Anglo-Saxon Period


Background

Mr. Osborne (who we'll see a lot) introduces us to the first unit, along with some of its gross over-generalizations:

Woah... That's a lot of information!  Let's break it down a little bit with this PowerPoint:

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So, Rome invaded and then a bunch of Germanic tribes and then the Normans from France?   

Yep, yep, and yep.

The invasion of the British Isle by the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians marks the beginning of the Angle-Saxon Period in (roughly) 449 CE.

Fortunately, we have some live footage:

And then the Norman Invasion (Yes, the English were once French!) serves as the end of the era.  What was the year again???:

Wow!  All of those invasions must have left their mark on the English language, right?  

How astute of you to ask, imaginary student.  Yes, yes they did, as demonstrated in this first installment of "The History of English in 10 Minutes":

The Epic

Beowulf

So, you say Old English is quite a bit different than Modern English?

Ummm... you decide.  Here are the opening lines of Beowulf in its original text.  See if you can make out any words that you know.

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A little different, eh?  Now compare that to the modern translation.

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Pretty much the same thing, right?!  Right!*  
*Sarcasm font

It's one thing to see it written in the Old English, though, but how did it sound?  These were oral stories performed by scops or bards, after all.

Well, here are these same opening lines performed by a modern-day bard!

Now, for a little preview of what Beowulf is about, here is an "epic" music video parody to the tune of everybody's favorite German pop song from the '80s: Nena's "99 Luftballons."

Now, time to start reading!