lecture II Flashcards
Alfred the Great(849-901)
the most important king of the Anglo-Saxon period,he was also a scholar and writer and supported the Anglo-Saxon chronicle describing the life, history and language of this time
the feudal system at the 11th century-the middle ages
-the king held all power and shared the wealth and lands with the nobility to protect him with armed knights
-the king was assisted and blessed by the church
-the peasants could not resist because on the one hand, they were oppressed by the nobility knights, and, on the other hand, they believed according to the church propaganda that the king was pre-ordained by God to rule
-this system adapted uneven distribution of wealth
The Normans(William I the Conqueror)-what did they do
A lot of castles, cathedrals and monasteries were built as dominant architectural signs characterizing the Middle Ages
-the normans controlled Britain,they(France) won in most of the wars between Britain
-the Normans considered themselves later independent English people
-people started to speak the Middle English at this stage of time
Geoffrey Chaucer(1340-1400)
-the most remarkable literary figure of the middle ages
-he did not write in Latin or in french, critics consider him to be the father of English poetry.
-he is famous for the Cantrbury Tales which records the imagined conversations of pilgrims journeying from London to Canterbury
Beowulf
-a legendary hero who kills powerful frightening creatures and becomes a king in the Old English epic
-written by an anonymous writer in the 8th century.
