[Footnote 31: Earle's translation.]

[Footnote 32: Cook and Tinker's _Select Translations from Old English
Prose.]

[Footnote 33: In his _Education of the Central Nervous System_, Chaps.
VII.-X., the author has endeavored to give some special directions for
securing definite ideas in the study of poetry.]

[Footnote 34: For full titles, see page 50.]


CHAPTER II: FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 1066, TO CHAUCER'S DEATH, 1400

[Illustration: THE DEATH OF HAROLD AT HASTINGS. _From the Bayeaux
tapestry_.]

The Norman Conquest.--The overthrow of the Saxon rule in England by
William the Conqueror in 1066 was an event of vast importance to
English literature. The Normans (Norsemen or Northmen), as they were
called, a term which shows their northern extraction, were originally
of the same blood as the English race. They settled in France in the
ninth century, married French wives, and adopted the French language.
In 1066 their leader, Duke William, and his army crossed the English
Channel and won the battle of Hastings, in which Harold, the last
Anglo-Saxon king, was killed. William thus became king of England.

Characteristics of the Normans.--The intermixture of Teutonic and
French blood had given to the Normans the best qualities of both