English Medieval culture

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 537.

The abolition of the great earldoms and Witenagemot. The Domesday Book – the main written record of the period. The town of Exeter – the western foremost post of the Normans. Three branches of culture – Latin, chivalric (French), folk (English). The chief forms of Medieval literature: chivalric romances, religious and secular poetry, ballads, miracles and mysteries, moralities, interludes. Chaucer – the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. The development of the English language.

Questions

1.What prevented the feudal lords in England from becoming as powerful

and independent as those in France in the 11^th century?

2. What was the Domesday Book? Why was it so called?

3. What do you know about the town of Exeter?

4. What kind poetry prevailed in the medieval England? Why?

5. Why did Arthurian romances gain a wide popularity?

6. Why is it difficult to identify the author of these romances?

7. What are the chief forms of medieval literature?

8. Why did mysteries and miracles survive till the 16^th c.?

9. Who was the greatest writer of the Middle English Period?

Why has he earned the title of the Father of English Literature?

10. Why are the words sheep, ox, pig of Anglo-Saxon origin and the

corresponding words for the same animals used as meat mutton, beef, pork

of French origin?

11. Why are many synonymous words of Anglo-Saxon origin used

in ordinary speech, while those of French origin – in formal speech?

( to give up – to abandon, to give in – to surrender, to come in – to enter,

to begin – to commence, to go on – to continue).

12. What events in British history are the following towns associated

with?

a) Winchester, Salisbury, Lincoln;

b) Exeter, Canterbury;

Explain the origin of their names.

13. Will you agree with the idea that the Norman conquest gave a new

impulse to the development of the Anglo-Saxon culture?