English history

1.   What are the most specific features of Celtic religious beliefs? 

   Celts had polytheistic beliefs associated with Drudism, an extensive oral lore. The Druids were polytheists, but also deified elements of nature, such as the sun, the moon, and the stars, fire, streams, lakes and even plants. 

    Little is known about the religious beliefs of Celts. But their principle belief is that the soul does not die and that after death it passes from one body into another. So they believed in a life after death.

    The Irish believed in an otherworld, imagined as underground and sometimes as islands in the sea. In the otherworld there was no sickness, old age, or death, where happiness lasted forever, and a hundred years was as one day.

        As for Celtic eschatological beliefs, one aspect that has survived is the belief that the world will end with the falling of the sky.

        Celtic had some constant deities existed over a wide area. The main deities of Celtic religion were usually male. A great deity was Lugos, a heroic sun god. In Irish tradition Lug is associated with youth, kingship and healing. Dagda was the god of the arts, knowledge, magic, music, prophecy, prosperity, regeneration. Taranis was the god of thunder.

       There were many Celtic festivals and ceremonies conducted  to celebrate 4 holidays according to the lunar and vegetative cycles: to denote 1)the first signs of spring 2)the fullness of life after spring; 3) the power of the Solar deity Lugh, and 4) connection between the world of the living and that of the dead. 
 
 
 
 
 

2. What features of material culture did the Romans introduce in Britannia?

. In order to provide and maintain the governmental system in Britain the Romans introduced a lot of new things in the sphere of material culture. The Romans brought what they thought was civilisation: 

1. they built roads. The minor roads were built by the Roman army to link economic canters. These roads continued to be used long after the Romans left, and became the main roads of modern Britain. There was another local road level, connecting villas, temples, farms, and villages to larger roads and market towns. At a best guess there were between 8000-10,000 miles of roads constructed during the first hundred years of Roman occupation.
2. Romans brought villas and towns with public buildings and water systems. The Romans left about twenty large towns of about 5,000 inhabitants. Broadly, there were three different kinds of town in Roman Britain depending on people status. 1)coloniae, towns peopled by Roman settlers, 2)municipia, large cities for Roman citizenship, 3)civitas, included the old Celtic tribal capitals, for Celtic population in the countryside. Every town had public baths. Many towns also offered the entertainments of the theatre and amphitheatre.
3. improved industry and trade;
4. introduced Latin literacy and liberal arts to the local aristocracy.

They were tolerant to the local cults and Celtic gods got associated with Roman ones. 

3.What can you say about the Danelaw?

   The first Danish-controlled enclave was established at York, called Jorvik by the Vikings. The Kingdom of York survived with several interruptions until the 950s.

   The territory, covered by the Vikings’ settlements was called the Danelaw, roughly the area to the north of a line drawn between London and Chester.  Five fortified towns became particularly important in the Danelaw: Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Stamford and Derby, broadly covering the area now called the East Midlands.

   The Vikings quickly accepted Christianity and did not disturb the local population.

   The Vikings had similar effects on the various kingdoms of the Irish, Scots, Picts and (to a lesser extent) Welsh. Certainly in North Britain the Vikings were one reason behind the formation of the Kingdom of Alba, which eventually evolved into Scotland.

   Norse and Danish settlement made enough of an impact to leave significant traces in the English language; many fundamental words in modern English are derived from Old Norse, though of the 100 most used words in English the vast majority are Old English in origin. Old Norse and Old English were still mutually comprehensible and the mixed language of the Danelaw caused the including many Norse words into the English language,(the word law itself, as well as the third person plural pronouns they, them and their).  
 
 
 
 
 

4. What kind of houses and settlements did Anglo-Saxons have? 

    The Anglo-Saxon "pit" house was basically a house build over a rectangular pit some 4 meters long. But they were much more complex than a mere hole in the ground covered with a roof. They had planked floors, and clay hearths; they were quite substantial. The pit may have been used for storage, but more probably to keep the house off the damp ground

    Some buildings had stone walls.

    Most houses had only one floor and often only one room. Some of the larger buildings had more than a single room, although not generally more than three.

    Windows were very rare and light would generally come from candles or lamps which burnt animal fat and a central fire built on a raised clay hearth. Hearths were generally rectangular and often had a frame of wood or stone. Windows may also have been shuttered. The fire was the 'central heating' and 'cooker', although a few houses may also have had a clay bread oven.

    Doors had iron or wood hinges and were closed with a latch. Some doors would also have a lock. The floors would have been of packed earth or wood. There is also some evidence that halls may have had raised wooden floors, with steps leading up to the entrance

    Furniture was generally very sparse. There would be chests, for important belongings, often iron bound and lockable. 
 

   5. What facts do you know about King Arthur?

   King Arthur is an important figure in the mythology of Great Britain, where he appears as the ideal of kingship both in war and peace.

    He is the central character in the cycle of legends known as the Matter of Britain. There is disagreement about whether Arthur ever actually existed. In the earliest mentions and in Welsh texts, he is never given the title 'King'. An early text refers to him as a 'war leader'. Another view is that Arthur was a real person. By most theories he was a Romano-British leader fighting against the invading Anglo-Saxons sometime in the late 5th century to early 6th century. Recent archaeological studies show that during Arthur's alleged lifetime, the Anglo-Saxon expansions were halted until the next generation. The village of Tintagel and nearby Tintagel Castle are associated with the legends surrounding King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. It was cited originally as a place of origin for King Arthur. In 1998, excavations discovered the "Arthur stone". In 1191, monks of Glastonbury Abbey announced that they had found the burial site of Arthur and Guinevere. Their grave was shown to many people, and the reputed remains were moved to a new tomb in 1278. The tomb was destroyed during the Reformation, and the bones lost. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

   6How did it happen that Christianity came Britain in two forms?

  It is not clear when Christianity came to Britain, or how. Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Christianity was first brought to the British Isles sometime after the Roman conquest. It is called “Celtic Christianity” implying to be a form of Christianity as it was first practiced within Britain and Ireland that spoke Celtic languages. In the 4th century we find an organized British Church. Legends about the arrival of Christianity in Britain abounded during the Middle Ages. The Celtic cross, in which a symmetrical cross is superimposed on a circle, is a characteristic and distinctive Celtic Christian symbol.

    Wales became Christian, and the "age of the saints" (approximately 500–700) was marked by the establishment of monastic settlements throughout the country. The message of Christianity was spread in Ireland by a British slave, Patrick, who became the "patron saint" of Ireland. Christianity brought writing, which weakened the position of the Druids, who depended on memory and the spoken word. Christian monasteries grew up, frequently along the coast.But there were Christians in Ireland long before Patrick came, and pagans long after he died around 461 A.D. And for many years after his death, various kings of Ireland refused to accept the new religion and made attempts to continue their pagan beliefs. This finally ended when the last of the pagan kings was killed in battle in 561. The spread of Celtic Christianity also helped to unite the people in Scotland.  
 
 
 
 
 
 

7 Can you compare Celtic and Anglo-Saxon weapon and armour? Celts

 The Iron Age in Britain has often been considered as a particularly warlike and violent time.

 Principal weapons used by Iron Age warriors in Britain were spears, shields and swords.. But there is no evidence that the bow and arrow were used for war in Britain at this time.

   Shields were usually made of wood or leather.Swords changed with fashion as well as shields, but they may also have been influenced by changes in tactics. The iron blade of a sword needed great time and skill to make and the sword a piece of art. It is made of thirty-seven different pieces of iron, bronze and horn. Length: 70 cm. Many swords were carried in decorated scabbards. large numbers of sling stones have been found showing that the sling was probably an important weapon. Few Iron Age warriors in Britain appear to have worn armor or any kind: helmets were rare, so too was chain mail.

    Anglo-Saxon

    The main weapon of the period was the spear, not only for the peasant but also for the professional soldier and even the nobility. Small hand axes tended to just be wood-axes which were used for combat. The most prized and lauded weapon was the sword. The main type of body armour in Anglo-Saxon times was mail. Mail of the period was made by cutting thin strips of iron. Head armour of the period consisted of helmets sometimes including a mail coif .Shields seem to have been used universally by all warriors. So as we can see the Anglo-Saxon weapon and armour were more modern and complicated than Celts’.  

8 What can you tell about the Picts?

   The Picts were a union of tribes in central and northern Scotland from Roman times until the 10th century. They lived to the north of the Forth and Clyde.

   Picts spoke Celtic as well as another, probably older, language completely unconnected with any known language today. Pictish culture is very special in comparison with continental and insular Celts. Picts were described everywhere as a people painted all over; their face, their hands and bodies were covered with paintings or tattoos. .

    At the same time, naturalistic depictions of Pictish nobles, hunters and warriors, male and female, without obvious tattoos, are found on monumental stones. Pictish art can be classed as Celtic, and later as Hiberno-Saxon. Many scientists stress the dissimilarity between Celtic and Pictish cultural traditions and material constructions. They say that Picts were different from the Celts because they inherited their rights, their names and property from their mothers, not from their fathers.

   The early Picts are associated with piracy and raiding along the coasts of Roman Britain. The Hadrian Wall was constructed in order to protect Roman Britain from Picts.

At this time Pictish lands, just liberated from Romans, began to suffer the invasions from the east - Celtic Scots landed southern Scotland from Ireland - and from the west - Germanic Saxons and Angles started intrusions in Britain.

Final unity between Picts, Scots and Britons was achieved for several reasons. They all shared a common Celtic culture, language and background.  

9)What do we know about Celtic farming methods and dwellings?

    Dwellings

    Round houses usually contained a single room, although some may have been partitioned internally. In larger houses, the roof space may have been floored over to be used as a loft for storage or even extra living space. Most round houses had a fireplace and oven at their centre. This provided heat for cooking, warmth for the house and light. As there were no windows, the only light came from the fire, lamps or through the door when it was open. In some parts of Britain, round house doorways often pointed towards the east or southeast to let in the morning sun. The position of the doorway may also have had a religious significance.

Farming

    A typical farm might contain one or more round houses inside a farmyard surrounded by a hedge and ditch.

    The same crops and animals were raised by most farmers. Wheat and barley were grown in small fields; other crops included also beans. Timber was also an important crop as it was needed for fuel and for building houses. Cattle, sheep and pigs were kept for meat and for their manure. These animals were smaller than those kept on modern British farms. Cattle provided milk and leather and. It is probable that sheep also provided milk as well as meat and wool. Pigs were kept just for their meat. Dogs were kept on Iron Age farms, but there is no evidence that they were used as sheep dogs. Chickens were introduced to Britain in the last centuries of the Iron Age.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

10)How did the Romans conquer the British Isles?

Britain was not unknown in the Classical world. The first direct Roman contact came when the Roman general and future dictator, Gaius Julius Caesar, made two expeditions to Britain in 55 and 54 BC. Caesar had conquered no territory, but had established clients on the island and brought Britain firmly into Rome's sphere of political influence.

    The successful invasion was that of Claudius in 43 AD. Landing in Kent, the Romans defeated the Catvellauni and their allies in two battles on the rivers Medway and Thames. The battle at Medway was one of the most significant battles in British history- The British were pushed back to the Thames. Togodumnus, one of the Britons’ leaders died shortly after the battle on the Thames, but his brother Caratacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere. A grim reminder of this invasion is still to be seen at Maiden Castle in Dorset, where the Romans left behind a war cemetery full of enemy remains.79 AD — The Romans occupy the whole of Wales. 

    The Romans could not conquer "Caledonia", as they called Scotland, although they spent over a century trying to do so. At last they built a strong wall along the northern border, named after the Emperor Hadrian who planned it. Construction probably started in 122 and was largely completed within ten years.122–128 AD — Hadrian’s Wall constructed. But it also marked the border between the two later countries, England and Scotland. In 142 AD another wall- Antonine Wall finished.

     As for the next 2 centuries, the 3^rd and the 4^th there was little stability both in Rome and in its provinces, including Britannia. 

11)What do we know about the inhabitants of the British Isles during the Bronze Age?

From around 2,150 BC, people  discovered how to make bronze  by mixing copper with a small amount of tin. And thus the bronze age arrived in Britain. Over the next thousand years, bronze gradually replaced stone as the main material for tool and weapon making.

     Britain had large reserves of tin in the areas of Cornwall and Devon in what is now southwest England. By around 1,600 BC, the southwest of Britain was experiencing a trade boom, as British tin was exported across Europe.

     People were also skilled at making ornaments from gold.

     Early Bronze Age Britons buried their dead beneath earth mounds(холм,насыпь) known as barrows, often with a beaker alongside the body. Later in the period, cremation was adopted as a burial practice.

     One of the most well-known burials of the period is that of the Amesbury Archer. This grave of a man dating to around 2,300BC was discovered three miles from Stonehenge. His grave was the richest from this period (the early Bronze Age) ever found in Britain and contained the country’s first gold objects.

     Later during Bronze age technological development led to a more sophisticated lifestyle. Woven garments (тканая одежда) were being produced, and beer and mead(медовуха) were being brewed(варить). Finds of razors, suggest that some men may have been clean shaven. Bronze socketed axes (so that a wooden handle could be inserted) came into use and weapons were improved. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that, as the Bronze Age was drawing to a close, society became more warlike.  
 
 

12)What can you tell about Old English and Anglo-Saxon literature?

Anglo-Saxon Literature

    Anglo-Saxon literature (or Old English literature) is a literature written in Old English during the 600-year Anglo-Saxon period of Britain, from the mid-5th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066. These works include genres such as epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, In all there are about 400 surviving manuscripts from the period. A large number of manuscripts remain from the 600 year Anglo-Saxon period in both Latin and the ernacular(народный). Old English began, in written form, as a practical necessity in the aftermath of(последствие) the Danish invasions. King Alfred the Great (849–899), wanting to restore(возвратить) English culture and  noted that while very few could read Latin, many could still read Old English. He proposed that students be educated in Old English. In this way many of the texts that have survived are typical teaching and student-oriented texts.

    Old English poetry was an oral craft, our understanding of it in written form is incomplete—for example we know that the poet could be accompanied by a harp.

    Most Old English poets are anonymous;

    The most famous works from this period include the poem Beowulf, which has achieved national epic status in Britain..

    Wisdom poetry

    It`s a number of short poems. For example The Ruin, (which tells of the decay(разрушение) of a once glorious city of Roman Britain)  and The Wanderer, (in which an older man talks about an attack that happened in his youth, where his close friends and kin were all killed).

    Biblical paraphrases

    The Junius manuscript contains three paraphrases of Old Testament texts. These were re-wordings of Biblical passages in Old English, not exact translations, but paraphrasing, sometimes into beautiful poetry in its own right.Christian poems - It`s a number of original religious poems, mostly lyrical.Old English literature has had an influence on modern literature.