english literature Flashcards
main features of epic poetry
“epic” comes from the greek epos, that means oral exposition: in fact at their begining they were sung by scops in kings’ halls with a musical accompaniment of an instrument like an harp; only much later they were written down for example the odyssey was transcripted later with the command of Pisistratus.
the epic poem is a long narrative poetical composition - written in verses - which deals with the heroic acts of an hero or an entire population; it’s often accompained by supernatural elements like gods, creatures, superpowers… it aims to demonstrate the greatness of the main characters.
it also might get inspired from real historical facts or important myths.
examples of epic poems
the oldest epic poem that has come down to us is the epic of Gilgamesh and it deals with the deeds and adventures of a young assyrian king, who really existed but he’s treated in the story as a semi-god. Another 2 famous poems are from the greek culture and their titles are the Odyssey and the Iliad; the 1st deals with the return of Odysseus from the win of the troy’s war and all of his adventures in the mediterranean sea, and the 2nd deals with the story of Achilles, who is a spartan semi-god boy whose only weakness was the heel. For the roman culture we have the aeneid, which attributes the causes of the origin of rome to aeneas, another semi-god trojan warrior. In the northern-europe we find the edda which is a collection of poems written in old norse. at the end for the germanic population there is Beowulf which is really ancient too.
historical context: the most significant invasion in britain, their impact on the society/culture
the first real population that occupied the british territories was the roman one, which stayed there for about 400 years, but then the empereor adrian withdrawn the soldiers and the country was left undefended. there were invasions from different populations but the ones who won and stayed there were the anglies and saxones with the help of danes and jutes; they killed most of the celtic population that was under the roman control. they were pagan and used a runic alphabet but then adopted the roman one after the “christianisation” of england. in the 8th century the plce was conquered by the vikings in the battle of hastings.
economy in the pre-celts
the economy in the pre-celtic period consisted of cutting down and burning forest to make wood, growing wheat, barley and oats, grazing cattle, pigs and sheeps, metalworking, producing pottery and salt, trading overseas and manufacturing leather and cloth.
the role of the women in the celtic society
women were treated almost equally in comparison to how the men were, they could choose the men they wanted to marry, they had their own properties and even could lead other warriors in the war like queen boadicea. queen boadicea was a celtic queen who fought agaist the roman emperor and took place of her husband when he died, but she was still defeated.
origin and main characteristics of the celts
the celts came from the northwest of the germany around the 700 bc, they were tall, mucular with blue eyes and blond hair. they were just farmers, hunters, fishermen, metalworkers and also the introducers of the iron plough for cultivate better. they built massive hill forts as tribal centers or shelters from enemies.
relatioship between nature and celtic religion
they worshipped natural elements like the sun, trees, rivers or the moon and they believed that water was holy because it generated life; they also believed in immortality and transmigration of the soul. their priests were the druids, who held their ceremonies in the middle of forests and not in common temples; they also had other works in justice, education and medecine.
roman invasion
julius caesar tried to invade britain in 55 bc with his soldiers without any permanent consequences, the roman emperior actually did it under the control of emperor claudius. they wanted the rich agriculture of the south, the tin and the lead of the west, the slaves and the england in general as a offshore base. their control lasted 400 years until the raid of the barbaric populations in rome so the soldiers were withdrawn to defend the capital city.
focusing on archeological remains
the most ancient and famous ruins that probably had been built by celts is stonhenge; its a sort of circle made of huge stones planted in vertically on the ground. it was probably used as a ritual center where they could pray and see the night sky.
the second ruin we have is of roman origin and it has been built under the command of empereor adrin so its name is the walls of hadrian and it worked as a border for the roman territories from the others. another roman ruin we can find nowadays are the 9,600 km of roads that they’ve paved to connect cities and army camps around Britain.
An archeological rest we’ve found in 1939 is the sutton hoo: a big ship entirely buried with human rests and artefacts which could be useful in the life after death; there were bones, jewellery, food and weapons there and even a mask that reminds us Beowulf’s times style.
roman impact and influences on the british culture, society and landscapes
in the context of the culture the romans have made a huge impact on the language, because after their conquistes, the old english gained a lot of new words which came from the latin and it began to become the modern english of nowadays; where now we can find big cities, there were often army camps called castra in latin, the word castra in the time changed a little and became the suffix -chester, -caster and -cester and we can find them in places like Manchester, Glouchester and Lancaster; London also mantained its old name which was Londinium. romans have also brought the christian religion in the england territories and it’ll lead much later to the arrive of the monks and monastries. Another roman thing that lasted for really longo are the roads: romans have paved over 9600 km of roads to connect all the cities and the camps.
invasions from northern europe
in the 5th and 6th centuries, in britain there were a lot of population that wanted to conquer new lands, so after a lot of fight and battles the angles, saxones and jutes won and settled down in the south of the adrian’s wall.
organization of the anglo-saxon society
the anglo-saxon community is based on a few and simple concepts like the on who says that you have to always be loyal to your family or clan, the main center of communal life was the hall and you have to swear loyalty to your chief to be protected and safe
cristianization of Britain: consequences
after the retreat of the romans, the british populations came back to the paganism so in 597 pope gregory sent a monk to bring back the christianity in that territories. his mission was succesful and they built a cathedral in where the monk became the arcibishop as a reward. after that they began to found more monastries where monks produced illuminated gospels and were conserved a lot of written stuff thanks to its big library.
the danes
the danes were vikings who lived near the anglo-saxons, on the scandinavian peninsulaand they crossed the atlantic ocean and arrived in britain to find new treasures, cattle and slaves. they conquered the place and it was already the end of the anglo-saxons domination. they changed again the language with their influence and raided the monastries with terrible consequences.
main features of the poem beowulf: origin, retelling, role of the women,hints to religious references
written in old english, beowulf is the most ancient poems surviving in english, even if it isn’t understandable from normal people because the old english was a lot different from what it’s now. originally untilited, the poem took the name of it’s main character who is the scandinavian hero called beowulf. the reason for which this poem was written this long ago is still unknown, an hypothesis could be for the elegy of a king who died in the 7th century. after many retellings it probably was written down in the 11th century. even if there are some historical elements, both the story and characters are fictional.
