Contents to include: ( [[]]=extracted box. ) Introduction Opener: Arrival of ''Brutus''. 9C story of what already seemed ancient foundation by great grandson of Aeneas (from Historia Brittonum, and Geoffrey of Monmouth''s Historia.). Idea of England''s formation by successive waves of incomers/invaders. Tabula Rasa: England won''t really have been blank cultural slate, but we''ve no idea what stories were told through long centuries from end of Ice Age to arrival of Celts, c. 500 BCE. Cultural Conquest: Or, rather, of Celtic culture.
Idea of cultural exchange/as against invasion. Veni, Vidi, Vici: Romans - real invasion, and conscious imposition of new culture and mythology. [[The Road Not Taken: Celtic myth pushed out to the margins (Wales, Scotland, Ireland), though much later, in modern times, brought back into the mainstream - most obviously with Victorian Arthurian revival.]] Christianity began to replace what had been state paganism of Romans - though NB this process not complete by time hold over Britain began to weaken in early 5th Century. 1. Anglo-Saxon Advent Romano-British culture in its turn replaced after arrival of Anglo-Saxons. (NB this too bit more gradual than word ''invasion'' would suggest - brief history.) Hengist and Horsa (5C): Legendary brothers said to have led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in their invasion of Britain in 5C; Horsa was killed fighting the Britons, but Hengist successfully conquered Kent, becoming the forefather of its Jutish kings.
Who they were. Germanic mythology - pantheon (Woden, Frigg, Tunor, Tiw), folklore not unlike (but by no means identical to) famous ones of Viking myth. Elves, Nicor, Dragons. [[Romans would in retrospect be mythologized themselves: A-S poem The Ruin sees remains of Roman Bath as the ''work of giants''.]] Some earlier, Celtic stories subsequently seen through A-S filter: Herne the Hunter; Wild Hunt. 2. Beowulf Beowulf is a legendary Geatish hero (so from Götaland in S. Sweden) in the eponymous epic poem, one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature in the English language.
''Hwaet .'': Bardic background. Mead-hall culture and the heroic (Homeric-style) storyteller. Importance of oral tradition. [[''Gemunde .'' (''I remember .''): Oral tradition in transmission of myth.]] Story itself: exploits of Beowulf and his battles, 1) with a monster named Grendel; 2) with Grendel''s revengeful mother; then, finally, 3) with a dragon, guardian of a hoard of treasure.
His death and mourning follow. Scribal Censors? Poems like Beowulf and FF written down by Christian monks. Influence to some extent evident in texts (Biblical allusions etc). Just how much did they help shape these stories as we''ve come to know them now? 3. Danish Domination ''Finnesburg Fragment'' - Anglo-Saxon poem about battle between Danes and Frisians (which is also described in Beowulf). Vikings, Dane''s especially, casting a long and growing shadow over Anglo-Saxon life and myth. Briefest of outlines of Viking origins, culture, religion and myth, esp. in sort of heroic (so bardic and Beowulf-like) aspects foregrounded in the Sagas.
[[England in the ''Iceland'' Sagas - basically, seen as part of a ''greater Scandinavia'' at this time; point amplified by Beowulf (about Geats; FF Danes and Frisians).]] Myth and history not clearly demarcated at this time: mythic material crops up in supposedly historical narrative and vice-versa. Alfred the Great (849-899) a special focus for these stories: In 878, burns the cakes in Athelney, Somerset before defeating the Viking Great Heathen Army at the Battle of Edington. [[Hagiographic Hero: Religion brought a mythology all its own, especially in hagiography (saints'' lives). St Edmund, East Anglian King killed (or martyred) by GHA, 869.]] Battle of Brunanburh: real battle (937) that took on mythic status in Anglo-Saxon poem. ''Never, before this,/were more men in this island slain/by the sword''s edge - as books and aged sages/confirm - since Angles and Saxons sailed here.'' Murder of King Edward the Martyr (c.
962-78); Aethelraed the Unready (c. 966-1016; ''Danegeld''); Denmark''s Cnut (c. 990-1035) and North Sea Empire (and quarrel with the tide). 4. Arthurian Legend Coming of Normans brought further overlayering of existing culture (cf. Romans, A- S, above), though more obviously at top of society than at bottom. Idea of chivalry brought in from continental courts. King Arthur (late 5th and early 6th centuries AD): a legendary leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led defence of Britain against Saxon invaders.
But most of the stories that made it into the mythic legacy aren''t about this epic combat but the romances of the court, and the ''Knights of the Round Table''. The Matter of Britain and the ''Arthurian'' heritage of English myth. Central idea of Arthur and his Knights presented a sort of mythic centre around which endless other narratives could be woven. [[Other Matters: NB not just English writers but continental ones like Chrétien de Troyes, Gottfried von Strassburg, etc, wrote Arthurian works with British settings. There were other acknowledged story-cycles: Matter of France (or ''Franks'' as we''d see it now, so stories of Charlemagne''s empire); Matter of Rome - again, not quite as we''d see it: more classical antiquity - Trojan War and rise of Alexander the Great.]] Many elements and incidents appear in Geoffrey''s Historia . (c. 1136), including Arthur''s father Uther Pendragon; the magician Merlin; Arthur''s wife Guinevere; the sword Excalibur; Arthur''s conception at Tintagel; his final battle against Mordred at Camlann, and final rest in Avalon [[Joseph of Aramathea and Glastonbury]].
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious ''Green Knight'' who dares any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. [[Green Knight''s relation to Green Man as wider symbol of fertility and rebirth.]] Tristan and Iseult: Tragedy about the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult. [[Celtic Connections: 14C romance Sir Launfal - exiled from Arthur''s court, and destitute, taken up by Fairy Queen as lover. Involvement of this supernatural dimension points to Celtic origins of story. These have been suggested for much Arthurian material.]] Tinged with nostalgia. Arthurian romances already involved the high-medieval reinvention of an early-medieval king (if he ever existed).
We can''t help but read them now through a 19C filter. Victorian vogue: Tennyson, Pre-Raphaelite art, etc. 5. Noble Knights and Ladies Fair Arthurian stories only the most famous in a wider genre of chivalric romance . For example, mid-13C King Horn, a chivalric romance in Middle English. Saint George and the Dragon: The legend goes that Saint George, a Roman soldier in the 10th century, came across a town plagued by an evil dragon about to kill the king of England''s daughter. George is said to have slain the dragon, freed the town and rescued the princess, thus becoming the patron saint of England. Myth became far removed from origins, George remodelled as a medieval knight.
[[Naked Courage: Lady Godiva (dates to at least the 13th century): 12C English noblewoman who, according to legend, rode naked - covered only in her long hair - through the streets of Coventry to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation that her husband imposed on his tenants.]] Guy of Warwick (dates to the 13th century): Legendary English hero of Romance popular in England and France from the 13th to 17th centuries. Fighting Back: Stories of dispossessed nobles having to fight for what''s rightly theirs. Gamelyn (14C); Fulk FitzWarin (c. 1180-1350). Shropshire nobleman cheated of lands by King John. Fought to get them back. Real-life figure but acquired semi- legendary status after death.
Became sort of prototype figure for . 6. Robin Hood ''I cannot say my Pater Noster as perfectly as the priest does,/But I know my rhymes of Robin Hood .'' First mention comes (in John Langland''s Piers Plowman) in the 1370s. Heroic outlaw of English folklore who, according to legend, was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. The folk hero became surrounded by a whole folk history (Richard I''s worthless brother John usurping his kingdom while warrior king away at Crusades; Sheriff of Nottingham and Sir Guy of Gisborne his oppressive representatives on the ground), but NB this didn''t happen till 16C. RH traditionally depicted dressed in Lincoln green (cf. Green Man, above p.
xxx) and living beyond the law in Sherwood Forest, reserved as royal hunting ground. [[The People''s Weapon: The Longbow.]] A yeoman (explain) in the earliest ballads, he is said to rob from the rich and give to the poor. Succession of stories introducing key Merry Men: Little John, Will Scarlet, Much the Miller''s Son, Allen a Dale, Friar Tuck (a late addition). [[Sherwood on Stage: associated with May celebrations, so late-medieval festive plays; popular dramas written in Elizabethan and Jacobean periods too.]] Archery Contest. A Woman''s Touch: RH''s Merry Men later (again 16C) joined by Merry Woman in enchanting shape of Maid Marian. Her addition marks growing sophistication and acceptance of story as romance (i.
e. literary, more courtly pretensions), rather than straightforward folktale. RH''s comparative gentleness - and his gentility, his courteous way with ladies - an indication of this. Tendency culminates in RH''s elevation (in 1622 ballad by Martin Parker) to rank of Earl of Huntingdon, who has more in common with dispossessed aristocrats of previous chapter (''Fighting Back'') than popular brigand we might have imagined. RH reinvented yet again in 19C by e.g. Chartists Thomas Miller (novelist) and W.J.
Lin.