The Origin of the English Language - Part VI

Ancient and Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) England

Ancient Period (5000 BC-449 AD)

• Neolithic period, c. 5000-2000 B.C., agriculture, mound tombs
• Non-Indo-European inhabitants
• New Grange, Ireland, 3200 B.C., passage grave.
• Stonehenge I & II (2800-2000 B.C.)
• Bronze Age, 2000-500 B.C.
• Indo-European language, burial with drinking vessels, flint, metal, farms, circular huts, oblong fields
• Celtic inhabitants arrived around 750 B.C., hill forts
• Iron Age (begins in England around 500 B.C.)
• Celtic people in England: Britons (hence the name Britain/Britannia) (other Celtic tribes: Atrebates, Belgae, Brigantes, Catuvellauni, Dumnonii, Ordovices, Silures)
• Celtic languages: Gaelic, Brythonic (Britannic)
• Roman Britain (55 BC-410 A.D.)
• Julius Caesar invades Britain, 55 B.C.
• Roman conquest of Britain takes place gradually; Celtic peoples become Romanized under the influence of Roman administration, Latin culture and language
• ongoing conflicts with tribes of Picts and Scots living in northern Britain; Hadrian's Wall (73 miles long), built 121-127 A.D. as a fortification against Picts and Scots
• some degree of Christianization of the Britons took place after Emperor Constantine's adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire (313 A.D.)
• Roman-Celtic-Christian culture of Britain
• Roman departure from Britain in 410 A.D. (Romans forced to withdraw their troops from Britain due to Germanic invasions of the Roman Empire)
• Germanic Invasions
• beginning around 375 the Huns from Central Asia attacked the Germanic tribes (Goths, Ostrogoths) settled in eastern Europe and drove them to invade the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was destabilized by attacks from the Huns and Germanic raids involving tribes such as the Goths, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians, Vandals, Lombards, etc. Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 A.D. The Western Roman Empire finally fell to the Germanic invaders in 476 A.D.
• Abandoned by the Romans in 410 A.D., Britain is besieged by Picts and Scots
• British leader Vortigern (c. 425-450 A.D.) invites Germanic Saxons into alliance against Picts and Scots
• Saxons turn against their British allies and begin their conquest of Britain (442 A.D.)
• Large-scale Germanic invasions of Britain by Saxons, Angles, and Jutes (449 A.D.)
• British resistance. King Arthur was likely a British general fighting the Saxons, Battle of Mt. Badon (500 A.D.). Death of Arthur at Battle of Camlann (c. 537 A.D.)
• Britons defeated by Germanic invaders and driven away into Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, and Brittany (on northwest coast of France)
• Anglo-Saxons in control of Britain by sixth century; land renamed "England" (i.e. Angle-lond > Engla-lond, "land of the Angles"), and the people "English" (i.e. Angles > Anglisc)
• Roman, Celtic, and Christian culture displaced from England.

Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) England (449-1066 AD)

• Germanic culture dominant in England (pagan, warrior society centered on institution of kinship band or comitatus; worship of wild animals like boar, bear, and wolf; blood revenge and wergild (man-money); importance of acquisition and distribution of treasure; emphasis on pride and glory in battle; heroic poetry; mead drinking and social gatherings in banquet hall; belief in fixed destiny or wyrd)
• Co-existence of seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (Heptarchy): Northumberland, East Anglia, Mercia (Angles), Kent (Jutes), Essex, Sussex, Wessex (Saxons); seventh century Northumbrian dominance, eighth century Mercian dominance, ninth/tenth century West Saxon dominance
• Pope Gregory sends to Kent a Benedictine monk named Augustine (not to be confused with the more famous St. Augustine of Hippo c. 354-430 A.D.) in 597 A.D. Beginnings of the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons.
• Aethelbert I of Kent (Jutes), converted to Christianity by Augustine, first Christian king of Anglo-Saxon England; also compiled law code (c. 600) (including definitions and rules of kinship, use of wergild, status of slaves, freemen, and nobles)
• Gradual Christianization of Anglo-Saxons by Roman and Irish missionaries (St. Aidan and others, 635-655); coexistence of Christian and pagan beliefs, Wyrd and Divine Providence; persistence of pagan customs (e.g. the ship burial of East-Anglian king Raedwald at Sutton Hoo,c. 625 A.D.)
• first Viking attacks 787AD
• Alfred the Great, king of Wessex (r. 871-899), victories over Vikings at Ashdown (871) and Edington (878);Treaty of Wedmore (878) forcing Danish king Guthrum to accept Christianity and retreat to Danelaw (in east England); Alfred captures London (886) and is recognized as king of all England (except for Danish parts)
• West Saxon dialect became literary standard of Old English literature
• renewed Scandinavian invasions in late 10th and early 11th centuries
• Aethelred II Unraed (the "unwise" or "un-ready") (r. 978-1016), king of England, very ineffective in resisting Scandinavian invasions; lost his throne to Danish leader Canute
• Canute, Danish king of England (r. 1016-1035), married Aethelred's widow Emma and fathered Hardecanute, king of England (r. 1040-1042)
• Exeter Book (late 10th century) manuscript containing the Wanderer and the Seafarer
• Cotton Vitellius (early 11th century), manuscript containing Beowulf
• brief return of the Anglo-Saxons to power wtih Edward the Confessor (last Anglo-Saxon king) (r. 1042-1066). Edward was the son of Aethelred II and Emma; Edward lived in exile in Normandy, during Danish rule of England; during his stay in Normandy Edward promised Duke William of Normandy the succession to the English throne
• Norman invasion of England by William of Normandy ("the Conqueror") (claiming the throne which Edward had promised him). Battle of Hastings (1066), defeat of the Anglo-Saxons and end of the Anglo-Saxon Period.