BRITISH LITERATURE

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BRITISH LITERATURE

• WHERE TO BEGIN?
• WELL, AT THE BEGINNING, OF COURSE!

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UNITED KINGDOM and GREAT BRITAIN

• Where and what is it?

Where? In the North Sea, north of the European
mainland
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Whats in a Name?

• GREAT BRITAIN refers to the large mainland island
  that includes England, Scotland, and Wales
• UNITED KINGDOM refers to Great Britain, Northern
  Ireland and the surrounding islands. (The Clydes,
  Inner and Outer Hebrides, The Orkneys, The
  Shetlands, Isle of Wight, etc.)

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ENGLAND
The flag is a red cross on a white background,
the emblem of St. George, the patron saint of
England.

• The national flower is the rose. It is typically
  shown as an eight petal rose with four red and
  four white petals. This symbol was adopted at
  the end of the War of the Roses when the families
  of Lancaster (red rose) and York (white rose)
  were united.

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SCOTLAND

• The flag is a diagonal white cross on a blue
  background, the emblem of Saint Andrew,
  Scotlands patron saint.

The national flower is the Thistle supposedly
the prickly thistle assisted in the defeat of the
English at Colloden Moor.
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WALES

• The national flower is the daffodil, worn on St.
  Davids day. St. David is the patron saint of
  Wales.
• The flag features a Dragon Passant on a Green and
  White field.

Although the national flower is the daffodil, the
leek is more commonly associated with Wales.
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Northern Ireland

• The shamrock is the national flower of Ireland.
  Supposedly St. Patrick, Irelands patron saint,
  used the humble shamrock to explain the Christian
  concept of the Trinity to the pagan Irish.
• The flag, St. Patricks Cross, rarely is
  recognized by Northern Irish as their own flag.
  They associate the flag with British occupation.

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E S W N.I.

• Put England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
  (and all the little islands) together and you
  have

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The United Kingdom

• THE UNITED KINGDOM
• England
• Scotland
• Wales
• Northern Ireland
• And the Islands

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The United Kingdom Flag

• The flag of the United Kingdom of Great
  Britain is sometimes called the Union Jack. This
  red, white, and blue flag was first used in 1801.
  The Union Jack is a combination of the flags of
  England (the cross of St. George), Scotland (the
  cross of St. Andrew), and Ireland (the cross of
  St. Patrick).

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THE UNION JACK
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WHO ARE THE BRITISH?

• Great Britain is a relatively small island that
  has been invaded and settled many times by
• Iberians
• Celts
• Romans
• Angles, Saxons and Jutes
• Normans

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• Whatever we think of as Britain today owes
  something to each of these invaders.
• Isolated from the European continent,
  rain-drenched, and often fogged in, but also
  green and dotted with thatched cottages, quaint
  stone churches, and mysterious megalithic
  ceremonial ruins, Britain seems made for elves,
  legends, and poets.

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• Yet if this land of mystery, beauty, and
  melancholy weather has produced Stonehenge, Robin
  Hood, and Shakespeare, it has also produced the
  theory of gravity, the Industrial Revolution,
  radar, and penicillin.
• We tend to associate Britain with its monarchy
  and former empire.

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• But we must remember that while most of the world
  suffered under various forms of tyranny, the
  British, from the time of the Magna Carta (1215),
  were gradually creating a political system by
  and for the people that remains today a source
  of envy and inspiration for many nations.

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• Although America rebelled against British rule in
  1776, we in America would not be what we are
  today without English common law,with its
  emphasis on personal rights and freedomBritish
  parliamentary government, British literature, and
  the English language. The achievements of
  Britain have helped define and shape our American
  experience since the birth of our republic.

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• The statesman Winston Churchill once jokingly
  referred to the unique kinship of America and
  England as two peoples separated by a common
  language. The U.S. has, in its more than two
  centuries of existence as an independent nation,
  developed a great literature of its own and
  fostered a distinctive culture, even a
  distinctive speech now recognized as American
  English.

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• BUT our American system of government, our
  language, our literature, and our culture, retain
  indissoluble links to Britain. Obviously, other
  nations and cultures have influenced America,
  some profoundly. Still, no single nation has been
  so instrumental in shaping Americapolitically,
  morally, philosophically, and artistically, as
  has Britain.

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• Andthis is simply personal opinionno other
  nation has produced such an unending stream of
  superior literature, as has this green and
  pleasant landthis sceptered islethis England.

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What about those Invaders?

• Who were they?
• Where did they come from?
• And what did they believe?

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THE CELTS

• When Greek travelers visited what is now Great
  Britain in the fourth century BCE, they found an
  island settled by people closely related to the
  tall, blond Celtic warriors who had sacked Rome
  earlier, in 387 BCE. Among these island Celts
  was a group called Brythons or Britons, who left
  their permanent stamp in one of the names
  eventually adopted by the land they settled.

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ANIMISM

• The religion of the Celts was evidently a form of
  animism, from the Latin word for spirit.
• The Celts saw spirits everywherein rivers,
  trees, stones, ponds, fire, and thunder.
• These spirits or gods controlled all aspects of
  existence and they had to be constantly
  placatedwith dances, worship, offerings of food
  and drink, and the occasional animal or human
  sacrifice.

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THE DRUIDS

• The Druids acted as priestly intermediaries
  between the gods and the people.
• Scholars believe that Stonehengethat enormous
  pile of megalithic stones on Salisbury Plainwas
  used by the Druids for religious rites having to
  do with the lunar and solar cycles.

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MOTHER GODDESS CONSORT

• The Mother Goddess was an incredibly important
  figure who appears in many forms in Celtic
  sculpture.
• Nearly everything in life could be explained by
  the relationship between this goddess and her
  male consort.
• The Great Mother was primarily associated with
  nature the male god was associated with the
  tribe and its particular culture.

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• The female goddess often took the appearance of
  mare, sow, female bear, wise woman, healer, and
  human mother.
• The male god often appeared as warrior,
  craftsman, horse, wolf, or stag.
• For life to be good, nature and society needed to
  be in proper balance.
• The Celts, then, hoped that the marriage between
  the Great Mother and the Great Father would
  produce a world in perfect harmony.

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CLASH OF CULTURES

• Beginning with a campaign led by Julius Caesar in
  55 BCE and culminating in one organized by
  Emperor Claudius in the first century CE, the
  Britons were conquered and assimilated by the
  legions of Rome.
• However, it was not a quick or easy victory.

Hadrians Wall in northern England
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QUEEN BOUDICCA

• Indeed, one Celtic warrior queen, Boudicca, very
  nearly routed the Romans, which would make our
  history a very different story.
• Her courage and determination were so renowned
  that a huge statue of her in her chariot still
  stands by Blackfriars Bridge in London.

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THE ROMANS

• Once the Celts were more or less subdued, the
  Romans used the administration that enabled them
  to hold dominion over much of the known world to
  prevent serious invasion of British soil for the
  next several hundred years.
• During Roman rule, Christianity, which would
  later become a unifying force, gradually took
  hold and the old Celtic religion began to fade.

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STRATEGIC WITHDRAWAL

• By 410 CE, however, the Romans, with troubles at
  home, had essentially, evacuated their troops
  from Britain. When the Roman legions withdrew,
  they left no viable nation behind them. They
  left roads, walls, villas, and great baths, but
  not a central government.

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• Never eager to overextend themselves, the Romans
  had been content to push warlike tribes they
  could not assimilate to the west and north
  (Scots, Picts, Welsh). Thus, Britain without
  Roman control was a country of separate clans who
  were now free to pursue their own interests
  without regard for the general welfare.
• The result was political and military weakness
  which encouraged a series of invasions by
  non-Christian peoples from the Germanic cultures
  of continental Europe.

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THE ANGLES, SAXONS, AND JUTES

• The invaders, Angles and Saxons from the Baltic
  shores of Germany and Jutes from the peninsula of
  Jutland in Denmark, drove the remaining
  Celts/Britons before them and eventually settled
  the greater part of Britain.
• The Anglo-Saxon language became dominant in the
  land which was to take another name from the
  invaders.
• Angles Anglelond (land of the Angles)
  Englaland England

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• This is not to say that the newcomers had an easy
  time of it. The Celts put up a strong resistance
  before they retreated into Wales and Scotland.
• There, traces of their culture, especially their
  language, can still be found. One of the most
  heroic Celtic leaders was a man called Arthur,
  who developed in legend as the once and future
  king.

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• At first, Anglo-Saxon England was no more
  politically unified than Celtic Britain had been.
  The country was divided into several independent
  principalities, each with its own king.
• Occasionally, certain monarchs, such as Ethelbert
  I of Kent (560-616), achieved extraordinary
  power.
• But it was not until King Alfred of Wessex
  (871-899), also known as Alfred the Great, led
  the Anglo-Saxons against the invading Danes that
  England became, in any true sense, a nation.

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• The Danes were one of the many Viking peoples who
  crossed the North Sea in the 8th and 9th
  centuries and eventually took over parts of
  northeast and central England, where Danish law
  (Dane-law or wergild) replaced Anglo-Saxon law.

Bow of a Viking ship at sunset, in Norway
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And Left Us

• Beowulf, the only surviving epic poem from the
  period.
• There are fragments of others, but Beowulf is the
  only complete text.

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THE NORMANS

• In 878, Alfred forced the dominance of the Wessex
  kings in the south of England, a dominance that
  lasted until the Anglo-Saxons themselves were
  overwhelmed by the last conqueror of England
  William, Duke of Normandy, who landed his boats
  in England in 1066, becoming known to history as
  William the Conqueror.
• This was the last successful invasion of British
  soil.