British Literature period 1 英国文学史及选读课件.ppt

English Literature of the Anglo-Saxon Period(449-1066) I. Historical background Celtic tribes Roman Invasion by Julius Caesar tribes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes Heptarchy invasions by Danes and Vikings King Alfred the Great Norman Conquest in 1066 St. Augustine, the first archbishop of Canterbury Historical Background The Great Britain consists of 4 islands. They are England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In 43 A.D., the Romans invaded the England, and made south Britain a Roman province. When the Roman Empire declined and its troops left Britain, the tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded the island from Northern Europe around the fifth century. The three tribes gradually settled down and merged into a whole people called English. They spoke a language, which belong to the Germanic language family and which is called Old English today. II. Old English Poetry The religious Group: on biblical themes or saints’ lives; Mixture of Christian and paganM Genesis A / Genesis B /Exodus /The Dream of Rood / The Phoenix Such religious poems suggest that the true function of art, the church and its poets believed, should be not simply to release men’s feelings but also to teach them and to enhance their devotion. Caedmon, the “Father of English Song” Caedmon, a shy and middle-aged cowherd in Whitby, was the man who, having received the gift of song from God, first started to sing Christian songs in English. It is said that he sang the creating of the world, the origin of man, and such as the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and their entering into the land of promise. Thus he was regarded as the “Father of English Song” This story Caedom was told by the historian and theologian Saint Bede the Venerable. But there were no books of Caedmon’s left except a few lines quoted by Bede. Beowulf Beowulf is the first great English literary work and is regarded today as the national epic of Anglo- Saxons. However, the hero and t