The Comparison of Early English Literature
The island of Britain has a very diverse history that dates back to its early inhabitants. The Celts (Britons) were the first inhabitants of the island, and were a tribal people with a pagan religion. As the Roman Empire expanded, the Romans came to the island and occupied it. The Romans left in the 5th century, leaving the Celts unprotected from invaders, and at the end of this occupation the land was invaded by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. As these Germanic tribes settled in, yet another group of invaders started to arrive. These invaders were the Vikings, attacked and looted costal towns on the east coast of Britain, and eventually made colonies. To ensure the Vikings did not take over the whole island, Alfred the Great united the Anglo-Saxon tribes, and forced the Vikings to inhabit a land known as Danelaw. One of the final invading groups were the Normans, who invaded in 1066 and took power after the Battle of Hastings. With all of these groups invading, changes occurred. These changes were in the areas of value, language, literature, and culture. Two early pieces of English literature, Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales ,express the changes in the social perspective, language, and

, and literature during these early years of British history.

A great example of the change in social perspective in this time span is the literature’s reflection on the social rank. In Beowulf, the social rank is a narrow one, only showing the mighty warriors. These warriors were the main part of the society, trying to protect their land claims from invaders. However, during the medieval period, when The Canterbury Tales were written, the social rank was diverse. The characters in the story reflect that; there was the feudal system characters who included the knight, squire, yeoman, franklin, reeve, miller, and plowman, who showed the levels of the feudal system from the people fighting to protect the land to those working on it; the ecclesiastical order, which belonged to the church and included the parson, summoner, monk, prioress, friar, pardoner, and the student; and finally to the fast growing working class, the physician, lawyer, manciple, merchant, shipman, tradesman, cook, the wife of Bath, and the innkeeper. All of theses people contributed to the cross-section of the medieval society in the three most important groups of the day.

As the structure of the stories were created, characters were needed. The characters in Beowulf were broad. For example, all of the characters had names and personal traits, but lacked physical traits. They also had almost the exact same traits, seeing as though they all were warriors. The Canterbury Tales characters though, were extremely complex. Each character had definite physical and personal traits as well as a unique description of their lives. For example, the prioress was a nun with a coral rosary and golden broach, cared more about animals than people, acted like she was in the upper class, and believed that love conquers all. So there was a definite uniqueness among the characters.

Along with the changing social rank came religion, which changed throughout this time and is evident in both stories. In the story of Beowulf, references to God are made a lot throughout it. However, the people who created the story, they practiced a Pagan religion, which idolized many gods and evils. So this means that whoever finally wrote the story down, probably monks, added the references to God. The Canterbury Tales however, was written when Christianity was a major part of life. The medieval people looked to the church for answers to just about anything, an d believed everything it told