autor
HÉLCIO DE PÁDUA LANZONI
1ª edição SESES
rio de janeiro 2015
Conselho editorial luis claudio dallier; roberto paes; gladis linhares; karen bortoloti; marilda franco de moura
Autor do original hélcio lanzoni Projeto editorial roberto paes
Coordenação de produção gladis linhares
Coordenação de produção EaD karen fernanda bortoloti Projeto gráfico paulo vitor bastos
Diagramação bfs media
Revisão linguística hélcio lanzoni
Imagem de capa daniel rajszczak | dreamstime.com
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Dados Internacionais de Catalogação na Publicação (cip)
L297l Lanzoni, Hélcio
Literatura inglesa I / Hélcio Lanzoni. Rio de Janeiro : SESES, 2015. 88 p. : il.
isbn: 978-85-60923-35-9
1. Literatura inglesa. 2. Língua inglesa. 3. Old english. 4. Middle English. I. SESES. II. Estácio.
cdd 820
Sumário
Prefácio 7
1. A Formação do Povo Inglês e
da Língua Inglesa.
As Lendas Celtas
9
Objectives 10
1.1 Britain Peoples - the origin 11
1.1.1 First peoples 12
1.1.2 The origins of English language. 13
1.1.3 Celtic Britain 15
1.1.4 Druids, War and Mythology 18
1.1.5 Invasion of Britain by the Romans 20
1.1.6 Rome in Need of a Capital in Britain 22
1.1.7 Roman Relations with the Druids 23
1.1.8 Modern Druidism 23
Reflection 24 Activities 24 References 25
2. Beowulf e a Literatura Anglo-Saxonica
27
Objectives 28
2.1 Anglo-Saxon Literature 29
2.1.1 Pagan Epic Poetry - Beowulf: A Literary Work. 29
2.1.2 The Plot and Structure of the Poem. 30
2.1.3 Features and Major Characters Analysis 31
2.1.4 Old English 33
2.1.5 Heroic and Historical Elements 33
2.1.7 Old English Religious Poetry 37
2.1.8 Old English Literature: some characteristics 37
Reflection 38 Activities 38 References 38
3. Literatura Inglesa Medieval
41
Objectives 42
3.1 Middle Ages: society, culture, language 43
3.1.1 Life in the Middle Ages 44
3.1.2 Middle English 45
3.2 Chaucer and the ‘Canterbury Tales’ 46
3.2.1 The Canterbury Tales 46
3.2.2 Chivalric Code 49
3.3 Chaucer's Knight 50
3.3.1 Chaucer's Knight's Tale 51
3.3.2 Characters Analysis 53
Reflection 54 Activities 55 References 55
4. Rei Arthur – História e Lenda.
57
Objectives 58
4.1 King Arthur- Historical aspects 59
4.1.1 The Enthroned Arthur 60
4.1.2 Was Lancelot the greatest Knight? 61
4.1.3 Was Guinevere an adulteress or not? 61
4.1.4 Did Percivale see the Grail or not? 62
4.2 The Knights 64
4.2.2 The Symbol of the Knights 65 4.3 Medieval Authors- Mallory and the Legend of Arthur 65 Reflection 70 Activities 70 References 70
5. O Renascimento e Shakespeare
71
Objectives 72
5.1 The Tudor and the Elisabethan Age 73
5.1.1 The Renaissance 74
5.1.2 Thomas More 74
5.2 Christopher Marlowe 76
5.3 Shakespeare’s life and career 78
5.3.1 Shakespeare’s Globe Theater 80
5.3.2 Shakespeare’s works 81
Reflection 84 Activities 84 References 85
7
Prefácio
Prezados(as) alunos(as),
A literatura inglesa refere-se à literatura escrita em inglês por autores tanto da Inglaterra como de outros países. Como um dos elementos facilitadores da expansão da literatura inglesa, podemos citar o desenvolvimento histórico da arte de navegação, que na Inglaterra adquiriu status de prioridade estra-tégica, ampliando assim o poder político, econômico e cultural do país e sua presença e influência no mundo.
Na literatura inglesa há diversos autores audaciosos, criativos e geniais que souberam cristalizar em suas obras elementos e sentimentos originados nas lendas e no folclore, nos sentimentos das pessoas simples e desconheci-das e nos personagens históricos, reconhecidos mundialmente.
É imprescindível entender algumas características desta literatura para que possamos entender sua complexidade e formas. Se considerarmos o cli-ma da Inglaterra, por exemplo, podemos entender o motivo dos poetas da-quele país se referirem à neve, tempo nublado e cinzento e árvores nuas como sinais pesados de solidão e tristeza. Um nativo de um país cujo clima é ma-joritariamente quente precisa entender que o clima inglês influencia direta-mente na personalidade daquele povo, o que fica evidente em sua forma de expressar sua arte, comportamento e literatura.
Alguns, sofisticados, outros mais populares, diversos autoresajudaram a compor a diversidade do mosaico de textos que formam a Literatura de Língua inglesa.
A Formação do Povo
Inglês e da Língua
Inglesa.
As Lendas Celtas
A língua inglesa teve um longo período de evolução e transformação que perdurou por muitos séculos. Neste livro nós vamos discutir como as transformações da língua inglesa afetaram a literatura, uma vez que essas transformações refletem a vida e aspectos culturais da sociedade.
Neste capítulo, o foco é na história da língua inglesa e todas as transformações que ocorreram por um longo período de tempo.
OBJECTIVES
Para conhecer a literatura de um povo é importante conhecer também seu idioma e sua história. Só assim é possível compreender as fases e as razões que levaram determinados autores a escrever o que escreveram e da forma que escreveram. Você sabe quais as origens da língua inglesa? Você sabe quais línguas existiam antes na antiga Bretanha antes do inglês? Estas e outras questões serão respondidas ao longo do livro.
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1.1 Britain Peoples - the origin
Archaeology suggests that for over 10,000 years people have been moving inside Britain and outside Britain, sometimes in great numbers. Therefore, the history of early Britain has traditionally been told considering the waves of invaders to the island.
Britain' had no political meaning and no cultural identity and was just a geographical subject, before Roman times.Arguably this remained generally true until the 17th century, when James I of England and VI of Scotland sought to establish a pan-British monarchy. The characteristic of the island has changed, but slowly and far less completely than presumed by the old 'invasion model', and the idea of large-scale migrations, once the key explanation for change in early Britain has been widely degraded.
Substantial genetic continuity of the population does not avoid profound changes in identity and culture. It is quite common to observe important cultural change, including the adoption of entire new identities, with little or no biological change to a population. The ‘British’ identity was only created in 1707 with the Union of England, Wales and Scotland, but millions of people since Roman times have thought of themselves as 'British', for example.
Along the history the island contains multicultural groups and identities. Many of these groups looked beyond the seas, for their closest connections - they did not necessarily connect naturally with the other islanders, many of whom were more difficult to reach than their neighbors in Ireland or continental Europe.
Looking at to Britain in isolation does not make any sense; we have to consider Britain with Ireland as part of the wider 'Atlantic Archipelago', closer to continental Europe and part of the North Sea world, like Scandinavia.
1.1.1 First peoples
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WIKIMEDIA
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The first people from Britain, called 'Britons' actually were an ethnically mixed group. From the arrival of the first hunter-gatherers humans - following the retreating ice of the Ice Age northwards – to the beginning of recorded history is a period of about 100 centuries, or 400 generations. This is a long period of time, and we know very little about what happened through those years; it is hard even to answer completely the question, 'Who were the early
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But it is possible to say that biologically they were part of the Caucasian population of Europe. The regional physical stereotypes familiar to us today, a standard widely thought as a result of the post-Roman Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions - red-headed people in Scotland, small, dark-haired folks in Wales and blondes in southern England – already existed in Roman times. So far as they represent reality, they perhaps attest the post-Ice Age colonization of Britain, or the first farmers of 6,000 years ago.
Since the early stage, the constraints and opportunities of the multiple environments of the islands of Britain motivated a great regional diversity of culture. During prehistoric times there were plenty of small-scale societies, and many petty 'tribal' identities, typically lasting perhaps no more than a few generations before dividing, merging or becoming obliterated. These groups were in contact and discordance with their neighbors, and sometimes with more distant groups – the aspect of exotic imported objects testifies exchanges, alliances, relationships, and wars.
1.1.2 The origins of English language.
We can divide historically the English language into three main periods: Old English (approximately 450 to 1100 AD), Middle English (1100 to 1500 AD) and Modern English (from 1500 on). Along the centuries, several other languages have influenced the English language.
In the 5th Century AD Germanic tribes (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes) arrived in the British Isles from several regions of northwest Germany as well as Denmark. These tribes were warlike1 and banned most of the original,
Celtic-speaking population from England into Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall. Some of these people migrated to the Brittany Coast of France and their descendants still speak the Celtic Language today.
The Saxons, Angles and Jutes mixed their different Germanic dialects over the years. This group of dialects created what linguists named Old English or Anglo-Saxon. The word "English" actually was in Old English "Englisc", and that originates from the name of the Angles. The Angles were named after Engle, their land of origin.
Britain belonged to the Roman Empire for above 400 years and Latin was brought into Britain by the Romans. Many words from this period were coined2
1 Warlike: bélico
by the Roman army and foreign merchants. Some of these words werebelt (belt), weall (wall), candel (candle) and win (wine). The language spoken during the time before the Saxons was a mixture of various Celtic languages, spoken before the Romans came to Britain, and Latin.
The influence of Celtic upon Old English was not strong. Actually, few Celtic words have lived on in the English language. But many places and river names originated from Celtic: Kent, York, Dover, Cumberland, Thames, Avon, Trent, Severn.
Many Latin words were brought into the English language by the arrival of St. Augustine in 597 and the beginning of Christianity in Saxon England. As they were mostly worried3 with the naming of Church members and ceremonies,
some words, such as presbyter, bishop monk, baptism and church came from Latin.
Especially in the north of England, many Norse words were introduced into English by the Norsemen and Danes, who were known as Vikings, by the time they invaded the country in approximately 878 AD. Because the Vikings were Scandinavian, they spoke a language which, in its origin, was just as Germanic as Old English. This language was called Old Norse.
Check the following table:
UNTIL 449 Celtish
450 TO 1100 A.D. Old English
1100 TO 1500 Middle English
1500 TO 1800 Early Modern English
1800 UNTIL TODAY Late Modern English
As we can see, the English language formation is full of invasions, battles, wars. Actually, it has a very violent origin, for all of those invasions did not happen without fights and battles. For this reason, the first works of English Literature always mention heroes, battles, courage and bravery as their highest values.
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1.1.3 Celtic Britain
According to Britain Express (2010), the Celts had many particular characteristics.
Who were they? The Iron Age can be considered the age of the "Celts" in
Britain. For over 500 years until the first Roman invasion, the Celtic culture spread throughout the British Islands. To define who they were, we can say that it is a modern and romantic reinterpretation
of history to say that there is something called a "Celtic" people. Tribes of warriors4
who certainly wouldn’t have considered themselves as one unified people at the time is a good definition of “Celts”.
The "Celts", as we traditionally regard them, exist mainly in the magnificence of their art and the words of the Romans who fought them. The trouble with the reports made by the Romans is that they were a mix of reports and political propaganda. It was politically common for the Celtic peoples5 to be considered
barbarians and the Romans a great civilizing force. And history written by the winners is always biased.
Where did they come from?over the centuries between 500 - 100 B.C. is the period that the people we call Celts progressivelycame into Britain. The Celts were very divided and given to fighting each other, so the idea of a Celtic invasion would have been out of
question. Possibly there has never been an organized Celtic invasion.
The Celts were a group of peoples weakly linked by cultural expression, language and religion, which were very similar. They were the people who brought iron working to the British Islands. Nevertheless, they did not have a central government, and they liked to fight each other and also against any non-Celt as well. They considered themselves great warriors, conquering the glories of battle.
4 Warriors: guerreiros 5 Peoples: povos
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WIKIPEDIA
The use of iron had awesome impacts. First, it changed trade and caused local independence. During the Bronze Age trade was essential, because it was not easy to find the necessary material to make bronze. Iron, on the other hand, was relatively cheap and available almost everywhere.
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There are studies that have demonstrated that, in some scientific and economic aspects, the Celts were much more precise than the Romans. Calendars in Pre-Roman Celtic times were more accurate than the Roman ones. Possibly, they were more precise than the calendar we use nowadays, the Gregorian calendar. Besides, compared to the Roman world, the Celtic world was much more decentralized and several Celtic towns had high stone walls (up to five kilometers long) similar to those of Rome.
The curious thing about the Celts is that we don't know whether the hill6
forts were built by the Britons who inhabited the island to defend themselves from the Celts, or the Celts built them, as they moved their way into more dangerous territory. The hill forts were often small constructions on defensible hilltops. Some are very small and probably had no practical use for more than an individual family, though over time many larger forts were built. The time of the "Celtic conversion" of Britain saw a huge growth in the number of hill forts throughout the region.
The clan was the basic unit of Celtic life, a kind of extended family. The term "family" is a bit weird for them, because the Celts practiced a peculiar form of child breeding; they didn't really raise them – instead, they farmed them out. Foster parents, often the brother of the real mother, actually raised the children. When the Celts weren't fighting, they were farmers. One of the amazing innovation that they brought to Britain was the iron plough7. Earlier ploughs
were really weird, basically a stick with a pointed end harnessed behind two oxen. They were adequate only for ploughing the light upland soils. The heavier iron ploughs were an agricultural revolution all by themselves, once they made it possible for the first time to cultivate the rich valley and lowland soils.
Concerning the role of women, the Celts owned the lands communally, and wealth was mainly based on the size of the cattle herd8 a person could have.
The role of women was better than in most societies of that time. They had the option of becoming war leaders and they were equal to men, they had their own property, and could choose their own husbands.
6 Hill: colina, morro 7 Plough: arado 8 Herd: rebanho
A written Celtic language was developed after Christian times, so for much of Celtic history they had just oral language to transmit their culture, specifically with poets and storytellers. These were very relevant to the Celts, and much of what we know of their history and traditions comes to us today because of old tales and poems
1.1.4 Druids, War and Mythology
They were a sort of glue that kept Celtic culture together. The Druids had their own universities, in which knowledge and their tradition was passed on. They had the privilege of addressing the king in council, and may have had even more authority than the king himself. They upheld the law and were ambassadors in war times, besides composing verse. There has been a lot of nonsense written about Druids, but they were very interesting; a sort of “special” priests, political advisors, teachers and healers.
When it comes to their religion, their enemies in battle could have their heads cut off and shown as trophies. This may look barbaric, but to the Celt the head was considered the center of spiritual power. Therefore, in order to get that power for themselves they got the head of an enemy. From what we know of the Celts, they held many of their religious ceremonies in the forests and near sacred water, such as springs. But, as we saw, one thing we do know: the Celts valued human heads.
The biggest problem with the Celts was that they simply loved war and wanted to fight all the time, even among themselves.The Celts loved war, but each tribe fought on their own, which meant that this cost them the control of the island. If a war wasn't taking place at the moment, it was necessary to start one. In addition, they enjoyed dressing themselves as scary as possible, sometimes dyeing themselves in blue and going into
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WIKIMEDIA
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With elaborate weaponry and clothes, they had huge pride in their appearance in battle, with fancy helmets and bright shields for instance.
Once the Romans and Celts were enemies, Roman descriptions of Celtic customs were often unfavorable. The Celts had an intense mythology and they did not, however, record their myths in writing, once they had hundreds of tales, passed on orally. Celtic mythology, according to our knowledge of the villains, the gods and the heroes. Came from other sources–especially Roman. Nevertheless, the Romans sometimes used Roman names to Celtic gods, so their accounts were not always trustworthy.
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WIKIMEDIA
.ORG
One tale from Celtic mythology is The Tragedy of Deirdre.Forced to live with Conchobar, the king, the sad Deirdre is unhappy and makes clear to the king that she hates him. In the end of the story, Deirdre kills herself by hitting her head against a rock. Deirdre's tragic tale inspired plays, poetry, etc.
Each tribe worshipped a certain god, who protected and took care of the tribe. Some of them shared characteristics. Dagda, for example, is Ireland’s god of life and death. The Celts worshiped a variety of gods who appeared in their tales. Most were local deities and very powerful rather than gods with specific characteristics.
There were a large number of relevant female deities among the Celts.Some of them had more clear roles. These included the "Great Queen" Morrigan, who appeared during battle as ravens. The horse goddess Epona, who was associated with death, fertility and water.Another deity was Brigit, goddess of metalworking, learning and healing – therefore a very important goddess.
The supernatural played an important role in Celtic mythology as well as magic and magicians. A common theme was the magic cauldron. The cauldron of plenty was never empty and supplied great amount of food. The cauldron of rebirth brought slain warriors to life again. Merlin, in the Arthurian legends actually was Myrddin, a magician in the Welsh tales.
Other important themes in the myths were voyages to mysterious and dangerous lands and larger-than-life heroes. The heroes experienced all sorts of adventures and often had to perform impossible tasks before marrying their loved ones. Love, romance, and mischief also figured prominently. The gods played tricks on humans and on one another. Animals changed shape at will.
CONNECTION
Acesse o link http://www.misteriosantigos.com/celtas.htm para obter mais informações sobre os Celtas.
1.1.5 Invasion of Britain by the Romans
For what reason did the Romans decide, in 43 AD, to invade Britain? Their empire already extended from the northern Rhineland to the Sahara, and from the Channel coast until the Caucasus.
The important era of conquest had ended a few decades before. In the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, three legions had been destroyed by rebellious Germanic tribesmen in 9 AD, and the emperor Augustus concluded that the empire extended too much and stopped to call for new wars of conquest.
Britain was an afterthought. Military security was not a reason, once the Channel was a very effective a frontier against invasions. Economics was not the reason, once the rulers of Rome were already the wealthiest men in all times. What would be better than a glorious victory in Britain to help Claudius secure
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The invasion of Britain was a war of prestige. The 'mad' emperor Caligula had been murdered in 41 AD, and an nebulous member of the imperial family, Claudius, had been elevated to the throne. The new emperor faced opposition from the Senate, Rome's House of Lords. Claudius needed a quick political fix to secure his throne. What better than a glorious military victory in Britain?
In a few centuries, the Roman army had transformed the country from a small city-state into the biggest empire of its time. War was very profitable, once tribute, booty and slaves made Roman conquests more than pay for themselves.
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UNIERD | DREAMSTIME.COM
Julius Caesar had invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC, focusing on conquest, but before he had beaten British guerrilla resistance, there was revolt in Gaul (today’s France) and he was sent away
Britain had remained free – and mysterious, dangerous, exotic. In the popular Roman imagination, Britain was a place of wetland and forest, fog and mizzle, inhabited by violent blue-painted warriors. Here was a fine testing-ground of an emperor's fitness to rule.For the Claudian invasion, an army of 40,000 professional soldiers – half citizen-legionaries, half auxiliaries recruited on the wilder edge of the empire - were landed in Britain under the command of Aulus Plautius.
The queen of the Iceni tribe, Boudicca, came close to beat the invaders, but the presence of Claudius himself made the Romans storm into the enemy capital at Camulodunum (present-day Colchester).
But resistance continued elsewhere. Pushing into the southwest of Britain, the Romans fought a war of sieges to diminish the great Iron Age
cliff forts of the western tribes. Driving through and beyond the Midlands, they encountered stiffening opposition as they approached Wales, where the fugitive Catuvellaunian prince, Caratacus, rallied the Welsh tribes on a new anti-Roman front.
The oppression of the Roman empires left deep marks on the peoples in the Wales surrounding region. The diverse tribes joined forces to try to expel the common enemy (namely Rome) and almost succeeded in doing so. The place that is now called Moray, faced a Roman occupation in 84 AD. At that time, northern Britain fell under Roman forces. This represented the settlement of Rome in Britain – status that was due to last for centuries ahead.
1.1.6 Rome in Need of a Capital in Britain
A small settlement that already existed was adjusted to become a centre of trade and administration. The Romans named it Londinium, which is today’s London. But the first Roman capital in Britannia, that was a new province, was at Colchester. The Thames River was a communication and transport highway and it didn't take long until the Romans realize its strategic importance.
London became the heart at the center of a major network of roads built basically to serve troop movement and administrative communication. Not exactly by accident they also served the expansion of trade that rapidly made London the most important town, and even the capital, of the new province of Britannia.
Instead of trying to conquer with force, Romans defined "client kingdoms" on the territory borders that they controlled directly. The Romans, therefore, followed the formula in Britain, once it had been successful in other places.The basic idea was that, in return for not being attacked, certain Celtic tribes agreed to ally to Rome. While the process of mopping up resistance continued, treaties with northern tribes and in East Anglia protected the frontiers.
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The stereotype that most people have regarding a Celtic warrior is a man wearing long hair and beard. Actually, their hair was cut short, and they were also shaven. The Celts did not wish to work together or have any kind of cooperation with Rome. Concerning their military power, they were able to face the romans, but were defeated due to a lack of interest of the different tribes in joining forces to face their fierce and common enemy.
1.1.7 Roman Relations with the Druids
The Druids represented real political and administrative authority,not just a hierarchy in their religion. According to Roman standards, they could be tolerant with peoples they conquered and their religions. Despite this, they were genuinely horrified by what they considered the uncivilized practices of the Celtic Druids. Eradicating the Druids became important to Rome.
The Romans saw themselves with the right and the duty to expand the Empire and apply the Roman way of life as a benefit for the civilization they conquered. The same attitude was employed centuries later exactly by what later became the British Empire.
1.1.8 Modern Druidism
Like occurred during the New Age movement, Druidism can adapt to a huge range of spiritual beliefs. So, those who are monotheists, polytheists, animists, orpantheists can adopt the philosophy of Druidism, which also is a religion that was used by the Druids. A nature-based religion, Druidism has many elements that are similar to New Age, but with anancestry focus and nature focus. It has no sacred Scripture, neither official dogma, so
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it can take many forms. Polytheistic Druids believed in gods and goddesses, and Monotheistic Druids believed in a god or goddess. Pantheistic and animistic Druids did not accept a personal God, who would exist in all things.
Druidism depends on the individual and the way that he or she has chosen a god, besides the practice of tolerance of many diverse philosophical and spiritual traditions and it explains that one belief is not different from others. To become a Druid one had to learn stories and stand intensive training for years. There were the healers, the philosophers and teachers.
REFLECTION
Most artifacts that are classified as Celtic, like the weaponry, jewelry, the hill-forts and art were not really related to ethnicity. They were more closely related to military, political and religious characteristics. We have to take into consideration the ever-present cultural sharing that typically occur when boundaries between diverse cultures are crossed. One important fact that should be taken into consideration is that it were the monks in the middle Ages who told us most of what is known about the mythology of the Celts. Their studies are based on manuscripts that recount most of the myths, legends and other forms of culture and life of the ancient Celts. As in other moments in history, sometimes certain facts are recorded in writing centuries after the events actually took place.
ACTIVITIES
A literatura baseada no inglês antigo (Old English) não é muito extensa, como puderam observar ao longo desta unidade.
01. Como exercício de reflexão, enumere algumas características dos textos escritos em Old English.
EXPENDING YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Schütz, Ricardo. "História da Língua Inglesa." English Made in Brazil <http://www.sk.com.br/ sk-enhis.html>. Online. 01 de outubro de 2013.
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REFERENCES
BLOOM, H. O Cânone Ocidental. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 1995
BRITAIN EXPRESS. Celtic Britain. Disponível em: <http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Celtic_ Britain.htm>. Acesso em 07 fev. 2015.
BRITAIN EXPRESS. Roman Invasion. Disponível em: <http://www.britainexpress.com/History/ Roman_invasion.htm>. Acesso em: 07 fev. 2015.
CARM What is Druidism? Disponível em: https://carm.org/druidism. Acesso em: 17 fev. 2015 Celtic Mithology. Disponível em: http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Ca-Cr/Celtic-Mythology. html#ixzz3SgZnEsyq
Beowulf e
a Literatura
Anglo-Saxonica
O início da literatura inglesa é marcado pelo início da língua inglesa. A Bretanha já possuía povos nativos, os Celtas, e sofreu diversas invasões e influências culturais ao longo dos séculos: romanos, vikings e outros povos germânicos, gauleses, etc. Deste “caldeirão” de línguas emergiu aquela que hoje chamamos de inglês antigo (Old English). A primeira obra escrita nesse idioma foi Beowulf, um épico de autor desconhecido que retrata a figura do herói Anglo-Saxão que auxilia um rei a salvar seu reino de um terrível monstro. Apesar de ser considerada a primeira obra escrita em inglês, os eventos não se desenrolam na Bretanha e sim na Suécia. Neste capítulo você vai conhecer melhor este grande herói da literatura inglesa e compreender as características da literatura anglo-saxônica.
OBJECTIVES
Neste capítulo você verá que s anglo-saxões produziram excelente literatura, com temas épicos, religiosos e históricos. Sua poesia se caracterizou por complicadas e belas metáforas e jogos de palavras. Você compreenderá a importância da literatura anglo-saxonica e sua influência na literatura contemporânea. Entenderá, também, os conceitos de tradição, glória e honra com base no poema épico Bewoulf.
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2.1 Anglo-Saxon Literature
The Saxons, Angles, and Jutes invaded Celtic Britain in the first half of the fifth century (the Old English or Anglo-Saxon period) up till the conquest in 1066 by William of Normandy.
The Anglo-Saxons began to develop a specific type of written literature after their Christian conversion in the 7thcentury, once before that timetheir literature had been mainly oral. The development of literacy, learning and cultural life in the Anglo-Saxon England was influenced by the Church and the Benedictine foundations. Besides that, their Latin culture played an important role in many Anglo-Saxon poems, since scribal effort had been spent on the new language of culture: Latin. King Alfred was the main reason why this was possible, due to the further development of the programs in the late tenth century.
Even though very little of it survives, Anglo-Saxon England is considered very rich in poetry. Nevertheless, the available part of Anglo-Saxon literature, which means little more than 30,000 lines, no more than that, is present in just four books, which were manuscripted. There is hardly no survival of purely pre-Christian compositions. The little survival of poetry was thanks to the Church: the result of the monastic revival in the last ten centuries.
What is known as Old English literature comes from the Anglo-Saxon period, which was composed in the vernacular Anglo-Saxon. Pagan Elegies and Pagan Epic Poetry, Latin Writings and Old English Prose, and Old English Christian Poetry are included and considered early national poetry.
2.1.1 Pagan Epic Poetry - Beowulf: A Literary Work.
Beowulf is the main Anglo-Saxon epic poem and has mysterious origin. Nobody knows who was the writer, when e where it was written or even the reason why it was written. Beowulf is a poem in the form of a narrative of 3,182 lines, written sometime between the 10th and 12th centuries and transmitted in a manuscript.
Beowulf survived in only one version, in a manuscript copy that can be seen at the British Museum. The dating of this copy of Beowulf manuscript is still contradictory: some put it as early as 700 AD, while others think it was probably made by scribes of about the year 1000 AD. King Alfred admired Beowulf in the ninth century.
The poem was printed in 1815 and is the longest Old English poem. Some Beowulf translations contain a prologue and numbered sections; however, the division of the text into numbered sections does not happen in other translations. Beowulf literary creation is traditionally placed in the Northumbria, at the age of Bede, who died in 735.
2.1.2 The Plot and Structure of the Poem.
The main part of the story is Beowulf's fights against two monsters:Grendel, a male, and his mother, a dragon. Beowulf is the hero of the poem.In general, the poem depicts two stories: the first is the youth of Beowulf and the second the old age of Beowulf. Beowulf is the hero of the Geats. The poem also introduces many incidental stories and digressions.
In the first part Beowulf is young and reaches glory in a foreign land by fighting and exterminating
Grendel, a monster who has been attacking Heorot, the hall of the Danish King Hrothgar. Then the hero kills Grendel's mother, who comes the next night to vindicate her son, in an underwater cave.
After ruling his country remarkably well for fifty years, Beowulf is an old man in the second part of the story. A dragon shows up and attacks his kingdom, just like Grendel had done years before. Beowulf has to fight the dragon and, for this new challenge, requests the manufacture of a fireproof shield. In the end of the fight, Beowulf kills
the dragon with the help of Wiglaf, but falls mortally wounded. After his death, the poem ends describing Beowulf’s funeral.
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The story of Beowulf represent the pagan heroic way of life. When he fights Grendel, he makes a choice and gets himself in a situation that allows no coming back. He has to live his heroic life until destiny claims for his life, and this fate, As stated before, he cannot quit.
2.1.3 Features and Major Characters Analysis
Not only in its central character but also in its world and values, Beowulfis a typical heroic poem. Warriors are sometimes celebrating and sometimes fighting, and they are devoted to heroic acts and glory. However, the poem has a variety of specific characteristics: Beowulf as an epic; Historical Elements; Heroic Legend; Pagan and Christian Elements;Allegorical Elements; and Nordic and Germanic Elements. Let’s see now some features of the main characters of the poem.
Hrothgar: Until Grendel terrorizes his kingdom, the king of the Danes, Hrothgar, enjoys prosperity and military success. He is a paternal figure to Beowulf and a model for the king that Beowulf is fated to become. Nevertheless, the leadership shown by Hrothgar, a wise and older ruler,is different from that shown by the young warrior Beowulf.
Beowulf: strong and fearless, is the prince of Geats, "the greatest of all heroes". Once he makes a promise, he stands by his word, by whatever cost, even at the cost of his own life. He wants to be there for the people who are in great need to be saved from evil. He signifies the true heroic character because he is willing to risk his life for his ideals. Beowulf defeats three abominable monsters, two of which are descendants of Cain.
Grendel: He is a monster that is half-man and half-beast. He is the first monster that Beowulf kills. Also he is enormous and has superhuman strength, which makes him invincible by the warriors of Denmark. He lives in the bottom of the lake not far from Heorot. Grendel is the descendant of Cain who represents evil and corruption. He has been battling Heorot, where Denmark's warriors live, for twelve years, causing suffering and misery.
Grendel's Mother: Virtually invincible by any human being. She is another beast that Beowulf kills. As a vengeance for her son's death, she kills Aeschere. She is defeated by Beowulf in a fight under water.
Unferth: He is a courtier, envious of Beowulf, who feels inferior to Beowulf. He does not believe Beowulf's power to defeat Grendel, claiming that it is luck that has been helping Beowulf in his previous encounters. Upon learning of Grendel's defeat, Unferth is impressed by Beowulf and presents him his sword as a sign of reconciliation.
Wiglaf: He is a warrior who aids Beowulf against the battle with the dragon. At this point, Beowulf is an old aging king. He does not have the power anymore as he once had when he fought Grendel and his mother. Wiglaf's relationship with Beowulf is similar to that between Beowulf and the deceased King Hrothgar.
Below is a part of the poem Beowulf, written in Old English:
HWÆT, WE GAR-DEna in geardagum, þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon! oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas, syððanærest wearð feasceaft funden; he þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum weorðmyndum þah, oð þæt him æghwylc ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan; þæt wæs god cyning! Ðæm eafera wæs æfter cenned geong in geardum, þone God sende folce to frofre; fyrenðearfe ongeat, þe hie ær drugon aldorlease lange hwile; him þæs Liffrea,
wuldres Wealdend woroldare forgeaf, Beowulf wæs breme --- blæd wide sprang--- Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in.
Swa sceal geong guma gode gewyrcean, fromum feohgiftumon fæder bearme,
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This poem provides an interesting overview of the way people lived in those days. It describes their life in the city, the awful creatures that they had to fight and their travels in their ships. Those people had a hard life both on land and sea. They did not like their lives, but they understood it well and did their best to survive.
2.1.4 Old English
Old English, the language of the Anglo-Saxons, was used by the poet who wrote Beowulf. He used poetic diction, often old-fashioned words, A large number of specific compound words are commonly found in Old English verse, but many of them were originally coined by the poet. As a word is repeatedly heard in different contexts, old English vocabulary collects groups of meanings.
The most common strategy used in Beowulf is called variation, when a word or expression is frequently repeated, not identically, but in each repetition a new concept is created. Words like Providence, Wyrd, Reputation Fate, and Glory, have a lot of associations, pagan and Christian alike. For example, King Hrothgar is called by Beowulf, "Shepherd of the Danes", "guardian of the people", "glorious hero", "son of Healfdene". This way, a new quality is added to Hrothgar with each title..
In order to create a complex and poetic picture of a certain event they are narrating, the Old English poets were able to apply a technique which allowed them to compound together simple comments as an alternative technique.
2.1.5 Heroic and Historical Elements
The poet who wrote Beowulfdiscovered most of his material in Nordic-Germanic folklore, heroic legends, historical traditions and biblical sources. Specific comparisons exist between Beowulf and certain Scandinavian narratives. The alliterative verse form that the author used is another indication of the Nordic-Germanic tradition.
The heroic legends dealt with in Beowulf are sometimes mixed with historical elements and folklore. Sometimes a historical figure is camouflaged in legends which the author of Beowulf uses to set off a character, such as the legend of Scyld himself, allegedly the founder of the Danish throne, a hero who settled an example of a strong king. His name is associated with the legend of a child coming in a boat with a sheaf of corn.
A Lenda de Beowulf é um filme de 2007 dirigido por Robert Zemeckis que retrata o poema épico homônimo escrito originalmente em inglês antigo (ou inglês arcaico) e considerado o primeiro da literatura Inglesa. Neste filme, foi utilizada uma técnica de captura de movimento, usada também no filme “O Expresso Polar”..
There are several things that are still unclear concerning the manuscripts of Beowulf. For one thing, the style of the handwriting indicates that it might have been written by two people instead of a sole writer. The people who wrote the text probably are not the author and it is unknown how much of the text was altered of embellished by the person (or persons) who wrote the poem. Nevertheless, the manuscript had been owned in the 16th century by Lawrence Nowell, a scholar.
In 1818, Grímur JónssonThorkelin, a scholar from Iceland, transcribed the poem for the first time, but there are some questions concerning the accuracy of this version. To further protect the pages, which were decaying fast, paper frames were applied for each page of the manuscript in order to protect them from damage, even though this procedure had an undesirable side-effect: it covered the edges and, consequently, some letters.
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2.1.6 Pagan and Christian Elements
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Christian and biblical elements are evident in the poem. Some critics believe that Beowulf was created by a pagan poet, and that the presence of the Christian material is to be explained by subsequent removal of pagan, and interposition of Christian passages. Others have argued that the Christian elements represent the work of a poet with unclear and general knowledge of the faith. Most critics believe that the original author of Beowulf was a Christian who was capable of putting together both pagan and Christian elements in his text and that a reviser or interpolator has nothing to do with the Christian elements.
The primitive material of Beowulf derived from pagan folk-tale, chronicle and legends appeared as a Christian poem, but this mutation is not a matter of altered phrases, or Christian faith’s interpolated references, but is an infusion of Christian spirit in a deeply universal way,, showing up thought the actions and governing motive and narrative. Nevertheless, there are certain pagan elements which resist to changes, or that the influence of the Christian spirit can only restrain partially.
We know that the ideas of fidelity and good nobility were also deeply grounded in the early Germanic and pagan societies, so not all of these ideas can be attributed to Christian ideals. Many ideas of rightliving, such as loyalty and generosity, were derived from the idea of "comitatus", and the relationship between lord and thane. When the the author of Beowulf speaks of praise, the word does not have the Christian connotation suggested by the concept of "heavenly praise". he speaks about the praise of one's peers, praise which the warrior must obtain in order to be remembered by future generations. The concept of "hell" was known to the pagans, and the author of Beowulf makes reference to "hell" as the destiny of Grendel.
Another important concept in Beowulf is "Fate”. In the Anglo-Saxon world Christianity and paganism existed simultaneously but in the Old English vocabulary there were only pagan terms with which Anglo-Saxons would incorporate Christian concepts. Aside from Beowulf, the only surviving works of early national epic poetry are a fraction of Deor's Lament, The Finnesburg Fragment, (50 lines), and two short pieces (63 lines together) of Waldere, The Battle of Maldon and The Battle of Brunanburh.
CONNECTION
Access on the link below to get more information on Christian and Pagan elements. http://oaks.nvg.org/ap3.html
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2.1.7 Old English Religious Poetry
Christian poetry seems to have grown in northern England along the 8thcentury, though most of this poetry has survived only in the late tenth century, in the West Saxon writings. Besides a lot of Christian poetry, monks produced several other artistic pieces, from sculptures to masonry. Much of this poetry is about the Old Testament: recounts of books and episodes. Much of this religious poetry is anonymous, but the names of two poets are known: Caedmon (670 A.D.), the first English poet known by name, and Cynewulf (late 8thor early 9thcentury).
"Caedmonian" is the name given to the era of Old English poetry, whose focuses were on religious subjects. The traditional meter diction for Christian religious poetry was first used by Caedmon, who became the creator of a school of Christian poetry. Cynewulf was the poet of the second phase of the Christian poetry originally written in Old English and, therefore, most of the old religious poems were originally written by him or Caedmon.Anglo-Saxon religious poetry moves further with Cynewulf.
2.1.8 Old English Literature: some characteristics
Concerning the linguistic features, Old English texts have distinct graphic and phonological characteristics, being completely different from contemporary English. Concerning their literary aspects, the remaining fragments of Old English literature are supposed to materialize graphically centuries of the past oral literature tradition. That is the reason why most of the fragments have unknown or anonymous authors. This is the case of the epic poem Beowulf, considered the first English literary text.
One curiosity about Old English poetry: the descriptions of sad events or cruel situations are more common and in better writing than the situations of happiness.
Besides texts which exalt the honor and value of the warrior, there are also other texts which narrate the adventures of the seamen. These narratives compound the Exeter Book. Two of them are famous and were translated into Modern English: The Seafarer and The Wanderer.
In addition, there is one more influence on the formation of English language and Literature: The presence of Latin language, brought by the Romans and, after them, by the religious missions who went to Britain to Christianize the
pagan Anglo-Saxons. From this influence came the Miracle and Morality plays, as well as versions of parts of the bible into Anglo –Saxon language.
Therefore, we can say that there were three great thematic centers in the literature of the Angle-Saxon or Old English period: war, battles and heroism; travels and travelers and some religious themes. This scenery, however, is not static, and it changes radically after the Norman Conquest, in 1006, as we shall see later on in this course.
REFLECTION
In this unit we studied the evolution of English Language and Literature from its very beginning. The focus here was The Old English Poetry, like Beowulf. You can have a deeper comprehension of the topics and works mentioned in this unit reading some texts, watching movies and visiting some websites.Enjoy and learn!
ACTIVITIES
Com base no que você aprendeu sobre o poema épico Beowulf, responda a pergunta abaixo:
01. Como o poema Beowulf está estruturado? Como a estrutura está relacionada como o tema ou temas desenvolvidos no poema?
EXPANDING YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Para uma melhor compreensão sobre ‘Beowulf”, leia a obra abaixo:
ALLARD, JOE (Editor),; NORTH, RICHARD (Editor). “Beowulf and Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures “
REFERENCES
BLOOM, H. O Cânone Ocidental. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 1995
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BRITAIN EXPRESS. Roman Invasion. Disponível em: <http://www.britainexpress.com/History/ Roman_invasion.htm>. Acesso em: 07 fev. 2015.
BURGESS, A. English Literature. Essex: Longman, 1989.
CEVASCO, M.E. & LELIS, V. Rumos da Literatura Inglesa. São Paulo: Ed. Ática. Série Princípios, 1990. OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE- disponível em:
<http://digilander.libero.it/dofurci/letteratura/Origins/OldEnglishLiteraryBackground&Production. html>. Acesso em: 15 fev 2015.
Literatura Inglesa
Medieval
Pudemos observar que durante o processo de formação da língua inglesa a região esteve permeada de guerras, batalhas, heróis e conquistas. Os Anglo-saxões desenvolveram uma tradição de escrita vernacular em inglês que influenciaria a Europa medieval como um todo. Neste capítulo, o foco é nesse processo de assimilação, sua influência na idade média inglesa e todas as transformações que ocorreram em razão disso.
OBJECTIVES
Neste capítulo serão abordados fatos históricos que vão esclarecer o contexto em que Geoffrey Chaucer viveu e criou sua obra “Canterbury Tales”, uma das pedras fundamentais da literatura do Ocidente, uma coleção fenomenal de histórias de cavalaria e alegorias morais. Essas histórias ajudaram - assim como Dante e Cervantes fizeram em suas respectivas culturas literárias - a sedimentar a literatura de todo um país.
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3.1 Middle Ages: society, culture, language
Middle Ages in England begins in 1066, after the Norman invasion and conquest of the Island. From that moment on, the Normans took over the political power and ruled over England until 1399. As it is widely known, during the Middle Ages the Catholic Church was the most powerful institution in Europe, helping to promote, to keep or to destitute kings and their regimes. Historically speaking, England never had strong political relationships with Rome, except for the time of Norman domain over the British Islands. This domain brought great changes in the social and political structures of the Englishnation, which were reflected in the literary works of that time.
One of the main changes that could be noticed was the imposition of the Norman language (French) to the English court and all its documents, official papers and everything related to it. This fact influenced heavily the flexible and open structures of the English language, which was still in a process of formation and evolution. Many words and expressions were incorporated to English, despite of1 its Germanic roots2 presence in the vocabulary, phonology
and syntax. The Norman influences collaborated to the consolidation of the English Language, which becomes different, more likely to the English spoken today. Latin was mostly used for written language, especially that of the Church. Meanwhile, The English language, as the language of the now lower class, was considered a vulgar tongue.
Some particular characteristics of the Middle English can be observed by reading its medieval texts. Some of its grammatical elements, such as inflections for verbs and pronouns, were present in the Modern English, spoken in the 17th century. The contact with the Norman culture offered new literary characteristics to English writers, brought from Italy and France, with its Greek mythological figures and themes that were not known or not explored by the Germanic and Nordic cultures.
1 Despite of: apesar de 2 Roots: raízes
3.1.1 Life in the Middle Ages
In order to guarantee safety and defense, people in the Middle Ages formed small communities around a central lord or master. Most people lived on a manor3, which consisted of the castle, the church, the village, and the enclosing
farmland. These manors were isolated, with occasional visits from vendors, pilgrims4 on their way to the Crusades, or soldiers from other regions.
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In this "feudal" system, the king donated land grants or "fiefs" to his most important aristocrats, barons, and bishops, in payment for their contribution of soldiers for the king's armies. At the lowest levels of society were the peasants or laborers. In exchange for living and working on his land, known as the "demesne," the lord offered his peasants protection.
Nobles shared their land among the lesser aristocracy, who became their servants or "vassals." Many of these vassals became so powerful that the kings had a hard work controlling them. By 1100, certain barons had castles and courts that were compared to the king's; they could be serious threats if they were not pleased in their dealings with the crown.
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Although peasants worked the land and produced the goods necessary to the nobleman and his castle, the vassals had to pay all the heavy taxes imposed by the nobles and they were required to give to the castle much of what they harvested. Actually, the peasants belonged to the lords, who were associated with the church and acted as judges in applying the medieval laws.
It should be no surprise that women, whether they were aristocrats or laborers, held a difficult position in society. They were largely circumscribed to household tasks such as cooking, baking bread, tailoring, weaving, and spinning. However, they also hunted for food and fought in battles, learning how to use weapons to defend their homes and castles. Some medieval women held other occupations. There were women farriers, merchants, and druggists. Others were midwives, worked in the fields, or were engaged in creative enterprises such as writing, playing musical instruments, dancing, and painting.
3.1.2 Middle English
In about 1200 AD, English had changed a lot, because it was mostly being spoken instead of written for about 300 years. The use of Old English came back, but with many French words added. This language was called Middle English. Most of the words inserted in the English vocabulary are words of power, such as crown, castle, court, parliament, army, mansion, beauty, poet, romance, duke, servant, peasant, traitor and governor. In this sense, Middle English is the vernacular language spoken and written in England between 1100 and 1500 AD, the descendant of Old English and the ancestor of Modern English. It can be divided into three periods: Early, Central, and Late. Early Middle English- from about 1100 to about 1250- during which the Old English system of writing was still in use. The Central period happened from about 1250 to about 1400, and it was characterizedby the gradual development of literary dialects, and the use of an orthography greatly influenced by the Anglo-Norman writing system. It was also marked by the borrowing5 of many Anglo-Norman words
and the increment of the London dialect, used by such poets as John Gower and Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century flourishing of English literature. The Late Period marks the transition to Modern English.
The main form of secular literature in later medieval England is the Middle English romance. There is an estimate that eighty (or even more) metrical and alliterative verse romances were composed between1225 and1500. The Middle English romances give us a very instigating view about the medieval settings and provoke a new thought about cultural aspects of medieval life and its concerns. It is important to highlight that the English Middle Ages produced the precursor of the modern novel and strongly influenced the contemporary popular fiction.
3.2 Chaucer and the ‘Canterbury Tales’
The English which was used from about 1100 to about 1500 is called Middle English, and the most important poet of the time was Geoffrey Chaucer. He is usually called the father of English poetry, even though, as we have already seen, there were many other English poets before him. As we should expect, the language had changed a lot in the 700 years since Beowulf and it is much easier to read Chaucer in Middle English than anything written in Old English.
Chaucer (1343-1400) was responsible for a great shift6 in English Literature.
His ‘Canterbury Tales’ are not only registers of substantial linguistic changes, but also a radically different way to perceive and describe, in a sensible and more realistic way, his society and all its details. He describes all kinds of people, professions, social classes, individual motivations and emotions, beliefs and relationships. These themes were never used in the previous literary period. His masterpiece, ‘The Canterbury Tales’, written in 1386, approximately, can be considered a huge mosaic of the Medieval English World.
3.2.1 The Canterbury Tales
A popular literary convention of the 14th century is the collection of tales. Among these tales Boccaccio's Decameron is the best-known example before Chaucer's time, but many scholars consider Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales superior to his precursors. He produces this effect both in the dimension and intensity of the stories in his collection, from the courtly tone of 'The Knight's Tale' to the harsh and often profane humor of other tales.
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He does so also in the detail and humor of the structure holding the stories together. His account of the pilgrims as they ride from London to Canterbury, with their constant quarreling and rivalry, amounts to a comic masterpiece in its own right.
In this compilation of tales, the characters are thirty pilgrims who are going to Canterbury, to visit Thomas Becket temple, killed inside his own cathedral in 1170. Because of it, he is considered a martyr and a saint who can produce miracles. After they go out from Southwark they make a deal: each one of them has to tell two tales in the pathway to Canterbury and two other tales in their way back Southwark. The person who tells the best tale will get a prize: a free dinner in the Tabbard Inn. In each tale, social, moral and religious subjects are presented and show details of those people’s lives, with7 humor and wit.
Of this ambitious total of 120 stories, Chaucer completed only 24 by the time of his death. Even so the collection amounts to some 17,000 lines - mainly of rhyming verse, but with some passages of prose.
The pilgrims represent all areas of society from upper class to humble craftsmen (the only absentees are the laboring poor, unable to afford a pilgrimage of this kind). There are respectable people from the various classes - such as the knight, the parson and the yeoman - but the emphasis falls mainly on characters who are pretentious, mendacious, avaricious or lecherous8.
In Chaucer's Prologue of Canterbury Tales, the pilgrims are strongly characterized, one by one. The pilgrims for the most part tell tales closely linked to their station in life or to their personality. Sometimes the anecdotes even reflect mutual antagonisms. The miller gives a scrupulously comic account of a carpenter being cuckolded. Everyone laughs heartily except the attendant, who began his career as a carpenter. The reeve gets his own back with an equally outrageous tale of the seduction of a miller's wife and daughter.
Concerning its literary aspects, this work has stylistic marks which refer to Italian and French writers. Nevertheless, the aspect that deserves greater examination is the way the characters are built and presented. Chaucer’s characters differ from the ballads, poems and plays that preceded them because they are not allegorical figures, legends or myths. They are very similar to real people, with deep psychological characteristics and individual particularities such as mood, desires, qualities and faults, like every common person.
7 Wit: sagacidade 8 Lecherous: devassos
The majority of the tales of this work put together many elements of that time’s culture and society, like humor, legends, jokes, morals, religion, economy, relationships, all blended with poetic techniques such as alliteration, rhyme, quotations from other literary works and the bible. Most of the tales has a prologue in verse, followed by the narrative.
Read below the prologue of Canterbury Tales When April's gentle rains have pierced the drought
Of March right to the root, and bathed each sprout Through every vein with liquid of such power It brings forth the engendering of the flower; When Zephyrus too with his sweet breath has blown Through every field and forest, urging on
The tender shoots, and there's a youthful sun, His second half course through the Ram now run, And little birds are making melody
And sleep all night, eyes open as can be (So Nature pricks them in each little heart), On pilgrimage then folks desire to start. The palmers long to travel foreign strands To distant shrines renowned in sundry lands; And specially, from every shire's end In England, folks to Canterbury wend: To seek the blissful martyr is their will,
The one who gave such help when they were ill. Now in that season it befell one day
In Southwark at the Tabard where I lay, As I was all prepared for setting out To Canterbury with a heart devout, That there had come into that hostelry At night some twenty-nine, a company
Of sundry folk whom chance had brought to fall In fellowship, for pilgrims were they all
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CONNECTION
Acesse o link http://www.historiadomundo.com.br/inglesa/lingua-inglesa.htm para conhecer mais sobre o Inglês Médio e as outras fases do inglês.
3.2.2 Chivalric Code
All the knights were expected, above all, to fight with bravery and to demonstrate military professionalism and courtesy. When knights were taken as prisoners of war, they were customarily held for ransom in somewhat comfortable neighborhoods. This same standard of conduct did not apply to non-knights (archers, peasants, foot-soldiers, etc.) who were often mutilated after capture, and who were viewed during battle as mere barrier to knights' getting to other knights to fight them.
Chivalry developed as an early pattern of professional ethics for knights, who were relatively prosperous horse owners and were expected to provide military services in exchange for property. Early notions of chivalry entailed loyalty to one's lord and courage in battle, similar to the values of the Heroic Era. During the Middle Ages, this grew from simple military professionalism into a social code including the values of gentility, nobility and treating others judiciously. In The Song of Roland ( 1100), Roland is described as the ideal knight, showing resolute loyalty, military expertise and social affability. In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival (c. 1205), chivalry had become a mix of religious duties, love and military service. Ramon Llull's Book of the Order of Chivalry (1275) shows that by the end of the 13th century, chivalry entailed a recitation of very specific duties, including riding warhorses, attending games, holding Round Tables and hunting, as well as endeavoring to the more aethereal virtues of "faith, moderation, charity, justice, hope, strength, and loyalty.
Knights of the late medieval era were expected by society to keep all these skills and many more, as highlighted in The Book of the Courtier, a work of Baldassare Castiglione. According to the protagonist, Count Ludovico, the first and true profession of the ideal courtier "must be that of arms." Chivalry, derived from the French word chevalier ('cavalier'), at the same time showed skilled horsemanship and military service, and these remained the primary occupations of knighthood throughout the Middle Ages.
Sacred goals were what Christian armies started to devote themselves to. With the time, the Church required that knights protect the weak and defenseless with their weapons and any other means they had available. Women, orphans, and churches were the top priority in terms of protection. During the period of the Crusades, then, there was a mutual influence between the Church and Chivalry. As a consequence, the first Crusades clarifiedthe procedures and moral code of the knights.
With the progress of Renaissance humanism and moral relativism, the knight–and chivalry along with him–lost much of his importance to society, and the ideal of chivalric romance was fundamentally rejected in Niccolò Machiavelli's Il Principe (1532) and more directly disdain in Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote (1605–1615). The medieval literary genre of chivalric romance had been the apogee of idealism and romanticism in literature, but in the 16th century Machiavelli instructed aspiring political rulers to be ferociously pragmatic and to apply the principle that the ends justify the means, directly counter to the high-flown idealism of late medieval chivalry. Later, the grandiloquent values of chivalric romance were heavily satirized in Cervantes's Don Quixote, which portrayed the charmingly idealistic protagonist as a lovable but hopelessly delusional imbecile.
3.3 Chaucer's Knight
Truth, honor, "freedom” and courtesy is what archetypal medieval knight should have. There's no irony here. The Knight is ever honored for his courage. He's truly been through the wars; his tunic is still discolored by his chain-mail armor because he's going on his pilgrimage direct from his latest Crusade. Chaucer uses all the traditional descriptions because the Knight represents what every knight should be, but usually isn't.
We usually hear about the Knight's fatal fights than about how he looked like, because his actions are more important to his public (who, like us, are excited by news of foreign wars and travel) than his appearance and also to his own code of knightly behavior. Pay attention in those aspects during Chaucer's Knight Tale, which deals with two other worthy knights whose behavior dictates who will win or lose the lady they both love.
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3.3.1 Chaucer's Knight's Tale
Duke Theseus of Athens wins the country of the Amazons and marries Queen Hippolyta, taking her and her beautiful sister Emelye back to Athens. To his perplexity, he sees sad women, but not because of his return. These women have lost their husbands during the siege of Thebes, and Thebes' cruel tyrant Creon refuses to allow the burial of the bodies. Theseus promises vengeance and goes to Thebes, where he beats Creon and comes back bringing back the remains of those women's husbands.
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In a mass of bodies, pillagers find the young royal Theban knights Palamon and Arcite, who are cousins. They are still alive. Theseus sends them to Athens to be imprisoned for life, and returns home.
One morning, locked in a tower Palamon looks at Emelye walking in the garden, and falls immediately and crazily in love with her. As he explains his love to Arcite, his cousin also spies Emelye and he is also imprisoned by her beauty. Instantaneously the cousins, who have been as close as brothers since birth, become enemies over the love of Emelye.
Perotheus, a duke who also knows Arcite comes to Athens to see Duke Theseus. When Perotheus knows the knight is Theseus' prisoner, he asks for Arcite's release. Theseus agrees but decides that Arcite never appears in any Theseus' lands, under risk of death. So Arcite comes back to Thebes, heartbroken because he can never again see Emelye. At least Palamon, closed in the tower, can look at her, he sighs. Meanwhile Palamon moans that he is miserable, but lucky Arcite can gather an army in Thebes and return to conquer Athens to win the lady.
Arcite can't handle with this situation and decides to come back to Athens to see Emelye once more. He is unrecognizable because of his pallor and thinness from lovesickness so he is able to become a page at Theseus' court, still venerating Emelye. One morning Arcite is walking in a grove, claiming that it is not far that he can't even reveal his real identity. What he doesn't know is that Palamon has escaped from prison and is overhearing every word from behind a bush. He goes out and vows to kill Arcite for loving Emelye.
The two agree to meet the next day and fight to death, but when they do, Theseus, Queen Hippolyta, and Emelye arrive and see the fight. So Palamon tells Theseus that he and Arcite love Emelye and admits they did not obey him and because of it they deserve to die. Theseus does not want this end and decides that a tourney will be better. Who wins this tournament, which consists in a battle where each knight may enlist other knights and the winner shall have Emelye as a prize.
Palamon prays to Venus, goddess and planet of love. Arcite prays to Mars, god of war. In the heavens, Saturn promises Venus that her favorite, Palamon, shall win. Palamon is arrested, and Arcite wins the tournament.But as Arcite comes in order to accept Emelye, the ground is shaken by Saturn. Because of that, Arcite is killed when his horse falls. Years pass, and when mourning for Arcite is over, Theseus states that life must continue and orders the marriage of
