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Compared to the days of the Roman Empire, the level of civilization in the Early Middle Ages declined strikingly. Cities emptied, the old Roman schools disappeared, most people could not read or write. In earlier generations, historians used to use the term “Dark Ages” to describe this period of decline. Yet the lamp of learning did not go out altogether. Recent historians have emphasized the efforts to preserve civilization and the emergence of a new medieval synthesis—a culture that combined Roman, Germanic, and Christian elements. An illiterate German warrior class replaced an educated Roman aristocracy and Christian theology replaced Greek philosophy, changing the intellectual life of Europe.
A vigorous oral literature, now largely lost, was sung or changed in the halls of Europe’s new Germanic rulers. Little of this was written down in a society where few could read. From Britain, however, came one Anglo-Saxon epic at least, the tale of Beowulf dating from the seventh or eighth century. Almost everything about the poem is debated by scholars, but the story itself, of the hero Beowulf’s killing of the monster Grendel and then of Grendel’s even more ferocious mother, suggests something of the primitive violence of early medieval society.
Most of the people who could read and write where now in the Church, many of them monks, and they tended to produce works of a religious nature. Even books on subjects that would have once been thoroughly secular showed strong religious influences. Early medieval histories such as the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours (d. 594) and the History of the English Church and People by St. Bede both reveal the historian’s concern for evidence and accuracy, yet both accept miracles in large numbers as a matter of course. Bede became the first scholar to use the birth of Christ as a dating system in a major work. History was no longer a secular subject, but part of the great medieval crusade to glorify God in the “age of faith.” What is of real importance is that despite their flaws, these histories were an important part of early medieval efforts to preserve and pass on knowledge.
Also fortunate for the future were the efforts to preserve classical knowledge. Since Latin was the language of the Church, reversing works in Latin was a way to instruct religious in the basics of the language. Some important figures in this effort were Boethius and Cassiodorus, both scholar-administrators in one of the early Germanic kingdoms of Italy in the 6th century. Beothius compiled large collections of classical learning, ranging from the sciences and philosophy to literature. His most famous work, The Consolation of Philosophy shows that the ideas and influence of the ancient philosophers was still alive. Cassiodorus wrote an Introduction to Divine and Human Studies, which described the major works of classical literature and philosophy and explained how a study of these works could be used to understand sacred Christina texts. Cassiodorus founded a monastery and taught his monks Greek and Latin.
One of the most important centers of early medieval learning was located on the edge of Europe in Ireland. The Irish Celts have remained largely untouched by the invading Germanic peoples throughout most of the early Middle Ages. One element of the large European culture that did reach Ireland was Christianity. Irish monasteries became paramount center of learning. Irish missionaries carried the faith and learning to other places in Europe. Irish decorative arts, too reached their peak and a unique literary
tradition developed. Celtic decorative artists specialized in the production of illuminated manuscripts—elaborated decorated, hand-written copies of the Scriptures. Perhaps the most famous example is the eighth century the Book of Kells, a version of the Latin Gospels with gorgeously decorated capital letters and illustrations for each chapter.
Perhaps the place where one sees most clearly a large-scale attempt by an early medieval kingdom to preserve literature and learning is the kingdom of the Franks under Charlemagne. Scholars have come to call his sponsorship of the arts and learning the “Carolingian Renaissance.” Charlemagne saw himself as a kind of Christian Augustus Caesar and he took his patronage of culture seriously. He also understood the practical value of education for officials of both the state and the Church. He important scholars from all around Europe and sponsored the copying of manuscripts and the establishment of schools.
The emperor’s chief cultural mentor was the famous English scholar and churchman Alcuin of York. Alcuin headed the Palace school at the capital city of Aachen and guided the preparation of new editions St. Jeromes’s Latin Bible and of St. Benedict’s Rule. These editions became the standards versions of these important texts.
Charlemagne sponsored the establishment of monastery schools, encouraged the standardization of church Latin, which helped to preserve the language and gave Europe an international language in the era when Europe was becoming increasing divided linguistically as separate national languages emerged. The other surprisingly valuable accomplishment of this scholarly revival was the development of a new standard script for books that added lower-case letter to the Roman capitals used up to that time. These Carolingian minuscules became the model for the lower-case alphabet still in use today.
While the accomplishments of Charlemagne’s empire were limited, they indicated that a common medieval civilization was emerging in Europe. It would take centuries for this civilization to reach its height, the the Early Middle Ages, and its effort to preserve knowledge served as a crucial link between the classical civilization of the Greco-Roman world and the new Christian civilization of Europe that will flower in the High Middle Ages.
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Beowulf (Old English)
Directions: High-light any word you think you recognize in English and translate it.
Hwæt! We
Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga,
þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas
ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing
sceaþena þreatum,
5
monegum mægþum,
meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas.
Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden,
he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum,
weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc
þara ymbsittendra
10
ofer hronrade
hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan. þæt wæs
god cyning!
Ðæm eafera wæs æfter
cenned,
geong in geardum, þone god
sende
folce to frofre; fyrenðearfe
ongeat
15
þe hie ær drugon
aldorlease
lange hwile. Him þæs
liffrea,
wuldres wealdend, woroldare
forgeaf;
Beowulf wæs breme (blæd
wide sprang),
Scyldes eafera Scedelandum
in.
20
Swa sceal geong guma
gode gewyrcean,
fromum feohgiftum on fæder
bearme,
þæt hine on ylde eft
gewunigen
wilgesiþas, þonne wig cume,
leode gelæsten; lofdædum
sceal
25
in mægþa gehwære
man geþeon.
Him ða Scyld gewat to gescæphwile
felahror feran on frean wære.
Hi hyne þa ætbæron to
brimes faroðe,
swæse gesiþas, swa he
selfa bæd,
30
þenden wordum weold
wine Scyldinga;
leof landfruma lange ahte.
þær æt hyðe stod
hringedstefna,
isig ond utfus, æþelinges
fær.
Aledon þa leofne þeoden,
35
beaga bryttan,
on bearm scipes,
mærne be mæste. þær wæs
madma fela
of feorwegum, frætwa, gelæded;
ne hyrde ic cymlicor ceol
gegyrwan
hildewæpnum ond heaðowædum,
40
billum ond byrnum;
him on bearme læg
madma mænigo, þa him mid
scoldon
on flodes æht feor gewitan.
Nalæs hi hine læssan lacum
teodan,
þeodgestreonum, þon þa
dydon
45
þe hine æt
frumsceafte forð onsendon
ænne ofer yðe umborwesende.
þa gyt hie him asetton
segen geldenne
heah ofer heafod, leton holm
beran,
geafon on garsecg; him wæs
geomor sefa,
50
murnende mod.
Men ne cunnon
secgan to soðe, selerædende,
hæleð under heofenum, hwa
þæm hlæste onfeng.
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