THINK3 教材和英国历史之二---维京人

选自THINK3 学生用书UNIT 5 

学到这篇课文， 你还记得我们上一个英国历史中提到的Celts,凯尔特人吗？

凯尔特人（Celts）： 

罗马帝国时期与日耳曼人、斯拉夫人一起被罗马人并称为欧洲的三大蛮族，也是现今欧洲人的代表民族之一。 现今爱尔兰人、苏格兰人、威尔士人、英格兰的康沃尔人和法国的布列塔尼人，都属于凯尔特人

那THINK这段里提到的Vikings, Normans  呢？

From the second half of the 9th century, the Norse from Scandinavia（斯堪的纳维亚）started invading Europe, the Swedes taking up Eastern Europe, Russia (which they founded as a country) and the Byzantine Empire, the Norwegians raiding Scotland and Ireland, discovering and settling in the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland (and were in fact the first Europeans to set foot in America in 1000 AD), while the Danes wrought havoc throughout Western Europe, as far as North Africa.

从9世纪下半叶,北欧的挪威人开始入侵欧洲,瑞典人占领了东欧,俄罗斯，拜占庭帝国。挪威人袭击苏格兰和爱尔兰, 发现并定居了法罗群岛,冰岛和格陵兰岛(实际上他们是欧洲第一批踏上美洲大陆的），而丹麦人在西欧，北非造成了严重的破坏。

The Danes invaded the North-East of England, from Northumerland to East Anglia, and founded a new kingdom known as the Danelaw. Another group of Danes managed to take Paris, and obtain a grant of land from the King of France in 911. This area became the Duchy of Normandy, and its inhabitants were the Normans (from 'North Men' or 'Norsemen', another term for 'Viking').

丹麦人入侵了英格兰的东北部，从thumerland到东安格利亚（古代英格兰国家），并建立了一个新的王国，称为Danelaw。另一群丹麦人设法占领了巴黎，并在911年从法国国王那里获得了一块土地。这个地区成为诺曼底公国，那里的居民是诺曼人(来自“北方人”或“北欧人”，其实也是“维京人”的另一种说法)。

注：

有些史学家也把“维京”称作“海盗”，这个名字的得来主要是因为欧洲中世纪史上波澜壮阔的“海盗活动”。

在人们的印象中，“海盗”就是抢劫、杀戮。但实际上，“海盗”既是一种武力抢劫活动，又包括商业贸易、文化交流、移民拓殖等和平性的一面。“海盗”留给人们的不只是恐怖、苦难，它也留给人们自己独特而又珍贵的文化遗产。北欧民族在维京时代（700—1000）创造的文明被称作“维京文明”。

注：诺曼人（Norman）指定居在法国北部（或法兰克王国）的维京人及其后裔。诺曼人建立诺曼底公国，派军远征意大利南部、西西里以及英格兰、威尔士、苏格兰、爱尔兰，并向这些地区移民拓殖。

After having settled in their newly acquired land, the Normans, adopted the French feudal system and French as official language.

诺曼人在他们新获得的土地上定居后，采用了法国的封建制度和法语作为官方语言。

During that time, the Kings of Wessex had resisted and eventually vanquished the Danes in England in the 10th century. But the powerful Canute the Great (995-1035), king of the newly unified Denmark and Norway and overlord of Schleswig and Pomerania, led two other invasions on England in 1013 and 1015, and became king of England in 1016, after crushing the Anglo-Saxon king, Edmund II.

在此期间，威塞克斯的国王们进行了抵抗，最终在10世纪征服了英格兰的丹麦人。新统一的丹麦和挪威，石勒苏威格和波美拉尼亚的君主-----强大的克努特大帝(995-1035)，在1013年和1015年领导了对英格兰的两次入侵，并在1016年打败盎格鲁撒克逊国王埃德蒙二世成为英格兰的国王。

Edward the Confessor (1004-1066) succeeded to Canute's two sons. He nominated William, Duke of Normandy, as his successor, but upon his death, Harold Godwinson, the powerful Earl of Wessex, crowned himself king. William refused to acknowledge Harold as King and invaded England with 12,000 soldiers in 1066. King Harold was killed at the battle of Hastings (by an arrow in the eye, as the legend as it), and William the Conqueror become William I of England. His descendants have sat on the throne of England to this day.

忏悔者爱德华(1004-1066)是继克努特两个儿子后的称王。他提名诺曼底公爵威廉作为他的继承人，但在他死后，有权有势的威塞克斯伯爵哈罗德·戈德温森加冕自己为国王。威廉拒绝承认哈罗德为国王，并在1066年率领12000名士兵入侵英格兰。哈罗德国王在黑斯廷斯战役中被杀(传说中被箭射中眼睛)，征服者威廉成为英格兰的威廉一世。他的子孙至今仍坐在英格兰的王位上。

William I (1027-1087) ordered a nationwide survey of land property known as the Domesday Book, and redistributed land among his vassals. Many of the country's medieval castles were built under William's reign (eg. Dover, Arundel, Windsor, Warwick, Kenilworth, Lincoln...).

威廉一世(1027-1087)下令在全国范围内对土地进行调查，并将土地重新分配给他的诸侯。英国许多中世纪的城堡都是在威廉统治时期建造的。（多佛、阿伦德尔、温莎、沃里克、凯尼尔沃思、林肯…)

The Norman rulers kept their possessions in France, and even extended them to most of Western France (Brittany, Aquitaine...). French became the official language of England, and remained it until 1362, a bit after the beginning of the Hundred Years' War with France. English nevertheless remained the language of the populace, and the fusion of English (a mixture of Anglo-Saxon and Norse languages) with French and Latin (used by the clergy) slowly evolved into modern English.

诺曼统治者将他们的财产保留在法国，甚至将其扩展到法国西部的大部分地区(布列塔尼，阿基坦…)。法语成为英格兰的官方语言，一直到1362年，也就是英法百年战争开始后不久。

尽管如此，英语仍然是英格兰大众的语言，而英语(盎格鲁-撒克逊语和斯堪的纳维亚语的混合)与法语和拉丁语(由神职人员使用)的融合慢慢演变成现代英语。

现在你知道为什么英语中有那么多语言融合的痕迹了。