The Conquest and its Consequences

In 1066 Duke William of Normandy invaded England.  The reigning king, Harold Godwinson, was slain at the Battle of Hastings, and William became William I of England, aka William the Conqueror.

The Norman Conquest is the traditional dividing line between the Old and Middle English periods of literary history.

William rewarded his French-speaking followers with lands and titles. French became the language of power and culture, and English acquired French characteristics.  (Those of you who are interested in linguistics may enjoy this succinct overview of Middle English by David Crystal.)

Three languages were current in post-Conquest England: Latin, French, and English.  Most authors writing in late medieval England were polyglots, conversant with all three, and many manuscripts include works in two or three languages.  In fact, a single text might move between them, as does this account of the Nativity, which begins in French, moves to English, and concludes with Latin:

 

Coment les pastureus de leur Cheverie

Feseyent ioye a la Vyrge Marie.

E le chant que le angel out chaunté

En le honour de la nativité

Songen alle wid one steuene

Also the angel song that cam fro heuene:

“Te deum et Gloria.”

 

[Translation: How the shepherds with their bagpipes rejoiced in the Virgin Mary and the song that the angel had sung in honor of the nativity they all sung with one voice as the angel sang that came from heaven, “Glory to you God.”]

 

Some of you will know first-hand the experience of traversing linguistic boundaries. Some of you may have experienced it through such modern classics as Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987).

The Bayeux Tapestry

Shortly after the Battle of Hastings, a remarkable 230-foot account of the events leading up to the Conquest in about seventy scenes was embroidered.  This work of art is known as the Bayeux Tapestry, though experts point out that it is not technically a tapestry because it is embroidered rather than woven.

With its combination of word and image to tell a story, the Bayeux Tapestry it is considered an early example of a comic.

 

 

Harold’s death. Legend above: Harold rex interfectus est, “King Harold is killed.”

This tapestry has had enormous influence and has been appropriated in various ways.  Are you a Game of Thrones aficionado?  If so, you may be familiar with this summary of the series, embroidered in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry.

A particularly haunting appropriation is Joe Sacco’s The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of Somme (2013; follow the link and you’ll see details of this amazing comic with annotations by Sacco).  Whereas the Bayeux Tapestry celebrates conquest, The Great War mourns in 24 feet of illustrations the death of almost 20,000 British soldiers and the wounding of another 40,000 on the first day of the Battle of Somme in World War I (1914-18).

 

Mastery Check:

  • Which three languages were written and spoken in post-Conquest England?
  • What event does the Bayeux tapestry commemorate, and why is that event significant?
  • The Bayeux tapestry is considered an early example of what popular genre?

 

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British Literature to 1800 Copyright © 2020 by Karen Winstead. All Rights Reserved.

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