Humanities Midterm bleegghhh

Augustine of Canterbury

A Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church. Pope Gregory the Great chose him in 595 to lead a mission, usually known as the Gregorian mission, to Britain to Christianize King Æthelberht and his Kingdom of Kent from Anglo-Saxon paganism.

Palace Chapel (Aachen and Aix-la-chapelle)

A group of buildings with residential, political and religious purposes chosen by Charlemagne to be the center of power of the Carolingian Empire. The palace was located at the north of the current city of Aachen. An example of architecture from the Carolingian Renaissance.

Druids

A member of the educated, professional class among the Celtic peoples of Gaul, Britain, Ireland, and possibly elsewhere during the Iron Age. The druid class included law-speakers, poets and doctors, among other learned professions, although the best known among the druids were the religious leaders. The druids in Irish literature—for whom words such as drui, draoi, drua and drai are used—are sorcerers with supernatural powers, who are respected in society, particularly for their ability to perform divination. They can cast spells and turn people into animals or stones, or curse peoples' crops to be blighted. High social status.

Elegy

A mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead. The Wanderer or The Seafarer.

Carolingian Renaissance

A period of cultural activity in the Carolingian Empire occurring from the late eighth century to the ninth century, taking inspiration from the Christian Roman Empire. During this period there was an increase of literature, writing, the arts, architecture, jurisprudence, liturgical reforms, and scriptural studies. The Carolingian Renaissance occurred mostly during the reigns of the Carolingian rulers Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. It was supported by the scholars of the Carolingian court, notably Alcuin of York.

Golden Age of Northumbria

A period of cultural flowering in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, broadly speaking from the mid-seventh to the mid-eighth centuries. It is characterised by a blend of insular art, Germanic art and Mediterranean influence. Authors associated with this golden age include Bede and Alcuin; artefacts include the Lindisfarne Gospels and associated manuscripts, the Ruthwell Cross and associated sculptures, and, arguably, the Franks Casket.

Saxon conversion

A process spanning the 7th century. It is essentially the result of the Gregorian mission of 597. Conversion of Pagans to Christianity.

Scriptoria

A room set aside for monks to copy down and translate old works of art.

Ruthwell Cross

A stone Anglo-Saxon cross probably dating from the 8th century, when Ruthwell was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria; it is now in Scotland. It is both the most famous and elaborate Anglo-Saxon monumental sculpture, and possibly the oldest surviving "text" of English poetry, predating any manuscripts containing Old English poetry. The cross was smashed by Presbyterian iconoclasts in 1642, and the pieces left in the churchyard until they were restored and re-erected in the manse garden in 1823 by Henry Duncan. In 1887 it was moved into its current location in Ruthwell church, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, when the apse which holds it was specially built. Latin inscriptions.

Carolingian Miniscule

A type of script so that the Latin language would be easier to read p much. Charlemagne sort of.

Germanic Heroic Ethic

A warrior, concerned both with his reputation and fame, and with his political responsibilities. Strength, courage, honor, loyalty, generosity and hospitality.

Alcuin

Alcuin of York. English scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria. At the invitation of Charlemagne, he became a leading scholar and teacher at the Carolingian court. Einhard called him the most learned man anywhere in the Life of Charlemagne. One of the most important architects in the carolingian renaissance. Charlemagne's court at Aachen. Carolingian miniscule.

Runes

Alphabet, extended from the Elder Futhark from 24 to between 26 and 33 characters. They were used probably from the 5th century onward, recording Old English and Old Frisian.

St. Columba

An Irish abbot and missionary credited with spreading Christianity in present-day Scotland. He founded the important abbey on Iona, which became a dominant religious and political institution in the region for centuries. Vita Columba tells us about his life.

Lindisfarne Gospels

An illuminated manuscript gospel book produced in a monastery off the coast of Northumberland at Lindisfarne. Eadfrith. Made in honor of popular Saint. Contain the four gospels and used to spread Christian message and word of God.

Who are some of the significant players in the process of the conversion of Europe, especially Northern Europe, to Christianity?

Augustine of Canterbury and Pope Gregory cuz Pope was like yo convert people and Augustine was like ya that's chill.

Celts

Ethnolinguistic group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Medieval Europe who spoke Celtic languages and had a similar culture

Hagia Sophia

Holy wisdom. Byzantine architecture. Dome and the curved archways.

Fosterage

In Ancient Ireland, ollams taught children either for payment or for no compensation. Children were taught a particular trade and treated like family; their original family ties were often severed.

Digressions (allusions)

In which one refers covertly or indirectly to an object or circumstance from an external context. It is left to the audience to make the connection. See examples in your packets.

St. Columbanus

Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries on the European continent in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in present-day Italy. He is remembered as an exemplar of Irish missionary activity in early medieval Europe. Columbanus taught a Celtic monastic rule and Celtic penitential practices for those repenting of sins, which emphasised private confession to a priest, followed by penances levied by the priest in reparation for the sins.

Interlace (zoomorphic/linear)

It's a type of Celtic knotwork design that involves animal shapes.

Celtic/Roman Christianity

Lots of evidence for Roman Christianity compared to Celtic also Roman was much more political and wealth based i think.

The Heliand

Old epic poem that literally translates to Savior. a Biblical paraphrase that recounts the life of Jesus in the alliterative verse style of a Germanic epic. Largest known written Old Saxon work. There's a preface that could be by Louis the Pious who likely said it should be done. In good condition.

Oral Formulaic

Oral tradition that likely had formulas and themes to help the storytellers remember what was to come next in the epic.

Anglo-Saxons

Peoples who inhabited Great Britain from the 5th century. They included people from Germanic tribes, their descendents and British groups. Reestablishment of Christianity. Decorated jewelry and gold. Jewelry from Sutton Hoo.

St. Patrick

Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Patron Saint in Ireland. He was captured from his home in Great Britain by Irish Pirates, and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After becoming a cleric, he returned to northern and western Ireland. In later life, he served as an ordained bishop. Obvi St. Patrick's day.

Franks Casket

Small Anglo-Saxon whale's bone chest from the early 8th century. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-relief and with inscriptions mostly in Anglo-Saxon runes. Generally reckoned to be of Northumbrian origin, it is of unique importance for the insight it gives into early Anglo-Saxon art and culture. Both identifying the images and interpreting the runic inscriptions has generated a considerable amount of scholarship. Adoration of the Magi.

Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, in the English county of Suffolk, is the site of two 6th- and early 7th-century cemeteries. One contained an undisturbed ship burial, including a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artifacts of outstanding art-historical and archaeological significance, now held in the British Museum in London. Helmet.

What are some distinctive cultural qualities to the two main northern european peoples we have discussed, the celts and the germans - things they have in common? Differences? What are some ways these are borne out in art and literature

Talk about like zoomorphic and linear interlace and stuff like that and epics probably?

Cloisonne

Technique for decorating metalwork objects, in recent centuries using vitreous enamel, and in older periods also inlays of cut gemstones, glass, and other materials. The resulting objects can also be called cloisonné. Enamel or inlays.

Ravenna

The capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 402 until that empire collapsed in 476. It then served as the capital of the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths until it was re-conquered in 540 by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Afterwards, the city formed the center of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna until the invasion of the Franks in 751, after which it became the seat of the Kingdom of the Lombards. Mausoleum of Theodoric

Caedmon

The earliest English (Northumbrian) poet whose name is known. Cædmon's Hymn, the nine-line alliterative vernacular praise poem in honour of God which he supposedly learned to sing in his initial dream. One of the three oldest artifacts from this time. Mentioned in Bede and Heliand??

What are some ways you can already see the events and culture of the early medieval world shaping our modern world?

The examples of the kings who ruled during that time. The influence of architecture and art over what we build in the modern day.

What are some of the types and causes of problems with the transmission of literary texts in these early periods? Be prepared to discuss this with reference to a work we have read. What are issues these problems create both for the study of the work itself and for our understanding of the time period?

The monks were the ones who would translate them so it got rid of any evidence of the pagan influence during the time they were written. The Tain. Also translations were never spot on cuz that's hard ya know?

Exile

The state of being barred from one's native country, typically for political or punitive reasons. This was so bad.

The concepts of time, history and literature are rather different in the materials we've looked at thus far from our own conceptions of these things. Be prepared to discuss how those differences are evident in both materials we've studied and social attitudes.

They discussed things we probably wouldn't find important in their literature and history and stuff like who cares what kind of nose charlemagne had.

Heroic Flytin/Boasting

They would talk themselves up and then it was like well you better come through and live up to what you said.

Bede

Was an English monk at the monastery in Northumbria. Chronicle and Historia Ecclesiastica. Five books. Scientific, historic and theological works.

Consider issues such as norms of ideal and/or heroic behavior for men and women: do these change across the time period and between cultures? Reflect any constant beliefs? Review question sheets handed out on The Tain and Beowulf as there may be adapted questions from there.

Yessss. In early Ireland there was likely a matriarchy and then the dudes came in and took over and then made all literary works portray women as like horrible people and weak and bad.