part 3 question 4

4) Explain who the Normans were, where they were from and their link to the Germanic people in Britain.

http://www.historyonthenet.com/Normans/whowere.htm
At the beginning of the tenth century, the French King, Charles the Simple, had given some land in the North of France to a Viking chief named Rollo. He hoped that by giving the Vikings their own land in France they would stop attacking France.
The land became known as Northmannia, the land of the Northmen. It was later shortened to Normandy. The Vikings intermarried with the French and by the year 1000, they were no longer Viking pagans, but French speaking Christians.

Barber, C. The English Language, A Historical Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 1993, p.127
The Normans originated from Scandinavia and then came to northern France like Danes who spoke Old Norse and went to England during the Old English period.
The Normans demonstrated their superiority in military techniques, for they had the new heavy cavalry that had been developed on the continents by the Franks, while the Anglo-Saxons still fought on foot behind a wall of round shields.
The Normans established many schools, monasteries, cathedrals and churches after conquering England and built many castles to defend their new land.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English#Literature
The Norman conquest was a pivotal event in English history. It largely removed the native ruling class, replacing it with a foreign, French-speaking monarchy, aristocracy, and clerical hierarchy. This, in turn, brought about a transformation of the English language and the culture of England in a new era often referred to as Norman England.

QUESTION 4) Explain who the Normans were, where they were from and their link to the Germanic people in Britain.
TOWNEND, Matthew. (2006) The Oxford History of English. Oxford University Press. Oxford. P. 66.

Originally, the Normans had been Scandinavians (Normans=Northman) who had been granted a territory in Northern France in the early 10th century. The early Normans spoke Old Norse (just like the Scandinavians who settled in England at about the same time). By early 11th century, they had given up ON in favor of the French spoken by their subjects and neighbors (it is ironic that twice in history they adopted the language of the people they conquered).
ON and Old English were Germanic languages, while French (Latin) is a Romance language. After the Norman Invasion in 1066, French will be spoken in the British Isles, however, as the Normans were an aristocratic minority, mid 12th century, most members of the aristocracy were bilingual, and what is more their mother tongue is likely to have been English; there were few, if any, monolingual French speakers by that point.

(94) Englishmen came from three kinds of people from Germany.

Morris, Lori. It’s a Long Story. (p. 91-92)

The Germanic branch broke up from the Indo-European family by taking residence in North Western parts of Europe (Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and Sweden). The Norse (Germanic people) colonized North Western France and it came to be known as Normandy.

Even though England is the birthplace of English, at the beginning, there were no Germanic speakers as the Celts inhabited the place. In 449, the British Celts were invaded by the Germanic people (Angles, Saxon, Jutes and Frisian). Then, the Vikings (known as Norsemen, Scandinavians or Danes) took control of Britain.

*As the British Isles fell to various waves of Germanic conquerors, it could be said that Normans are linked to Germanic people as they are from the same family. However, the Norse became the Normans when they invaded France and took the French language.
A lot of sharing took place in the Viking invasions (see Danelaw), as the two languages, English and Danish, had Germanic roots and were very similar. The Normans were ethnically the same as the Danish invaders of England and not far removed from the other Germanic invaders. Thus, they had close economical and political relations with the people of Britain (before a degradation of the relations and the invasion in 1066)…

4) EXPLAIN WHO THE NORMANS WERE, WHERE THEY WERE FROM AND THEIR LINK TO THE GERMANIC PEOPLE IN BRITAIN. ALDY, M-A

The Scots allied themselves with the Danes, which gave English more opposition than they could handle. In 1014, the Danes drove the English king from the throne and, after several more years of skirmishes, took over the task of governing for a period of twenty-five years.
Although the Danes conquered the English, They did not subjugate the Celts before them. This is probably because the two peoples were very similar from a cultural and a linguistic point of view. They were both speakers of Germanic languages, and the evidence would suggest that their languages were mutually comprehensible. In other words, their language was intermixable.
To understand what happened next in the history of the English language, it is necessary to take a closer look at the cross-channel Europeans. A long way back in the book, there was a mention about the Norseman and the fact that many of them came to settle in was is now known as north-western France. They lost their Scandinavian language quickly, opting fore French, and they were not too far removed from the other Germanic people. Relations were so close that when the Danes seized power in England, king Ethelred the unready fled to Normandy with his Norman wife, his son Edward was raised in France and was very European.
William who was the duke of Normandy felt that he should have been chosen especially since the trouble he had with holding Harold as a hostage in France.
P88 Long Story

QUESTION 4) Explain who the Normans were, where they were from and their link to the Germanic people in Britain.
TOWNEND, Matthew. (2006) The Oxford History of English. Oxford University Press. Oxford. P. 66.

Originally, the Normans had been Scandinavians (Normans=Northman) who had been granted a territory in Northern France in the early 10th century. The early Normans spoke Old Norse (just like the Scandinavians who settled in England at about the same time). By early 11th century, they had given up ON in favor of the French spoken by their subjects and neighbors (it is ironic that twice in history they adopted the language of the people they conquered).
ON and Old English were Germanic languages, while French (Latin) is a Romance language. After the Norman Invasion in 1066, French will be spoken in the British Isles, however, as the Normans were an aristocratic minority, mid 12th century, most members of the aristocracy were bilingual, and what is more their mother tongue is likely to have been English; there were few, if any, monolingual French speakers by that point.

(94) Englishmen came from three kinds of people from Germany.

Morris, Lori. It’s a Long Story. (p. 91-92)

The Germanic branch broke up from the Indo-European family by taking residence in North Western parts of Europe (Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and Sweden). The Norse (Germanic people) colonized North Western France and it came to be known as Normandy.

Even though England is the birthplace of English, at the beginning, there were no Germanic speakers as the Celts inhabited the place. In 449, the British Celts were invaded by the Germanic people (Angles, Saxon, Jutes and Frisian). Then, the Vikings (known as Norsemen, Scandinavians or Danes) took control of Britain.

*As the British Isles fell to various waves of Germanic conquerors, it could be said that Normans are linked to Germanic people as they are from the same family. However, the Norse became the Normans when they invaded France and took the French language.
A lot of sharing took place in the Viking invasions (see Danelaw), as the two languages, English and Danish, had Germanic roots and were very similar. The Normans were ethnically the same as the Danish invaders of England and not far removed from the other Germanic invaders. Thus, they had close economical and political relations with the people of Britain (before a degradation of the relations and the invasion in 1066)…