1. History Literature & Literary Devices Beowulf Anglo- Saxon England

2. Pre-Anglo-Saxon History Shared language and customs Britain: Britons Ireland: Gaels Scotland: Pics Literature and History: Oral Tradition

3. Pre-Anglo-Saxon History Romans: Conquered Britain, but not Ireland or Scotland Introduced: Eventually had to leave to protect their borders closer to home. Since they protected the Britons, without the Romans, the Britons were targets of new invaders… Latin, Law, Cities, Roads, Written Scholarship, Christianity

4. Anglo-Saxon History 449-1066 Germanic Tribes: Kin/Kinship Reintroduced Paganism Wyrd (fate) Christianity: returned strongly around 597 Vikings 790s Norman Conquest: 1066 Started 200 years of French rule in England Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians

5. Anglo-Saxon Literature & Literary Devices Oral Tradition Photocopiers of the day –Religious Texts - the Bible –Local Lore Epic: long, narrative poem about a hero Alliteration: The repetition of initial identical consonant sounds, or any vowel sounds in successive or closely related syllables Alliterative Verse: Germanic/Celtic in origin; poetic structure based on a patterned repetition of initial sounds in a line of poetry Caesura: a pause/break in a line of poetry

6. Anglo-Saxon Literature & Literary Devices Stock Epithets: Epithet is an adjective used to point out a characteristic of a person or thing. Stock implies that the same word or phrase is repeatedly used to describe the same thing through a narrative. Kennings: descriptive phrase used as a synonym for a simple noun Examples: “the bent-necked wood,” “the ringed prow,” “the foamy- necked,” “the sea-wood” for ship “the swan-road,” “the whale-road” for sea

7. The Beowulf Manuscript Housed in the British Library

8. Old English versus Modern English