Timeline - Dark Ages

The term 'dark ages' [from the Latin – saeculum obscurum] reflects our lack of knowledge of the period immediately following the fall of the Roman Empire. Literacy was suddenly the preserve of a handful of educated monks who have left us a few letters and historical accounts of important events and so, compared to the wealth of literature produced in the Classical era and in the Middle Ages that followed, this period seems dark or obscure to us because we know little about the culture or artistic endeavours of the times. What we can be certain of is that the church continued to exert a strong influence over people’s lives but also that the oral culture – of myths, legends, poetry and song – was flourishing again. It is out of the dark ages that the tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table first emerges around AD550. According to legend, King Arthur led the native Britons [the Celts] against the invading Angles and Saxons who came from Scandinavia and Germany bringing their own culture and language. Whether or not there was such a resistance, the Anglo-Saxons advanced across Britain, driving the native Celtic-speaking Britons north towards the border with Scotland, west into Wales or south into Cornwall.  As a result the Germanic language spoken by the invading forces gradually spread across the country and eventually became the English we speak today.

backward to Roman Britain

forward to the middle ages

 

Beowulf

The epic poem Beowulf is a famous tale written in the Old English language though set in the Scandinavian world the Anglo-Saxons had left behind. There is much debate over whether Beowulf grew out of an oral tradition or was the work of one individual and so scholars date its production to somewhere between the 8th Century and 11th Century. There have been numerous translations of the poem; in 1999 the Irish poet Seamus Heaney published a critically acclaimed translation which has since been included in the Norton Anthology of English Literature.

Beowulf in literature

Beowulf on film

 

King Arthur

Legend and versions

 

backward to Roman Britain

forward to the middle ages