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1.1 The Anglo-Saxons(盎格鲁撒克逊人)
The ancestors of English-speaking people are called the Anglo-Saxons, a
Germanic tribal people, who originally lived in southern Denmark and northern
Germany. Since the Anglo-Saxons were illiterate and had no written language of
their own, they are historically called barbarians. Other barbarians include Franks,
Visigoths, Vandals, etc. And it was the Visigoths that brought the Roman Empire
to its end. According to Cunliffe (2013), the first three centuries of the Roman
invasion had promoted the extensive mobility of population and in the late 3rd
century there were German conscripts in Roman auxiliary units. Other reasons for
the Germanic tribes to move westward from northern Europe could be cold climate
or hunger. The three tribes among them were the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes.
Their destination was the British Isles and it took them 150 years to complete the
settlement in Britain since the year of 449 AD. In the meantime another group of the
Germanic people arrived at Brittany, west of France. This second group had made a
greater impact on Britain than the Anglo-Saxons, which will be discussed later. Apart
from the previously mentioned reasons, the fourth possible reason for this large-scale
migration was related to the Chinese who drove the Huns (匈奴) out of northern
英语使用者的祖先是来自北欧日耳曼部落的盎格鲁人、撒克逊人和朱特人。公元5世
纪时他们背井离乡迁移到不列颠岛国。本章讲述盎格鲁撒克逊人定居之前不列颠的社会形
态,如罗马人的占领留下了什么以及早于罗马人定居此地的凯尔特人的生活状态,还涉及
盎格鲁撒克逊人西迁的动因、定居不列颠后的生活和基督教传播的状况。
Chapter
1Peopling the British Isles
不列颠岛屿的居民
导读 Synopsis
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part of China in Han Dynasty. According to Xu Bo (2009), people causing the huge
movement of the European barbarians could be the Huns who had been defeated by
Emperor Wu Di (156-87 BC) and swept the savage people westward. “Crossing the
Volga and the Don River from east to west to enter eastern Europe, the nomads led,
coerced and forced many other savage people toward the frontier of Roman Empire,
sweeping and destroying anything encountered.”
The barbarians are called like that in contrast to the highly civilized Romans
because the latter inherited many aspects of ancient Greek civilization. In literature,
for instance, the Roman poet Virgil (70-19 BC) created the Roman epic The Aeneid
following Homeric legend The Odyssey. Like Odysseus in The Odyssey who
experienced a multitude of difficulties and hardships trying to go back home Ithaca,
having defeated the Trojans, Aeneas, the hero of the epic, leading his bedraggled
soldiers defeated by the Greeks, underwent numerous hazards and perils before
finding his destination Italy. In this way Aeneas became the ancestor of the Romans
and the city of Rome was established in 753 by his offspring Romulus and Remus,
300 years after the death of Aeneas (Jones, 2012). In order to gain pride of the
Romans for their ancestors, Virgil has intentionally fabricated the plot of the epic
while the Homeric epics could be partially traced back to history.
In philosophy, the Latin Fathers such as St. Jerome, St. Ambrose and St.
Augustine in Rome integrated Plato’s ideas of afterlife and the separation between
body and soul into the compilation of the Bible, which means that man’s soul still
functions after the body departs. In addition, the deductive reasoning method, i.e. the
syllogism, was inherited by scholars of scholasticism. And Latin used by the Romans
was dominant in Europe for a thousand years due to the prevalence of Christianity.
As we know, the Romans are renowned for their engineering technology in
architecture and aqueduct projects. During the period of their occupation in England,
the Romans built many roads, towns, villas and bathing facilities. Because of the
public bathing house constructed by the Romans in Bristol, England still attracts
tourists today and the town was named after the bathing house, i.e. Bath. The most
important road built by the Romans connected the city of London, or Londinium
in Latin, and the city of Rome or Silchester (BBC News, 2010). In the late period of
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Peopling the British Isles不列颠岛屿的居民Chapter 1
Roman occupation, the Roman villas were extremely popular and Lullingstone was a
case in point. The Romans also constructed the Saxon Shore, the well-known military
citadel (Musgrove, 2010). The barbarians like the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes, the
Franks, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths and the Vandals were considerably dwarfed
by the highly developed Roman civilization. Ironically though, it is none other than
those savage peoples that eventually conquered the civilized people and overthrew
the Roman Empire. Undoubtedly, the collapse of Roman Empire was closely related
to its inner corruption of political system and its luxurious and dissipated life.
1.2 The Celts(凯尔特人)
Before the Anglo-Saxon settlements and the Roman invasions, the inhabitants
of Britain were the Celts, European immigrants from France and western Germany.
They lived in Britain between 700 BC-100 AD. More recent research carried out
by Cunliffe (2013) revealed, however, that the Celts are probably the Spanish who
moved to Britain by 2000 BC. The Celts, also called Indo-Europeans, are further
divided into the Picts, the Britons and the Scots. The word “Scots” has two meanings.
One refers to the indigenous people in Scotland. The other stands for the Gaelic-
speaking Irish who had moved to Scotland. The Picts who lived in northern part
of Scotland were famous for their toughness and belligerence. When the Romans
first came to Britain in the first century, they were frequently assaulted by the Picts
and failed eventually in their attempt to occupy Scotland. Because people of this
nationality liked to paint colors on their body, the Romans called them “Pict”, a
Latin word meaning “a person who paints colors on his body”. Julius Caesar, the
renowned Roman general, twice landed in Britain in 55 BC and 54 BC. In the first
invasion the Roman soldiers encountered strong resistance and had to withdraw
from Britain. The second landing of the Romans was successful but lasted only a
short period of time. The formal conquest of Britain by the Romans began in 43 AD
under the throne of Roman emperor Claudius (10 BC-54 AD; his imperial presidency
was between 41-54 AD). The subsequent Emperor Hadrian ordered to build a 73-
mile wall, i.e. the Hadrian’s Wall, in 122 AD for the purpose of keeping the hostile
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Picts out of England. Look at the map below and we find another wall, i.e. the
Antonie Wall, to north of the Hadrian’s Wall, which was constructed in 142 AD at
the order of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and is 39 miles long. The area between
the two walls functioned as frontier barrier of Roman Britain to protect the northern
boundary from other tribes.
Upon the arrival of the Germanic
tribes at Britain in 449 AD the
Roman Empire had already declined.
All the Roman legions withdrew from
Britain in the year 409 AD so that
the Anglo-Saxons met fewer tough
enemies in Britain. Having no strong
protection from the Roman legions,
the Britons faced another fierce attack
from the Picts in the north. At that
time Vortigen, the king of Britain,
decided to ask help from the newly
arrived Saxons to withstand their
enemies from the north. In return the king would allow the Saxons to stay in Britain.
Not unexpectedly, the Saxon brothers Hengist and Horsa defeated the Picts so that
they gained the right to remain in Kent. That was the year 449 AD.
The Anglo-Saxons came to Britain in the following way: The Jutes, coming from
southern Denmark, landed in Kent, the southeast area of Britain. The Angles and the
Saxons who came from northern Germany settled separately in northern England
and southwest of England. Thus the three tribal peoples became ancestors of the
English-speaking people.
The frequently used acronym WASP is derived from the history and the full name
is the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. It is well known that the American society was
dominated by the WASP and it was this group of people who decided on legislature,
judiciary and administration of the country. So the WASP could also indicate elites of
the American society, especially before 21st century. Thanks to this group of people
The Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall
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Peopling the British Isles不列颠岛屿的居民Chapter 1
the 102 pilgrims embarked on the ship Mayflower in 1,620, got ashore in Plymouth
and established the country called the United States in the newly found continent.
The reason was that in this free soil they could freely practice their religious belief
Puritanism. In 1,608, some English Puritans migrated to Holland, a free country, to
practice their religious belief. But before long the second generation got accustomed
to the Dutch culture and forgot their own. That motivated them to move again to the
new land.
Beyond the expectations of the Britons, these newly arrived immigrants did
not plan to live peacefully in such an abundant land. Instead, the Anglo-Saxons
directed against the Britons who asked them for help. One could hardly imagine
these Germanic people were so brave and resourceful in battles, matching the Roman
legions. On top of that their asperity and brutality were also comparable to that of
the Romans. Consequently, the frail and pathetic Celtic people were gradually forced
out of their wealthy and prosperous land where they might have lived for 2,000 years
and moved toward the peripheral areas such as Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Ireland
and Brittany in present-day France. From
the picture on the right we can see in the
8th century Anglo-Saxons took control
of most of the territories of Britain. The
dark-grey areas were occupied by the
invaders while the light-colored areas
were mainly taken up by the Gaelic-
speaking Celts. Comparatively speaking,
the natural condition of the fringe areas
was poorer and infertile. There was a
drastic change in demography, too. The
Celts had changed from previous majority
settlers of Britain to the present minority
nationality due to the English invasions. This situation inevitably led to the conflict
and estrangement between the two nationalities because the majority Anglo-Saxons
held a powerful position while the Celtic minority was in the inferior position. For
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a long historical period of time Ireland was under control of the English rulers and
it was not until 1921 that Ireland became independent from Britain. But it was also
during this time that the six towns in Northern Ireland were separated from the
Republic of Ireland and have remained in Britain, causing a rise in nationalism. For
instance, at the beginning of 20th century, IRA, the Irish Republican Army tried hard
to help Northern Ireland gain independence from Britain and they even used the
method of terrorism to achieve their purpose.
The Irish nationalism is reflected in several Irish men of letters, e.g. William
Butler Yeats, James Joyce and Seamus Heaney. In his attempt to revive Celtic
literature and tradition, Yeats (1865-1939) in his early poetry drew on the ancient
Irish myths and legends. But he expressed his nationalism and defied English
government in his later poems. For instance, in Easter 1916, Yeats expressed
mournful sentiment for those dead rebels and denounced what the English had done
(Fakia, 2009). The setting of this poem was in Easter, Dublin in 1916. The Irish
Citizen Army planned to stage a rebellion in Dublin against the British rule in Ireland
and the date for rebellion was Monday, 24th April. Initially the insurgents took hold
of the main buildings and won small victories against the British army. But several
days later, many of the rebels were killed and the four described in the poem were
executed after they surrendered. Yeats admired the rebels’ heroism and patriotism
and he sang praise for what they had done for this country. One of the martyrs is
called McBride who in fact is not liked by Yeats. But in the poem Yeats expressed
admiration and respect for him anyway. Other poems expressing nationalism include
The Second Coming and Sailing to Byzantium.
The second Irish novelist James Joyce (1882-1941) expressed his patriotism in
his early work Dubliners, a collection of 15 short stories. The purpose is to make
criticism on people’s indifference and numbness, the so-called “moral paralysis”(Sun
and Zong, 1984). For instance, in The Sisters, the first of the 15 short stories, Father
Flynn, the old priest died of fear of the broken chalice, symbol of loss of faith. But
people around him had little consciousness of that and his two sisters could not
understand why such an incident caused their brother’s death. The implied meaning
was that people living in this city had no moral pursuit. Joyce intended to awake his
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people to such a fact and edify their morality. In another story Ivy Day, Joyce, on the
surface, told a story about how the Irish Party agents helped canvass people for their
head Mr. Tierney, which was obviously wrong. But the true protagonist of this story
was Parnell, the former leader of Irish Party, who did not appear in the story. He was
described as an “Uncrowned King”, and “He would have had his Erin famed, /The
green flag gloriously unfurled, /Her statesmen, bards and warriors raised/Before the
nations of the World”. Unfortunately, however, Parnell is dead and the people in the
story cherished the memory of him and hoped that one day “his spirit may/Rise, like
the Phoenix from the flames, /When breaks the dawning of the day, /The day that
brings us Freedom’s reign” (James Joyce, 1984:152-153).
Though not wanting to take sides, Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) is outspoken
in making critique on violence and the chaos caused by it. He pointed out that
the Catholics in Northern Ireland were prejudiced against and maltreated by the
Protestants, causing confrontations between the Irish Republican Army and British
government. The unbearable thing was that the British army shot the civil rights
protesters, leading to 13 death tolls and 14 injuries. The following quote is taken
from his 1995 Nobel Prize address:
While the Christian moralist in oneself was impelled to deplore the atrocious
nature of the IRA’s campaign of bombings and killings, and the“mere Irish”in
oneself was appalled by the ruthlessness of the British Army on occasions like
Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972, the minority citizen in oneself, the one who had
grown up conscious that his group was distrusted and discriminated against in
all kinds of official and unofficial ways, this citizen’s perception was at one with
the poetic truth of the situation in recognizing that if life in Northern Ireland were
ever really to flourish, change had to take place.
Born and brought up in Derry, Northern Ireland and being a Catholic
Republican, Heaney has profound feelings for this land and he wants to use his
poetry to help people gain peaceful life. But sometimes such a good intension is not
easily reached. The poem Casualty in Field Work 1979 expresses his mournful feeling
for Louis O’Neil who died in the Bloody Sunday. This poem echoes with what Yeats
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has written in Easter 1916, which memorizes those who died in the struggle to drive
away the British government in Northern Ireland (Weiner, 2014). The title Casualty
is borrowed from Yeats’ line “He, too, has resigned his part/In the casual comedy”.
But the difference is that the main character McBride that Yeats mourns for is the
leader of the rising while the unnamed fisherman in Heaney’s poem has nothing
to do with politics. “He was blown to bits/Out drinking in a curfew.” Heaney asks
“How culpable was he/That last night when he broke/Our tribe’s complicity?” The
point made here is that an ordinary citizen dies due to the conflict in politics which
has nothing to do with this man at all. So the poet deplores the innocent death of
the fisherman and in the meantime condemns the people who caused such casualty,
i.e. the British authorities. Since the Saville Inquiry reported that “all of those shot
were unarmed, and that the killings were both ‘unjustified and unjustifiable’”. David
Cameron, the British Prime Minister, made a formal apology on behalf of the United
Kingdom (Wikipedia Retrieved, 2014).
Regarding Scotland the situation is not so optimistic. Recently we heard about
Scottish independence referendum. According to an Economist article (April 12,
2012), the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) thinks that Scotland has
its own society and nation and can prosper when it has sovereignty. The pro-
independence Scots think that they are subsidizing the British government by
the North Sea oil and gas. Others complain about the arrogance of Westminster
politicians.
In history Scotland was an independent nation. But in 1286 after the death of
monarch Margaret, 13 descendants of former monarchs scrambled for power. Seeing
this EdwardⅠof England, intervened on behalf of John de Baliol, a grandson of
DavidⅠ, proclaiming suzerainty(宗主权)over Scotland. Then William Wallace was
trying to get back the power from the English monarch but failed. In 14th century
Robert Bruce, another Scottish patriot, led his people to struggle for independence.
The Scots won independence from England in 1328 when the regents of the young
EdwardⅢof England approved the Treaty of Northampton. More than 300 years
later in 1707 Scotland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain (Microsoft
Encarta Encyclopedia, 2002) for the purpose of protecting the newly emerged
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religion Protestantism. Yet during the 300-year union problems and complaints still
exist among Scots. Up till now, the Celts living in Britain still remember their heroic
leader King Arthur, hoping that one day Arthur would come and lead his people to
fight for freedom and independence.
But in any case, the British national flag or the Union Jack still has three crosses
representing the three different nationalities: the white diagonal cross on a blue
ground symbolizes the Scottish patron saint St. Andrew; the red cross on a white
ground stands for England and their patron saint is St. George; and the red diagonal
cross on a white ground belongs to the Irish patron saint St. Patrick. The Union flag
looks very much like the Chinese character 米. So we often call it 米 character flag.
But what we do not know is its religious connotations behind each cross. Take a look
at the following picture.
The story about St. George, the English patron
saint, goes like this: A monster comes to ravage a
pagan land every year, greatly disturbing the peaceful
life of the people living in this territory. In order to
pacify the monster and regain the quiet life, people
decide to make an offering to the dragon by sacrificing
a young person each year. Now it is the king’s turn to sacrifice his daughter. When
the king is just about to pass his daughter to the dragon, a young man named
George rushes to the spot and slays the monster and saves the princess. The king is
so grateful to George that he asks his people to be converted to Christianity. This is
the story about St. George. Now people in Britain celebrate St. George’s Day every
year.
The knowledge of British history helps us to communicate effectively in such
a globalized world. It is necessary to distinguish between “British” and “English”
because inappropriate use of the form of address would cause annoyance or even
offence. For instance, you do not use “English” to address people from Northern
Ireland, Scotland or Wales because the word “English” only refers to people coming
from England. Sometimes England is used in two senses: the narrow sense and the
broad sense. The latter could loosely refer to Britain but not accurately. If you do
The British National Flag
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not want to annoy British people with different nationalities, you had better use the
umbrella term “British” to address people coming from Great Britain unless you
know exactly where in Britain they come from. So the term British can be used to
address Irish, Scottish, Welsh and people from Cornwall without giving offence. It is
also safe to use “British” to address English.
In this section we have discussed the origin of the English-speaking people, the
relation between the Anglo-Saxons and the Celts, and the etiquette we should pay
attention to when communicating with people from Britain. Next we will look at
the characteristics of Old English and the Venerable Bede, a well-known monk who
wrote the Ecclesiastical History.
In-depth Reading深度阅读
1.3 古英语的特点
凯尔特人的母语统称盖尔语(Gaelic),它的具体方言包括爱尔兰盖尔语
(Irish Gaelic)、苏格兰盖尔语(Scots Gaelic)、康沃尔语(Cornish)和威尔士语
(Welsh)(Freeborn,2000)。这里需要明确一下,苏格兰盖尔语的使用者生活
在苏格兰高地(Highlands),而苏格兰语(Scots)的使用者则生活在苏格兰低地
(Lowlands)。低地地区的多数人是盎格鲁人的后裔,他们定居在边界地区(the
Borders)和东洛锡安(East Lothian)地区,属于诺森伯利亚王国统领。诺曼征服
后,为了躲避侵略者,一些盎格鲁撒克逊人从英格兰逃到了边界地区。这些人所讲
的语言称为低地苏格兰语(Lowland Scots),并逐渐代替了低地地区的盖尔语。所
以,低地苏格兰语更接近日耳曼部落的古英语(Old English)。居住在这里的苏格兰
人的祖先是由日耳曼人、凯尔特人和北欧人构成的。因此,苏格兰语不属于凯尔特
语,而属于古英语。
尽管盎格鲁撒克逊人占领了这片土地,由于蔑视凯尔特人,日耳曼部落的人很
少与失败者交往,因此在英语的借词里盖尔语词汇数量有限。英国人的祖先盎格
鲁撒克逊人讲的语言称古英语。古英语在句法(Syntax)、词汇(Lexicon)、拼
写(Spelling)和发音(Pronunciation)方面都与现代英语相去甚远。经过150年的