The Anglo-Saxon Era

1
The Anglo-Saxon Era

• Early England

2
Ancient People

• Paleolithic man arrived 50,000 years before the
  ice cap severed Britain from the continent in
  5,000 B.C.
• Neolithic man wandered from the Mediterranean
  area, leaving a trail of weapons and tools.
  These people were possibly the builders of
  Stonehenge.
• Celtic tribes were among the earliest inhabitants
  of England.

3
Invasions and War

• Julius Caesar invades in 55 B.C. and the empire
  doesnt withdraw until 410 when the Roman empire
  collapses.
• When Romans withdraw, Germanic tribes begin to
  threaten Celtic chiefs.
• Germanic tribes include
• Angles
• Saxons
• Jutes

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• http//www.history.com/videos/dark-ages-barbarians
  -ii-the-saxons---alfreddark-ages-barbarians-ii-th
  e-saxons---alfred

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• Anglo-Saxons gain control, but they are subject
  to frequent raids and battles.
• Vikings invade in 787 A.D.
• The raids continue until The Battle of Hastings
  in 1066, which ushered in an entirely new era for
  England.

6
Paganism / Christianity

• Anglo-Saxons didnt believe in an afterlife in
  the way that Christians do.
• The Anglo-Saxon warrior could only live on in the
  memory of others this is why it was so
  important to perform heroic deeds during life.
• To become legend is the only way to become
  immortal.
• Anglo-Saxons believed that their lives were
  subject to fate or wyrd. This is unlike the
  Christian idea of free will and choosing
  salvation.

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Anglo-Saxon Life

• Often brutal, violent, and short the fearful
  Grendel of Beowulf symbolizes this worldview.
• Many struggled to find meaning.
• Anglo-Saxons clung to their code of conduct that
  emphasized bravery, loyalty, and heroism,
• Code of the warrior predates the later chivalric
  codes of the medieval knights.

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• http//www.history.com/shows/clash-of-the-gods/vid
  eosbattle-of-beowulf-and-grendel

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The Seafarer

• Written in Old English the name given to the
  Germanic tongues brought to England by invading
  tribes from Northern Europe.
• Provides an accurate portrait of the sense of
  stoic endurance, suffering, loneliness, and
  spiritual yearning characteristic of the time.
• The poem addresses both pagan and Christian ideas
  about overcoming a sense of loneliness and
  suffering.
• Can be thought of as an allegory discussing life
  as a journey and the human condition as that of
  exile from God on the sea of life.
• Most critics believe the poem was written down by
  a Christian monk

10
Anglo-Saxon Poetry

• Alliteration
• Always occurs on stressed syllables
• All vowel sounds alliterate with each other
• A consonant alliterates with itself and consonant
  blends (s alliterates with sh, etc.)

11
More Poetry

• Meter
• -Composed in ½ lines separated with a caesura or
  pause in the middle
• -You must have 2 accented syllables in each ½
  line
• -You may have as many unaccented syllables as
  you like

12
Terms

• Wyrd Anglo-Saxon word for fate
• Caesura Pause
• Kenning A poetic replacement for an ordinary
  term (sea changed to whale-road)

13
Grendel

• Both Beowulf and Grendel use 1st person point of
  view.
• In Beowulf the narrator is a scop who tells the
  story as he heard it, and he frequently intrudes
  into the story to forewarn and comment on the
  action. The effect of the narration is the same
  as 3rd person, but without a disembodied voice.
• In Grendel the monster tells his own story.

14
Point of View in Grendel

• Gardners use of Grendel provides a counterpoint
  to the Beowulf-poets admiring description of the
  Danes and Geats.
• The lesser of the heroic ideal implied in Beowulf
  is shown clearly in Grendel.
• Hrothgar and his people struggle with a lifestyle
  that demands fighting and bloodshed and a
  religion which gives no answers.

15
Humor and Symbolism

• Gardner is noted for his use of different genres.
• Grendel mixes poetry, myth, allusion and black
  humor in Grendels interior monologue.
• He evokes the heroic language of Beowulf with
  poetry, kennings, and sentences reminiscent of
  the rhythm and phrasing of lines of Anglo-Saxon
  poetry.
• The dragon is a symbol of evil.
• Grendels grim resignation to meaninglessness and
  absurdity is underscored by his sardonic,
  cynical, bitter, disillusioned, morbid humor
  black humor.

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Philosophical Terms

• Solipsism
• A philosophy that suggests the theory that only
  the self exists or can be proven to exist.
• An extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of
  ones feelings, desires, etc.

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• Existentialism
• A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and
  isolation of the individual experience in a
  hostile or indifferent universe. It regards
  human existence as unexplainable, and stresses
  freedom of choice and responsibility for the
  consequences of ones acts.

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• Nihilism
• An extreme form of skepticism the denial of all
  real existence of the possibility of an objective
  basis for truth.