Main directions of the English Literature in the Early Middle ages

German tribes and the Englishmen. Social system and cultural life.According to s the Ecclesiastical History of the English People written by a monk called the Venerable Bede around 730 — written in Latin —The invaders consisted of members of various Germanic tribes, chiefly Angles . It was this tribe which gave England its name, i.e. England, the land of the Angles.Other tribes represented in these early invasions were Jutes from the Jutland peninsula (present-day mainland Denmark) and Saxons.The indigenous Celts of Britain were quickly pressed into the West of England, Wales, and some crossed the Channel in the 5th and 6th centuries to Brittany and thus are responsible for a Celtic language — Breton — being spoken in France to this day.The Germanic areas which became established in the period consisted of seven ‘kingdoms'. These are known as the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy.In the beginning of the Old English period, Kent was the centre of political and cultural influence in England.For the development of Old English culture an important step was the Christianisation of the south of England. This did not take place (at least to any great extent) in the manner one might imagine, i.e. from the north, or indeed from Ireland. Early Irish saints like St.Columba (see above) were restricted in their influence to Ireland and Scotland. It is true that Aidan was sent to Northumbria and was involved in founding the monastery at Lindisfarne (634), but the activities of Saint Augustine who was dispatched by Gregory I (540-604, the author of the Cura Pastoralis ‘Pastoral Care’ an early devotional work) to Christianise England antedated those of Aidan by a full generation. He arrived with a group of missionaries in 597 in Kent and convinced the then king Ethelbert to be baptised. The mission proceeded well for Augustine and in 601 he was made Archbishop of Canterbury, this leading to the official establishment of the Christin church in England. The pre-Viking atmosphere was favourable in England to ecclesiastical scholarship and in the 7th and 8th centuries many scholars and teachers of note are to be found, such as Aldhelm (640-709) and of course Bede (673-735) who was the greatest representative of the Benedictine monastery of Jarrow. He is the author of many works of general scientific interest and is the first English church historian (see above). The most notable scholar after Bede is Alcuin (735-804) who favoured contacts with the continent and helped to prevent the English church of the time from becoming isolated.

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