Anglo-Saxon
AD 449: Angles and Saxons are from Germany who invaded Great Britian
Gilgamesh
c 1300 BC: his epic was published
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Homer
700 BC: wrote both the Iliad and the Odyssey
Virgil
70 BC: Roman poet
Ovid
c 5 AD: Roman poet who wrote Metamorphoses
Vellum books
c 360 AD: They replaced scrolls throughout Europe
Buddha
c 650: Chinese sculpture from T’ang dynasty
T’ang period
600s: promotes everyday use of the Chinese language
Alexandria
640: where the famous library with the 300,000 papyrus scrolls were
Caedmon
c. 670: earliest English Christian poet who wrote hymns
Beowulf
ca. 700: an English epic
Venerable Bede
730: an English clergy who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Manyashu
c. 759: Japanese anthology of about 4500 poems
Book of Kells
760: monks wrote these; an illuminated manuscript of Latin gospels
Poetic Edda
c.
850: Famous cycle of Norse mythological poems
The Thousand and One Nights
900: a series of Arabian tales
The Exeter Book
c. 975: a collection of English poetry
The Tale of Genji
c. 1000: novel written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu
Celt
blond warriors called Brythons (another term of Britons)
Animism
spirit
Alfred the Great
871-899: led Anglo-Saxons against Danes
Grendel
man-eating monster who lives at the bottom of a mountain lake
Herot
Golden guest hall built by Hrothgar; decorated with antlers of stags
Hrothgar
Danish king and friend of Beowulf’s father
Wiglaf
Geat warrior and part of Beowulf’s band; only one to assist him in his final fight
resolute
determined
lavish
extravagant
Viking
Invaders of Europe that came from Scandinavia
archetype
perfect example
epic
a quest story on a grand scale
bard
A lyric poet
caesura
rhythmic pause in a verse
kenning
A device employed in Anglo-Saxon poetry in which the name of a thing is replaced by one of its functions or qualities, as in “ring-giver” for king and “whale-road” for ocean.
Austere
severe or stern in appearance; undecorated
squall
Brief, violent storm
groveling
humiliating someone in one’s authority
gallant
Brave and noble
scourge
inflict severe punishment
fawning
cringing and pleading
Achilles
powerful Greek warrior son of Peleus and Thetis
Patroclus
Greek warrior and companion of Achilles
Trojan
natives of Troy
Hector
commander of Trojan armies; son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba
Paris
another son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba
Priam
Trojan king; father of Prince Hector and Prince Paris
Apollo
god of poetry, music and prophecy; only son of Zeus and Leto; sides with the Trojans
Athena
goddess of wisdom
Zeus
father-god
Dardan Gates
gates of Troy; Dardania is a city built near the foot of Mt.
Ida
Deiphobus
one of Hector’s brothers
Iliad
war epic
Odyssey
a Greek epic poem (attributed to Homer) describing the journey of Odysseus after the fall of Troy
invocation
formal plea for aid
convention
characteristic
medias res
in the midst of things
Agamemnon
(Greek mythology) the king who lead the Greeks against Troy in the Trojan War
Hera
Goddess of marriage
elegy
a sorrowful poem or speech
mead-hall
Gathering place for warriors
wyrd
Fate
wergild
“money for a man”, the value of a person in money, depending on social status; in Germanic society, a fine paid by a wrongdoer to the family of the person he or she had injured or killed
sentinel
A guard
sinews
Tendons
hoary
very old; whitish or gray from age
pyre
A heap of combustibles for burning a corpse as a funeral rite.
scabbard
sheath for sword or dagger
runic
mysterious; magical
solace
Comfort
skulked
(v.) moved about in a secretive or sneaky way
scruples
Misgivings about something one feels is wrong
theme
Central idea of a work of literature
allusion
A reference to another work of literature, person, or event
illusion
(n.) a false idea; something that one seems to see or to be aware that really does not exist
William the Conqueror
1027-1087: Norman king in 1066 he defeated Harold, the Anglo-Saxon king, to become the first Norman king of England
scop
traveling composer and poet serving as paid entertainment usually
comitatus
code of loyalty
vexed
annoyed
hoard
collection of hidden coins, treasures, etc.
-able or -ible
is; can be
-al, -ial
having characteristic of
ed
past tense verb
en
made of
er or or
person connected with
am
love
plac
please
luc/lum/los
light
loc/loq/loqu
word, speech
auto
self
pas/pat/path
feeling, suffering, disease
pseudo
fake
nom/nym
name
dog/dox
opinion
phil
love
anthro/andro
human
terra
earth
allegory
a symbolic fictional narrative that conveys a meaning not explicitly set forth in the narrative.
symbolism
A device in literature where an object represents an idea.
direct characteristic
Directly says or thinks about character.
Other words in a direct characterization the reader is like.
indirect characteristic
Traits not actually stated but are determined by the reader from clues the author gives
