e. Sarlice, unrihtlice
noun + case ending. sume dæge (some day), hwilum (at times), nihtes (by night)
Comparison (adverbs made from adjectives):
• comparative: adjectival stem + -or
• superlative: adjectival stem + -ost
• other adverbs
• comparative: stem + -(r)ra
• superlative: stem + -mest
Things to look out for:
• sometimes i-mutation in stem vowel in comparative (with loss of ending). softe, seft,
softost
• sometimes i-mutation in stem vowel in comparative (with loss of ending) and
superlative (with -ost > -est). lange, leng, lengest
• sometimes anomalous comparatives and superlatives. wel, bet, betst (well, better,
best). Lytle, læs, læst (little, less, least)
Conjunctions:
Coordinating conjunctions link elements; and, or, but
ac, and, oþþe
Correlative conjunctions link pairs of elements; both… and, either… or
ægþer… ge (both… and), na þæt an… ac eac swilce (not only… but also), ne… ne (neither…
nor)
Subordinating conjunctions introduce sub-clauses; although, as, because
butan (except), gif (if), swa (as), þa (when)
for þam þe (because), wiþ þam þe (provided that)
• Not declined
• Losses. ac > but, for þam þe > because
• No standard forms (like -lic for adjectives, -e for adverbs)
Things to look out for
• subordinating conjunctions are easily confused with conjunctive adverbs. Differences:
• conjunctive adverbs stress logic
• subordinating conjunctions introduce sub-clauses
• how to tell adverbs from conjunctions in OE:
• sometimes conjunctive adverb + þe = subordinating conjunction
• for þæm (therefore) versus for þæm þe (because)
• sometimes doubling
• swa (so or as) versus swa swa (as, literally: so as)
• þa (then or when) versus þa þa (when, literally: then when)
Prepositions:
• Not declined. Instead: prepositions assign case to their “prepositional” object (cf.
transitive verbs and their objects)
• Usually either dative or accusative, sometimes genitive, sometimes more than one case
• If more than one case: dative mostly for location, accusative mostly for motion or
direction. in: dat. in, acc. into
• Losses and changes of meaning. mid (with) and wiþ (against): feohtan mid versus
feohtan wiþ
• No standard forms (like -lic for adjectives, -e for adverbs)
Cædmon’s Hymn
• composed ca. 680
• first appears in Latin in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History (ca. 731)
• first copies in OE found in later 730s
Vercelli book
• Vercelli, Cathedral Library, MS CXVII
• second half of tenth century
• contents
• Dream of the Rood
• homilies
• hagiographical texts
Junius MS
• Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 11
• early eleventh century
• contents: Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, Christ and Satan
Beowulf
• London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius A. xv
• early eleventh century
• contents: Beowulf, Judith
Poetry:
• each poetic line has two verses
• the two verses are divided by a caesura
• rhythm
• each verse has two stressed syllables (lifts) and two or more groups of unstressed
syllables (drops)
• five standard patterns
• alliteration
• one or both stressed syllables in the first verse alliterate with first stressed syllable in
the second verse
• vocabulary:
• archaic words, often only found in poetry
• Cædmon’s Hymn: meotod, or
• poetic compounds
• Cædmon’s Hymn: modgeþanc
• synonyms for lord/warrior/man
• Cædmon’s Hymn: weard, meotod, wuldorfæder, etc.
• kennings
• Exodus: heofon-candel; Beowulf: hwæl-weg
• syntax
• freer word order than in prose
• lack of pronouns and prepositions
• variation/apposition
• “repetition in different words of an element of a sentence”
• formulas
• stock phrases
Hroðgar maþelode, helm Scyldinga (Beowulf, l. 456)
Unferð maþelode, Ecglafes bearn (Beowulf, l. 499)
Beowulf maþelode, bearn Ecgþeowes (Beowulf, l. 529)
• stock themes, e.g. in heroic poetry
• beasts of battle
• boasting (flyting)
• arming scenes
Wisdom poetry:
• use of maxims or aphorisms
• general concern with state of human existence and order of society
• insight into Anglo-Saxon priorities, attitudes and beliefs
• fortunes of men
Elegies:
• focus on transience of life and earthly glory
• often concentrate on themes of separation or exile
• often compare the present (cold, wintry, deprived of joy, alone) against the past
(warmth, happiness, company)
• The wanderer
Heroic poetry:
• heroic ideals
• boasting (beot, flyting)
• fate (wyrd)
• glory (dom) and praise (lof)
• imagery of battle
• beasts of battle, warriors, war-gear
• glorifies bond between lord and retainer
• mutual loyalty
• allusions to battles or past conflicts
• Battle of Brunanburh
Riddles:
• prosopopoeia
• ambiguity
• direct questioning
• transformation
• double entendre
Seminar slides:
An adverb may be made from an adjective by adding -e; since many adjectives are
made by adding -liċ to nouns or other adjectives, you will often see adverbs ending in līċe. Examples:
wearme 'warmly' from wearm 'warm'
sārlīċe 'painfully' from sār, sārliċ 'painful'.
Adverbs may also be made by adding case endings to nouns, for example,
genitive dæġes 'by day', untances 'unwillingly'
The coordinating conjunctions and/ond 'and', ac 'but' and odde 'or' are not
difficult.
The subordinating conjunctions are a bit more tricky, because they do not always
resemble the Modern English words to which they correspond in function.
ǣr tām (þe) - 'before'
æfter tām (þe) - 'after'
swā may mean 'so' or 'as', but swā swā always means 'as'
- tā tā means 'when'
- tǣr tǣr means 'where'.
The information you will need about each preposition:
- its meanings
- what case the object of the preposition may take
- whether the case of that object influences the meaning of the preposition
NOTE: Several prepositions have different meanings depending on
the case of the object.
- the dative is generally associated with location
- the accusative is associated with movement towards.
heroic ideal
- bravery in the face of overwhelming/impossible odds
- acceptance of a (unusually harsh) situation
- carry out declared intentions willingly
- desire to forge a reputation(posthumously if need be)
- desire to be judged favourably by companions
- loyalty to superiors