The Mother Tongue
Indo-European Languages
Indo-European Timeline
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I period: Breaking Up (60th c. bce - 25th c. bce)
II period: Settling Apart (25th c. bce - 13th c. bce)
III period: Primary Migrations (13th c. bce - 7th c. bce)
IV period: Secondary Migrations(7th c. bce- 1st c. bce)
V period: The Great Movement (1st c. ce - 500 ce)
 VI period: Fixing Borders (500 – 1000 ce)
ce: Common Era
bce: Before Common Era
Cultural Fusion of the
Early Middle Ages
5th-11th centuries
Fall of Rome
Celtic Influences
Norse-Germanic Influences
Spread of Christianity
throughout Europe
Islamic Influences
Feudalism
Empires and Kingdoms
Celtic
Migrations
Hallstatt
Celtic Migrations
2100 bce
1400 bce
1200 bce
650 bce
600 bce
450 bce
280 bce
133 bce
50 bce
43 ce
250 ce
409 ce
450 ce
844 ce
Celtic tribes in Europe
Celts arrive in Spain
Celtic cultures in Gaul and Germania
Celts settle in Britain and Ireland
New Celtic invasion to Spain
Celtic tribes come to Italy
Celts arrive in the Balkans and Asia Minor
Spain conquered by Rome
Gaul conquered by Rome
Romans conquer Britain
Ogham inscriptions in Ireland and Scotland
Romans leave Britain
Celtic migrations to Brittany
Kingdom of Scotland established
Gundestrup
Cauldron
1st c. bce
silver overlaid with gold
Cernunnos:
God of the Beasts
Celtic Influences
 Decorative
 Animal motifs
 Arabesques
 Religious
 Scholarship
 Monasticism
 Literary
 Epics and folklore
 Sovranty: Love-Political Triangle
 King-Queen-Suitor/Challenger
 Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot
Celtic Christianity
Christianity was introduced into
the British Isles in late 1st century
or early 2nd c. with Roman
soldiers
It was a cultic religion existing
alongside other cults, both
indigenous cults and those brought
in by the Romans, such as the cult
of Mithras.
The new faith rapidly gained
adherents
 Apostle of Ireland, Christian prelate.
 Born in Scotland -- kidnapped at 16
by Irish pirates and sold in Ireland as
a slave. He passed his captivity as a
herdsman
 Saw visions in which he was urged to
escape, and after six years of slavery
he did so,
 Ordained as a deacon, then priest
and finally as a bishop.
 Pope Celestine then sent him back to
Ireland to preach the gospel.
St. Patrick
(389?-461?)
Syncretism:
St. Bridgit
 Patrick carried Christianity to
the Irish by transforming their
sacred groves, wells, and mounds
into centers of worship for the
new faith.
 He also adopted the ancient Celtic
deities into the new faith,
demoting them to saints
 Brigit,the goddess of healing and
fertility became St. Bridgit in the
new faith.
The Irish Church
 Elements of Eastern Christianity:
 emphasis on monasticism
 organizational structure of abbots and monasteries versus bishops and
parish churches
 ascetic holiness and pilgrimage
 The abbeys' and monasteries' success in teaching:
 Generations of scholars who not only copied Christian material but also
transcribed the myths of the Ulster and Finian cycles, the Brehon laws, and
other Celtic documents
 Survival of Christianity in the British Isles despite conquest by the pagan
Angles and Saxons.
 Missionaries sent to England and scholars to courts, such as
Charlemagne’s, throughout Europe
The Book of Kells
Fall of Rome
 330: Constantine moved the capitol of the Roman Empire to
Constantinople
 402: Honorius moved capitol of the Western Empire from
Rome to Ravenna
 410: Visigoths sacked Rome
 455: Vandals sacked Rome and took control of N. Africa and
Spain
 5th c.: Waves of Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain
and Burgundians controlled much of France
 476: Goths seized Rome: Odoacer became Emperor
Völkerwanderrung
Germanic Migrations
Germanic Comitatus or Kinship
Groups
 König, eorlas und thanes: kings, nobles and warriors
 Mutual loyalty -- warriors fight for king, king is
generous to warriors
 Originally a socially egalitarian setup, during the third
and fourth centuries CE, it became socially stratified
 Basis for feudal loyalty
 Ideal and philosophy expressed in oral epics like
Beowulf and The Song of Roland
The Lindisfarne Gospels
Viking Conquests
I've been with sword and,spear
slippery with bright blood
where kites wheeled. And how well
we violent Vikings clashed!
Redflames ate up men's roofs,
raging we killed and killed;
and skewered bodies sprawled
sleepy in town gateways.
Viking Runes
Scene taken from the stone Smiss I,
found in Stenkyrka parish. Dated 700800 AD.
Viking
Art
8th c. Bronze keys
The
Normans
 Vikings, or Norsemen, who settled
in northern France (or the
Frankish kingdom), together with
their descendants
 A Viking named Rollo emerged as
the leader among the new settlers.
 The Normans founded the duchy
of Normandy and sent out
expeditions of conquest and
colonization to southern Italy and
Sicily and to England, Wales,
Scotland, and Ireland.
Norman Conquest
 1066: Contest for the English crown:
 Harold, Earl of Wessex: Anglo-Saxon claimant
 Harald Hardrada of Norway
 William Duke of Normandy
 Battle of Stamford Bridge: Harold defeated
Hardrada's army which invaded using over 300
ships; so many were killed that only 25 ships were
needed to transport the survivors home.
 Battle of Hastings: William led Norman forces
against the English. Harold killed in battle;
William seized the throne
 William the Conqueror
BAYEUX TAPESTRY
English axman in combat with Norman cavalry during the Battle of Hastings
Norman
Castles
Motte and Bailey
Castle
Tower of London
Feudalism
 ”Feudal Society" is a form of civilization that flourishes
especially in a closed agricultural economy
 It is a social system of rights and duties based on land tenure
and personal relationships: land is held in fief by vassals
from lords to whom they owe specific services and with
whom they are bound by personal loyalty.
 Those who fulfill official duties, do so from personal and
freely accepted loyalty to their overlord not because of loyalty
to a state or nation.
 Public authority becomes fragmented and decentralized.
 In this system, landlords exercise a wide variety of police,
judicial, and fiscal, rights over the unfree peasantry (serfs).
December
Limbourg Bros.
Très Riches Heures
of the Duc de Berry
Social Classes
SECULAR
ECCLESIASTICAL
KING
POPE
NOBLES
CARDINALS
KNIGHTS
BISHOPS ABBOTS
MERCHANTS
PROFESSIONALS
CRAFTSMEN
PRIESTS
MONKS
SUMMONERS FRIARS
PARDONERS NUNS
PEASANTS
freemen
serfs
PEASANTS
lay brothers and sisters
serfs
January
Limbourg Bros.
Très Riches Heures
of the Duc de Berry
Evolution of English Language
650 bce- 500 ce: Celtic domination of British
Isles: Gaelic: Irish, Welsh, Scots, Breton
2nd C. ce: Roman conquest: Latin
5th C. ce: Germanic invasions by Angles, Saxons
and Jutes: Anglo-Saxon/Old English
8th- 10th C: Viking invasions: Old Norse
1066: Norman conquest:
Norman French → Anglo-Norman
1200-1500: Middle English: literary fusion
1500: Great Vowel Shift: Early Modern English
1700: Modern English