When/Where Are We?

An Overview

By Nicholas Hoffman

 

This first unit in English 2201 covers what is generally called the pre-Conquest period. We will be reading about the literature and culture of the British Isles during a formative historical era: from the withdrawal of Roman troops in the 5th century to the eve of William the Conquerer’s invasion of the island in 1066.

It’s important to remember that this timeline encompasses a period of over 600 years! During the Migration Period, Germanic settlers and mercenaries from present-day central Europe gradually displaced, influenced, and melded with the peoples and cultures of Roman Britain (ca. 400-500). The 7th and 8th centuries then witnessed the Christianization of early medieval England and the growth of a thriving literary-monastic culture. And we can’t forget the Vikings, whose raiding and trading practices brought a large swathe of England under Scandinavian control in a region known as the Danelaw.

Of all the religious, social, and political developments of early medieval England, perhaps the most significant (for the purposes of this course) is the growth of a vernacular literature. Texts were recorded in the earliest form of the English language (Old English) alongside texts in the international standard of scholarship, Latin. Not to be confused with the English of Shakespeare or even Chaucer, Old English retains the Germanic character of the island’s early medieval settlers and requires study in order to learn its ins and outs.  In this unit, you will have the opportunity to engage with Old English texts in translation to gain a better understanding of early English literary achievement — and hopefully come to appreciate its monumental creativity.  Check out the video below to learn a little more about Old English and its distinction from Modern English!

 

Mastery Check:

  • Did Shakespeare write in Old English?
  • What language was the “international benchmark” (or lingua franca) in medieval Western Europe?
  • How did the English alphabet of circa 1000 differ from our own?
  • The surviving corpus of Old English poetry survives in how many manuscripts?

 

 

Map of Pre-Conquest England.

 

Cartography is key!

Take a look at the map above. The image gives a rough impression of the various kingdoms in existence during the 7th century. The seven main kingdoms during the pre-Conquest period are sometimes referred to as the Heptarchy (literally “seven realms” in Greek). These kingdoms dominated religious and secular life in medieval Britain prior to the Norman Conquest in 1066.

At the edges of the Heptarchy were the native Britons, pushed into Wales and Northern Scotland during the Migration Period. They retained much of their native Celtic languages and customs, including religious organization and literary traditions. Native British (i.e., “Briton”) customs and institutions would greatly influence the development of political and literary culture in the Heptarchy, as would the later Viking incursions. The historical formation of the Heptarchy is a story of dynamic change and cultural exchange.

See if you can locate and familiarize yourself with the seven kingdoms of pre-Conquest England:

  • Mercia
  • East Anglia
  • Kent
  • Northumbria (formerly Deira + Bernicia)
  • Essex (“East” + “Saxons” = “Essex”)
  • Sussex (“South” + “Saxons” = “Sussex”)
  • Wessex (“West” + “Saxons” = “Wessex”)

Why do you think this period of English history has traditionally been called “Anglo-Saxon England”? What does the name “Anglo-Saxon England” imply?

The Diverse Early Middle Ages

As we reach back to the origins of English literary history, we expect to find a strange world—an unintelligible language, truly peculiar manuscript pages, a society frozen in time. To many of our imaginations, the early Middle Ages (ca. 500–1066 CE) was a time of silent monks and loud warriors cohabiting a secluded island on the northwest edge of Europe. Historically dubbed the“Dark Ages,” we’ve been conditioned to expect a simpler way of life over these centuries. Our minds wander to scenes of blood feuds played out against a pastoral backdrop, where people neither questioned their views nor knew much at all about the wider, multi-cultural globe.

But these assumptions speak more to contemporary (and often violent) ideology than historical reality. In fact, centuries of romanticized thinking have created this notion that early medieval England was a bulwark of uncritical Christianity and isolationism. You are embarking on English 2201 at an exciting (and often painful) time in medieval studies; scholars are now actively pushing against some long-held assumptions about the early Middle Ages—specifically that it was uniform and uncritical in its Christianity, that it was solely white, and that it was disconnected from a diverse world.

 

Lindisfarne Gospels, fol. 26v. An example of the ornate “carpet pages” that populate the manuscript.

Writing from the Periphery

Above is an image from the Lindisfarne Gospels (folio 26 verso). Completed sometime in the early 8th century, this book features elaborate “carpet pages,” complete with intricate, interwoven designs. In this unit, you’ll encounter the Book of Kells, which shares in this early “interlace” tradition and its fascination with arresting, geometric designs. Evidence of these woven patterns can be found across present-day Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England. They also appear across early medieval media, from manuscript pages to metalwork and stone carving. This labor required phenomenal artistic skill, while simultaneously revealing a keen interest in geometry, symmetry, and the power of abstract shapes and orientations to deliver a divine message.[1]

These forms are all about interconnectivity: these interlace patterns can be found throughout the northern isles, and the designs are a testament to both religious devotion and the everyday, textile work that formed a staple of the early medieval economy.

Paradoxically, the interwoven art of the Lindisfarne Gospels was produced in a monastery marked by geographic isolation. The island of Lindisfarne is located off the northeast coast of England and can only be accessed on foot during low tide. But sometimes geography is deceiving: Lindisfarne, though isolated, was part of a thriving monastic network. The monastery housed visitors and jump-started the careers of several of the most important religious leaders of its day. Not to mention, the Lindisfarne Gospels themselves show how intertwined this tide-washed island was with the artistic tastes of the wider world.

London, BL Cotton MS Tiberius BV, fol. 56v © British Library

 

But early English engagement with the “outside” didn’t end with the North Atlantic. Just look at the image above: a mappa mundi (“map of the world”) surviving in one manuscript from the early 11th century (Cotton MS Tiberius BV). It is the earliest known cartographic depiction of the British Isles—but not in the area of the map you would expect them! England and Ireland can be found in the bottom left corner, on the edge of a vast world connected by roads and waterways. The map includes major cities, travel routes, a Mediterranean sea populated with numerous islands, settings of biblical importance, and even a fantastic creature lurking on the periphery. Though agrarian life inhabited the center of many communities, early medieval writers and thinkers were aware of their place in a vast, interconnected world.

Material History and Identity

The early English had access to a wide array of material goods—many of their own making but others imported from further reaches of the Mediterranean world and beyond. The archaeological record shows evidence of thriving trade networks: Scandinavian metalwork, various textiles, including valuable silk, and books from present-day Italy, France, and Germany.

The interlace work discussed above is evidence of English engagement with North Atlantic art styles. At the same time, manuscript illustrators and material artisans drew inspiration from even further afield. Ornate brooches were made in Danish or Swedish style. Scribes developed their own unique scripts based on outside models. Illustrators learned new forms from the continent. Not only were they avid imitators and innovators of this art, but the early English themselves traveled widely.

Another excellent example of English cultural borrowing is pictured below. The image shows a coin (a dinar, to be specific) from the reign of King Offa (ca. 774–796). It mimics the design and even the Arabic script of the Abassid ruler, caliph al-Mansur. It’s a remarkable piece of material history; Offa found in his coinage a way of tapping into the prestige of the Islamic Empire on the other side of the known world.

British Museum, CM 1913,1213.1 © Trustees of the British Museum

 

Offa’s coin serves as a powerful reminder that the English, even in the earliest part of the Middle Ages, were aware of and keenly interested in their place in a wider world. Old English writers were particularly interested in exploring far-off settings. The surviving poetry features biblical re-tellings and narratives of saints’ lives that take place in Asia and North Africa. More to the point: people of African descent had been present in England since Roman times.

One prose text in particular, The Wonders of the East, is contained in three manuscripts (including the same manuscript in which the single copy of Beowulf survives). The Wonders is a richly illustrated catalogue of, well, “wonders.” The text describes far-off landscapes with supernatural properties, sometimes inhabited by strange, even monstrous, creatures.  The Panotti, for example, were rumored to possess ears long enough to cover their whole bodies.

 

Manuscript depiction of one of the panotii from Cotton MS Tiberius B V, fol. 83v.

If we refer back to the “map of the world” above, we see that early English writers and cartographers saw no issue with blurring the distinction between the human and the monstrous in their depictions of unfamiliar parts of the world. The Wonders and other texts that reveal early medieval attitudes toward the “foreign” and the “exotic” are of incredible value to scholars attempting to make sense of early medieval understandings of race and racism(s).

Multicultural Canterbury

In late May of 669, at the age of 68, Theodore of Tarsus (d. 690) made landfall on the southeast shores of England. The 1000-mile journey from Rome was a long and arduous one, and he was expected to meet with secular and religious leaders on the continent along the way. His task from Pope Vitalian: take up the archbishopric of Canterbury (a high-profile administrative role in the Church).

Canterbury, located in the southeast, provided a convenient point for accessing the European mainland.

As his name suggests, Theodore was born in Tarsus, a city in present-day Turkey. He was a Byzantine Greek, and during his childhood he witnessed the conquest of Tarsus by Persian forces. He was also familiar with the neighboring Syrian culture and witnessed the spread of Islam. He attained a high level of education in his native Greek but also Latin. He studied law, philosophy, medicine, and biblical interpretation, among other things.

Theodore was not the only religious figure to be “outsourced” from the continent to early medieval England. As Christianity and Church institutions were expanding on the British Isles, Rome supplied officials from across its pan-Mediterranean network to oversee the young English dioceses. And Theodore didn’t come to England alone; he was joined by Hadrian (d. 710), who was traveling to England to continue his monastic career. Like Theodore, Hadrian was studious and respected as a theologian and thinker. He too was a long way from home: he was North African by birth and bilingual in Greek and Latin.[2]

Theodore and Hadrian cooperatively founded a school at Canterbury where monks were trained in all manner of religious and secular learning. Monasteries were already multilingual spaces; training in Latin was an asset, since liturgy and religious texts were most often transmitted in the lingua franca of the day. Competency in Latin meant access to a whole world of textual information as well as a wider audience for one’s own writing. It was under the instruction of Hadrian that Aldhelm (d. 709) became the first English poet to compose Latin verse.

Much of what we know about Theodore and Hadrian comes from the writings of Bede (d. 735). In his Ecclesiastical History, Bede sought to offer a comprehensive history of Christianity in England, and the figures of Theodore and Hadrian stand out as particularly important in the development of monastic learning on the island.[3] Writing from the northern reaches of England, Bede felt the pull of their intellectual orbits. Perplexingly, Theodore and Hadrian left behind no written works of their own. Instead, their presence survives in the work of their students, particularly the class notes, poetry, and biblical commentaries that survive from their Canterbury school.

The collective efforts of Theodore and Hadrian invigorated monastic learning in England. They were valuable resources for an intellectual culture that was seeking to establish itself. Since they presumably arrived in England without any significant knowledge of Old English, training with them required a high level of Latin ability. They introduced academic teachings and new concepts while offering practical training in Church administration and the monastic way of life. Perhaps more significantly, they shared their experiential knowledge. Theodore and Hadrian had seen much of the world and encountered many cultures. We can’t discount the profound impact such narratives may have had on their students.

The remarkable lives of Theodore and Hadrian have much to teach us about the diversity of early medieval England. From its very foundations, we can think globally and multiculturally about the history of English literature.

Mastery Check:

  • What views of early medieval England are scholars today pushing back against?
  • True or False: What we know today as England was in the seventh century composed of distinct kingdoms.
  • What do we call the design tradition found everywhere in early art–from manuscript pages to belt buckles?
  • Where do you find England and Ireland in the eleventh-century Mappa Mundi?
  • How early were people of African descent present in Britain?
  • Who were Hadrian and Theodore of Tarsus, and why were they important?

 


  1. For those interested in early medieval material art and the history and potential rationale behind these patterns, I’ve been enjoying Derek Hull’s Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Art: Geometric Aspects (Liverpool UP, 2003).
  2. For more on Hadrian’s life, see “An African Abbot in Anglo-Saxon England,” British Library, 27 October 2016, https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2016/10/an-african-abbot-in-anglo-saxon-england.html.
  3. You can read the section of the Ecclesiastical History about their arrival here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38326/38326-h/38326-h.html#toc187.
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British Literature to 1800 Copyright © 2020 by Karen Winstead. All Rights Reserved.

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