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BRAGG: This is the South Bank
in London.

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2,000 years ago, if you'd heard
a human voice around here,

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the language would have been
incomprehensible.

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1,000 years ago,

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the English language had
established its first base camp.

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Today English circles the globe.

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It inhabits the air we breathe.

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What started as a guttural,
tribal dialect,

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seemingly isolated
in a small island,

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is now the language of well over
a thousand million people

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around the world.

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Subtitling made possible by
Acorn Media

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The story
of the English language

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is an extraordinary one.

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It has the characteristics of a
bold and successful adventure...

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tenacity, luck, near extinction
on more than one occasion,

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dazzling flexibility,

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and an extraordinary power
to absorb.

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And it's still going on.

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New dialects, new Englishes
are evolving all the time,

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all over the world.

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Successive invasions introduced

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then threatened to destroy
our language.

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Our first programme tells
that story.

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For 300 years,
English was forced underground.

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Our second programme
tells how it survived

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and how it fought back.

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Our third programme will tell
how the English language

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took on the power blocks
of church and state.

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Our fourth, how it became
the language of Shakespeare.

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In later programmes,

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we're going to leave
these shores, as English did,

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to tell the story of how,
in America,

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the language of one great empire
became that of another.

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We'll go to the Caribbean,

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where a variety of new
part-English dialects took root.

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India, where English became
a commanding, unifying language

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in a country
of a thousand tongues.

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And Australia,
where a confident new English

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was invented by a people,

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many of whom had been expelled
from their mother country.

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We'll travel through time, too,

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to explore how English
in the 2 1 st century

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has become the international
language of business,

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the language in which the
world's citizens communicate.

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Over the last 1,500 years,

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these small islands
have achieved much

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that is remarkable.

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But in my view,

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England's greatest success story
of all

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is the English language.

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These programmes are about the
words we think in, talk in,

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write in, sing in, the words
that describe the life we live.

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This is where we can begin...

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just after dawn
in a foreign country,

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on a flat shore
by the North Sea,

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in what we now call
the Netherlands.

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[Birds chirping]

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This is Friesland,

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and it's in this part
of the world

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that we can still hear
the modern language

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that we believe sounds closest

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to what the ancestor of English
sounded like

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1,500 years ago.

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PAULUSMA: En as we dan Maart
noch even besjoche,

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Maart hawwe we toch in oantal
dagen oan de froast

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00:04:05,747 --> 00:04:07,772
en friezen diet it toch sa'n
njoggen dagen,

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dat foaral oan'e grun.

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BRAGG: In Friesland,
many people start their day

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listening
to the weather forecast

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from popular weatherman
Piet Paulusma.

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En dan, moandei, tiisdei
en woansdei. : it wurden dagen...

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BRAGG: Some of his words
might sound familiar,

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like "three" and "four",
"frost" and "freeze"...

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In temperatuur sa om en naby
de trije of de fjour graden.

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Gjin froast, it sil net frieze.

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BRAGG:
..."mist" and "blue".

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En fierders, de kans op mist.

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En dan moarn,
en dan mei flink wat sinne.

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Blau yn'e loft...

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BRAGG: The reason
we can recognise these words

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is that modern Frisian
and modern English

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can both be traced back
to the same family...

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the Germanic family
of languages,

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and some words have stayed
more or less the same

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down the centuries.

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Butter, bread,

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cheese, meal,

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sleep, boat,

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snow, sea, storm.

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[Wind howling]

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The West Germanic tribes
who invented these words

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were a warlike,
adventurous people.

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They'd been on the move
through Europe

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for the best part of 1,000 years

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and now had settlements

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in what we would call the
lowlands of northern Europe...

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Holland, Germany, and Denmark.

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But they were still greedy
for land, ready to move on.

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This is the island
of Terschelling.

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The English coast is about
250 miles to the southwest

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behind me.

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It is from these islands and
the low-lying Frisian mainland

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that, in the 5th century,
a Germanic tribe...

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part of the family

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that also contained Jutes,
Angles, and Saxons...

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made sail to look
for a better life.

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And they took their language...
our language... with them.

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[Man speaking
Germanic language]

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The Germanic tribes weren't
the first to invade our shores.

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More than 500 years before,

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the Romans had also come by sea
to impose their will.

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Now their empire had crumbled

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and they'd abandoned
these islands,

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leaving the native tribes...
the Britons or Celts...

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to their fate.

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This is Pevensey Castle,

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an ancient Roman fort
that used to stand

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on the very shoreline
of the south coast.

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The chronicle of the period
reports that in the year 491,

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Germanic invaders laid siege

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and slaughtered the Celts
who had taken refuge here.

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Not one of them was left alive.

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Other Celts did survive
the invasion,

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a million or more of them
in England.

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But they were a broken people.

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The clue to their fate lies
in the word the Germanic tribes

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used to describe them.

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It was "wealas",

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a name that lives on in our
modern language as "Welsh".

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1,500 years ago, it meant both
"foreigner" and "slave".

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The Celts became servants
and followers,

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second-class citizens.

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The only way up was to become
part of the invaders' tribes,

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to adopt their culture
and their language.

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The Celts and their language
were pushed to the margins.

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Only a handful of words
from the Celtic languages

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survive into modern English.

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In the north, where I come from,
we have "crag", meaning "rock",

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"coombe", meaning "deep valley",

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and dialect words like "brat"
and "brock" for "badger".

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There are traces in place names.

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The "tor" in Torpenhow,
spelled as Torpenhow,

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a neighbouring village
to my own,

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that comes from the Celtic
for "peak".

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[Sirens wailing]

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The "car-" of "Carlisle"
means "a fortified place".

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In the south, they left us
the names of Thames and Avon,

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Dover and London,
but these were fragments.

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The language that prevailed
was that of the victors.

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By the end of the 6th century,

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these Germanic tribes occupied
half of mainland Britain.

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They had divided
into a number of kingdoms.

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Kent, Sussex, Essex, and Wessex,

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denoting the settlements
of southern, eastern,

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and western Saxon tribes;

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East Anglia,

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named after the Angles
who gave England its name;

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Mercia in midlands;
Northumbria in the north.

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Throughout these areas,

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many modern place names come
from that settlement

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or use the words they brought.

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We live with them.
We live in them every day.

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The "-ing" in modern place names
means "the people of".

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"-ton", as in Wigton,
where I come from,

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means "enclosure" or "village".

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"-ham" means "farm",

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which might surprise
one or two Tottenham supporters.

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MEN: # Glory, glory,
Tottenham Hotspurs #

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# Glory, glory,
Tottenham Hotspurs #

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# Glory, glory,
Tottenham Hotspurs #

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# And the Spurs
go marching on #

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# Tottenham are the greatest
team the world has ever seen #

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The Germanic tribes,
now settled around the country,

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all spoke their own dialects.

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From among them would emerge
one language...

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Anglo-Saxon, or Old English...

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and we all speak it every day.

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I mean, out of five strikers,

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none of them can really finish,
Armstrong...

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Not natural-born, are they?

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We just need some youth
and pace, really.

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BRAGG: Examine the language
you use today,

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and you'll still find
hundreds of words

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00:10:18,853 --> 00:10:21,583
from a language
over 1,500 years old,

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key words ranging from the names
we give family members

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to numbers.

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00:10:26,494 --> 00:10:27,791
What are we drinking to?

189
00:10:27,895 --> 00:10:29,487
I think we'll win 2-1 today.

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00:10:29,597 --> 00:10:30,996
I'll drink to that.

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00:10:31,999 --> 00:10:33,796
I live in like
a West Ham sort of area

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and I've got
a lot of West Ham friends,

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but, for this game,
we'll be enemies.

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00:10:37,338 --> 00:10:40,637
For the home games, I would go
with the guys we meet up

195
00:10:40,741 --> 00:10:42,208
from the Topspurs website

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00:10:42,309 --> 00:10:44,470
or with my daughter
to other games.

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00:10:44,578 --> 00:10:47,103
I mean, she's 5 at the moment.
Loves it.

198
00:10:47,214 --> 00:10:49,614
She loves singing the songs.
The nice ones, anyway.

199
00:10:49,717 --> 00:10:51,344
I was coming with my son.

200
00:10:51,452 --> 00:10:54,114
So we just go and get
something to eat first,

201
00:10:54,221 --> 00:10:55,381
go into the grounds,

202
00:10:55,489 --> 00:10:57,354
savour the atmosphere,
and watch the game.

203
00:10:57,458 --> 00:10:58,891
There has been
a few high-scoring games

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00:10:58,993 --> 00:10:59,891
over the years.

205
00:10:59,994 --> 00:11:01,859
I think the highest
we ever beat them was 6-1.

206
00:11:01,962 --> 00:11:03,657
A repeat today
wouldn't go amiss.

207
00:11:03,764 --> 00:11:06,961
BRAGG: Most of those words
were from Old English,

208
00:11:07,067 --> 00:11:11,561
nouns like "youth", "son",
"daughter", "field", "friend",

209
00:11:11,672 --> 00:11:12,900
"home", and "ground",

210
00:11:13,007 --> 00:11:17,137
prepositions like "in" and "on",
"into", "by", and "from".

211
00:11:17,244 --> 00:11:20,077
"And" and "the"
are from Old English.

212
00:11:20,181 --> 00:11:24,447
All the numbers and verbs like
"drink", "come", and "go",

213
00:11:24,552 --> 00:11:27,214
"sing", "like", and "love".

214
00:11:27,321 --> 00:11:29,380
But would these words
have sounded different

215
00:11:29,490 --> 00:11:30,718
all those years ago?

216
00:11:30,824 --> 00:11:32,189
In a slightly quieter pub,

217
00:11:32,293 --> 00:11:34,784
I asked language expert
Katie Lowe.

218
00:11:34,895 --> 00:11:36,192
They sound a little different.

219
00:11:36,297 --> 00:11:38,629
I mean, the Old English
for "sun" is "sunu".

220
00:11:38,732 --> 00:11:40,666
That's not so very different.

221
00:11:40,768 --> 00:11:42,133
"Game" is "gamen".

222
00:11:42,236 --> 00:11:44,704
"Ground" is "grund".

223
00:11:44,805 --> 00:11:49,765
And I notice that Steve says his
daughter loves singing songs.

224
00:11:49,877 --> 00:11:51,071
If you said that in Old English,

225
00:11:51,178 --> 00:11:55,171
it would be "His dochter luvath
tha sange singen".

226
00:11:55,282 --> 00:11:58,513
And you can see that that sounds
pretty much like modern English.

227
00:11:58,619 --> 00:12:00,678
So, in fact, you can have a good
conversation in Old English.

228
00:12:00,788 --> 00:12:02,085
Oh, yes, you can, indeed.

229
00:12:02,189 --> 00:12:06,057
I mean, each word I'm saying now
is from Old English.

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00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:09,129
Have you any estimate how many
words there were swirling around

231
00:12:09,230 --> 00:12:10,959
compared with how many words
we have now?

232
00:12:11,065 --> 00:12:14,159
We think it was in the region
of 25,000 words.

233
00:12:14,268 --> 00:12:15,963
Compare that
with an average desk dictionary,

234
00:12:16,070 --> 00:12:18,504
which maybe contains
something like 1 00,000 words.

235
00:12:18,606 --> 00:12:20,039
It sounds pretty small.

236
00:12:20,140 --> 00:12:21,164
But if you think about the fact

237
00:12:21,275 --> 00:12:23,072
that an averagely educated
person

238
00:12:23,177 --> 00:12:24,906
would probably have
about 1 0,000 words

239
00:12:25,012 --> 00:12:26,070
in their active vocabulary,

240
00:12:26,180 --> 00:12:27,704
there are plenty of words
to go round.

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00:12:27,815 --> 00:12:31,410
[Chanting]

242
00:12:31,518 --> 00:12:35,181
BRAGG: English took its first
steps away from its tribal roots

243
00:12:35,289 --> 00:12:37,917
with a revival of Christianity.

244
00:12:38,025 --> 00:12:40,755
[Man speaking Old English]

245
00:12:47,034 --> 00:12:49,730
MAN: Let us praise
the king of Heaven,

246
00:12:49,837 --> 00:12:53,466
the power of the Creator
and His conception,

247
00:12:53,574 --> 00:12:55,405
the work of the glorious Father,

248
00:12:55,509 --> 00:13:00,446
who created every wonder,
the eternal Lord.

249
00:13:13,160 --> 00:13:16,493
BRAGG: In 597,
the monk and prior Augustine

250
00:13:16,597 --> 00:13:18,895
led a mission from Rome to Kent.

251
00:13:18,999 --> 00:13:20,762
Around the same time,

252
00:13:20,868 --> 00:13:22,529
Irish monks of the Celtic church

253
00:13:22,636 --> 00:13:25,070
were establishing a presence
in the north.

254
00:13:27,174 --> 00:13:30,905
Within a century, Christians
built churches and monasteries.

255
00:13:31,011 --> 00:13:32,876
This is St. Paul's in Jarrow,

256
00:13:32,980 --> 00:13:36,108
parts of which date
from the 7th century.

257
00:13:42,823 --> 00:13:45,690
Faith and stone
weren't the only things

258
00:13:45,793 --> 00:13:47,920
the Christian missionaries
brought to the country.

259
00:13:48,028 --> 00:13:49,586
They brought
the international language

260
00:13:49,697 --> 00:13:52,029
of the Christian religion...
Latin.

261
00:13:52,132 --> 00:13:55,329
Latin terms became part
of the English word hoard.

262
00:13:55,436 --> 00:13:57,063
"Altare" became "altar".

263
00:13:57,171 --> 00:13:58,763
"Apostolus" became "apostle".

264
00:13:58,872 --> 00:14:00,863
"Mass", "monk",
and "verse" and many others

265
00:14:00,974 --> 00:14:02,464
all come from the Latin.

266
00:14:02,576 --> 00:14:04,510
This would become a pattern
of English,

267
00:14:04,611 --> 00:14:08,479
the layering of words, taken
from different source languages.

268
00:14:08,582 --> 00:14:11,847
And from Latin, too,
the English took their script.

269
00:14:16,757 --> 00:14:18,691
The Angles, Saxons, Frisians,

270
00:14:18,792 --> 00:14:20,692
and Jutes
who would become the English

271
00:14:20,794 --> 00:14:23,126
hadn't brought script
as we know it with them,

272
00:14:23,230 --> 00:14:25,630
but runes.

273
00:14:31,672 --> 00:14:34,800
The runic alphabet
was made up of symbols

274
00:14:34,908 --> 00:14:36,569
formed mainly of straight lines

275
00:14:36,677 --> 00:14:40,408
so that the letters could be
carved into stone or wood.

276
00:14:40,514 --> 00:14:44,951
Those were their media,
rather than parchment or paper.

277
00:14:45,886 --> 00:14:48,218
Though this is a short poem,

278
00:14:48,322 --> 00:14:50,449
most examples of runic writing
that survive

279
00:14:50,557 --> 00:14:54,186
suggest runes were mainly used
for short, practical messages

280
00:14:54,294 --> 00:14:56,592
or graffiti.

281
00:14:57,831 --> 00:15:01,096
[Man singing in Latin]

282
00:15:07,941 --> 00:15:09,670
The Latin alphabet
was different.

283
00:15:09,777 --> 00:15:11,074
With its curves and bows,

284
00:15:11,178 --> 00:15:14,238
it allowed words to be easily
written, using pen and ink,

285
00:15:14,348 --> 00:15:16,612
onto pages of parchment
or vellum,

286
00:15:16,717 --> 00:15:18,582
which,
gathered together into a book,

287
00:15:18,685 --> 00:15:21,552
could be widely circulated.

288
00:15:35,536 --> 00:15:39,063
Christianity brought the book
to these shores.

289
00:15:40,207 --> 00:15:43,335
"Verbum" ..."the word".

290
00:15:51,185 --> 00:15:54,348
Soon, a native culture
of scholarship began to flower,

291
00:15:54,455 --> 00:15:57,788
a culture based on Latin
and on writing.

292
00:16:01,795 --> 00:16:04,059
The magnificent
Lindisfarne Gospels

293
00:16:04,164 --> 00:16:05,631
were created in the 8th century

294
00:16:05,732 --> 00:16:10,032
on the island of Lindisfarne,
just off the northeast coast.

295
00:16:10,938 --> 00:16:12,599
A few miles south,

296
00:16:12,706 --> 00:16:14,970
at the monastery of St. Paul's
in Jarrow,

297
00:16:15,075 --> 00:16:17,703
the great English monk
and scholar Bede,

298
00:16:17,811 --> 00:16:19,676
born and educated
in Northumbria,

299
00:16:19,780 --> 00:16:21,805
began writing
the first-ever history

300
00:16:21,915 --> 00:16:24,645
of the English-speaking people.

301
00:16:26,286 --> 00:16:30,655
He wrote, of course, in Latin,
the language of scholarship.

302
00:16:31,658 --> 00:16:33,387
The prevailing language
among the people

303
00:16:33,494 --> 00:16:35,155
was still Old English,

304
00:16:35,262 --> 00:16:38,663
but Latin, this powerful medium,
was now amongst them.

305
00:16:38,765 --> 00:16:42,861
Now Old English was written down
using the Latin alphabet,

306
00:16:42,970 --> 00:16:45,803
while retaining some of
the old runes as letters.

307
00:16:45,906 --> 00:16:47,066
From the 7th century,

308
00:16:47,174 --> 00:16:49,506
we find English itself written
on parchment

309
00:16:49,610 --> 00:16:50,838
in a language and a script

310
00:16:50,944 --> 00:16:54,937
which we can just about
recognise as our own.

311
00:16:57,851 --> 00:17:00,820
[Man reciting "The Lord's
Prayer" in Old English]

312
00:17:25,546 --> 00:17:27,946
With writing,
Old English stole a march

313
00:17:28,048 --> 00:17:30,516
on other languages spoken
in Europe at the time.

314
00:17:30,617 --> 00:17:33,745
Prayers were recorded and books
of the Bible translated.

315
00:17:33,854 --> 00:17:35,754
The laws of the land
were written down,

316
00:17:35,856 --> 00:17:37,721
and the language
soon became capable

317
00:17:37,824 --> 00:17:39,348
of recording and expressing

318
00:17:39,459 --> 00:17:43,190
an increasingly wide and subtle
range of human experience.

319
00:17:45,165 --> 00:17:46,496
And in the right hands,

320
00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:48,932
Old English was now powerful
and supple enough

321
00:17:49,036 --> 00:17:53,973
to take you to imaginary worlds,
fire the blood, be poetry.

322
00:17:54,074 --> 00:17:56,975
[Man speaking Old English]

323
00:18:01,648 --> 00:18:05,516
MAN: So, the Spear-Danes
in days gone by

324
00:18:05,619 --> 00:18:09,419
and the kings who ruled them
had courage and greatness.

325
00:18:09,523 --> 00:18:13,721
We have heard of those princes'
heroic campaigns.

326
00:18:16,029 --> 00:18:18,520
BRAGG: No one knows
who composed the epic "Beowulf"

327
00:18:18,632 --> 00:18:21,533
sometime between the mid 7th
and end of the 1 0th century.

328
00:18:21,635 --> 00:18:24,263
It's the first great poem
in the English language,

329
00:18:24,371 --> 00:18:25,963
the beginning
of a glorious tradition

330
00:18:26,073 --> 00:18:29,406
which will lead to Chaucer,
Shakespeare, and beyond.

331
00:18:29,509 --> 00:18:33,570
The poem celebrates the glory
days of the Germanic tribes,

332
00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:38,777
epitomised in the heroic warrior
who gives the poem its name.

333
00:18:38,585 --> 00:18:41,247
The power of the language
can be heard in this passage,

334
00:18:41,355 --> 00:18:46,383
which introduces Beowulf's
archenemy, the monster Grendel.

335
00:18:47,161 --> 00:18:50,221
[Man speaking Old English]

336
00:18:54,668 --> 00:18:58,536
MAN: In off the moors,
down through the mist bands,

337
00:18:58,639 --> 00:19:01,938
God-cursed Grendel
came greedily loping.

338
00:19:02,042 --> 00:19:04,636
[Man speaking Old English]

339
00:19:04,745 --> 00:19:07,646
The bane of the race of men
roamed forth,

340
00:19:07,748 --> 00:19:10,478
hunting for a prey
in the high hall.

341
00:19:10,584 --> 00:19:12,984
[Man speaking Old English]

342
00:19:13,087 --> 00:19:14,145
Spurned and joyless,

343
00:19:14,254 --> 00:19:17,587
he journeyed on ahead
and arrived at the bawn.

344
00:19:17,691 --> 00:19:21,183
[Man speaking Old English]

345
00:19:21,295 --> 00:19:23,286
Then his rage boiled over.

346
00:19:23,397 --> 00:19:26,594
He ripped open the mouth of the
building, maddening for blood.

347
00:19:29,903 --> 00:19:32,895
He grabbed and mauled a man
on his bench,

348
00:19:33,006 --> 00:19:36,635
bit into his bone-lappings,
bolted down his blood,

349
00:19:36,744 --> 00:19:39,008
and gorged on him in lumps,

350
00:19:39,113 --> 00:19:42,241
leaving the body
utterly lifeless,

351
00:19:42,349 --> 00:19:44,749
eaten up hand and foot.

352
00:19:44,852 --> 00:19:47,844
What does that tell us about
English at that time, Seamus?

353
00:19:47,955 --> 00:19:49,980
What sort of language was it
when you come to it?

354
00:19:50,090 --> 00:19:52,388
Do you think this is a fully
developed poetic language?

355
00:19:52,493 --> 00:19:55,223
It's certainly a fully developed
poetic language.

356
00:19:55,329 --> 00:19:59,231
It's very... It's capable
of great elaboration.

357
00:19:59,333 --> 00:20:02,359
But what struck me generally
about Old English,

358
00:20:02,469 --> 00:20:03,595
from the moment I read the bits

359
00:20:03,704 --> 00:20:06,002
of "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle"
right through to "Beowulf",

360
00:20:06,106 --> 00:20:09,269
is it's terrific
for telling what happened.

361
00:20:09,376 --> 00:20:12,777
It's a wonderful sense of the
indicative mood all through it.

362
00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:16,213
It's terrific for action,
terrific for description.

363
00:20:18,819 --> 00:20:21,617
There's a wonderful
forthright capacity

364
00:20:21,722 --> 00:20:25,886
to make up extra language
in Anglo-Saxon.

365
00:20:28,362 --> 00:20:31,126
The words are very clear
and direct.

366
00:20:31,231 --> 00:20:32,755
"Bone" and "house", for example.

367
00:20:32,866 --> 00:20:33,798
"Bone-house"...

368
00:20:33,901 --> 00:20:37,860
There you have the house for the
the body, a word for the body.

369
00:20:39,106 --> 00:20:41,836
Beautiful words for instruments.

370
00:20:41,942 --> 00:20:47,175
The harp is called "gleo-beam",
the glee beam,

371
00:20:47,281 --> 00:20:48,839
the happy wood,

372
00:20:48,949 --> 00:20:54,478
or else the joy wood,
I think "gomen-wudu".

373
00:20:59,693 --> 00:21:05,689
Swords or shields... The shield
is the war-board, "wig-bord".

374
00:21:07,201 --> 00:21:10,898
That is a specific poetic energy
that's in the language,

375
00:21:11,004 --> 00:21:15,031
the ability to make compounds,

376
00:21:15,142 --> 00:21:17,110
which is still in German,
I guess,

377
00:21:17,211 --> 00:21:18,906
that gives it great beauty.

378
00:21:19,012 --> 00:21:20,877
How extensive is the vocabulary?

379
00:21:20,981 --> 00:21:25,418
I think there are 40,000 words
recorded in "Beowulf".

380
00:21:25,519 --> 00:21:28,784
But a lot of the words
repeat themselves in...

381
00:21:28,889 --> 00:21:32,450
Now, probably this is in poetry
more than in prose.

382
00:21:32,559 --> 00:21:35,289
If we heard an Anglo-Saxon
speaker speaking

383
00:21:35,395 --> 00:21:39,229
under his roof to his companion,

384
00:21:39,333 --> 00:21:42,131
we'd probably hear a very...
a quicker, a different,

385
00:21:42,236 --> 00:21:44,466
less elaborate language
from "Beowulf".

386
00:21:44,571 --> 00:21:47,802
Would you say it is very clearly
written to be read aloud?

387
00:21:47,908 --> 00:21:51,207
It's certainly written
to be read aloud.

388
00:21:51,311 --> 00:21:54,041
The question
that agitates some scholars

389
00:21:54,147 --> 00:21:56,081
is whether it was written,
you know?

390
00:21:56,183 --> 00:22:00,085
But I think
the general consensus now

391
00:22:00,187 --> 00:22:01,677
is that by the time
you get to "Beowulf",

392
00:22:01,788 --> 00:22:06,782
you have a writer dealing with
a traditional oral language.

393
00:22:06,894 --> 00:22:09,658
[Man speaking Old English]

394
00:22:18,238 --> 00:22:19,933
Certainly, you open the book.

395
00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:23,635
"Hwat! We gardena inyear dagum"
asks to be uttered,

396
00:22:23,744 --> 00:22:25,575
and there are many speeches
in it.

397
00:22:25,679 --> 00:22:29,877
And it comes off the tongue with
terrific directness, I think.

398
00:22:37,691 --> 00:22:40,854
Latin and Greek had created
great bodies of literature

399
00:22:40,961 --> 00:22:42,451
in the classical past.

400
00:22:42,563 --> 00:22:45,293
In the East, Arabic and Chinese
were being used

401
00:22:45,399 --> 00:22:46,730
in the 8th and 9th century

402
00:22:46,833 --> 00:22:48,323
as languages of poetry.

403
00:22:48,435 --> 00:22:49,561
But at that time,

404
00:22:49,670 --> 00:22:51,934
no other language
in the Christian world

405
00:22:52,039 --> 00:22:54,769
could match the achievement
of the "Beowulf" poet

406
00:22:54,875 --> 00:22:56,672
and his
anonymous contemporaries.

407
00:22:56,777 --> 00:22:58,904
Old English was flourishing.

408
00:22:59,012 --> 00:23:01,378
The adventure was under way.

409
00:23:01,481 --> 00:23:03,073
But while the seeds of English

410
00:23:03,183 --> 00:23:06,277
had come from these Frisian
shores in the 5th century,

411
00:23:06,386 --> 00:23:08,650
so, now,
in the late 8th century,

412
00:23:08,755 --> 00:23:11,815
a potential destroyer
was preparing his battle fleet

413
00:23:11,925 --> 00:23:15,417
500 miles or so to the north.

414
00:23:44,126 --> 00:23:45,525
In the late 8th century,

415
00:23:45,627 --> 00:23:47,288
the Latin-based culture
of scholarship,

416
00:23:47,396 --> 00:23:49,421
which had grown up in places
like Lindisfarne

417
00:23:49,531 --> 00:23:52,193
and which had also been
the cradle of Old English,

418
00:23:52,301 --> 00:23:54,929
faced extinction
from across the sea.

419
00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:07,840
These ruins
are of the medieval monastery

420
00:24:07,950 --> 00:24:10,077
that stood
on the island of Lindisfarne.

421
00:24:10,185 --> 00:24:13,780
[Birds chirping]

422
00:24:13,889 --> 00:24:17,256
It was the Vikings who sacked
and burned the religious centre

423
00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:20,522
that stood here before.

424
00:24:20,629 --> 00:24:25,464
To these pagan pirates rampaging
out of their longships in 793,

425
00:24:25,567 --> 00:24:28,900
this great centre of Christian
piety and scholarship,

426
00:24:29,004 --> 00:24:32,872
a pivotal place in the survival
of the Word and the gospels,

427
00:24:32,975 --> 00:24:35,466
was no more than
an undefended treasure house.

428
00:24:35,577 --> 00:24:37,807
The jewels that graced
the books of the church

429
00:24:37,913 --> 00:24:40,711
became baubles
around a Viking's neck.

430
00:24:46,421 --> 00:24:49,151
Today the Vikings
may seem romantic,

431
00:24:49,258 --> 00:24:51,624
re-enacting their rituals
a good day out.

432
00:24:51,727 --> 00:24:55,686
Over 1 2 centuries ago, their
arrival was not so cheerful.

433
00:24:58,100 --> 00:25:02,560
To many, it seemed to signal
the end for civilisation.

434
00:25:05,974 --> 00:25:08,306
A year after razing Lindisfarne,

435
00:25:08,410 --> 00:25:11,379
the Vikings returned
and sacked Jarrow,

436
00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:13,914
the abbey where Bede had been
the greatest scholar

437
00:25:14,016 --> 00:25:17,952
in one of the finest libraries
in Christendom.

438
00:25:20,322 --> 00:25:22,552
This stronghold
of the Latin word,

439
00:25:22,658 --> 00:25:24,683
where English
was also being written down

440
00:25:24,793 --> 00:25:26,954
uniquely among
European dialects,

441
00:25:27,062 --> 00:25:31,089
was burned to the ground,
its books with it.

442
00:25:35,904 --> 00:25:39,499
[Man singing in Latin]

443
00:25:45,814 --> 00:25:47,873
It was the start
of 7 0 years of attack

444
00:25:47,983 --> 00:25:50,076
during which the Vikings savaged

445
00:25:50,185 --> 00:25:52,176
this eastern half
of the country.

446
00:25:52,287 --> 00:25:56,155
Few stories survive of exactly
where and when they attacked,

447
00:25:56,258 --> 00:25:59,750
perhaps, chillingly, because
few were left to tell the tale.

448
00:25:59,862 --> 00:26:03,195
At first, the raiders went home
with their plunder.

449
00:26:03,298 --> 00:26:05,858
Then, they decided
to take the land itself.

450
00:26:05,968 --> 00:26:09,460
In 1 865, the Vikings landed
a great army south of here,

451
00:26:09,571 --> 00:26:10,731
in East Anglia.

452
00:26:15,444 --> 00:26:17,708
Within five years,
the Viking invaders,

453
00:26:17,813 --> 00:26:19,212
who were now called Danes,

454
00:26:19,314 --> 00:26:22,306
controlled the north and east
of the country.

455
00:26:23,185 --> 00:26:27,451
Of the old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms,
only Wessex still held out.

456
00:26:27,556 --> 00:26:30,116
Old Norse,
the language of the conquerors,

457
00:26:30,225 --> 00:26:32,056
was spreading
throughout the land.

458
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:34,890
Old English potentially faced
the same fate

459
00:26:34,997 --> 00:26:39,457
as the Celtic language it had
supplanted... virtual oblivion.

460
00:26:40,035 --> 00:26:43,004
English was in need
of a champion,

461
00:26:43,105 --> 00:26:45,369
and it found one.

462
00:26:57,119 --> 00:26:59,815
King Alfred's statue stands here
in Winchester,

463
00:26:59,922 --> 00:27:02,015
the capital of his
ancient kingdom of Wessex.

464
00:27:02,124 --> 00:27:03,887
He's the only monarch
in our history

465
00:27:03,992 --> 00:27:05,323
to be known as "the Great",

466
00:27:05,427 --> 00:27:08,362
and he's often been hailed
as the saviour of England.

467
00:27:08,463 --> 00:27:09,657
That may be debatable,

468
00:27:09,765 --> 00:27:12,996
as the idea of a single, unified
England didn't really exist

469
00:27:13,101 --> 00:27:14,329
in Alfred's day.

470
00:27:14,436 --> 00:27:15,562
What is certain

471
00:27:15,671 --> 00:27:19,129
is that he was a great defender
of the English language.

472
00:27:21,410 --> 00:27:25,005
It was the Victorians who had
dubbed Alfred "the Great".

473
00:27:25,113 --> 00:27:26,944
He was one of their darlings,

474
00:27:27,049 --> 00:27:29,950
an English hero whose exploits
were enthusiastically woven

475
00:27:30,052 --> 00:27:33,385
into the fabric
of national myth.

476
00:27:33,488 --> 00:27:35,752
But he very nearly
didn't make it.

477
00:27:37,659 --> 00:27:39,388
He'd come to the throne
of Wessex

478
00:27:39,494 --> 00:27:42,463
within a year of the first
Danish attacks in the southeast,

479
00:27:42,564 --> 00:27:45,499
and, at first, he could
hardly hold them back.

480
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:49,331
In 8 7 8, the Danes won what
appeared to be a decisive battle

481
00:27:49,438 --> 00:27:51,872
at Chippenham in Wiltshire.

482
00:27:59,047 --> 00:28:01,140
Alfred,
with only a few followers,

483
00:28:01,249 --> 00:28:03,877
went on the run into the marshes
of Somerset,

484
00:28:03,986 --> 00:28:06,011
moving, as a contemporary wrote,

485
00:28:06,121 --> 00:28:08,385
"under difficulties,
through woods,

486
00:28:08,490 --> 00:28:10,549
and into inaccessible places".

487
00:28:12,361 --> 00:28:14,829
Legend has Alfred, unrecognised,

488
00:28:14,930 --> 00:28:17,455
taking shelter
in a poor woman's cottage

489
00:28:17,566 --> 00:28:19,534
and being scolded for burning
the wheaten cakes

490
00:28:19,634 --> 00:28:22,034
he'd been set to mind.

491
00:28:23,739 --> 00:28:26,469
But the reality was less cosy.

492
00:28:26,575 --> 00:28:30,375
His situation was desperate,
and if Alfred's kingdom fell,

493
00:28:30,479 --> 00:28:32,674
the whole country would be
controlled and settled

494
00:28:32,781 --> 00:28:37,718
by conquerors whose language
would inevitably crush English.

495
00:28:41,656 --> 00:28:44,216
But Alfred proved to be
an enterprising warrior

496
00:28:44,326 --> 00:28:45,588
and strategist.

497
00:28:45,694 --> 00:28:47,525
Running free
in the Somerset Levels,

498
00:28:47,629 --> 00:28:50,029
he discovered the arts
of irregular warfare

499
00:28:50,132 --> 00:28:51,599
and mounted guerilla attacks

500
00:28:51,700 --> 00:28:53,827
against the occupying forces
of Guthrun,

501
00:28:53,935 --> 00:28:55,402
the Danish invader.

502
00:28:55,504 --> 00:28:57,597
But he knew
that wasn't going to be enough.

503
00:28:57,706 --> 00:28:59,333
For Wessex to be regained,

504
00:28:59,441 --> 00:29:02,205
the Danes had to be brought
to battle and defeated.

505
00:29:02,310 --> 00:29:04,744
The fighting men of Wessex
had been scattered.

506
00:29:04,846 --> 00:29:06,108
But in the spring of 8 7 8,

507
00:29:06,214 --> 00:29:08,614
Alfred sent out a call for
the men of the Shire Fyrds...

508
00:29:08,717 --> 00:29:11,015
the county armies...
to join him.

509
00:29:11,119 --> 00:29:14,213
Around 4,000 men, mainly
from Wiltshire and Somerset,

510
00:29:14,322 --> 00:29:16,790
armed only with battle-axes
and throwing spears,

511
00:29:16,892 --> 00:29:18,484
responded to the call.

512
00:29:18,593 --> 00:29:20,458
They mustered at Egbert's Stone,

513
00:29:20,562 --> 00:29:22,587
where trackways
and ridgeways met.

514
00:29:22,697 --> 00:29:25,165
48 hours later, they advanced,

515
00:29:25,267 --> 00:29:28,566
shields drumming against
the Danish army of 5,000,

516
00:29:28,670 --> 00:29:30,763
holding high ground at Ethandune

517
00:29:30,872 --> 00:29:33,363
on the western edge
of Salisbury Plain.

518
00:29:33,475 --> 00:29:34,908
Contemporary English accounts

519
00:29:35,010 --> 00:29:37,478
describe the battle
that followed as a slaughter

520
00:29:37,579 --> 00:29:40,412
and a rout of the Danes
by the West Saxons.

521
00:29:40,515 --> 00:29:42,176
Modern historians question that,

522
00:29:42,284 --> 00:29:44,946
but there's no doubt
that Alfred prevailed.

523
00:29:45,053 --> 00:29:47,920
His crown and his kingdom
were secured.

524
00:29:48,023 --> 00:29:49,888
And, more importantly
for our story,

525
00:29:49,991 --> 00:29:52,551
so was the English language.

526
00:29:58,667 --> 00:29:59,827
The Danes surrendered,

527
00:29:59,935 --> 00:30:02,165
their leader was baptised
as a Christian,

528
00:30:02,270 --> 00:30:03,828
and Alfred's crucial victory

529
00:30:03,939 --> 00:30:05,668
was memorialised
here in Wiltshire

530
00:30:05,774 --> 00:30:08,208
in an earlier version
of a Great White Horse,

531
00:30:08,310 --> 00:30:11,837
carved into the land he'd saved.

532
00:30:19,754 --> 00:30:23,656
Alfred left an even more
significant mark on the country.

533
00:30:23,758 --> 00:30:25,555
He signed a peace treaty
with the Danes

534
00:30:25,660 --> 00:30:27,787
which established a border
running up through the country,

535
00:30:27,896 --> 00:30:31,923
from the Thames to the old
Roman road of Watling Street.

536
00:30:32,033 --> 00:30:35,230
The land to the north and east,
to be known as the Danelaw,

537
00:30:35,337 --> 00:30:36,827
would be under Danish rule.

538
00:30:36,938 --> 00:30:40,374
The land to the south and west
would be for the English.

539
00:30:40,475 --> 00:30:44,878
No one was to cross the line
unless to trade.

540
00:30:49,818 --> 00:30:52,582
In the course of time, because
of Alfred's peace treaty,

541
00:30:52,687 --> 00:30:55,952
when Danes and English met,
they didn't do so to fight,

542
00:30:56,057 --> 00:30:58,491
but to do business,
even to intermarry.

543
00:30:58,593 --> 00:31:00,857
- I'd have to see.
- Oh, yes.

544
00:31:00,962 --> 00:31:04,762
BRAGG: Communities mixed,
and so did the languages.

545
00:31:04,866 --> 00:31:08,324
And English, rather than being
engulfed by the Danes' language,

546
00:31:08,436 --> 00:31:10,404
began to absorb it.

547
00:31:14,075 --> 00:31:17,602
I'm in the market town of Hexham
in the northeast of England.

548
00:31:17,712 --> 00:31:20,442
Maps of the area show
just how widespread

549
00:31:20,549 --> 00:31:22,483
the Danish settlement was.

550
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:26,747
Place names ending in "-by"

551
00:31:26,855 --> 00:31:28,413
reveal the Danish name
for "farm".

552
00:31:31,226 --> 00:31:35,856
"-thorpe" denotes a village,
"-thwaite" a portion of land.

553
00:31:42,204 --> 00:31:45,173
The Births, Marriages, and
Deaths pages of the local paper

554
00:31:45,273 --> 00:31:47,605
feature lots of names
ending in "-son".

555
00:31:47,709 --> 00:31:49,574
That was a Danish way
of making a name

556
00:31:49,678 --> 00:31:51,612
by adding to the name
of the father.

557
00:31:51,713 --> 00:31:54,045
Just on this page, I can see

558
00:31:54,149 --> 00:31:59,610
Harrison, Gibson-Hudson,
Robson, Sanderson,

559
00:31:59,721 --> 00:32:01,916
Dickinson, Simpson,

560
00:32:02,023 --> 00:32:04,548
Dickinson again, and Watson.

561
00:32:04,659 --> 00:32:07,059
In school where I was,
just across the country,

562
00:32:07,162 --> 00:32:09,392
there was a Pattinson,
a Johnson, a Rawlinson,

563
00:32:09,497 --> 00:32:10,725
and another Dickson.

564
00:32:10,832 --> 00:32:12,060
Outside on the street,

565
00:32:12,167 --> 00:32:16,399
you can see the same thing
on shop signs everywhere.

566
00:32:18,740 --> 00:32:21,334
Even given centuries of people
moving around the country,

567
00:32:21,443 --> 00:32:24,935
names ending in "-son" are still
far more common in what were

568
00:32:25,046 --> 00:32:27,378
the Danish territories
of the north and west

569
00:32:27,482 --> 00:32:29,211
than they are
in the south and east.

570
00:32:29,317 --> 00:32:31,012
Above all,
you can hear the echoes

571
00:32:31,119 --> 00:32:32,746
of the Danes' Old Norse language

572
00:32:32,854 --> 00:32:34,788
in the way people speak.

573
00:32:34,889 --> 00:32:37,380
- What breed did you say it is?
- Charollais.

574
00:32:37,492 --> 00:32:38,459
Out of?

575
00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:40,858
[Speaking indistinctly]

576
00:32:40,962 --> 00:32:42,725
It's a little field on its own.

577
00:32:42,831 --> 00:32:44,594
As Willy says, there's a beck
down by the side of it.

578
00:32:44,699 --> 00:32:46,633
It runs down
through a little wood.

579
00:32:46,735 --> 00:32:49,135
But it's such a lovely setting
down by the...

580
00:32:49,237 --> 00:32:51,000
you know, down by that garth,
isn't it?

581
00:32:51,106 --> 00:32:54,371
It's like a little
isolation field.

582
00:32:54,476 --> 00:32:56,535
It's only a couple of acres,
the whole field.

583
00:32:56,645 --> 00:32:59,239
It would be interesting to see
a few sheep sold with lambs.

584
00:32:59,347 --> 00:33:00,541
Are they allowed to be sold?

585
00:33:00,649 --> 00:33:02,014
BRAGG:
Some Old Norse words

586
00:33:02,117 --> 00:33:04,176
stayed in the local dialects
of the north,

587
00:33:04,286 --> 00:33:09,485
words like "beck" for "stream"
and "garth" for "paddock".

588
00:33:09,591 --> 00:33:12,287
As a boy in Wigton, I remember
hearing and using dialect words

589
00:33:12,394 --> 00:33:15,261
like "slattery" for "shower",
"slape" for "slippery",

590
00:33:15,363 --> 00:33:17,456
"yet" for "gate",
"lap" for "leap",

591
00:33:17,565 --> 00:33:19,362
"yek" for "oak",
and "yam" for "home",

592
00:33:19,467 --> 00:33:21,162
as in "I's gangen yam."

593
00:33:21,269 --> 00:33:24,466
Pure Norse, heard in Wigton
every night of the week.

594
00:33:24,572 --> 00:33:25,834
And there were many others.

595
00:33:28,009 --> 00:33:30,944
But the influence of Old Norse
wasn't just local.

596
00:33:31,046 --> 00:33:32,707
All around the country,
over time,

597
00:33:32,814 --> 00:33:35,806
hundreds of Norse words entered
the mainstream of English,

598
00:33:35,917 --> 00:33:38,818
and we still use them every day.

599
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:42,378
The s-k sound is
a characteristic of Old Norse,

600
00:33:42,490 --> 00:33:46,688
and English borrowed words like
"score" and "sky" and "skive",

601
00:33:46,795 --> 00:33:48,524
as well as perhaps
a thousand others,

602
00:33:48,630 --> 00:33:53,533
including "anger", "bull",
"freckle", "knife", "neck",

603
00:33:53,635 --> 00:33:57,298
"root", "scowl", and "window".

604
00:34:01,042 --> 00:34:03,237
[Indistinct speaking]

605
00:34:03,345 --> 00:34:06,178
BRAGG: Sometimes where both
Old Norse and Old English

606
00:34:06,281 --> 00:34:07,839
had a word for the same thing,

607
00:34:07,949 --> 00:34:09,439
both words lived on in English,

608
00:34:09,551 --> 00:34:12,315
each taking on
a slightly different meaning.

609
00:34:12,420 --> 00:34:15,651
Where Old English said "craft",
Old Norse said "skill".

610
00:34:15,757 --> 00:34:19,352
For an English "hide",
the Norse said "skin".

611
00:34:19,461 --> 00:34:22,294
In Old English, you were "sick".
In Norse, you were "ill".

612
00:34:26,634 --> 00:34:27,760
Here was another example

613
00:34:27,869 --> 00:34:29,837
of English's extraordinary
ability to absorb,

614
00:34:29,938 --> 00:34:32,498
to take in words
from other languages,

615
00:34:32,607 --> 00:34:34,370
adding them to its word hoard,

616
00:34:34,476 --> 00:34:38,003
increasing the richness and
flexibility of the vocabulary.

617
00:34:38,113 --> 00:34:40,707
I think the point
about vocabulary

618
00:34:40,815 --> 00:34:43,875
is how much it astonishes
by its ordinary nature.

619
00:34:43,985 --> 00:34:46,215
Words like "law", "egg",

620
00:34:46,321 --> 00:34:51,315
"husband", "leg",
"ill", "die", "ugly"...

621
00:34:51,426 --> 00:34:53,121
all these words
are from Old Norse,

622
00:34:53,228 --> 00:34:54,855
and yet you wouldn't
necessarily think

623
00:34:54,963 --> 00:34:56,089
that they were foreign at all.

624
00:34:56,197 --> 00:34:57,687
Most astounding of all, I think,

625
00:34:57,799 --> 00:35:00,563
are the pronouns "they",
"their", and "them".

626
00:35:00,668 --> 00:35:02,363
Those are also from Old Norse.

627
00:35:02,470 --> 00:35:04,404
And in terms of grammar,

628
00:35:04,506 --> 00:35:06,599
in a way,
they simplified English.

629
00:35:06,708 --> 00:35:08,903
They took it away
from its Germanic roots.

630
00:35:09,010 --> 00:35:10,307
I think it's probably true
to say

631
00:35:10,412 --> 00:35:12,607
that Old Norse affects
the English language

632
00:35:12,714 --> 00:35:13,772
more than any other

633
00:35:13,882 --> 00:35:16,612
because it actually leads to
a restructuring of the language.

634
00:35:16,718 --> 00:35:22,054
Old English forms sentences
not by word order, as we do,

635
00:35:22,157 --> 00:35:24,625
but by tacking on endings
onto the ends of things,

636
00:35:24,726 --> 00:35:27,991
like articles and pronouns
and nouns.

637
00:35:28,096 --> 00:35:32,556
What happens is, through contact
with a pretty similar language,

638
00:35:32,667 --> 00:35:34,396
a lot of these
inflectional endings

639
00:35:34,502 --> 00:35:36,629
start to lose
their distinctive nature.

640
00:35:36,738 --> 00:35:38,763
And, actually, this is a process
we can see happening

641
00:35:38,873 --> 00:35:40,773
fairly early on
in the Anglo-Saxon period.

642
00:35:40,875 --> 00:35:43,002
So the language
is prone to do that,

643
00:35:43,111 --> 00:35:45,477
but contact with Norse languages
speeded it up,

644
00:35:45,580 --> 00:35:47,548
gave it a shove
towards modernity.

645
00:35:47,649 --> 00:35:49,708
Can you give us
a very simple example of that?

646
00:35:49,818 --> 00:35:50,716
Yes.

647
00:35:50,819 --> 00:35:52,377
Let's take a simple sentence

648
00:35:52,487 --> 00:35:55,650
like "The king gave horses
to his men."

649
00:35:55,757 --> 00:35:58,385
That would be something like,
in Old English...

650
00:36:02,063 --> 00:36:03,428
Now, in Old English,

651
00:36:03,531 --> 00:36:05,897
you didn't tend to have
a preposition like "to".

652
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,264
Instead,
you could use a special ending,

653
00:36:08,369 --> 00:36:10,667
which kind of meant
"to his men".

654
00:36:10,772 --> 00:36:14,105
And that would be
a "-um" ending,

655
00:36:14,209 --> 00:36:17,838
and you just tack that onto
the end of the noun for "man".

656
00:36:17,946 --> 00:36:21,382
So you'd have "gumum"...
"-um" ending.

657
00:36:21,483 --> 00:36:23,576
Now, the plural for the word
for "horse",

658
00:36:23,685 --> 00:36:25,812
if you want to say,
"Gave horses to his men,"

659
00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:27,319
would have an "n" on it.

660
00:36:27,422 --> 00:36:28,719
So it would be "blancan".

661
00:36:28,823 --> 00:36:31,883
Unfortunately, towards the end
of the Old English period,

662
00:36:31,993 --> 00:36:34,223
we start to see
that "-um" ending

663
00:36:34,329 --> 00:36:37,321
becoming more and more
indistinct.

664
00:36:37,432 --> 00:36:41,459
And we see spellings like
"guman" ..."- An"...

665
00:36:41,569 --> 00:36:45,767
just the same as "blancan"...
"-an".

666
00:36:45,874 --> 00:36:47,933
It's obvious
that the king is more likely

667
00:36:48,042 --> 00:36:51,239
to give horses to his men
than men to his horses,

668
00:36:51,346 --> 00:36:53,246
but you can see
that there's a potential there

669
00:36:53,348 --> 00:36:54,576
for difficulties.

670
00:36:54,682 --> 00:36:58,675
And so we start to see
prepositions being used

671
00:36:58,786 --> 00:37:03,917
in place of those endings,
which had become indistinct.

672
00:37:04,492 --> 00:37:05,550
[Indistinct speaking]

673
00:37:05,627 --> 00:37:09,563
BRAGG: Spoken English survived
the Danish invasion.

674
00:37:09,664 --> 00:37:13,191
But as the 9th century drew
to a close,

675
00:37:13,301 --> 00:37:15,769
the written culture
was in a ruinous state,

676
00:37:15,870 --> 00:37:18,930
and King Alfred was concerned.

677
00:37:19,874 --> 00:37:23,139
When Alfred looked at the state
of his kingdom, he was appalled.

678
00:37:23,244 --> 00:37:25,769
The scholars in the monasteries
had once made England

679
00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:28,815
the greatest powerhouse
of Christian teaching in Europe.

680
00:37:28,917 --> 00:37:32,045
But 1 50 years had passed
since the high days of Bede,

681
00:37:32,153 --> 00:37:34,621
and the scholarly tradition
had declined,

682
00:37:34,722 --> 00:37:38,089
hastened on its way
by a century of Viking raids.

683
00:37:38,192 --> 00:37:39,216
In all the country,

684
00:37:39,327 --> 00:37:41,295
Alfred could barely find
a handful of priests

685
00:37:41,396 --> 00:37:43,591
who could read
and understand Lain.

686
00:37:43,698 --> 00:37:45,165
And if they couldn't
understand Latin,

687
00:37:45,266 --> 00:37:47,860
they couldn't pass on the
teachings of the religious books

688
00:37:47,969 --> 00:37:50,767
that told people
how to lead virtuous lives.

689
00:37:50,872 --> 00:37:52,772
They couldn't save souls.

690
00:37:52,874 --> 00:37:54,933
Where the written word
had once flourished,

691
00:37:55,043 --> 00:37:58,604
Alfred now found only
chronic spiritual sickness.

692
00:37:58,713 --> 00:38:00,578
He looked for a cure.

693
00:38:00,682 --> 00:38:03,515
One way was to educate
more clergy in Latin.

694
00:38:03,618 --> 00:38:05,313
But that wasn't enough.

695
00:38:05,420 --> 00:38:07,183
He hit on
a more radical solution,

696
00:38:07,288 --> 00:38:10,519
a solution that hinged
not on Latin, but on English,

697
00:38:10,625 --> 00:38:13,719
and he took English
to new heights of achievement.

698
00:38:16,230 --> 00:38:17,993
In the preface
to his own translation

699
00:38:18,099 --> 00:38:20,090
of Pope Gregory's
"Pastoral Care",

700
00:38:20,201 --> 00:38:22,601
Alfred wrote, "I remembered how,

701
00:38:22,704 --> 00:38:24,672
before it was all ravaged
and burned,

702
00:38:24,772 --> 00:38:27,240
I'd seen how the churches
throughout all England

703
00:38:27,342 --> 00:38:29,970
stood filled with treasures
and books.

704
00:38:30,078 --> 00:38:32,478
And there was also
a multitude of God's servants

705
00:38:32,580 --> 00:38:34,309
who had very little benefit
from those books

706
00:38:34,415 --> 00:38:36,849
because they couldn't understand
anything of them

707
00:38:36,951 --> 00:38:41,115
since they were not written
in their own language."

708
00:38:44,392 --> 00:38:46,758
Their own language was,
of course, English.

709
00:38:46,861 --> 00:38:48,795
Alfred didn't want to do away
with Latin,

710
00:38:48,896 --> 00:38:51,797
but he realised that it would be
far easier to teach people

711
00:38:51,899 --> 00:38:54,527
to read books written
in the language they spoke.

712
00:38:54,636 --> 00:38:57,264
The best scholars could then
go on to learn Latin

713
00:38:57,372 --> 00:38:58,896
and join holy orders.

714
00:38:59,007 --> 00:39:00,804
The rest would still have access

715
00:39:00,908 --> 00:39:02,933
to scholarship
and spiritual guidance,

716
00:39:03,044 --> 00:39:05,274
but it would be written
in English.

717
00:39:11,953 --> 00:39:14,547
Here in his capital city
of Winchester,

718
00:39:14,656 --> 00:39:17,284
Alfred drew up a plan.

719
00:39:17,392 --> 00:39:19,656
It was an extraordinarily
imaginative project

720
00:39:19,761 --> 00:39:24,198
to promote literacy and restore
the English language.

721
00:39:35,276 --> 00:39:36,607
"We should," he wrote,

722
00:39:36,711 --> 00:39:38,269
"translate certain books

723
00:39:38,379 --> 00:39:40,574
which are most necessary
for all men to know

724
00:39:40,682 --> 00:39:42,980
into the language
that we can all understand

725
00:39:43,084 --> 00:39:45,450
and also arrange it,
as with God's help

726
00:39:45,553 --> 00:39:47,453
we very easily can
if we have peace,

727
00:39:47,555 --> 00:39:51,013
so that all the youth of free
men now among the English people

728
00:39:51,125 --> 00:39:53,992
who have the means to be able
to devote themselves to it

729
00:39:54,095 --> 00:39:58,122
may be set to study for as long
as they're of no other use,

730
00:39:58,232 --> 00:40:02,498
until the time they're able
to read English writing well."

731
00:40:04,138 --> 00:40:06,572
Alfred had five books
of religious instruction,

732
00:40:06,674 --> 00:40:07,732
philosophy, and history

733
00:40:07,842 --> 00:40:09,673
translated from Latin
into English,

734
00:40:09,777 --> 00:40:12,871
a laborious
and costly undertaking.

735
00:40:15,116 --> 00:40:17,949
Copies were sent out to
the 1 2 bishops of his kingdom

736
00:40:18,052 --> 00:40:21,749
for their wisdom to be spread
as widely as possible.

737
00:40:23,558 --> 00:40:24,820
To each bishop,

738
00:40:24,926 --> 00:40:27,486
to emphasise the importance
and value of the project,

739
00:40:27,595 --> 00:40:31,998
Alfred sent a costly pointer,
used to underline the text.

740
00:40:33,601 --> 00:40:36,001
This is the Alfred Jewel.

741
00:40:36,104 --> 00:40:37,435
Many historians believe

742
00:40:37,538 --> 00:40:40,405
that it formed the head
of one of those pointers.

743
00:40:40,508 --> 00:40:42,999
Crafted in crystal enamel
and gold,

744
00:40:43,111 --> 00:40:45,944
it was discovered in 1 693
in Somerset

745
00:40:46,047 --> 00:40:49,278
and is now in show at the
Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

746
00:40:49,383 --> 00:40:53,820
It's inscribed "Aelfred
had me made" in English.

747
00:40:55,757 --> 00:40:58,692
Alfred the Great had made
the English language

748
00:40:58,793 --> 00:41:01,557
the jewel in his crown.

749
00:41:01,662 --> 00:41:04,995
[Bells chiming]

750
00:41:07,735 --> 00:41:09,134
Here in Winchester,

751
00:41:09,237 --> 00:41:12,400
Alfred had established what was,
effectively, a publishing house.

752
00:41:12,507 --> 00:41:14,168
Other projects he undertook

753
00:41:14,275 --> 00:41:17,210
included the commissioning
of "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle",

754
00:41:17,311 --> 00:41:19,779
detailing hundreds of years
of history.

755
00:41:19,881 --> 00:41:22,247
Alfred died in 899.

756
00:41:22,350 --> 00:41:24,250
One of his legacies
was an English language

757
00:41:24,352 --> 00:41:28,254
which was more prestigious and
widely read than ever before.

758
00:41:28,356 --> 00:41:30,824
There was nothing to compare
with this range

759
00:41:30,925 --> 00:41:33,553
of written vernacular,
history, philosophy, poetry

760
00:41:33,661 --> 00:41:35,561
anywhere else
in mainland Europe.

761
00:41:35,663 --> 00:41:37,790
English was out on its own.

762
00:41:37,899 --> 00:41:41,335
By the middle of the 1 1th
century, English seemed secure.

763
00:41:41,435 --> 00:41:44,302
But now other invaders
were waiting in the wings,

764
00:41:44,405 --> 00:41:49,342
and English was about to face
its greatest threat ever.

765
00:42:05,359 --> 00:42:08,157
This place,
the old Roman fort at Pevensey,

766
00:42:08,262 --> 00:42:10,594
was a fateful one
for the English language.

767
00:42:10,698 --> 00:42:12,393
It was here, among other places,

768
00:42:12,500 --> 00:42:14,434
that the Frisians
and other Germanic tribes

769
00:42:14,535 --> 00:42:16,264
had made landfall
in the 5th century

770
00:42:16,370 --> 00:42:18,338
and introduced
their own language.

771
00:42:18,439 --> 00:42:22,375
Now, in 1 066, another wave
of invaders was landing...

772
00:42:22,476 --> 00:42:24,103
the Normans.

773
00:42:24,212 --> 00:42:27,613
When, in 1 066,
William, Duke of Normandy,

774
00:42:27,715 --> 00:42:30,081
sailed with his army
to claim the English throne,

775
00:42:30,184 --> 00:42:33,176
he was sure he had right
on his side.

776
00:42:33,287 --> 00:42:36,222
The English king,
Edward the Confessor,

777
00:42:36,324 --> 00:42:38,087
had spent many years in Normandy

778
00:42:38,192 --> 00:42:40,558
and, in that time,
contemporary sources say,

779
00:42:40,661 --> 00:42:44,222
had come to regard William
as a brother or even a son

780
00:42:44,332 --> 00:42:47,460
and had named him
as his successor.

781
00:42:48,502 --> 00:42:52,097
Sensing his impending death
and fearing rebellion at home,

782
00:42:52,206 --> 00:42:55,107
the childless Edward
had dispatched Harold Godwinson,

783
00:42:55,209 --> 00:42:56,335
his wife's brother,

784
00:42:56,444 --> 00:42:57,433
and his Earl of Essex,

785
00:42:57,545 --> 00:42:59,945
the richest and most powerful
of the English lords,

786
00:43:00,047 --> 00:43:02,777
to Normandy to pledge loyalty
to William.

787
00:43:04,986 --> 00:43:10,481
This Harold did, swearing
on two caskets of holy relics.

788
00:43:13,227 --> 00:43:14,489
But when Edward did die,

789
00:43:14,595 --> 00:43:17,120
Harold, supported
by the English nobility,

790
00:43:17,231 --> 00:43:19,392
had himself crowned
in Westminster Abbey

791
00:43:19,500 --> 00:43:23,368
on the very day that Edward
was laid to rest there.

792
00:43:25,373 --> 00:43:28,968
To the truculent and ruthless
William, this was an affront,

793
00:43:29,076 --> 00:43:33,376
invasion with maximum force
the only possible response.

794
00:43:48,062 --> 00:43:51,520
The armies met here,
near Hastings.

795
00:43:55,269 --> 00:43:58,329
This is the spot where,
traditionally, Harold fell,

796
00:43:58,439 --> 00:44:01,033
fatally pierced through the eye
with an arrow.

797
00:44:06,347 --> 00:44:09,248
The site was later named
after the engagement,

798
00:44:09,350 --> 00:44:12,786
but it's named not with
an English word like "fight",

799
00:44:12,887 --> 00:44:13,854
but with a word

800
00:44:13,955 --> 00:44:15,855
from the language
of the Norman victors...

801
00:44:15,957 --> 00:44:18,721
"battle".

802
00:44:21,662 --> 00:44:24,392
Harold would be the last
English-speaking king of England

803
00:44:24,498 --> 00:44:26,193
for three centuries.

804
00:44:26,300 --> 00:44:28,325
On Christmas Day 1 066,

805
00:44:28,436 --> 00:44:30,666
William was crowned
in Westminster Abbey

806
00:44:30,771 --> 00:44:33,296
in a service conducted
in English and Latin.

807
00:44:33,407 --> 00:44:37,104
William spoke French throughout.

808
00:44:39,780 --> 00:44:44,774
A new king and a new language
were in authority in England.

809
00:44:46,587 --> 00:44:48,179
Enemy.

810
00:44:48,289 --> 00:44:50,154
Castle.

811
00:44:51,993 --> 00:44:54,291
"Castle" was one of
the first French words

812
00:44:54,395 --> 00:44:56,022
to enter the English language.

813
00:44:56,130 --> 00:44:57,392
The Normans built
a chain of them

814
00:44:57,498 --> 00:44:59,762
to impose their rule
on the country.

815
00:44:59,867 --> 00:45:02,495
This magnificent castle
at Rochester

816
00:45:02,603 --> 00:45:05,538
was one of the first to be
fortified in stone.

817
00:45:10,077 --> 00:45:14,309
By blood, the Normans were from
the same stock as the Norsemen

818
00:45:14,415 --> 00:45:16,383
who'd invaded
in earlier centuries.

819
00:45:16,484 --> 00:45:18,975
But they no longer spoke
a Germanic language...

820
00:45:19,086 --> 00:45:21,611
rather,
what we'd call Old French,

821
00:45:21,722 --> 00:45:23,815
which had grown
from Latin roots.

822
00:45:23,924 --> 00:45:25,186
Many of the words they spoke

823
00:45:25,292 --> 00:45:27,556
would have been very strange
to the native English,

824
00:45:27,661 --> 00:45:31,119
but would quickly become
unpleasantly familiar.

825
00:45:31,232 --> 00:45:33,723
Our words "army", "archer",

826
00:45:33,834 --> 00:45:36,530
"soldier", "garrison",
and "guard"

827
00:45:36,637 --> 00:45:39,800
all come from the conquering
Norman French.

828
00:45:39,907 --> 00:45:43,365
French was the language that
spelled out the architecture

829
00:45:43,477 --> 00:45:44,944
of the new social order...

830
00:45:45,046 --> 00:45:47,241
"crown", "throne", and "court",

831
00:45:47,348 --> 00:45:49,646
"duke", "baron", and "nobility",

832
00:45:49,750 --> 00:45:51,945
"peasant", "vassal", "servant".

833
00:45:52,053 --> 00:45:53,384
The word "govern"
comes from French,

834
00:45:53,487 --> 00:45:56,923
as do "liberty", "authority",
"obedience", and "traitor".

835
00:45:57,024 --> 00:46:00,221
The Normans took the law
into their own hands.

836
00:46:00,327 --> 00:46:01,988
"Felony", "arrest", "warrant",

837
00:46:02,096 --> 00:46:06,055
"justice", "judge", and "jury"
all come from French.

838
00:46:07,001 --> 00:46:08,969
And so do "accuse", "acquit",

839
00:46:09,070 --> 00:46:13,598
"sentence", "condemn",
"prison", and "jail".

840
00:46:14,275 --> 00:46:15,367
It's been estimated

841
00:46:15,476 --> 00:46:17,376
that in the three centuries
after the conquest,

842
00:46:17,478 --> 00:46:21,073
about 1 0,000 French words
colonised the English language.

843
00:46:21,182 --> 00:46:22,843
They didn't all come in
immediately,

844
00:46:22,950 --> 00:46:25,817
but the conquest opened
a conduit of French vocabulary

845
00:46:25,920 --> 00:46:28,514
that's remained open,
on and off, ever since.

846
00:46:28,622 --> 00:46:31,056
Today, French words
are all around us.

847
00:46:32,359 --> 00:46:33,326
City,

848
00:46:33,427 --> 00:46:34,917
market,

849
00:46:35,029 --> 00:46:35,961
porter.

850
00:46:36,063 --> 00:46:36,961
Here we are!

851
00:46:37,064 --> 00:46:39,464
Look, one fabulous salmon,
weighs about 1 4 pound.

852
00:46:39,567 --> 00:46:40,795
It is a fabulous fish.

853
00:46:40,901 --> 00:46:43,597
We got some fabulous mackerel.
They've come up from Aberdeen.

854
00:46:43,704 --> 00:46:46,172
Next to them are the oysters.
They come from the Essex coast.

855
00:46:46,273 --> 00:46:47,763
Sole.

856
00:46:47,875 --> 00:46:48,899
BRAGG:
Pork,

857
00:46:49,009 --> 00:46:50,203
sausage,

858
00:46:50,311 --> 00:46:51,505
bacon.

859
00:46:51,612 --> 00:46:55,343
MAN: Nice bit of fruit!
Oranges, they're juicy. Lemons!

860
00:46:55,449 --> 00:46:57,417
BRAGG:
Grape, tart,

861
00:46:57,518 --> 00:46:59,281
biscuit, sugar.

862
00:46:59,386 --> 00:47:00,045
Cream.

863
00:47:01,689 --> 00:47:03,714
BRAGG:
Fry.

864
00:47:05,192 --> 00:47:07,456
Vinegar.

865
00:47:07,561 --> 00:47:11,190
Nearly 500 words dealing with
food, cooking, and eating alone

866
00:47:11,298 --> 00:47:12,822
entered English from French...

867
00:47:12,933 --> 00:47:14,400
just a fraction of the imports

868
00:47:14,502 --> 00:47:16,493
which would enrich
the English word hoard

869
00:47:16,604 --> 00:47:18,936
in the centuries
after the Norman conquest.

870
00:47:26,213 --> 00:47:29,239
Within 20 years of taking
control of the country,

871
00:47:29,350 --> 00:47:33,047
William sent his officers out
to take stock of his kingdom.

872
00:47:33,154 --> 00:47:35,384
The monks of Peterborough,

873
00:47:35,489 --> 00:47:37,889
who were still recording
the events of history in English

874
00:47:37,992 --> 00:47:39,687
in "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle",

875
00:47:39,793 --> 00:47:41,158
noted disapprovingly

876
00:47:41,262 --> 00:47:44,231
that not one piece of land
escaped the survey,

877
00:47:44,331 --> 00:47:48,427
"not even an ox or a cow
or a pig".

878
00:48:01,415 --> 00:48:04,282
The "Domesday Book"... there
are, in fact, two volumes...

879
00:48:04,385 --> 00:48:08,481
show us how complete the Norman
takeover of English land was

880
00:48:08,589 --> 00:48:12,753
and how widespread their
influence and their language.

881
00:48:14,295 --> 00:48:15,353
The Norman settlement

882
00:48:15,462 --> 00:48:16,986
had concentrated
the wealth of England

883
00:48:17,097 --> 00:48:19,031
more than ever before or since.

884
00:48:19,133 --> 00:48:21,226
The native ruling class
from before the conquest

885
00:48:21,335 --> 00:48:22,962
had been slaughtered, banished,

886
00:48:23,070 --> 00:48:26,039
or disinherited in favour
of William's followers.

887
00:48:26,140 --> 00:48:29,769
Half of the country was
in the hands of just 1 90 men.

888
00:48:29,877 --> 00:48:32,971
Half of that
was held by just 1 1 men.

889
00:48:34,582 --> 00:48:38,382
And not one of these great
landowners spoke English.

890
00:48:40,221 --> 00:48:43,452
MAN:
Gisleberti De Gand...

891
00:48:43,557 --> 00:48:45,684
Raoulh De Insula...

892
00:48:45,793 --> 00:48:47,761
BRAGG: When this record
of the country was drawn up,

893
00:48:47,861 --> 00:48:50,352
it was written in Latin,
not Norman French...

894
00:48:50,464 --> 00:48:52,625
MAN:
...David De Argent...

895
00:48:52,733 --> 00:48:55,031
BRAGG:
...and certainly not English.

896
00:48:55,135 --> 00:48:57,194
MAN:
...Rann Fris Ugeris...

897
00:48:57,304 --> 00:48:59,898
BRAGG: Between them, French and
Latin had become the languages

898
00:49:00,007 --> 00:49:02,168
of state, law, the church,

899
00:49:02,276 --> 00:49:05,245
and history itself in England.

900
00:49:09,483 --> 00:49:12,213
The writing of English
became increasingly rare.

901
00:49:12,319 --> 00:49:17,052
Even "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle"
guttered into silence.

902
00:49:17,625 --> 00:49:18,785
MAN:
"Hwat!

903
00:49:18,892 --> 00:49:23,454
We gardena inyear dagum
feodcyninga, frym gefrunon..."

904
00:49:23,564 --> 00:49:26,055
BRAGG: The language of Alfred
and the "Beowulf" poet

905
00:49:26,166 --> 00:49:29,658
had lost all the prestige
that it had slowly built up.

906
00:49:29,770 --> 00:49:31,533
In a country of three languages,

907
00:49:31,639 --> 00:49:36,406
English was now a poor third,
bottom of the pile.

908
00:49:43,884 --> 00:49:46,717
The English language
had been forced underground.

909
00:49:46,820 --> 00:49:49,618
It would take 300 years
for it to re-emerge,

910
00:49:49,723 --> 00:49:53,215
and when it did, it would have
changed dramatically.

911
00:49:53,327 --> 00:49:56,296
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