- zeitgeist - spirit of an era/time period
- religion, violence, and social interactions influence lit
- William of Normandy fought and beat King Harold II of England, then asserted his rule and est. Norman french or Latin as the language
- made England feudalistic
- King John signed Magna Carta (Great Charter) - first bill to restrict royal power
- Henry IV, V, VI appear as figures in Shakespeare's work
Literature
- Anglo-Saxon first lit as spoken verse or incantations
- poetry 2 types: heroic (Beowulf) and elegiac (The Wanderer)
- Beowulf - epic, considered national epic of England
- first English work, author unknown
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- Wrote The Canterbury Tales which showed medieval society and not just romance
- plays adapted from church plays to public dramas of ordinary life
- Gutenberg perfects printing press 1454
- William Caxton set up first movable type print
- Medieval romances were tales of knights
- King Arthur was the most popular romance stories
- ballad was also popular form of poetry
- folk song that told a story
- Englaland- land of the angles
- Old englisc began flooded by french words
Exeter Book
- The Exeter Book is a manuscript of scops or oral stories of Britain's Anglo-saxon period
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