Язык и культура: история Британии с доисторических времен до Средневековья = Language and Culture: British History from Prehistoric Times to the Middle Ages

Министерство науки и высшего образования Российской Федерации 
ФГБОУ ВО «Московский авиационный институт  
(национальный исследовательский университет)» 

И.Э. Коротаева 

ЯЗЫК И КУЛЬТУРА 
История Британии  
с доисторических времен  
до Средневековья 

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE 
British History  
from Prehistoric Times  
to the Middle Ages

Учебное пособие  
по лингвострановедению 

2-е издание, стереотипное

Рекомендовано Редакционно-издательским советом  
Московского авиационного института  
(национального исследовательского университета)  
в качестве учебного пособия 

Москва 
Издательство «ФЛИНТА» 
2020

УДК 81.111:008(410)(075.8) 
ББК  81.432.1+71(4Вел)я73 
 К68  

А в т о р: 
И.Э. Коротаева – канд. филол. наук, доцент, зав. кафедрой И-11  
«Иностранный язык для аэрокосмических специальностей»  
Института иностранных языков Московского авиационного института 
(национального исследовательского университета) (МАИ) 

Р е ц е н з е н т ы: 
В.В. Ощепкова – д-р филол. наук, проф., зав. кафедрой английской филологии 
Московского государственного областного университета; 
О.Ю. Саленко – канд. филол. наук, доцент, доцент кафедры  
русской классической литературы и славистики  
Литературного института имени А.М. Горького 

       Коротаева И.Э. 
К68       Язык и культура: история Британии с доисторических времен до Сред- 

невековья = Language and Culture: British History from Prehistoric Times to 
the 
Middle 
Ages 
[Электронный 
ресурс] 
: 
учеб. 
пособие 
по 
лингвострановедению / И.Э. Коротаева. – 2-е изд., стер. – М. : ФЛИНТА, 
2020. – 92 с. 

ISBN 978-5-9765-4476-5 

Учебное пособие основано на компетентностном подходе и написано в соответствии с программами учебных дисциплин, занимающихся проблемами 
взаимосвязи и взаимовлияния языка и культуры: «Культура и история стран 
изучаемого языка», «Лингвострановедение», «Лингвокультурология».  
Издание предназначено для студентов, обучающихся по направлению подготовки 45.03.02 «Лингвистика». Пособие может быть использовано как на семинарах по вышеуказанным дисциплинам, так и для самостоятельной работы 
студентов. Работа с пособием поможет студентам самостоятельно изучить раннюю историю Великобритании, освоить новую лексику и закрепить её при обсуждении изученного материала на семинарах, а также в процессе подготовки 
презентации на английском языке. 
УДК 81.111:008(410)(075.8) 
ББК  81.432.1+71(4Вел)я73 

ISBN 978-5-9765-4476-5  
© Коротаева И.Э., 2020 
© Издательство «ФЛИНТА», 2020

CONTENTS

Предисловие ............................................................................. 4

Unit 1. Britain’s Prehistory ......................................................... 5

Unit 2. The Celts ...................................................................... 15

Unit 3. Roman Britain .............................................................. 22

Unit 4. The Anglo-Saxon Period ............................................... 29

Unit 5. The Vikings ................................................................... 40

Unit 6. The Early Middle Ages (1066–1290). The Norman 
Conquest and Its Consequences ................................................ 49

Unit 7. The Later Middle Ages (1290–1485) ............................. 65

Appendix 1. Revision ................................................................ 71

Appendix 2. Useful Phrases for Presentation ............................. 74

Appendix 3. Supplementary Texts ............................................. 77

Bibliography ............................................................................. 88

Предисловие

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

Настоящее учебное пособие предназначено для студентов, об
учающимся по направлению «Лингвистика». Кроме того, оно может быть использовано на практических занятиях по английскому 
языку со студентами нелингвистических специальностей с целью 
формирования у них социолингвистической и межкультурной компетенций.

Учебное пособие написано в соответствии с программами учеб
ных дисциплин, занимающихся проблемами взаимосвязи и взаимовлияния языка и культуры: «Культура и история стран изучаемого языка», «Лингвострановедение», «Лингвокультурология». 
Обязательным этапом работы над подобными курсами является 
формирование банка фактических знаний, слов-реалий и терминов 
по каждой теме для развития фоновой культурной грамотности студентов. 

В учебном пособии рассматриваются основные этапы развития 

Британии с доисторических времён до XV века. 

Пособие состоит из 7 разделов и 3 приложений. Каждый раздел 

содержит аутентичные тексты, упражнения, задания на развитие 
навыков устной речи, а также рекомендации по подготовке презентации на английском языке. Содержащиеся в разделах задания способствуют развитию у студентов умения использовать иностранный 
язык как инструмент культуроведческого самообразования. Приложения к пособию содержат упражнения для закрепления пройденного материала, тексты для чтения и перевода, фразы-клише для 
структурно-композиционного оформления высказывания. 

Учебное пособие может быть использовано как на семинарах по 

вышеуказанным дисциплинам, так и для самостоятельной работы 
студентов. Работа с пособием поможет студентам самостоятельно 
изучить раннюю историю Великобритании, освоить новую лексику 
и закрепить её при обсуждении изученного материала на семинарах, 
а также в процессе подготовки презентации на английском языке.

Предисловие
Unit 1.  

Britain’s Prehistory

Timeline

250000 BC– 
200000 BC

Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age)
Our first evidence of human life is found in Britain  
(the earliest human bones, stone tools)

c. 50000 BC1
A new type of human being seems to have arrived,  
who was the ancestor of the modern British.

c. 10000 BC
The Ice Age drew to a close. Britain was peopled  
by small groups of hunters, gatherers and fishers.

с. 6000 ВС
At the end of the last Ice Age, the English Channel 
forms, separating Britain from continental Europe

3500 ВC
Stone circles are erected around Britain

3000 BC
Neolithic (New Stone Age)
Work begins on Stonehenge

2100 BC
Bronze Age culture reaches Britain

2000 BC
The “Beaker” people arrive in southeast Britain  
from Europe

1000 BC
Settled agricultural communities appear

500 BC
The Iron Age begins

Read, translate and give a summary of the texts:

PREHISTORIC BRITAIN

The
1 British Isles have been populated by human beings for hundreds of 

thousands of years. Our first evidence of human life is a few stone tools, dating 
from one of the warmer periods, about 250000 BC (the Palaeolithic epoch). 

Britain has not always been an island. Over the millennia there were 

phases of extreme cold, when large areas of Britain were covered in ice, 
followed by warmer times. Around 10000 years ago, the latest ice age came 
to an end. Sea levels rose as the ice sheets melted, and Britain became 
separated from the European mainland shortly before 6000 BC. 

1 c – circa (лат.) приблизительно, около.

Unit 1. Britain’s Prehistory 

It is generally considered that the first groups of people in Britain 

were Palaeolithic nomads from mainland Europe. They hunted the large 
migratory animals of the period, and travelled to Britain by land and sea, 
particularly at those times when the country was joined to the European 
land mass. People subsisted by gathering food like nuts, berries, leaves and 
fruit from wild sources, and by hunting. The change from a hunter-gatherer 
to a farming way of life (around 7000 years ago) is what defines the start of 
the Neolithic or New Stone Age. The first farmers brought the ancestors of 
cattle, sheep and goats with them from the continent. Domestic pigs were 
bred from wild boar, which lived in the woods of Britain. Neolithic farmers 
also kept domesticated dogs, which were bred from wolves. Sheep, goats 
and cattle are fond of leaves and bark, and pigs snuffle around roots. These 
domestic animals may have played a major role in clearing away the huge 
areas of dense forest that covered most of lowland Britain. 

Initially, cereals were probably grown in garden plots near people’s 

houses. Once harvested, the grain needed to be stored and protected from 
natural pests and from raiding parties. This tended to encourage a more 
settled way of life than that of the Mesolithic communities, who would 
move around the country on a seasonal pattern, following the animals, 
birds and fish they hunted. 

The so-called ‘henge’ monuments, like the famous Stonehenge, seem 

to have developed out of the causewayed enclosures from around 3000 BC. 
These ‘henge’ monuments incorporate lunar and solar alignments.

STONEHENGE

Stonehenge, the most famous 

prehistoric monument in Britain, 
is a group of very large, tall stones 
(cromlech) arranged in circles 
which stand on Salisbury Plain in 
the county of Wiltshire. They were 

put there in pre-historic times, perhaps as a religious sign or perhaps as a way 
to study the sun, moon, and stars. They are also thought to have been used for 
religious ceremonies by Druids. It has been suggested that Stonehenge once 
operated as a massive astronomical clock. There are even suggestions that it 
was a landing site for UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects). 

Stonehenge was a sort of capital, to which the chiefs of other groups 

came from all over Britain. The great stone circle of Stonehenge is perhaps 
the greatest monument to Bronze Age ingenuity in Europe. Work on the 

Unit 1. Britain’s Prehistory 

site began some 5000 years ago, the earliest parts being the encircling ditch 
and embankment. 700 years later 80 two-ton blue stones were brought here 
from south Wales. Then the even more massive 50-ton Sarsen stones were 
moved from the Marlborough Downs and the site took on the form we 
recognize today. Clearly this must have been a site of great significance to 
the people who undertook such a massive task. 

The movement of the bluestones was an extremely important event, the 

story of which was passed on from generation to generation. Many years later, 
these unwritten memories were recorded in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s “History 
of Britain”, written in 1136. [McDowall D., 5; Praill A., 36; Snedden R., 68]

Geoffrey of Monmouth1 (c. 1100–1155)
Geoffrey was raised in Wales. As a young man, he went to Oxford and 

is thought to have been a canon of St. George’s church. His principal 
work, earning him fame, was the “History of the Kings of Britain” 
(c.1136). Written in chronicle form, it proved very popular, particularly 
in Wales, for the portrayal of a long and glorious Welsh past. It launched 
the romantic Arthurian legend in European literature. King Arthur and 
his world were definitively formed by Geoffrey of Monmouth in this 
fictional book. Arthur was described as the ideal king, conqueror of 
much Europe, attacking even Rome. 

[A Dictionary of British History]

SKARA1 BRAE2

Skara Brae is a large stone
built 
Neolithic 
settlement, 

located on the Bay of Skaill on the 
west coast of Mainland, Orkney, 
Scotland. А late Neolithic village 
that remained buried from sight 
for around 4000 years until a storm 
uncovered it, Skara Brae provides 
a unique insight into Stone Age 

life. The village was constructed on two levels with part of the settlement 
on higher ground for summer occupation and another, deeper and more 

1 Geoffrey of Monmouth – Гальфрид Монмутский (['ʤefrɪ], ['mɔnməθ]).

2 Skara Brae [ˈskɑrə ˈbreɪ] – Скара Брэй, Скара Бре. Поселение каменного века. 

Оказалось на поверхности после шторма в 1850 г., пролежав погребённым в 
земле ок. 4500 лет.

Unit 1. Britain’s Prehistory 

sheltered level for use when the weather was harsh. Excavation has brought 
to light several of the one-roomed houses that made up the village. Most 
things were of stone, including stone beds, tables and cupboards and stone 
boxes for keeping fish. Due to the scarcity of wood on Orkney, stone was 
used to make furniture. 

CALLANISH1

The Callanish Stones are situated 

near the village of Callanish on 
the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, 
Scotland. The 4-metre (13-foot) 
high standing stones of Callanish 
were erected around 4000 years ago. 
Thirteen stones stand in a circle, the 
tallest marking the entrance to a burial 
cairn within which human bones were 

found – perhaps the remains of a chieftain. Leading northwards from the 
inner circle is an avenue of 19 monoliths and further stones lead south, east 
and west so that the whole site forms a cross. Possibly this was a ceremonial 
site, or an astronomical observatory or then again, perhaps these were once 
men, turned to stone by a wrathful sorcerer. [Snedden R., 22, 64]

Exercises

Vocabulary
Exercise 1. 1) Transcribe the following words and expressions; 2) Explain in 
English and then translate the words and expressions into Russian;  3) Use 
them in the sentences of your own:

Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Mesolithic, Stonehenge, evidence, ancestor, 

observatory, ingenuity, ditch, embankment, alignment, monolith, Palaeolithic nomads, a hunter-gatherer, ‘henge’ monuments, sarsen, cromlech

Exercise 2. Match the words from the texts (1-10) with the definitions (A-J):

1
chieftain
A
a chance to understand something or learn 
more about it

2
ingenuity
B
a sloping wall of earth or stones

1 
 Callanish – Калланиш.

Unit 1. Britain’s Prehistory 

3
sorcerer
C
a condition of being well known and talked 
about

4
cairn
D
a place where people have come to live 
permanently, usually when there were very few 
people living there before

5
ditch
E
a group of people in society who are born and 
live around the same time

6
embankment
F
a pile of stones that marks the top of a 
mountain or some other special place

7
settlement
G
the leader of a tribe

8
generation
H
skill and cleverness in making, inventing, or 
arranging things 

9
fame
I
a long narrow hole cut into the ground, 
especially for water to flow through

10 insight
J
a man who uses evil spirits to do magic in 
stories 

Exercise 3. Match the words from the texts (1-5) with their synonyms (A-E):

1
inner
A
description

2
wrathful
B
interior

3
principal
C
huge

4
portrayal
D
main

5
massive
E
angry

Exercise 4. 1) Complete the texts with the words from the box; 2) Translate the 
texts; 3) Give a summary of the texts:  

A. Stonehenge

mysteries
Salisbury Plain 
puzzle
stones 

ditch
journey 
Wiltshire 
water

site 
5000 
2100
1800

Stonehenge is situated on (1) in the county of (2). At various times 

regarded as a (3) built by the Druids, the Romans, the Danes and even 
the French, the first stage – a circular (4) and bank with an entrance 
flanked by a pair of small standing (5) – is believed to have been built 
around (6) years ago. The site was subsequently abandoned between (7)  

Unit 1. Britain’s Prehistory 

BC and (8) BC. There are many (9) surrounding this ancient site. Some 
of the stones used are thought to have come from the Preseli mountains 
in Pembrokeshire, Wales – yet exactly how they were transported to the 
site in such a primitive age is a (10). Experts believe they may have been 
transported for most of the way by (11), before being dragged overland for 
the last stage of the (12). 

B. The Beaker Culture1

society
culture
arrival

phenomenon
columns
centre

styles
tools
skills

After 2400 BC new groups of people arrived 

in southeast Britain from Europe. It is not known 
whether they invaded by armed force, or whether 
they were invited by Neolithic Britons because of 
their military or metalworking (1). They became 
leaders of British (2). Their (3) is marked by the first 
individual graves, furnished with pottery beakers 
(bell-shaped beakers, decorated in horizontal zones 
by finely toothed stamps), from which these people 

get their name: the ‘Beaker people’ (Beaker folk). The Beaker people 
probably spoke an Indo-European language. They seem to have brought 
a single (4) to the whole of Britain. Their culture is often called the BellBeaker culture. They also brought skills to make bronze (5) and these 
began to replace stone ones. Stonehenge remained the most important (6) 
until 1300 BC. The Beaker people’s richest graves were there, and they 
added a new circle of thirty stone (7), this time connected by stone lintels, 
or cross-pieces.

The Bell Beaker culture is understood not only as a particular pottery 

type, but as a complete and complex cultural (8) involving other artefact 
(9) such as weaponry and ornamentation, as well as shared ideological, 
cultural and religious ideas.

1 Культура (колоколовидных) кубков, принесенная из Европы на заре бронзо
вого века, получила свое название от кубков для питья (сосудов в виде перевёрнутого колокола), часто встречающихся в могильниках. Термин был 
предложен английским археологом Джоном Аберкромби (John Abercromby) 
и основан на характерной форме керамики. ‘Beaker folk’ – a late Neolithic and 
early Bronze Age European people (c.2700–1700 BC).

Unit 1. Britain’s Prehistory 

Exercise 5. Translate the following sentences into English:

1. Первым свидетельством жизни человека в Британии стали 

каменные орудия труда, найденные примерно в 250000 году 
до н.э.

2. Первые люди пришли на территорию современных Британ
ских островов еще в то время, когда Британия была составной частью континента.

3. Широко распространено мнение о том, что первыми людь
ми, заселившими Британию, были кочевники, пришедшие 
сюда в эпоху Палеолита (Древнего каменного века) из материковой Европы.

4. Постепенно климат менялся: температура повышалась, лёд 

таял. Вода заполнила низинные земли, которые находятся 
теперь под Северным морем и Английским каналом.

5. Примерно в 3000 году до н.э., в эпоху Неолита (Нового ка
менного века), европейцы пересекали узкую полоску моря на 
деревянных лодках, покрытых шкурами животных.

6. В Британии существуют многочисленные памятники камен
ного века, одним из которых является Стоунхендж – группа 
огромных каменных глыб (кромлех), стоящих в виде круговых оград.

7. Существует мнение, что название “Stonehenge” произошло 

от словосочетания “stone hanger” – “камень, лежащий (“висящий”) в виде перекладины на двух вертикально стоящих 
камнях”.

8. Вероятно, Стоунхендж служил для культовых обрядов или 

астрономических наблюдений.

9. Калланиш образуют 13 вертикально стоящих групп камней 

или отдельных монументов, образующих круги диаметром до 
13 метров.

Exercise 6. Answer the following questions

1) How old is Stonehenge?
2) What is Skara Brae?
3) What do you know about Geoffrey of Monmouth?