Beowulf

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Beowulf
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Great Britain

• The Emergent Period 450-1100 A.D.
• Great Britain has been settled and invaded many
  times by

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Great Britain

• Celts (Irish, Welsh, Scottish)
• Romans
• Angles (English)
• Saxons (Northern Germany)
• Norse (Norway)
• Danes (Denmark)

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The Celts and their Religion

• Animism-the Latin Word for spirit
• The religion of the Celts
• The Celts saw spirits everywhererivers, trees,
  stones, fire, thunder, etc.
• Similar to pagan religions or mythology.
• Spirits or gods controlled everything.

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The Celts and their Religion

• Druids-Celtic priests performed rituals and
  sacrifices to appease the gods.
• The Mother Goddess (Great Mother)-a very
  important spirit fertility and nature figure
• Great Father-associated with tribe, culture,
  warriors and craftsmen

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The Celts and their Religion

• Marriage of the Great Mother and Great Father
  produces a world of perfect harmony.

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The Romans Great Administrators

• Rome conquered Great Britain in the First Century
  A.D.
• The campaign was led by Julius Caesar and the
  Emperor Claudius

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The Romans Great Administrators

• Christianity took hold under the leadership of
  missionaries from Europe and the old Celtic
  religion began to vanish.
• The Romans left Britain in 410 A.D. with many
  buildings but no government.

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The Anglo-Saxons

• After the withdrawal of the Romans, the people of
  the region broke into separate clans who were
  free to pursue their own interests.
• The individual clans were weak and thus
  vulnerable to invasion by the Germanic tribes.

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The Anglo-Saxons

• Germanic tribes called the Angles, Saxons and
  Jutes claimed many areas and established
  competing kingdoms.
• The new language that evolved as these three
  Germanic tribes blended with the native people is
  called Anglo-Saxon, or Old English.

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The Anglo-Saxons

• Christianity reemerges in 597 A.D. when St.
  Augustine converted the King (King Ethelbert of
  Kent)
• St. Augustine founded the Cathedral at
  Canterbury, was the First Archbishop of
  Canterbury and the leader of the church in
  England.

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The Anglo-Saxons

• The Anglo-Saxons were not barbarians, although
  they are often depicted that way.
• There was frequent war fare between tribes,
  clans, and established settlers vs. new invaders.

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The Anglo-Saxons

• The group leader was responsible for law and
  order
• Fame, success and survival were achieved through
  loyalty to the leader.
• Success was measured in gifts from the leader.
  (example-Beowulf is rewarded with riches for
  saving Hrothgars kingdom.)

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The Anglo-Saxons

• Loyal Dependency
• Necessary for protection from vast wilderness
  invaders.
• Sense of loyalty to the community
• A cluster of buildings surrounded by a stockade
  fence.

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The Anglo-Saxons

• Anglo-Saxon Religion
• Similar to Norse Mythology
• Odin-very important Norse god Overcame death to
  learn the great mysteries contained in the runes
  (religious inscriptions the god of death, poetry
  and magic helped humans communicate with
  spirits.

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The Anglo-Saxons

• Anglo-Saxon Religion
• Dragons important figures in Anglo-Saxon
  mythology protectors of treasure
• Overall the Anglo-Saxon religion is based on
  virtue, bravery, loyalty, generosity and
  friendship

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Beowulf

• No known author can be traced.
• Probably written in the eighth century, but
  depicts events from the fifth and sixth
  centuries.
• It is the oldest piece of literature in all of
  Europe.

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Beowulf

• Its author is the Homer of Early Germanic
  culture.
• Archaeologists have determined that the
  Anglo-Saxon societies were very much like the
  societies described in Beowulf and that many
  people would have recognized and celebrated a
  Scandinavian ancestry.

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Beowulf

• For much of history the poem was lost.
• By the time of Chaucer it is unlikely that many
  could have read it.
• By Shakespeares day only the most learned
  antiquaries could read even the simplest Old
  English, and Beowulf was most likely beyond their
  understanding.

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Beowulf

• It is only in the late eighteenth and early
  nineteenth centuries that scholars began to study
  Anglo-Saxon literature, and their early
  translations were wildly inaccurate.
• It was not until after the WWI that Beowulf began
  to be widely read and studied.

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Beowulf

• The Geats Beowulfs clan a seafaring tribe
  residing in the south of Sweden. They appear to
  have been conquered and disappeared into history.
  Beowulf was born in 495, saves Hrothgars
  kingdom in 515 and becomes king of the Geats in
  533.

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Beowulf

• The Danes were Hrothgars people and residents of
  Denmark.