1066: Year Of The Conquest Essay

There are two sides to every story. The events may be the same, but the tone in which the story is told shapes the reader’s understanding of the events. This idea is never more evident than through the disparity between Burton Raffel’s translation of Beowulf and John Gardner’s Grendel. Both novels are based on the idea of Beowulf killing Grendel. However, the two different points of view telling the story create vastly different novels. Beowulf highlights the heroic and positive world in which Beowulf lives. Whereas Grendel elucidates on the miserable life that Grendel is circumscribed to. The consistent variance in tone skews the events in two completely different directions. The tone between Beowulf and Grendel differ in

Majority of books that are written or were written about history can become very tedious to read, but Howarth early on explains his intention is to captivate and tell a story that will keep readers awake. Howarth set out to chronologically tell the story behind the year 1066 in a way that can be easily absorbed, “this is not meant to be read as a work of scholarship, only as an evocation of the excitement, pleasures and miseries of that year; but I hope it is accurate enough to satisfy scholars.” (pg. 7). Howarth starts out very strong with his narrative. Howarth’s method of sequence in depicting the events throughout the year is very effective in painting the picture of events that occurred in 1066. His

The Crusades of the High Middle Ages (a.d. 1050-1300) was a period of conquest or rather, reconquest, of Christian lands taken from Muslims in the early Middle Ages. It is an era romanticized by fervent Christians as the time when Christianity secured its honorable status as the true religion of the world. The affect of the Crusades is still with us today. It sailed from Spain and Portugal to the Americas in the fifthteenth century aboard sailing ships carrying conquistadors who sought new territory and rich resources. They used the shield and sword of Christianity to justify a swift conquest of mass territory and the subjugation of the indigenous peoples; a mentality learned, indeed,

To honor the Beowulf’s heroic life and battles, I’ve been assigned as one of his closest warriors to exclaim his appellation and share the stories of his battles. One of the citizen came up to me and asked, “I heard that Beowulf was an amazing guy, but I never fully knew him. Could you tell me more about him?” I was extremely excited as this man was the first person to ever ask me about Beowulf. “Beowulf was a strong leader and a great friend. Although he might not have been a very humble man, he was nowhere near being a bully. He’s the type of man that would belittle anyone who hurts the weak and innocent. Beowulf was mettlesome and was never intimidated by any menace.” The man’s eyes were already widen. “He sounds like a guy I would wanna be protected by,” the citizen said, “Can you tell me about one of his battles?” I prepared myself as I was about to begin a long lecture of how strong Beowulf was.

| In any war story, but especially a true one, it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. (pg. 67)

On the 14th of October 1066, Duke William of Normandy defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. His win could be summed up by the fact that William was a better leader. Other factors that contributed to William’s victory include: William was better prepared, the English army was severely weakened as Harold had just fought off an invasion in the North of England, and Harold made a fatal mistake of prematurely entering the Battle of Hastings.

they were organized and knew what to do when the time came to set sail

The concept of physical war is universally understood while many do not recognize internal struggles as a war within. The wife of bath, Beowulf, Lanval, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight all share a common theme of internal struggle. From a mental war over the kingdoms precedent, to an altering decision on whether knightly virtues are more important than his own life, these characters are battling the ideology of their roles during their time periods, as well as themselves.

Set in an era long before the customs of contemporary western civilization, Heaney’s translation of Beowulf follows the courageous hero through an epic journey that solidifies his figurative immortality. Much like the Greek’s great Odysseus or the Roman’s devout Aeneus, Beowulf serves as an impressive and almost godlike warrior for the Anglo-Saxons, providing insight into the constituents of greatness for that society. Confident in his abilities and committed to his task, Beowulf voluntarily embarks on a mission to defeat Grendel, the treacherous enemy of the Danish kingdom. Beowulf solidifies his classification as an epic hero as he satisfies his quest for glory, saves a kingdom from destruction, and reveals the values of an era.

A major turning point in Medieval history were the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of wars fought between the Christian Europeans and the Muslim Turks, which occurred between the years of 1096 to 1272. In this Holy War the Christians goal was to obtain the Holy Land from the Turks, in which they did not succeed. Although the Christians did not meet their goal, many positives did come out of their attempt. Due to the reason that they did not meet their goal, yet numerous positives came out of their effort, many refer to this as a successful failure.

William the conqueror in the battle of hastings. September 27 is when things started going William’s way, the wind shifted and started moving them right into England. Directly after reaching shore William decided to make his move and as stated in the document "William I." “William rallied the fleeing horsemen, however, and they turned and slaughtered the foot soldiers chasing them. On two subsequent occasions, William’s horsemen feigned retreat, which fooled Harold’s soldiers, who were then killed by their opponents. Harold’s brothers were also killed early in the battle. Toward nightfall the king himself fell, struck in the eye by an arrow according to Norman accounts, and the English gave up.” (par.1) this quote shows that William knew what he was doing and did the right thing and also that he wasn’t scared. William was about to become a ruler of another country.

Have you ever been hesitant to share a true story because you suspected that it would appear as a fabricated anecdote to your audience? Well, most of the time we add bunch of things or change a true story to make it sound genuine to our audience. We live in a judgmental and complex world where lying has become a part of our daily lives. Because of this habit, it is hard to differentiate the truth from a fabricated lie. Since I was a child, my parents always talked about battle of Adwa and many events that took place centuries ago. It is always amusing to listen to those stories because it is about heroic act that most of the kings of Ethiopia accomplished. Although I heard different versions of these stories, I always tend to believe my parents’ version. The reason is not simply the credibility of my parents’, but the way it was presented. According to the short story, “How to Tell a True War Story” by Tim O’ Brien, a true war story is hard to accept as true because some of the most agonizing parts are true, while some of the natural parts are not. Tim O’Brien’s narrative shows that a storyteller has the power to shape listeners’ views. We can change our perception because of the story teller, and neglect the fact that we are avoiding the actuality. Therefore by listening to different versions of a story, it will actually help the reader find greater truth of the story.

The postmodern style of writing John Kennedy Toole, makes so that the various cast of the characters in the story are much closer to people in real life making this book a perfect case to study and relate to characters of people across the world .

The Anglo Saxon period is the oldest known period of time that had a complex culture with stable government, art, and a fairly large amount of literature. Many people believe that the culture then was extremely unsophisticated, but it was actually extremely advanced for the time. Despite the many advancements, the period was almost always in a state of war. Despite this fact, the Anglo-Saxon period is a time filled with great advancements and discoveries in culture, society, government, religion, literature, and art.

A set point in the historical time line stands as the medieval period. The medieval period in history was the era in European history – from around the 5th to the 15th century, coming after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and preceding the start of the early modern era. This historical time period has been long since been the victim of film directors and romantic novelists, which has lead to the common, but false, idea of the medieval period consisting of knights and damsels in distress, wizards and dragons, and castles and battles. Although mainly wrong in most parts and being highly historically inaccurate – some aspects of the dramatic works do play true to the original time period.