Germanic Tribes Flashcards
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Germanic invasions of the Angles, Saxons and the Jutes
What does this invasion mark?
The beginning of the English language
Where did the Anglo Saxons come from?
From the regions of nothern Germany
Where did the Jutes come from?
From the area of modern Denmark
What language did thes tribes speak?
Varieties lf the West Germanic language
Angleland
Land of the Angles
Fifth to ninth century
The island reverted to the barbarious and wild situation of the pre Roman days
Artus
A Briton leader who, for some time after 517, was able to put some successful resistance to the Germanics
What legend was born from Artus
The legend of King Arthur
Characteristics of the Germanic tribes
Barbarous and savage tribes, pirates, with a very primitive system of social organization.
How did the Germanic tribes organize themselves?
In groups of thirty families
Elected common leader of a group of families
Bretwalda
How did they solve problems of everyday life?
They called a witan
Witan
A sort of council of the old and wise man, to get their advice
Weregild
A sort of monetary compensation that the offender had to pay to the family of the murdered person depending on the range and social prestige of the defunct
Four most important kingdoms of the heptarchy
Northumbria, Mercia, Kent, Wessex
Germanic religion
They believed in Germanic mythology of gods and goddesses
Days of the week and Germanic gods
Monday and the moon Tuesday and Tiw Wednesday and Woden Thursday and Thor Friday and Frejya Saturday and Sunday recall latin names
Moral of the Germanic tribes
Physical and moral courage, endurance, and a rough sense of honesty
Arrival of Christianism
560s ac
Pelagious
Developed his own doctrine about salvation rejecting the notion lf the original sin whereas he stressed man’smoral capacity to choose between good and evil.
Patrick
Carried the christian gospel to Ireland sometime in the fourth century
Two missions during 567
Irish monks led by St Columba started their activities in Northumbria
Group of Roman monks led by St Augustine began preaching in the peninsula of Kent
664 ac
Synod in Withby, conference where both missions recognised that Jesus had appointed Peter as the head of the church, so it was necessary to follow the leadership of the Roman church
Importance of the conference of Withby
It linked the development of England to the mainstream of European culture for the following centuries
Why did the German tribes adopt Christianism so rapidly?
Because it offered answers for all the great enigmas of life, and it caught the attention of the gloomy Germanics
Monasteries
Large religious houses in which monks lived together to pray and work, ora et labora
Activities at the monasteries
Working the soil, raising cattle and stock, healing the sick, building churches and edifices, weaving cloth, making chalices and dishes with prcious metals, storing food, grain, and wine, etc.
Most important activity carried out at the monasteries
The writing of manuscripts at the scriptorium
What did the monks write in the manuscripts?
The learning and treasures of the past, but also they started chronicles lf their own time.
Bede
Monk who wrote Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum in the monastery of Jarrow
Nennius
Wrote Historia Britonum in the seventh c
Gildas
Wrote De Excidio et Conquestu Britaniae
Importance of monasteries
Where the light of civilization survived during the dark ages of Europe, where knowledge, learning, technology, history, etc. survived.
Barbarian tribes that were assaulting Europe
Vandals, Goths, Huns
Importance of the Christian church at the time
First institution in shaping of the English society and its worldwide
Anglo Saxons character and weather
They were sad and depressive, probably because of the harshness of the weather.
Wyrd
Destiny that is always fatal
What do their literary creations reveal?
Their no space for woman, love, or beauty. Also, their obsessions and fears.
Typical device of the Anglo Saxon poetry
Alliteration
