British literature is literature from the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. By far the largest part of this literature is written in the English language, but there are also separate literatures in Latin, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Manx and other languages. Northern Ireland is the only part of Ireland still part of the United Kingdom and it possesses literature in English, Ulster Scots and Irish. Irish writers have also played an important part in the development of English-language literature.
The Celts, who came from the Danube and upper Rhinelands, entered Britain after 700 B.C. in successive waves.
Celtic society was rurally based and its centre was the tribe.
Their religion was polytheist. The druids played an important part in the life of Celtic society.The Romans first came to Britain under Julius Caesar (54-55 B.C.) and later under Claudius (42 A.D.).
The Britons were defeated and took refuge behind the mountains. In Wales, Scotland, Cornwall or the Isle of Man they preserved their culture and language.
The Roman invasion of Britain was a significant event ever to happen to the British Isles. It affected language, culture, geography, architecture and even the way of thinking.
The Roman Empire collapsed in 410 A.D. and after the Roman legions left Britain several Celtic kingdoms emerged in the Romanized parts of England.
The Germanic migratory tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes came about A.D. 449 and once again the Britons had to change places.
At the beginning of 1066, Edward the Confessor ruled England. He was 61 years old, and was dying. King Edward had no children, so succession was difficult. There was no direct heir to the English throne.
King Edward died on January 5th - in the first week of the new year. As King Edward had no children, it was uncertain who would rule next.
Christianity came at the pagan Anglo-Saxons from two directions:
The Celtic Church, pushed back into Wales, Cornwall, and particularly Ireland, made inroads in the north from an early base on Lindisfarne Island.
The Roman Catholic Church approached from the south, beginning with the mission of St.Augustine to Aethelbert, King of Kent, in 597.
The first literary productions were oral and anonymous.
The ancient scribes used a primitive alphabet (the letters of which were called Runes), but the Runes were replaced by the Roman alphabet in the 9th – 10th centuries.
The writing materials of ancient Britain included the old “boc” – a wooden tablet coated with wax and written upon with a style made of bone or metal.
Main Features of Anglo-Saxon Poetry: No rhyme;
The rhythm and musicality were provided by alliteration;
Each line was divided into two parts with the help of a caesura;
Parallelism;
Metaphors (“kennings”);
An interweaving of fantastic and real, heathen and Christian elements;
Gloomy atmosphere
The first prose works in Old English appeared beginning with the 8th century.
Much of the older literature of Christian England was written in Latin and dealt mainly with historical issues.
Generally speaking, when we refer to Anglo-Saxon prose, we refer to “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of texts in Old English narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The annals were created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great. Multiple manuscript copies were made and distributed to monasteries across England, and were independently updated. In one case, the chronicle was still being actively updated in 1154.
The development of Anglo-Saxon Literature was suddenly checked by the Norman Conquest, which introduced a foreign idiom and changed not only the language, but also the customs and the whole cultural spirit of the country.
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