Lecture 1 theme: introduction. Literature of middle ages

THE VENERABLE BEDE (673-735). The greatest writer of the time was the Venerable Bede. He was brought up in the monasteries of Northumbria where he received the best education of the time. He wrote mostly in Latin. His books on natural history and astronomy were a collection of all the learning known in the Middle Ages. His famous book "The History of the English Church” was well known in France and Italy. His works are still valued today: they show what the country was like thirteen hundred years ago and how men acted and thought at that time.

• THE VENERABLE BEDE (673-735). The greatest writer of the time was the Venerable Bede. He was brought up in the monasteries of Northumbria where he received the best education of the time. He wrote mostly in Latin. His books on natural history and astronomy were a collection of all the learning known in the Middle Ages. His famous book "The History of the English Church” was well known in France and Italy. His works are still valued today: they show what the country was like thirteen hundred years ago and how men acted and thought at that time.
• ALFRED THE GREAT (849-901). The beginning of the 9th century was troubled time for England. Danish pirates, called Norsemen, kept coming from overseas for plunder. Each year their number increased. When Alfred, the grandson of Egbert, was made king in the year 871, England's danger was the greatest. Nevertheless, in a great battle fought by Alfred at Maldon in 891, the Norsemen were defeated, and Alfred decided to make peace with them. The greater portion of England was given to the newcomers. The only part of the kingdom left in possession of Alfred was Wessex.
• Alfred was a Latin scholar; he had traveled on the continent and visited France. He is famous not only for having built the first navy, but for trying to enlighten his people. He drew up a code of laws. He translated the Church history of Bede from Latin into Anglo-Saxon, the native language of his people, and a portion of the Bible as well. To him the English owe the famous "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" which may be called the first history of England, the first prose in English literature. It was continued for 250 years after the death of Alfred.