Early Middle Ages: Anglo-Saxon Britain and the Celtic Heritage

Cultural History of Britain

Lecture 3

The Middle Ages: Periodisations

European History: 476 AD-1492 Middle Ages Early Middle Ages (5th century-10th century) High Middle Ages (11th-13th centuries) Late Middle Ages (14th-15th centuries)

• British History Oxford History of Britain

1066-1290: Early Middle Ages 1290-1485: Later Middle Ages

Cultural History of Britain 1066-1200 Anglo-Norman Britain 1200-1350 Early Middle Ages 1350-1500 Later Middle Ages

BBC History 1066-1154 Norman Britain 1154-1485 Middle Ages

• Gelfert Early Middle Ages (402-1066) High Middle Ages (1066-1350) Late Middle Ages (1350-1485)

Timeline: Anglo-Saxon Period (c. AD 410-1066)Early Middle Ages

5th-6th century: Dark Ages (Early Saxon Period) 440: Hengist and Horsa 5th century: arrival of Anglo-Saxons (Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians) Britons in Cornwall, Wales and Ireland, also Bretagne (Little Brittany)

End of the 6th century - 793: Middle Saxon Period spreading of Christianity, monasteries by 600: Britain divided into kingdoms (Northumbria, East Anglia, Wessex, etc.)

793-1066: Late Saxon period, Viking (Norse and Danish) invasions c. 800: Wessex assumes central power; kingdoms united into England 871-99: Alfred the Great (Wessex), London as capital (884) 844: beginning of Scottish history (Kenneth MacAlpine, Picts and Scots) 886: establishment of Danelaw on the east (York) 1016: successful campaign of Canute (Saint Brice’s Day massacre, 1002) 1016-35: Canute the Great rules over both Denmark and England 1042-66: Edward the Confessor

1066: Battle of Hastings (Harold II – William the Conqueror) – Norman Conquest

The Early Saxon Period (5th-6th century)

The Arthurian Cycle

- “historical” King

Arthur: 5th-century

Celtic chief fighting

against the Romans?

against the

Anglo-Saxons?• 516: Battle of Mount Badon

Beowulf (6th century,

bards – c. 1000, written

down, monks)The “Renaissance”

of Celtic Art (c. 400-1200)

The Arthurian Cycle: Major SourcesWelsh sources (oral and written): pre-Christian mythology

BardsMabinogion

Supposed emergence of the 11 tales: 11th-12th centuries (debated) Rely on a much older oral tradition Two manuscripts from the 14th – 15th centuries, influence of medieval

French romances debated English translation – Lady Charlotte Guest, mid-19th century Heathen Grail (magic cauldron, gold, healing power)

540: Gildas, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain) – Aurelius Ambrosius

c. 828 Nennius (Welsh historian), The History of Britons (Historia Brittonum) - Arthur

c. 1138: Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regnum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain)

The Arthurian Cycle in Medieval Romances French:

c. 1155, Wace, Roman de Brut1170s-90s, Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot, Perceval, other

stories of the Arthurian Cycle

• English: • c. 1190-1215, Layamon, Brut (Middle English)• Late 14th century, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Pearl

Poet?)• 1469, Sir Thomas Malory, Morte d’Artur (printed by

Caxton)

The Arthurian Heritage 1 ←Tintagel CastleArthur’s birth-place?Merlin, Uther Pendragon

←Cadbury CastleCamelot?

The Arthurian Heritage 2

←King Arthur and the sword – 13th-century manuscript illustration

King Arthur among the nine worthies – 14th-century tapestry→

Golden Age of plenty

Arthur and Guinevere – 14th –century manuscript illustration→LancelotLady of the LakeExcalibur

The Arthurian Heritage 3Winchester’s Round Table c. 1300→

←Knights of the Round Table

The Arthurian Heritage 4

The Holy Grail and the Knights of the Holy Grail (Galahad, Perceval, Bors) – manuscript illustrationsFisher King Myth

The Arthurian Heritage 5

Glastonbury TorIsle of Avalon?Isle of Apples

Isle of the Blessed

Glastonbury Abbey12th-century excavations: tomb of

Arthur?Morgan le Fay - Mordred/Melwas

Victorian Rediscovery of the Arthurian Romances 1: Pre-Raphaelite Ladies of Shalott

Victorian Rediscovery of Arthurian Romances 2: Tennyson, Idylls of the King

Merlin and Vivienne Gustave Doré’s illustration to

Idylls of the King Lancelot and GuinevereJulia Margaret Cameron’s photo illustration to

Idylls of the King

Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (since 1970)

The Arthurian Legend: Contemporary (Popular) Adaptations

The “Renaissance” of Celtic Art 1From the 4th century: Irish settlement of Britain (North-West of Scotland)5th and 6th centuries: hill-forts re-occupied Interconnectedness of Irish and Scottish culture, interrelationship with Anglo-

Saxon culture Ireland:

hill-forts rare agricultural society complicated system of rulers and over-rulers

Celtic Art continued to exist during Roman rule, re-emerged after the legions were withdrawn (roots: Iron Age)

5th and 6th centuries: Economic recovery Spread of Christianity New outlets for artists

Middle Ages religious culture focus on the other world, earthly life only takes us through the “vale of tears” religious art, monastery and church buildings

Middle Saxon Period (6th century – 793): the Christianisation of Britain

c. 430: Christianisation of Britain starts Native:

430 – Ninian, Scotland 432 – St. Patrick, Ireland

Continental: 431 – Palladius, Ireland

From the end of the 6th century

spread of Christianity,

establishment of monasteries Native:

565 – St. Columba, monastery on the

Isle of Iona (Ireland) 633 – Aidan, monastery of Lindisfarne

Continental: 597 – Augustine (Kent, England)

664: Synod of Whitby, settling of conflicts, Roman “victory”731: the Venerable Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Latin) – year

of completion (Monastery of Jarrow)

Early Saxon Architecture: Brixworth Church (7th century)

•Only surviving church from this period•Basilican plan•Nave and isles, choir, polygonal apse•Tower: later addition (10th century)

The “Renaissance” of Celtic Art 2: Medieval Manuscript Illuminations

Raw materials and tools:Quill pens and brushesPigments from various natural materials (often expensive and imported)Executed on vellum (calf skin)Designs laid out with compasses

Artists (monks)Scribe and illuminator often the sameSometimes they were obviously different people

Motifs Intersecting arcs and circles, peltas, scrolls, s-scrolls, spirals, trumpet

patternsChristian symbolismObvious remnants of pagan elementsCathach of St. Columba (c. 600), Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 700), Gospel Book

of Durham Cathedral (7th century), Book of Dimma (8th century)

The Book of Durrow (Gospel Book, mid-7th century, Monastery of Iona?)

Carpet pages (pages of all-over ornament)

•Compedium of European ornamental art• Forms of

Mediterranean origin• Animal symbolism of

North European origin• Shows influences of

continental metalwork• Ornamental frieze-

animals of Anglo-Saxon origin

Celtic Metalwork and Stone-Carving

Hunterston brooch, late 7th century

•Brooches•Hanging bowls•Stone-carvingsin Scotland(by Picts)• Abstract

symbolism• Animal

symbolism(often in combination

Picardy Stone, Scotland, 6th century

Sutton Hoo Ship Burial (late 7th century, Suffolk)

Sutton Hoo helmet (copy), c. 7th century

•Ship burial (cf. Beowulf)•Probably the King of East Anglia (body disappeared)•Various objects (metalwork, textiles) found in the grave•Insular art

The “Renaissance” of Celtic Art 3: The Golden Age (8th century) – Metalwork: Penannular

Brooches

front↑Tara Brooch, early 8th century

back→

Celtic Sculptures in the 8th Century: Celtic Crosses

•Shaped cross-slabs• Typical for

Scotland •Incised stones•Low-relief slabs•First stone crosses in Ireland•First High Crosses (surviving) in Iona• Ornamental techniques inspired by jewelry

making• Bird-nest motifs evoke the Book of Kells

Fahan Mura cross-slab, 9th century

Muiredach’s High Cross (South Cross), Ireland, 9th-10th century →

Manuscripts: The Book of Kells (c. 800 AD)

• among the finest piece of Celtic Art•originally: ornament regarded as purely decorative• discovery of deep and complex Christian symbolism•Place of production: debated• Iona (strong Pictish influence)• Ireland• East Mediterranean influence

also felt (Virgin and Child)• Use of full-page illustrations

Christi Autem page

Late Saxon (Viking) Period (793-1066)793 – Viking raid on the monastery of Iona795 – Viking raid on the monastery of Lindisfarne886 – Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, establishment of DanelawProfound influence of Scandinavian languages on Old English (doubling of

vocabulary, e.g. sky – heaven)Alfred the Great (871-99) – flourishing culture

patronised by the courtTranslation of Latin works (church history [Bede],

St. Augustine, Confessions, philosophy, geography)Beginning of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

(distributed in several copies among monasteries,

regularly updated until 1154)10th and 11th centuries: first manuscripts of

Old English poetry (monks) – epic and elegiac poemsPoetry manuscripts: mixture of pagan (Scandinavian) mythology and

Christian world-view

The “Renaissance” of Celtic Art 4: the Viking Period

Strong influence of Scandinavian art on Irish artApart from sculpture, not much survives from the 9th and

10th centuries (majority of Irish High Crosses from this period, especially at Kells)

Decline of metalworkNew revival in the 11th centuryVeneration of the relics of saints

and books as relics emerges

→ reliquaries

Works CitedAshe, Geoffrey. King Arthur – The Dream of a Golden Age. London: Thames

and Hudson, 1990.

BBC – History. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history

Gelfert, Hans-Dieter: Nagy-Britannia rövid kultúrtörténete. Corvina, Budapest, 2005.

Halliday, F. E. An Illustrated Cultural History of England. London: Thames and Hudson, 1981.

Laing, Lloyd and Jennifer. Art of the Celts. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992.

Morgan, Kenneth O., ed. The Oxford History of Britain. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1984.

Rhys, John. Studies in the Arthurian Legend. 1891. Adamant Media Corporation, 2001.

The Mabinogion. Trans. Charlotte E. Guest. New York: Dover, 1997.

Weston, Jessie L. From Ritual to Romance. 1920. New York, Classic Books International, 2010.