Iberians

The earliest evidence of connection between the islands and the world outside (approx. 2500-1300 BC) - trade relations between Egypt and Britain. Britain at that time was inhabited by the Iberians - pre-Indo-European tribe.

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Celts

The Celts migrated to Britain from central and western Europe about 1000 вс. Their language, belonging to the Indo-European family comprising most of the languages in Europe, India and southwest Asia, survived until comparatively recently in Wales, Ireland, northwest Scotland, the Isle of Man and Cornwall.

The Picts and the Scots lived in the North and the Britons in the South. The peasants were Celtic-speaking and a number of rich Celts used Latin. Among Celts there were rich priests, the Druids, who ruled over Britain.

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Romans

The Romans certainly had heard about the island of Britain - long before the conquest. Stories about the gold, silver and pearls in the islands have long attracted them. Julius Caesar crossed the Channel in 55 BC.

But not all happened as he wanted. Famous British weather was the main helper for the Celts. The Romans were poorly prepared to overcome the stormy open ocean, so after a sudden storm most of Caesar's ships were either sunk or blown back to the continent

In 54 BC Caesar makes a new attempt to conquer Britain with five legions and cavalry. Now he had all chances to succeed. But the rebellion in Gaul caused him to return to the continent. The Romans left their plans for the conquest of Britain for almost a century. However, during this period, the empire does not lose contact with the British: it begins a gradual process of Romanization of the Celtic aristocracy.

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Julius Caesar invaded Britain twice, in 55 and 54 BC.

A final conquest of Britain happened in 43 AD under Emperor Claudius.

Most of the island became a Roman colony for more than 3 centuries. In the Roman Empire a civil war began. In 407 the last Roman legions left Britain.

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Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is the name given to the people and sometimes the Old English language after the colonisation of Britain in the fifth century ad by tribes of Germanic origin: the Angles (who conquered the north), the Saxons (who conquered the south) and the Jutes (who conquered the southeast).

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The brightest legends describing this period are the legends about King Arthur. King Arthur remains a very mysterious person. Nobody is sure whether he existed, who was his origin and who were his companions. The image of King Arthur is an expression of the spirit of Welsh resistance to hated British. We will talk about King Arthur and legends about him later.

So, in the 5th century Angles, Saxons and Jutes came from the continent to invade Britain. The newcomers were warlike and illiterate. When the Angles, Saxons and Jutes settled on the island of Great Britain, they were separated from all their kinsmen, which resulted in the differentiation of their speech.

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Old English Language

Old English was spoken in very different dialects until 1066, when England was invaded by William the Conqueror and the Normans from France, who were descended from Scandinavian adventurers. It was a heavily inflected language, that is, the words changed form to indicate person, number, tense, case, and mood, and its vocabulary was almost entirely Germanic.

The Anglo-Saxons had their alphabet of 24 letters called “runes”. Runes went out of use when the Celts accepted Christianity in the 7^th century and the Latin alphabet was introduced.

After conversion to Christianity became more general in the seventh century, some of the Old English poems, until then passed on only orally, were written down, and probably modified, by monks. Only about 30 000 lines of these poems have survived. These lines may be found in 4 manuscripts.

There are two types of Old English poetry: the heroic, the sources of which are pre-Christian Germanic myth, history, and custom; and the Christian.

Other poetic forms exist in Old English including riddles, short verses, gnomes (гнома (краткое нравоучительное изречение, обычно в стихотворной форме; стихотворный афоризм)), and mnemonic poems for remembering long lists of names.

The Exeter Book has a collection of ninety-five riddles.

There are short verses found in the margins of manuscripts which offer practical advice.

There are a group of mnemonic poems designed to help memorise lists and sequences of names and to keep objects in order. For example, Instructions for Christians.

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EARLY LITERATURE

The earliest Anglo-Saxon literature was certainly oral poetry.

The performer of it was called a 'scop', or minstrel, or gleeman who uttered poems at feasts usually accompanied by a harp. They were wandering from village to village, from tribe to tribe chanting either popular ballads or more formal poetry of their own composition.

For about five hundred years, almost all Old English verse had the following characteristics:

• There was no rhyme but rhythm;

• each line was made up of two half-lines, separated by a caesura (a pause) and joined by alliteration (the repetition of initial consonant sounds);

• each half-line consisted of two 'feet';

• the alliteration linking the two half-lines;

• words beginning with the same consonant had the same sound and therefore alliterated (unlike in modern English);

• vowels usually were regarded as 'alliterating' even if if the sounds were different.

Example

Hwaet! We Gar-Dena in gear-dagum,

theod-cyninga, thrym gefrunon,

hu tha aethelingas ellen fremedon!

Lo! We of the Spear-Danes  in old days

of the people-kings,    power heard,

how the princes    brave deeds did.

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Irish literature is considered one of the most ancient in Europe. In the 6^th cent. the writing appeared. Irish heroic epos appeared in the 7^th c. It was written down in the 8^th c.

The monuments to this epos are sagas. The most ancient is the world’s cycle of sagas, the hero of them was Kukhulin. He had different super-merits and extraordionary strength. Irish sagas include a lot of features from the everyday life and some horrorful details like women’s fighting, collecting of cut-off enemies’ tongues and ears.

The first Scottish epic poem “Gododdin” seems to have been written near Edinburgh, the year 600.

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LITERATURE IN 7-11^th cc.

In 7th – 11th cc. the monasteries became the main centres of written culture and learning, Latin was the media of Christian culture all over Europe.

Most Old English poets are anonymous; only four of those are known by their vernacular works to us today with any certainty: Caedmon, Bede, Alfred, and Cynewulf.