PACK 1

 ROMAN ENGLAND; NORDIC ROOTS

 VOCABULARY STUDY
 “TWILIGHT AND DAWN” FROM PEVSNER’S
OUTLINE OF EUROPEAN ARCHITECTURE
 CULTURE IN ANCIENT & MEDIEVAL
ENGLAND
 ENGLISH IN USE (PREPOSITIONS)

I. INFORMATIVE TEXTS
A. ROMAN ENGLAND

Lecture Summary
One of the oldest inhabitants of what we call today the United Kingdom of England and Northern
Ireland were the Celts; many branches of the ancient tribes still live on the island and speak their
language. Julius Caesar was the first to mention them and referred to their way of life and Druidic
religion. The English still use in their language a word connected to their time unit, the fortnight (= 2
weeks). The Romans conquered the island in the 1 st century AD and organized the territory according
to their principles. They built castra, roads, and chose London as the most important settlement.
Accordingly, they were the first to build villas, temples, baths, market places, harbours, etc. There is a
wealth of archeological finds proving the great impact and role played by the Romans; yet, their
influence did not go further than that, i.e., in language matters. If we want to seek for its roots, we
have to look for them somewhere else. There were the Nordic tribes that plundered Britain’s coasts
even before the Roman withdrawal: the Angles, the Jutes, the Saxons, the Danes, and the Norsemen.
However, the Roman influence can be discussed in relation with the Christian faith brought here by
Christian missionaries, both from Rome and Byzantium. The first unification of the Anglo-Saxon
tribes was only achieved in 1020 by King Canute. Forty-six years elapsed between their unification
and the Norman invasion in 1066. After the battle of Hastings, the fate of Britain’s inhabitants took
another turn.

Map of London during Roman times

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Watling Street

Hadrian Wall

Fragments from Peter Ackroyd’s London, the Biography:

“Julius Caesar, who was in a position to speak with some authority on the subject, stated that the Druid
religion was founded (inventa) in Britain and that its Celtic adherents came to this island in order to be
educated in its mysteries. It represented a highly advanced, if somewhat insular, religious culture. Of
course we might speculate that the oak woodland to the north of the twin hills provided a suitable site
for sacrifice and worship; one antiquary, Sir Laurence Gomme, has envisaged a temple or sacred space
upon Ludgate Hill itself. But there are many false trails. It was once generally agreed that Parliament
Hill near Highgate was a place for religious assembly, but in fact the remnants which have been
discovered there do not date from prehistory. The Chiselhurst caves in south London, once reputed to
be of Druid origin connected in some fashion with the observation of the heavens, are almost certainly
of medieval construction.” (p. 13)
“[…] we must imagine a cluster of small dwellings with clay walls, thatched roofs and earthen floors;
narrow alleys ran between them, with a series of streets connecting the two main thoroughfares, filled
with the smells and noises of a busy community. There were workshops, taverns, shops and smithies
crowded together while, beside the river, warehouses and workshops were grouped around a square
timber harbour. Evidence for such a harbour has been found in Billingsgate. Along the thoroughfares,
which every traveller to London used, there were taverns and tradesmen. Just beyond the city were
round huts, in the old British style, which were used as places for storage, while on the perimeter of
the city were wooden enclosures for cattle.
Only a few years after its foundation, which can be approximately dated between AD 43 and so,
the Roman historian, Tacitus, could already write of London as filled with negotiatores and as a
place well known for its commercial prosperity. So in less than a decade it had progressed from a
supply base into a flourishing town.

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The Name of London
“The name is assumed to be of Celtic origin, awkward for those who believe there was no
settlement before the Romans built their city. Its actual meaning, however, is disputed. It might be derived from
Llyn-don, the town or stronghold, (don) by the lake or stream (Llyn); but this owes more to
medieval Welsh than ancient Celtic. Its provenance might be Laindon, 'long hill', or the Gaelic
lunnd 'marsh'. One of the more intriguing speculations, given the reputation for violence which
Londoners were later to acquire, is that the name is derived from the Celtic adjective londos
meaning 'fierce'.
There is a more speculative etymology which gives the honour of naming to King Lud, who is
supposed to have reigned in the century of the Roman invasion. He laid out the city's streets and
rebuilt its walls. Upon his death he was buried beside the gate which bore his name, and the city
became known as Kaerlud or Kaerlundein, `Lud's City'. Those of sceptical cast of mind may be
inclined to dismiss such narratives but the legends of a thousand years may contain profound
and particular truths.
The origin of the name, however, remains mysterious. (It is curious, perhaps, that the name of the
mineral most associated with the city —coal — also has no certain derivation.) With its syllabic
power, so much suggesting force or thunder, it has continually echoed through history — Caer Ludd,
Lundunes, Lindonion, Lundene, Lundone, Ludenberk, Longidinium, and a score of other variants.
There have even been suggestions that the name is more ancient than the Celts themselves, and that it
springs from some Neolithic past.”

B. The NORDIC ROOTS

Another important chapter in England’s history is the settlement of the Nordic peoples, the Anglo-
Saxons, the Jutes, the Danes, and Norsemen. They started to plunder the coast of Roman Britain
before 300 A. D. and the conquest was completed in 1020by King Canute, who reconciled the kindred
races of the Saxons and Danes.
The gods of the Anglo-Saxons were those of Germanic mythology: Tiw, Woden, Thor, and
the goddess Freya, still present in four days of the week: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Under the Anglo-Saxons, the country was divided into shires governed by aldermen, shire-reeves
(from which comes today’s word sheriff) and a bishop. Another institution was the King’s Council,
known as Witan, the ancestor of today’s Privy Council. The Witan is also the ancestor of the medieval
parliament.
Now, if compared to the Goth and Frank invasions, in Saxon England city life, Christian religion (later
restored) and Roman-Celtic language all disappeared. It took almost one thousand and five hundred

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years to re-establish the benefits of the Roman civilization. So, as G. M. Trevelyan, the last historian
in the Whig-tradition (liberal tradition), points out: “The first result of the conquest was the loss of the
crafts, science, and learning of Rome. However, the withdrawn Celts, once civilized, became
barbarous, while the Saxons grew more civilized. Nonetheless, the Romans left behind three things as
permanent legacies – the traditional site of London, the Roman roads, and Welsh Christianity.” (p. 51)
Rome’s missionaries kept coming to Wales, and among them the famous Saint Germanus of Auxerre,
a former Roman soldier, who won a battle against the Picts and Saxons. Similarly, the Celtic
Christianity developed in Cornwall.

C Christianity, Arts and Architecture

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1.Some authors believe that the ‘Christian conquest’ of the island primarily meant the return of
Mediterranean civilization in a new form and with a new message. Two figures are of utmost
importance: Augustine of Canterbury (circa first third of the 6th century – 26 May 604), responsible
for the Christianization of the British, and Theodore of Tarsus (602 – 19 September 690) – the first
Archbishop of Canterbury to be invested by Rome, following the Synod of Whitby in 664. They
brought here a hierarchy similar to the former Roman Empire, and interestingly enough, the English
kings borrowed forms and policies fitted to the need of the incipient state. In Ireland a tremendously
important role was played by Saint Patrick (who had of a completely different background and nature)
who brought to Ireland the Latin language and the scholarly work. Some authors think that the
acceptance of Christianity in Ireland as later in England was in part due to the admiration felt by the
barbarians for the Empire even in its fall, and for all things appertaining to Rome. It is worth noting
that the Irish did not imitate the Roman hierarchy, thus theirs was not parochial, it was monastic
mainly, and this is due to their tradition established by St Patrick and, why not, the Irish geographic
features. As a rule, the normal Irish monastery was connected with a single tribe and acknowledged no
ecclesiastical superior. Yet, this monasticism
cannot be compared to the continental one.
For instance, Ireland consisted of a
congregation of hermits living each in his own
beehive hut of wattle, clay and turf. They
were hermits, scholars, artists, warriors, and
missionaries. They would go and preach copy
and illuminate manuscripts in monasteries or
seek for more complete seclusion like St
Cuthbert, who left the remote Lindisfarne for
the Farne Islands. It is to them that the Irish and British owe the wonderful manuscript art of
Lindisfarne Gospel or the Book of Kells wherein Celtic and Saxon nature ornamentation were blended
in perfect harmony with southern Christian traditions. Moreover, far from the Papal censorship, they
revived the knowledge of classical secular literature, which had almost died in Western Europe.

If we cannot speak about a proper secular architecture earlier than the 11 th century, though some do,
not many Anglo-Saxon or Celtic churches are left either. There are some reasons to it. Firstly, most of
them were made of wood, except for the ones in Ireland that were made of local stone. Secondly, the
Normans demolished them just to rebuild them after the conquest. However, a handful has remained.
The typical Anglo-Saxon church has a simple plan: two rectangles of unequal size linked by an arch,
with a smaller rectangle to the east. An additional chamber or porticus could be attached to the church.
The buildings tended to be of a much greater height than width, as at Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire.
The windows were small and round-headed, set high in the walls. Interiors were often decoratively

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 painted, with little architectural ornament. The external decoration was often
elaborate, usually pilaster-work (vertical strips of stone on the outside walls). The
exterior might also have round-headed or triangular blank arcading. In some of
these churches, as it happened in most parts of Europe, the builders used bricks
from the Roman ruins or, as it is the case of the crypt at Hexam, Northumberland,
and the abbey built by Wilfrid in the 7th century, using stone from the ruined
Hadrian’s Wall. And there are other examples in Yorkshire.

Now, resuming the discussion around London, there is something worth mentioning about its churches
and the whole atmosphere wrapped around these holy places. We owe Peter Ackroyd’s thorough
documentation that we can evoke this quite foggy period and the story lying behind the building of
one of London’s major churches, St Bartholomew:

“West Smithfield, after the foundation of St Bartholomew-the-Great in the early twelfth century,
witnessed as many miracles as any similar plot in Rome or Jerusalem. Edward the Confessor, in a
prophetic dream, was informed that Smithfield had already been chosen by God as a place for his
worship; Edward journeyed there the next morning and foretold that the ground should be a
witness to God. In the same period three men from Greece came on pilgrimage to London, for
already it had the renown of a sacred city; they approached Smithfield and, falling prostrate upon
the ground, prophesied that there would be constructed a temple which 'shall reach from the rising
of the sun to the going down thereof'.
The Book of the ‘Foundation’ of that great church of St Bartholomew, from which these
words are taken, was written in the twelfth century; it has much material for contemplation,
but it also contains evidence relating to the piety of London and of Londoners. The founder of
the church, Rahere, was on a journey in Italy when in dream he was taken up by a beast with
four feet and two wings to a ‘high place’ where St Bartholomew appeared to him and
addressed ‘I, by the will and command of all the High Trinity, and with the common favour
and counsel of the court of heaven, have chosen a spot suburb of London at Smithfield.'
Rahere was to erect there a tabernacle of the Lamb. So he journeyed to the city where, in
conversation with 'some barons of London', it was explained that 'the divinely shown to him
was contained within the king's market, which it was lawful neither for the princes themselves
nor for the wardens of their own authority to encroach to any extent whatever'. So Rahere
sought an audience of Henry I in order to explain his divine to the city; the king graciously
gave Rahere title to the spot which was at that time 'a very small cemetery'.
Rahere then 'made himself a fool' in order to recruit assistants in the work of building. He 'won
to himself bands of children and by their help he easily began to collect together stones'. These
stones came from many parts of London, and in that sense the narrative of construction is a true
representation of the fact that St Bartholomew's was a collective work and vision of the city; it
became, in literal form, its microcosm.”

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As to the other arts, there are two examples that have been known so far. Firstly, St Cuthbert
Vestments in Durham Cathedral. Secondly, the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry, which is a long strip of
linen, embroidered in colored wools with lively, detailed scenes from the life of King Harold, the
battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest. The tapestry is exhibited in Bayeux, Normandy, yet there
is a Victorian replica in Reading, Berkshire.

2. Some facts about Norman Art and Architecture in England

The Norman Conquest had little immediate effect on the style of English illumination I referred to
earlier, but there was some influence on details. Some decorative features became more common, such
as ‘historiated’ initial letters (decorated with figures of men and animals), and ‘inhabited scrolls’,
showing arabesques of foliage with animals ‘inhabiting’ the branches.

During the first half of the 12 th century a new style, the Romanesque, entered the country. This grew
up alongside the surviving Anglo-Saxon style. It derived from Byzantium and the East and its
characteristics were firmness of line, boldness of execution, and a rigid, monumental dignity in the
portrayal of the human figure. A rare example surviving from this time is the wall-painting in St
Anselm Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral, namely St Paul and the Viper.

The most important English contribution to Romanesque painting is the development of the technique
of pictorial narrative and of a complete cycle of ceremonial Bibles which were produced in the 12 th
century, in particular the Winchester Bible (Winchester Cathedral), the Lambeth Bible from
Canterbury (Lambeth Palace), and the Bury Bible (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge). They all are
the greatest achievements in European painting in the 12 th century. At the end of the Norman period,
they won for England the pre-eminence in the graphic arts which in sculpture belonged to France.

The Norman or Romanesque style in architecture is magnificent in scale, simple and inventive. Today
we cannot see the churches as they were then. However, three large churches have stood as they were
in Norman times: the cathedrals of Durham, Norwich, and Peterborough. Durham Cathedral,
considered as one of the finest Romanesque churches in Europe, was begun by Bishop William of St
Carilief in 1093 and completed by 1133, and it was the first large building in northern Europe to be
rib-vaulted in stone. Formally, it has stood so, I would say, but changes of details still occur. A good
example is the stained glass window on the theme of the Last Supper painted
in the eighties of the last century.

As to castle building, the first Norman forts were simple earth mounds with
ditches and palisades. Their characteristic feature is the square Norman keep
combining fortress and residence. Two examples survive from the 11 th
century: Colchester, Essex, and the white Tower in the Tower of London,

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completed by 1097. It is a four-storey building divided by an internal wall into two parts. One half of
the building was again subdivided to the plain but beautiful Chapel of St John, which is the oldest
complete Norman church in England.

II. TEXT FOR CLASS COMMENTS

Twilight and Dawn

FROM THE 6TH TO THE IOTH CENTURY

THE Greek temple (pl. I) is the most perfect example ever achieved of architecture
finding its fulfilment in bodily beauty. Its interior mattered infinitely less than its exterior.
The colonnade all round conceals where the entrance lies. The faithful did not enter it
and spend hours of communication with the Divine in it, as they do in a church. Our
Western conception of space would have been just as unintelligible to a man of Pericles's
age as our religion. It is the plastic shape of the temple that tells, placed before us with a
physical presence more intense, more alive than that of any later building. The isolation
of the Parthenon or the temples of Paestum, clearly disconnected from the ground on
which they stand, the columns with their resilient curves, strong enough to carry
without too much visible effort the weight of the architraves, the sculptured friezes and
sculptured pediments-there is something consummately human in all this, life in the
brightest light of nature and mind: nothing harrowing, nothing problematic and
obscure, nothing blurred.
Roman architecture also thinks of the building primarily as of a sculptural body,
but not as one so superbly independent. There is a more conscious grouping of buildings,
and parts are less isolated too. Hence the all-round, free-standing columns with their architrave lying
on them are so often replaced by heavy square piers carrying arches. Hence also walls are emphasised in
their thickness, for instance, by hollowing niches into them; and if columns are asked for, they are half-
columns, attached to, and that is part of, the wall. Hence, finally, instead of flat ceilings-stressing a
perfectly clear horizontal as against a perfectly clear vertical-the Romans used vast tunnel-vaults or
cross-vaults to cover spaces. The arch and the vault on a large scale are engineering achievements,
greater than any of the Greeks, and it is of them as they appear in the aqueducts, baths, basilicas (that is
public assembly halls), theatres and palaces, and not of temples that we think, when we remember
Roman architecture (pl. II). (Excerpt from N. Pevsner’s An Outline of European Architecture)

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CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE VOCABULARY (FOCUS ON PRONUNCIATION)

Cella (or naos) (sĕl′ə)- the main chamber of a Greek or Roman temple, built to house the cult statue.
Peristyle- (pɛrəˌstaɪl) the colonnade around a peripteral building or around a court.
Peripteral  (pə-rĭp′tər-əl)- a adjective describing a building with a colonnade around its entire
perimeter.

Intercolumniation - the space between two adjacent columns.

Stereobate (stĕr′ē-ō-bāt′, stîr′-) - a solid mass of masonry serving as the visible base of a building,
especially a Greek temple. In a Greek temple only the lower steps are called the stereobate; the top
step, on which the columns rest, is called the stylobate.
Entasis (ĕn′tə-sĭs) - the swelling convex curvature along the line of taper of classical columns. The
entasis of early Greek Doric columns is pronounced, but becomes ever more subtle until, in the
columns of the Parthenon, it is barely perceptible.
Echinus  (ĭ-kī′nəs)- in the Doric order, the quarter round molding beneath the abacus of a capital.
Abacus /ˈæbəkəs/- the uppermost part of a capital, forming a slab upon which the architrave rests.
Entablature (ĕn-tăb′lə-cho͝or′) - the group of horizontal member resting on the columns of the one of
the classical orders. It is divided into three parts: architrave, frieze, and cornice.
Architrave (är′kĭ-trāv′)- the lowest member of an entablature, resting directly on the columns.
Frieze /friːz/- the middle member of an entablature, between the architrave and cornice.

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Triglyph  (trī′glĭf′) - in the frieze of the entablature of the Doric order, the vertical blocks, which are
divided by channels into three sections. Originally, the triglyphs were probably the ends of wooden
ceiling beams.
Metope (‘met-uh-pee, -ohp) - in the frieze of an entablature of the Doric order, one of the panels
between the triglyphs, sometimes ornamented. Originally, in wooden temple, the metopes may have
been openings between the ceiling beams.
Cornice (ˈkȯr-nəs, -nish) - the topmost part of a classical entablature.
Pediment (pĕd′ə-mənt) - in classical architecture, the low-pitched gable, or triangular area formed by
the two slopes of the low-pitched roof of a temple, framed by the horizontal and raking cornices and
sometimes filled with sculpture.

Orders- an architectural "order" is one of the classical systems of carefully proportioned and
interdependent parts which include column and entablature.

Doric- the oldest, sturdiest, and most severe of the orders. It developed on the mainland of Greece.
The most distinguishing characteristic is probably its capital, but note the absence of a column base
and the introduction of triglyphs and metopes in the frieze course.

Ionic /aɪˈɑːnɪk/ - is more slender and lighter than the Doric. The Ionic developed in the lands east of
the Aegean and was more subject to the influence of older Asiatic styles. It is quickly distinguished by
the volutes of its capitals. Note the presence of a column base and the absence of the triglyphs and
metopes.
Corinthian (kuh-rin-thee-uh n) - developed later than the Doric or Ionic. It is distinguished from the
Ionic by its capital formed of a circular belle of rows of acanthus leaves.
Megaron (meg-uh-ron) - a large oblong hall in an Minoan or Mycenaean palace.
Shaft (shăft)
Stylobate  (stī′lə-bāt′)
Volute (vuh-‘loot)
Trygliph (trī′glĭf′)

III. ENGLISH IN USE: Practice on PREPOSITIONS

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1. Find the Romanian equivalent for the underlined prepositions:

1. […] the widening out of a nave at the crossing.

2. In this, and only in this no other artist can emulate the architect.
3. […] must keep spatial problems in the foreground.
4. In every building, besides space [the architect] sets out individual walls.
5. […] the good architect requires the sculptor’s and the painter’s modes of vision in addition to
his own spatial imagination.
6. [He] has a right to claim over the others …
7. […] surround us to the same extent as architecture …
8. […] flourished at the expense of wall-painting.
9. […] when medieval art grew and were at their best.
10. […] still conceived in terms of balance.
11. […] functional soundness indispensable for aesthetic enjoyment.
12. The position is similar with regard to materials.

2. Translate into English (Home assignment)

În ce privește civilizația, perioada romană din Anglia nu diferă de celelalte colonii. În afară de
drumuri, romanii au pus în prim plan edificarea orașelor. În ce privește materialele utilizate, cel
mai cunoscut și cel mai rezistent material folosit de romani a fost cărămida numit și „betonul
roman”. Vilele romane din Anglia se află în punctul de întâlnire al culturii și civilizației materiale:
mozaicurile cu motive mitologice, dotările cu băi funcționale și alte îmbunătățiri sunt exemplele
cele mai cunoscute. Meșterii romani și-au revendicat priceperile față de celții băștinași. Cei din
urmă le-au urmat modelele în detrimentul celor folosite de ei înainte.

3. Translate the caption into Romanian.

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 4. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words from column B.

A B
Many of the greatest villa known from Roman times in grand scale
England, such as North Leigh, Oxfordshire, developed
structures
1…. decades or even centuries, reaching their 2. … in the
4th century. For others, such as Great Witcombe, unassuming
Gloucestershire, construction probably begun in the 3rd or
heyday
4th centuries, but were built on a relatively 3… … from
the start. at some sites
apart from
4 … …. …. the villa started as a small, 5 … range, either
aisled (like a church) or, most commonly, with extra bore
rooms extending forward in wings at either end, linked by painted plaster
a corridor or veranda. Such ‘winged-corridor’ houses were
often gradually extended, or replaced by grander and more counterparts
elaborate 6… – often a series of ranges or buildings over
around a courtyard, as at North Leigh.

These villas 7… many signs of flashy luxury. They would

have at least one suite of baths, and might be decorated
with 8… …. (as at Lullingstone in Kent) and the floors
covered with expensive mosaics – fine examples of which
survive at North Leigh, Lullingstone and the Roman town
of Aldborough, North Yorkshire.

Such houses could have one or two storeys, and some

would also have had brightly painted external walls, like

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their Mediterranean 9 ….

They would also incorporate housing for workers as well

as farm outbuildings, as are known at North Leigh and
Beadlam (North Yorkshire). Most buildings 10 … …. the
villa house itself would have been single-storey, and
would have had pitched roofs, covered with ceramic or
stone tiles, wooden shingles or thatch.

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