Anglo- Saxon and Medieval Terms

• Anglo-Saxon
• started 8th C
• Old English
• Norman Conquest
• take over England, speak French --> Latin, church language
• Oral tradition/oral formulaic poetry
• alliterative verse
• epic
• tells story, usually adventure
• heroic code/warrior culture
• peace weaver/cup bearer
• comitatus/comitatus bond
• loyal group who work together - war band. Rules based on loyalty through the leader. Leader loyalty comes before members
• Beowulf, Grendel, Grendel's mother, Wyglaf, Wealtheow, Unferth
• Ship burial/sutton hoo 
• late 20th C. A-S ship burial found
• Danegeld
• gold paid to Danes so they don't kill you (tribute)
• Viking
• Fate
• Apocalypse
• English always were in battle, thought end was near.
• elergy
• riddle
• Bede
• Latin first work of Literature in England; mythology/origin story gives cultural legitimacy
• Caedmon's Hymn
• horse groomer in monestary in English. First written one. Short stanza about god. Short relationship between English & Christianity
• clerk/cleric/clerical
• lay/laity
• Christ/Mary/Queen of Heaven
• Rood
• dream vision
• lets speaker discuss an allegory that never really took place - counter - factual based in Christianity
• saint's life
• homily
• Genesis/Adam and Eve
• Morality play 
• stories through Bible - creation -->end/Genesis - Revelation
• Passion/Passion play
• Middle English
• Lyric poetry
• may resent a moment, relate/etc, but not a story/narrative
• fabliau
• Nun's tale
• exemplum
• fable/beast fable
• allegory
• seven deadly sins
• Roman Empire
• Mabinogion
• Welsh/Governish language. Lit collect of ancient. Oral tales of British A-S people. Wanted to record legends. 18th C
• Chivalry
• Chivalric code
• courtly love
• getillesse
• qualities of goodness, we expect gentlemen to have a high civilization (nobles)
• Griselda
• matter of Arthur/Arthur cycle
• Arthur, Guinevere, Morgan, Gawain, Lancelot, Camelot
• lai/Breton lai 
• Romantic, Chivalric fantasy story
• Wheel of fortune
• Chaucer
• Canterbury Tales, General Prologue
• Bob and wheel
• Christian knight
• Host
• Miller's Tale
• Wife of Bath's prologue and tale
• Nun's Priest's Tale
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Bertilak
• Lady Bertilak
• Piers Plowman
• Poetry terms