From Beowulf to Hamlet
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Old English
• 2000 years ago: Celtic languages
• Today: Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic
• From approx. 450 AD: Angles, Saxons, Jutes
invaded England
• Changed the language into Old English
• Also influenced by Old Norse, the language of the
Vikings
• Viking raids from the late 8th century
• Old English (Anglo-Saxon) period: c. 450 – 1100
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Beowulf
• Old English text, probably from the 8th century
• A long poem about the hero Beowulf, who kills
three monsters:
• Grendel, Grendel’s mother and a dragon
• Old English is very different from modern English
• Ic lufie Þe = I love thee = I love you
• Kyning = king, cwen = queen
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1066 and All That
• First the Vikings invade England
• Anglo-Saxon king Harold II defeats King Harold
Hardrade at Stamford Bridge.
• Then the Normans invade England
• William of Normandy defeats King Harold II
• William the Conqueror
becomes king of England
• Harold’s death
• The Bayeux Tapestry
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French
• William the Conqueror made French the
language of the court, the church, the nobility,
the merchants
• Changed the English language completely
• Vocabulary
• Grammar
• Spelling
• Pronunciation
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Middle English
• Old English gradually
changes into Middle
English
• Ca. 1100–1500
• Never a standardized
language
• Many regional varieties
• Most famous work in
Middle English:
• The Canterbury Tales by
Geoffrey Chaucer
(c. 1343–1400)
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Early Modern English
• Mid 15th century: invention of printing press
• Spelling becomes more fixed
• Early Modern English period: c. 1500–1700
• Shakespeare (1564–1616)
• Hamlet to Ophelia:
“Get thee to a nunnery:
why wouldst thou be a
breeder of sinners?”
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© H. Aschehoug & Co.
www.lokus.no