The norman period the norman conquest

The Northmen or the Vikings who had settled in Northwestern France were called Normans. They had adopted the French civili­zation and language. They were good soldiers, administrators and lawyers.

¹ ecclesiastic [i,kli:zi'a?stik] — of the Christian Church

In 1066 at the battle of Hastings ['heistirjz] the Norman Duke William defeated the Saxon King Harold. Again a new invasion took place. The conquerors began to introduce their feudal laws. William the Conqueror, as he was now called, became the king of England. He divided the land of the conquered people among his lords. The English became a servile class.

The life of the English in the Norman times is skilfully de­scribed in Walter Scott's novel "Ivanhoe" ['ап/эппои]. The Norman feudals lived in their castles in great luxury. Their chief occupa­tion was fighting for or against the king, hunting, dancing and tournament¹. The Anglo-Saxons were mostly engaged in farm work. The poorer classes hardly ever ate meat, living chiefly on bread, butter and cheese. That is why many English names for domestic animals have Old English origin, e. g., ox, sheep, calf, pig, deer; while their flesh, in Norman dishes, received names of French origin, like beef, mutton, veal, pork, venison.

LITERATURE IN THE NORMAN TIMES

In the Norman times three languages were spoken in the country: Latin, Norman-French and Anglo-Saxon.

Latin was the language of the clergy and the university scholars. Until the XII century it was mostly monks who were interested in books and learning. With the development of sciences, such as medicine and law, "Universitas" appeared in Europe. Paris became the centre of higher education for English students.

In 1168 an expelled group of professors from Paris founded the first university at Oxford. In 1209 a second university was formed at Cambridge. The students were taught Latin, theology, medicine, grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astro­nomy and music.

The Norman-French was the official language of the king and the aristocracy. The Normans brought to England romances — love stories and lyrical poems about their brave knights and their ladies.

The first English romances were translations from French. But later on in the XII century, there appeared romances of Arthur, a legendary king of Britain. In the XV century Th. Malory collected and published them under the title "Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table". The knights gathered in King Arthur's city of Camelot ['kaemibt]. Their meetings were held at a round table, hence the title of the book. All the knights were brave and gallant in their

¹ the chief military sport of the knights, held in honour of some great event

9

struggle against robbers, bad kings and monsters. King Arthur was the wisest and most honest of them all.

The towns-folk expressed their thoughts in fabliaus ['fgebliouz]¹ and fables².

Anglo-Saxon was spoken by the common people from the V till the XIV century. The songs and ballads about harvest, mowing, spinning and weaving were created by the country-folk, and were learnt by heart, recited or sung accompanied by musical instruments and dancing.

Norman-French and Anglo-Saxon formed one national language only toward the beginning of the XIV century. The language of that time is called Middle English.