English Literature I
Profª Larissa Rohde
UFGRS 2006/02
Pre-Medieval Britain:
• Province of Rome named Britannia after
the Celtic-speaking natives, the Britons
• Natives adopt roman civilization and later
Christianity when Emperor Constantine
converts
• Medieval or Middle Ages begin when
Rome withdraws
Pre-Medieval Britain
The first Englishmen were foreigners
Britons (Celts)
Romans
Anglo-Saxons
Normans
Pre-Medieval Britain
• Welsh = Old English word for foreigner
Pre-Medieval Britain
• Welsh = Old English word for foreigner
• The ancient Romans called them Britanni
Pre-Medieval Britain
• Welsh = Old English word for foreigner
• The ancient Romans called them Britanni
• Norman means “North Man” → absorbed
the culture of the late Roman Empire, had
long been christianized → spoke a variety
of Latin we call Norman French
Medieval era
Often divided into two time periods:
Old English Middle English
Old English
(450-1066)
Anglo-Saxon Invasion:
• After Rome withdraws, Britain is attacked
by the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes
(Germanic seafaring tribes) and is
conquered by the Anglo- Saxons over an
extended period of time
• The Briton’s native language fades, except
in remote parts of Wales
Anglo-Saxon Invasion:
• Christianity wanes, except in remote regions
where Anglo-Saxons do not penetrate
Anglo-Saxon Invasion:
• Christianity wanes, except in remote regions
where Anglo-Saxons do not penetrate
• St. Augustine of Canterbury converts King
Ethelbert of Kent to Christianity in 597
Anglo-Saxon Invasion:
• Christianity wanes, except in remote regions
where Anglo-Saxons do not penetrate
• St. Augustine of Canterbury converts King
Ethelbert of Kent to Christianity in 597
• Christianity has a profound impact on literacy.
There were no books written prior to the
reinstating of Christianity
Anglo-Saxon Invasion
Ethelbert
produces his code of laws, the first major
writing in Old English (Anglo-Saxon)
Anglo-Saxon Invasion
Vikings (the Danes)
• Vikings begin to invade in the 9th century
• this inspires The Battle of Maldon, the last
Old English heroic poem
Anglo-Saxon Invasion
Alfred the Great
• Alfred the Great stops the Vikings from 871-899
by uniting all the kingdoms of southern England
• Alfred translates Boethius’s Consolation of
Philosophy and probably also encouraged the
translation of Bede’s History and the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Invasion
Alfred’s jewel
1066: Norman Conquest
• end of Old English
• 1204 Norman lose contact with the continent – starting
point of Middle English
Norman Culture Anglo-Saxon Culture
Its way of life looked Its way of life looked
South – toward the toward the grey
Mediterranean, the Northern seas – grim,
sun, wine and heavy, humourless,
laughter melancholy
Old English language:
• heavily inflected language
• words change form to indicate changes in
usage, such as person, place, number,
tense, case, mood
• vocabulary is almost entirely Germanic
• earliest record of English language is
preserved in manuscripts in monasteries
beginning in the seventh century
Old English language:
For two hundred years after the Norman
conquest, English was hardly a written
language at all, almost all writing went on
either in the language of the ruling Norman
invaders (French) or in the international
language of the church, of diplomacy, and
of learning (Latin).
Old
Old English language
English language:
The first factor that made English change rapidly
is the arrival in England, over a period of a
couple of hundred years from the 850s onwards,
of a fairly large number of people who spoke Old
Norse, and the arrival over a period of another
couple of hundred years of a group of people
who spoke Old French.
Old
Old English language
English language:
The groups who spoke these languages had
prestige, whether locally in the "Danelaw" in the
case of the Viking settlers who spoke Old Norse,
or nationally in the case of the Norman
conquerors → which meant that there was some
pressure for English-speaking people to learn
and even to prefer the other languages
Old
OldEnglish
EnglishLanguage features
language features:
Under these conditions, various kinds of
linguistic mixture occurred: phonological,
lexical, syntactic, and so on. English took
on sounds, words, and ways of
constructing sentences from these other
languages.
Old
Old
OldEnglish
English
EnglishLanguage
language features
features
language features:
Old English verbs were grouped in two
major groups: weak verbs and strong
verbs. A third group contains some verbs
not belonging to neither of those groups.
Old English Language
Weak verbs
Weak verbs form the majority of Old
English verbs. They are divided in three
classes according to the endings in the
preterite:
Old English Language Weak Verbs
Class I
temman (to tame), cf. Swedish 'tämja'.
dman (to judge), cf. Swedish 'döma'.
sellan (to sell), cf. Swedish 'sälja'.
Old English Language Weak Verbs
Class II
lofian (to praise), cf. Swedish 'lova'.
Old English Language Weak Verbs
Class III
habban (to have)
libban (to live)
secgan (to say)
hycgan (to think)
Old English Language
Strong verbs
The denominative for string verbs were
that there was a vowel shift called 'ablaut'
in the root of the verb. Due to different
vowel shifts, strong verbs were grouped in
6 categories. An additional category were
used for reduplicated verbs.
Old English Language Strong Verbs
I group ( - - i - )
btan (to bite), cf. Swedish 'bita', German '
beien', Dutch 'bijten'.
l an (to go), cf. Swedish 'lida' (to pass
'time', to suffer).
Old English Language Strong Verbs
II group (o - a - u - o)
bodan (to offer), cf. Swedish 'bjuda'.
cosan (to choose).
Old English Language Strong Verbs
III group (i, e - a - u -u)
helpan (to help), cf. Swedish 'hj lpa',
German 'hilfen', Dutch 'helpen'.
weoran (to become), cf. German 'werden',
Dutch 'worden'.
bindan (to bind), cf. Swedish 'binda',
German 'binden', Dutch 'binden'.
Old English Language Strong Verbs
IV group (e - - -o)
stelan (to steal), cf. Swedish 'stjäla',
German 'stehlen', Dutch 'stelen'.
Old English Language Strong Verbs
V group (e - - -e)
metan (to measure), cf. Swedish 'mäta',
German 'messen', Dutch 'meten'.
Old English Language Strong Verbs
VI group (a - - - a)
faran (to go), cf. Swedish 'fara', German
'fahren', Dutch 'faren'.
Old English Language Strong Verbs
VII group
lætan (to let, allow), cf. Swedish 'läta'.
Old English
dialects
OLD ENGLISH
LITERATURE
Oral Tradition:
• Anglo-Saxons brought the tradition of oral
poetry with them
• nothing was written down until the
conversion to Christianity
Old English Literature
Focuses primarily on legendary or
historical figures who lived before the
Anglo-Saxon’s → King Arthur’s cycle of
legends is a prime example of this
Old English Literature
Despite the fact that Anglo-Saxon England
is a Christian world which rejects pagan
codes of behavior (namely the revenge
code), they appear to have been fascinated
by their pagan ancestors and many of the
heroic qualities are invoked in their own
heroes (Christ as a warrior-figure)
Old English Literature
• predominately harsh outlook on the world
and romantic love hardly exists
• theme rarely strays from the theme of the
glory of God
Old English Literature
Overall effect:
• formalized and elevated speech
Old English Literature
Overall effect:
• formalized and elevated speech
• moves at a slow and stately pace
Old English Literature
Overall effect:
• formalized and elevated speech
• moves at a slow and stately pace
• from Hymn to The Battle of Maldon (shortly after
1911), the structure and grammar remains in a
strict verse form. We cannot see the changes
taking place in the English language and dialect
through literature
Old English Literature
Overall effect:
• formalized and elevated speech
• moves at a slow and stately pace
• from Hymn to The Battle of Maldon (shortly after
911), the structure and grammar remains in a
strict verse form. We cannot see the changes
taking place in the English language and dialect
through literature
• feels like a single aristocratic voice
Old English Literature
Cynewulf’s poems
• Juliana
• The Fate of the Apostles
• Christ
• Elene
Old English Literature
Cynewulf’s poems
• Juliana
• The Fate of the Apostles
• Christ
• Elene
“Now are my days in their appointed
time gone away. My life-joys have
disappeared, as water runs away.”
Old English Literature
Caedmom
Song of Creation
(ca. 670)
He was a humble
unlearned man who
heard voices telling
him to compose the
poem
Old English Literature
Bede's account of the Poet Caedmon
In ðeosse abbudissan mynstre wæs sum broðor
syndriglice mid godcundre gife gemæred &
geweorðad.
Forþon he gewunade gerisenlice leoð wyrcan, þa
ðe to æfæstnisse & to arfæstnisse belumpen, swa
ðætte, swa hwæt swa he of godcundum stafum
þurh boceras geleornode, þæt he æfter
medmiclum fæce in scopgereorde mid þa mæstan
swetnisse & inbryrdnisse geglængde & in
Engliscgereorde wel geworht forþbrohte.
Old English Literature
Bede’s hymn for the Ascension 1
A hymn of glory let us sing;
New songs throughout the world shall
ring:
Christ, by a road before untrod,
Now rises to the throne of God.
Old English Literature
Bede’s hymn for the Ascension 2
The holy apostolic band
Upon the Mount of Olives stand;
And with his followers they see
Their Lord's ascending majesty.
To them the angels drawing nigh,
"Why stand and gaze upon the sky?
Old English Literature
Bede’s hymn for the Ascension 3
This is the Savior," thus they say;
"This is his glorious triumph day.
"Again shall ye behold him so
As ye today have seen him go,
In glorious pomp ascending high,
Up to the portals of the sky."
Old English Literature
Bede’s hymn for the Ascension 4
O risen Christ, ascended Lord,
All praise to thee let earth accord,
Who art, while endless ages run,
With Father and with Spirit one.
Old English Literature
The Seafarer
Old English Literature
The Seafarer
Anon. (Old English, pre-10th century)
Mæg ic be me sylfum sodhgied wrecan,
Old English Literature
The Seafarer
Anon. (Old English, pre-10th century)
Mæg ic be me sylfum sodhgied wrecan,
May I for my own self song's truth reckon,
Old English Literature
The Seafarer
Anon. (Old English, pre-10th century)
Mæg ic be me sylfum sodhgied wrecan,
May I for my own self song's truth reckon,
sithas secgan, hu ic geswincdagum
Old English Literature
The Seafarer
Anon. (Old English, pre-10th century)
Mæg ic be me sylfum sodhgied wrecan,
May I for my own self song's truth reckon,
sithas secgan, hu ic geswincdagum
Journey's jargon, how I in harsh days
Old English Literature
The Seafarer
Anon. (Old English, pre-10th century)
Mæg ic be me sylfum sodhgied wrecan,
May I for my own self song's truth reckon,
sithas secgan, hu ic geswincdagum
Journey's jargon, how I in harsh days
earfodhhwile oft throwade,
Old English Literature
The Seafarer
Anon. (Old English, pre-10th century)
Mæg ic be me sylfum sodhgied wrecan,
May I for my own self song's truth reckon,
sithas secgan, hu ic geswincdagum
Journey's jargon, how I in harsh days
earfodhhwile oft throwade,
Hardship endured oft.
Old English Literature
The Seafarer
Anon. (Old English, pre-10th century)
Mæg ic be me sylfum sodhgied wrecan,
sithas secgan, hu ic geswincdagum
earfodhhwile oft throwade,
bitre breostceare gebiden hæbbe,
gecunnad in ceole cearselda fela,
atol ytha gewealc, thær mec oft bigeat
nearo nihtwaco æt nacan stefnan,
thonne he be clifum cnossadh. Calde gethrungen
wæron mine fet, forste gebunden,
Old English Literature
The Seafarer
Translated by Ezra Pound.
May I for my own self song's truth reckon,
Journey's jargon, how I in harsh days
Hardship endured oft.
Bitter breast-cares have I abided,
Known on my keel many a care's hold,
And dire sea-surge, and there I oft spent
Narrow nightwatch nigh the ship's head
While she tossed close to cliffs. Coldly afflicted,
My feet were by frost benumbed.
Old English Literature
Beowulf
7th century
The first English epic
Middle English
(1066-ca.1350)
History
• 1066: Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror
History
• 1066: Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror
• Germanic wanderers who had taken wide parts
of France
History
• 1066: Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror
• Germanic wanderers who had taken wide parts
of France
• the Norman conquest slows the progression of
the English language as Latin remains the chief
language of learning, French the favored
aristocratic tongue, and most other works are
written in either Latin or French
History
• 1066: Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror
• Germanic wanderers who had taken wide parts
of France
• the Norman conquest slows the progression of
the English language as Latin remains the chief
language of learning, French the favored
aristocratic tongue, and most other works are
written in either Latin or French
• inflectional system weakens
Middle English Language
• rough phonetic system
Middle English Language
• rough phonetic system
• no standardized language
Middle English Language
• rough phonetic system
• no standardized language
• large amount of words are introduced from
French and many of the older words
disappear.
Middle English Language
• rough phonetic system
• no standardized language
• large amount of words are introduced from
French and many of the older words
disappear. Example:
wanhope
Middle English Language
• rough phonetic system
• no standardized language
• large amount of words are introduced from
French and many of the older words
disappear. Example:
wanhope
Middle English Language
• rough phonetic system
• no standardized language
• large amount of words are introduced from
French and many of the older words
disappear. Example:
wanhope despair
Middle English Language
• spelling often reflects individual dialects
and differs by regions (ex: Chaucer writes
in a London dialect while Sir Gawain’s
author writes in a northwestern dialect)
Middle English Language
• spelling often reflects individual dialects
and differs by regions (ex: Chaucer writes
in a London dialect while Sir Gawain’s
author writes in a northwestern dialect)
• English begins to emerge as the dominant
language
Middle English Language
• spelling often reflects individual dialects
and differs by regions (ex: Chaucer writes
in a London dialect while Sir Gawain’s
author writes in a northwestern dialect)
• English begins to emerge as the dominant
language
• partly due to the need for vernacular
material for priests to use with commoners
Middle English Language
• spelling often reflects individual dialects
and differs by regions (ex: Chaucer writes
in a London dialect while Sir Gawain’s
author writes in a northwestern dialect)
• English begins to emerge as the dominant
language
• partly due to the need for vernacular
material for priests to use with commoners
• teaching in the vernacular was the most
common form of preaching at this time
MIDDLE ENGLISH
LITERATURE
Middle English Literature
Religious Literature:
• the majority of literature during this period is
still religious in nature
• Medieval Latin flourishes in the universities
developing in Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge
• education was taught in Latin with the focus
of becoming a cleric
Middle English Literature
Secular literature:
Geoffrey Monmouth (ca. 1140) writes The
History of the Kings of Britain which links
King Arthur as a descendant of Aeneas.
This work establishes Arthur as a pseudo-
historical figure. This is later translated into
French under the title Roman de Brut by
Wace.
Middle English Literature
Secular literature:
Layamon: English priest expanded and
refined Wace’s poem by writing it in a
combination of alliterative lines and rhyme.
This is one of the earliest Middle English
works.
Middle English Literature
Emergence of great poets:
• unknown author of Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight
Middle English Literature
Emergence of great poets:
• unknown author of Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight
• William Langland – The Visions of Piers
the Ploughman (alliteration: Old English
Style – contemporary of Chaucer)
Middle English Literature
Emergence of great poets:
• unknown author of Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight
• William Langland – The Visions of Piers
the Ploughman (alliteration: Old English
Style – contemporary of Chaucer)
• Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1343-1400) – his
works are a milestone in the transition
from Middle English to Modern English.
Middle English Literature
Langland's Piers Ploughman
The poem reflects growing concern about
the corruption evident in the late medieval
Church and the state of the human soul on
earth; it also reflected the political and
social concerns of northern England in the
fourteenth century in the wake of the
Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
Middle English Literature
Romance:
• Romance: (developed by the French)- romance
comprises a large fraction of secular Middle English:
• often involves fighting against men and monsters
• often uses supernatural elements
• usually deals with a romantic love, often a married
woman
• often uses the formula of a knight’s service to lord, lady,
and God
• Chrétien de Troyes: father of chivalry (where a knight
explores psychological and ethical problems)
• Romances of this time include: Havelok, Ywain and
Gawain, Sir Orfeo, Sir Launfal, and The Weddying of Syr
Gawen and Dame Ragnell
Middle English Literature
Sir Thomas Malory:
author of Morte d’Arthur: Considered the
last of the Medieval romances
Middle English Literature
Le Morte d'Arthur
Malory probably started to work on it while he
was in prison in the early 1450s and completed it
by 1470. Originally Malory intended Le Morte
d’Arthur to be the title of only the final book of his
cycle; he calls the full work The hoole booke of
kyng Arthur & of his noble knyghtes of the
rounde table; Caxton may have misunderstood
the author's intentions when naming the book
Middle English Literature
Le Morte d'Arthur
First published in 1485 by William Caxton
(the first English printer), Le Morte d'Arthur
is the best-known work of English-
language Arthurian literature today. Many
modern Arthurian writers have used
Malory as their source.
Middle English Literature
Malory divided his work into 8 tales:
• The birth and rise of Arthur
• King Arthur's war against the Romans
• The book of Lancelot
• The book of Gareth (brother of Gawain)
• Tristan and Isolde
• The Quest of the Holy Grail
• The affair between Lancelot and Guinevere
• The breaking of the Knights of the Round Table
and the death of Arthur
Medieval Drama
Miracle Plays
Mystery Plays
Morality Plays
Interlude
Medieval Drama
Miracle Plays
• Latin language
• Introduced by the Normans (1066)
• Dealt with the miracles of Christ and his
followers
Medieval Drama
Mystery Plays
• Divorced from the
rituals of the Church
• Performed and
sponsored by a Guild
• Guild pageant =
portable stage
shift to HUMOUR
Medieval Drama
Wakefield’s Second Shepherd’s
Play
• Purely secular story about Mak the sheep
thief, his theft of a new born lamb and his
punishment
• The singing of the Angels announcing
Christ’s birth is a mere epilogue to the
one-act play
Medieval Drama
Morality Plays
• No more a Guild play
• No more subjects from the Bible
• Teach a moral lesson through ALLEGORY
Medieval Drama
Allegory
Presentation of abstract ideas as though
they were real people, as in
The Visions of Pier Ploughman
Medieval Drama
Everyman
• Tells of the appearance of Death to
Everyman (who stands for each one of us)
• Informs Everyman that he must start the
long journey to the next world.
Medieval Drama
Everyman
• Everyman calls on certain friends to
accompany him:
• Beauty
• Five wits
• Strength
• Discretion
Medieval Drama
Everyman
• ... but they will not go!
• Only knowledge and Good Deeds are
ready to travel in his company to the
grave.
Medieval Drama
Everyman: original text
Here begynneth a treatyse how the hye
Fader of heuen sendeth Dethe to
somon euery creature to come and
gyue a-counte of theyr lyues in
this worlde/and is in maner
of a morall playe.
[…]
Dethe.
Almyghty God, I am here at your wyll,
Your commaundement to fulfyll.
Medieval Drama –
Transition to early
Elizabethan Theatre
Interlude
• In the last days of the 15th century it’s
hard to distinguish between the morality
plays and the interlude
• The difference lies not in theme but in
place and occasion of performance
• Two dramatic traditions: an aristocratic
and a plebeian one
• John Heywood’s Play of the Weather
Old English Verse Middle English Verse
Head-rhyme End-rhyme
Alliteration Norman influence:
lightness of touch
The Middle Ages Timeline:
• 658-80: Caedmon’s Hymn (first recorded English
poem)
• 731: Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English
People
• 750: Beowulf is composed
• 871-899: King Alfred reigns
• 1066: Norman Conquest under William I, Duke
of Normandy England becomes a predominately
French speaking nation Beginning of “Middle
English”
• 1095: Crusades begin
The Middle Ages Timeline:
The Middle Ages Timeline:
• 1170: Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, is
murdered
• ca. 1200: Middle English literature begins Layamon’s
Brut
• 1215: Magna Carta: barons force King John to
relinquish some of his power to them
• 1304-13: Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy
• 1337-1453: Hundred Years’ War between France
and England
• 1348: Black Death (bubonic plague)
• 1360- 1400: Geoffrey Chaucer Canterbury Tales;
Langland's Piers Ploughman; Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight.
The Middle Ages Timeline:
The Middle Ages Timeline:
• 1376: First recorded drama held in York
• 1378-1417: The Great Schism
• 1381: Peasants’ Revolt
• 1382: John Wycliffe translates the bible into
English
• 1387-99: Chaucer works on The Canterbury
Tales
• 1399: Richard II deposed, Henry IV succeeds
1400: Richard II is murdered. Chaucer is buried
in Westminster Abbey.
• 1415: Henry V defeats French
The Middle Ages Timeline:
The Middle Ages Timeline:
• 1431: Joan of Arc is burnt by the English at
Rouen
• Ca. 1450-75: Wakefield’s mystery plays
• 1455-85: War of the Roses
• 1470: Sir Thomas Malory works on Morte
d’Arthur
• 1476: First moveable type is introduced into
England by William Caxton
• Richard III dies at Bosworth Field; succeeded by
Henry VII (Tudor dynasty)
Bibliografia
• BURGESS, Anthony. English Literature. London:
Longman, 1986.
• DRABBLE, Margaret e STRINGER, Jenny.
Oxford Concise Companion to English
Literature. Oxford UP, 2003.
• ROBERTS, Gwyneth e THORNLEY. An Outline
of English Literature. Longman, 1994.
• www.gutenberg.org
