FROM THE VERY BEGINNING
It is obviously a difficult task to know the history and origin of the people of Great Britain because it travels a long way back to the early Anglo-Saxon times, and before that to the Roman Conquerors, meandering to the still dimmer and more distant epochs that lie shrouded in the mists waiting to be penetrated and cleared. Historians and anthropologists have been busy over decades in retrieving bits and piece that would build a picture of those first dwellers. Most of the primitive people, we believe, made their homes in caves. These first people are known as Stone Age men. They cut homes out of rock and hard earth with their tools made of stone. They hunted wild beasts, animal with stone-made weapons or wood-made weapons. Life was, indeed very difficult for those primitive people, because in Britain in winter there is often rain, snow and ice, cold winds and long dark nights and in those ancient days, all Europe was colder than it is today. So, they had to fight a lot only to survive.
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The English Civilization |
More than 3,000 years ago a new people, different from the Stone Age men, began to discover the island. They came from the hot coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. They sailed in small boats northwards, round the coasts of Spain and France, and across the water which is now called the English Channel. They discovered bronze from these two metals- copper and tin.
But they knew even bronze toolswere not good enough for proper farming. So the men with bronze also depended on hunting wild pig and deer in the dense forests. They caught sheep and goats, too and kept them in small square fields. They lived in a high ground where the earth is soft. That was because they could not plough land with their soft bronze tools.
After several hundred years a fresh wave of people came from the east of Europe. They found, under the ground, a new and harder the metal iron. These eastern peoples arrived in Britain in little boats cut hollow from the trunks of trees. ‘They moved slowly up the rivers and valleys, dig-ging for iron swords and spears with which they pushed back the men with bronze. They became proper farmers, they built their villagers on this high grounds. The tribe drove its cows and sheep into the village in times of war some people learned how to make clothes, post plates and bowls. There were no tables or chairs, but there were wooden carts pulled by Oxen for farming and for taking things to the next village to sell. Weights of iron were used for money, in the same way that coins are used today. Other carts, pulled by horses, were used in war. Before going into battle, men colored their bodies blue to make themselves appear more frightening.
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Contents 1. Historical Background 2. Summary 2.1. Grendel attack Herrot. 2.2. Beowulf came to respect the Danes. 2.3. Grendel was killed by Beowulf. 2.4. To avenge, Grendel’s mother renews the attacks. 2.5. Beowulf Fight with Dragon 3. Other Pagan Poems 4. The Elegiac/Religious Poems 5. Bede & Caedmon Group 6. Anglo-Saxon Prose Literature 7. Important Facts |
The people of the later Iron Age are called Celts. They had many gods about which we know very little. It is possible that one of these gods was called Lyr, and that Shakespeare’s ancient King, Lear was named from him. But it is known to us that even before the Celts, men in Britain had put up great stones, several times their own height, to from Circles. They used these stone circles, which were without roofs, as temples in which to pray to the Sun and Stars. The priests were a caste called Druids. They were high caste, like the Brahmans of India. The Druids believed that dead people return to the Sun but to certain plants, with which they tried to make sick people well again. But they also killed people to please their gods. It was the pattern of their life.
The most important city in Europe at that time was Rome. The Romans had conquered many countries round the shores of the Metering. Julius Caesar, its best general, set out to conquer France, which was then called ‘Gaul’ A few years later he decided to attack the island of Britain, Caesar was able to get his army across the English Channel, but he filled to conquer the island. The Britons, he wrote ‘grow their hair long and shave all their bodies except the head and the upper lip’. The Britons fought in families rather than in tribes, with women and even children behind the men. Caesar sailed back to Gaul. He invented again during the following year and defeated the Celts in the South-east. However, again he was unable to conquer the island. He took his army back to Rome and used it to become dictator there.
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| The Romans Invade |
Britain was never visited by Julius Caesar again. Within 10 years, he was killed in Rome by those who feared the power which he had won. In fact, 100 years passed before the Romans went to Britain again. That time the soldiers were joined by their emperor, Claudius, and this time they went to stay there. There were about 50,000 of them. The Celts fought then freely and for a long time. But at last Britain was conquered by Rome in 43 A.D.
The Romans took place to Britain, although they took it with their swords. Under Romans rule, there were popular laws. Many native people began to learn how to read and write, using the Roman language, which was called Latin. Theaters and even libraries arose. The towns were fortified. Most British towns with names ending with ‘Chester’ or ‘cester’ were in Roman times, fortified camps. Money was collected from the islanders by a tax on corn.
The largest of the towns was called “Londinium”. It was on the river Thames, where London is today. It became the capital city. The Romans were much clean and tidy than the Celts had been. The men shaved their faces smooth and kept their hair cut short. The richer Britons began to copy them. Day by day, Britons became more and more like Romans. The Romans made sure that the island should develop into a civilized and friendly part of their empire. It was good for Britons to say, “I am as good as a Roman. Although I live hundreds of miles away, I too can call myself a citizen of Rome.” People thought that both Rome and its empire would last as long as the word lasts. In fact, however, Roman rule in Britain lasted for less than 400 years. The Romans way of living also failed to last among the islanders.
The Roman invited to their homes only those Britons who had learned the Roman language, Latin and who had copied roman clothes and manners. Thus, the island’s total population of about millions was divided unequally into
- Romans
- Britons who were the children of Roman fathers and Celtic mothers and who followed Roman habits and became as Roman-Britons, and
- Britons who worked as slaves.
It was the Roman-Britons who suffered most when Roman left the country in 410 A.D. The end came because the Roman had become too careless, liking, comfort too much. They began to lose control over the Roman Empire. Wild tribes from the east of Europe, from what is now Russia, began to spread west, searching for fresh land for farming. These wild tribes drove our other tribes living in central Europe, and they moved even further west until they reached the borders of the empire. They were fierce and strong, and people feared they would reach Rome itself soldiers were brought back from all parts of the empire to help defend Rome against these wild men whom the Romans called “barbarians”. So, the Celtic people found themselves quite unprotected and helpless, with no Roman army to save and guard their land and lives.
Trouble in Britain started even before the last of the protecting Roman man armies left. People stopped obeying the Roman laws. Roman – Britons started quarreling with each other. The Picts of Scotland began pouring south over Hadrian’s wall. Pirates sailed up and down the English Channel, robbing ships and killing the men inside them. These pirates made it so dangerous to cross the Channel that people in Britain became completely separated from Rome. The island’s lifeline was cut.
The northern tribes of Europe acted quickly. Britain was a rich country. Angles and Saxons and Jutes and other tribes from what is now Germany and Denmark landed on the beaches and at the river mouths in great long boats from over the North Sea. They were called Teutonic tribes. They first invaded the eastern territory of Great Britain about the year 449A.D. They were very wild-not like the Romans. They did not mind killing the peaceful islanders in order to get what they wanted. What they wanted was land, a place to live in. In their search for it, they spread across the country and even attacked the towns.
There was one Roman-Briton Chief who did a lot to defend the country In legend, his name is King Arthur. Most of the things we read about Arthur are legend, or Old stories passed on from father to son and later written down We read that he had number of Knights who in council always sat at a round table to show they were all equal. They fought 12 large battles against the Angles and Saxons; and, we are told, they kept the old Roman customs alive on roads and in the forests particularly in the west where the Romanized Celts had been driven.
Christianity had spread to Britain from Rome. It was completely different from both Druidism and Saxon religion because it taught that there is only one God, whose son Jesus Christ had visited the earth and had been killed at Jerusalem in Palestine. Christians believe that Christ then returned to God, will himself go to God after death. One of Christ’s followers, Saint Peter, who was one of the first to believe this, started a church in Rome and became its first bishop. Those who became head of the Roman Church after Peter were known as popes. Their work was to spread belief in Christianity.
However, not all Romans believed in Jesus Christ. And the Angles and the Saxons were believers in gods more ancient than Christ. There was Tiw, the god of War, their chief god of Woden, who was very wise and had only one eye; his wife Frigga, the goddess of nature and of love; and strong. From these gods some days of the week are named: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Thursday.
The Anglo-Saxon religious said that after a man had died he arrived in a land of heroes. People liked to hear songs and stories about these heroes, whom they believed were very brave and strong. In the long evening after the ploughing and the hunting had been done, the freemen or ‘churls’ often went to the great room of their leader, the earl of the village, hoping that one or more of the legends would be told or sung. One legend, later written down in the form of a story-poem is still read today. It is called ‘Beowulf’. Here, between rough walls, the big fair-haired Saxons liked first to sit down and eat at a long table which filled most of the room. They ate meat and bread with their hands, and drank ale out of cow’s horn. Then, having cleaned their breads with the backs of their hands, they were ready to listen to the legend while the flames from wooden torches brunt low and smoke from the wood fire rose up towards the hole in the dark roof. Thus within 200 years of their entry into England, the various Anglo-Saxon tribes had decided how to share the country between them. The Angles in the north and east made kingdoms Called Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia. The Saxons in the Centre and south had Wessex, Sussex and Essex. People of other tribes, including the Jutes, had Kent in the South-east. The Celts remained unbeaten in Wales and the West.
HOW CHRISTIANITY IS INTRODUCED IN BRITAIN
The Romans had gone, 200 years passed. King Ethelbert of Kent allowed a missionary from Rome named Augustan in 597 AD, to start a church at a village called Canterbury. The Pope in Rome at that time wanted very much to make England a Christian country. There is a legend that the Pope said, “I will make them not Angles, but angels,” when he first saw a group of their fair-haired, blue-eyed Childreen. And for that purpose he sent 40 holy men, or monks, with Saint Augustine to Canterbury.
First they started a monastery at Canterbury to live and pray in. Then they began travelling all over England, telling people to believe in Jesus Christ. Within 100 years, the whole country was divided into dioceses, each under a priest. The village church became important in the Christian villagers. They began to be married there, and buried there, and were proud of it.
In those early days, the real centres of Christianity were the monasteries, which began to appear all over the country. The monks had brought with them a love of reading and written in Latin, the great civilizing language. Safe in peaceful surroundings of a monastery of abbey, a monk, could sit down with sharp pointed goose’s feather and write religious and historical records, called Chronicles. One group of monasteries which was started at that at that time, by an English monk named Benedict Bishop, later became very important. The first Benedict, Saint Benedict of Nursia, was an Italian who started monasteries in Europe. Augustine had been one of the follows. Another Benedictine monk, an Englishman named Bede, set a great example by writing, in Latin, a history of Saxon times which is still used as a store of knowledge. Later monks started an equally useful history called The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Monks often became very wise; and many of them were good teachers, just as many Buddhist monks are today. They started schools for ordinary people. One of those school had the boy who later became King Alfred and Great.
At much the same time, when the monk Augustan came from Rome to convert the English people into Christianity. Christian Ireland was sending missionaries to the August and was building the monasteries in North-Umbria. From these two centres, Christianity spread among the Saxons.
ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE
Literature which was produced before the Norman Conquest (1066) is generally known as Anglo-Saxon literature, or the Old English Literature. The literature of this period falls naturally into two divisions (a) Pagan or Pre-Christian or Non-Christian and (c) Christia.
Pagan: - The Germanic people, before their settlement in Britain, no doubt, had some sort of poetical unwritten literature and that was carried from mouth to mouth by tradition by different generations. When they settled in England, they, no doubt brought with them their old literature, and that was the original English literature. Thus English literature had its origin not in England. It was, however, in England that English literature and its further development in different dimensions. Of course, the tradition of unwritten Anglo-Saxon literature was, however, written down for the first time after 700 A.D. by the Christian clerks.
Christian: - It represents the writings developed under teaching of the monks, after the Old Pagan religion had vanished, but while it still retained its hold on the life and language of the people. These writings were full of religious coloring.
The native language became enriched with the introduction of Christianity. The Scop is now replaced by the literary monk, and that monk though he lives among common people and speaks with the English tongue, has behind him all the culture and literary resources of the Latin Language.
Northumbrian Literature: - In general, two great schools of Christian influence came into England. The first of these, under leadership of St. Augustine came from Rome. It spread in the south and center of England, especially in the Kingdom of Essex. It produce no lasting literature. The other, under the leadership of the saintly Aiden, came from Ireland. The monks of this school labored chiefly in Northumbria, and to their influence we owe all that is best in Anglo-Saxon literature. It is called the Northumbrian school; its center was the monasteries and abbeys, such as Jarrow and Whitby, and its three greatest names are Bede, Caedmon and Cynewulf.
THE MANUSCRIPT
It is certain that only a portion of Old English poetry has survived, though it would appear likely that the surviving portion is representative. The manuscripts in which the poetry is preserved are late in date, are unique, and are four in number. They are ---
a> The Beowulf MS: - (Cotton Vitellious A.XV in the British Museum) containing Beowulf and Judith and is to be dated C. 1000.
b> The Junius MS :- (MS. Junius XI in the Bodleian Library, Oxford), So called since it belonged to Junious, librarian to Lord Arundel, and was first printed by him in 1655. It contains the So-called Caledonian poems.
c> The Exeter Book: -- (In the chapter Library of Exeter Cathedral), known to have been donated to that cathedral by Bishop Leofric c. 1050, containing two of the signed poems of Cynewulf.
ii) The Vercelli Book: -- (In the Cathedral Library at Vercelinear Milan), Containing also two of the signed poems of Cynewulf (including Elene) and Andreas and The Dream of the Rood.
MAJOR OLD ENGLISH DIALECTS
- Northumbrian :- Which was the first to produce a literature;
- Mercian: - The language of the Midlands.
- Kentish: - The language of the south-east spoken in an area larger than that of the modern country of Kent.
OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE
i) Heroic ii) Personal or iii) Religious iv) Prose
Poetry Lyrical or and
Epic Poetry or Christian Chronicles
(Pagan) Elegiac Poetry Poetry
(Pagan) Christian
A.S PROSE
WRITERS
•king Alfread(848-901)
Aelfric :
Wulfstan:
•1. Sermo Lupi ad Angllos
A.S. ELEGIAC AND LYRIC POETRY(Pagan)
Source Exeter Book:
1. The Ruin
2. The Wanderer
3. The Seafarer
4. The Resignation
5. The Riming poem
6. Wulf and Eadwacer
7. Wife’s Lament
8. Husband’s Message
WHAT IS HEATHEN POETRY?
We already came to know that Old English Poetry is classified into two Categories - National or Pagan and Christian. National poems are those that deal with the subjects drawn from the customers and conditions of English life, while the Christian poems deal with the subjects of ecclesiastical and Biblical matter. The former is also called heathen poetry or Christian Poetry.
EARLY EPIC POEM: BEOWULF
One early Epic Poem is Beowulf which is considered to the one of the earliest extant poems, which were discovered in the 19th century. Beowulf was composed about the year 700 and the poem consists of 3182 lines. The poem is finest example of the fantastic accumulation of myths and legends from various sources in historical personages and events. Beowulf is a non-Christian work of the pre Christian time. But the Christian influence over the poet of Beowulf can primarily be noticed in the use of Biblical images and phrases. Instead of that we may say, Beowulf is a story essentially pagan in spite. Here, a short story of Beowulf follows –
THE STORY IN DETAIL
Grandel attacks Herrot :-
One of scyld’s descendants was Hrothgar, king of the Danes; and with him the story of Beowulf begins Hrothgar in his Old age had built near the sea, a mead hall called Herrot, where the king and his thanes gather nightly to feast and to listen to the songs of his glee man. One night, as they were all sleeping a frightful monster, Grendel, broke into the hall and killed thirty of the sleeping warriors and carried off their bodies to devour them in his lair under the sea. Time and again the attack was going on. Fear and death reigned in the great hall. The warriors fought at first bravely but fled.when they discovered that no weapon could harm the monter. Heorot was left described and silent. For twelve writers Grandel’s horrible raids continued, and joy was changed to mourning among the Spear Danes.
Beowulf came to respect the Danes: --- The news of Grendel crossed over the sea to the land of the Geats, where a young hero dwelt in the house of uncle, king Hygelac. He was the son of Ecghtheow. His name was Beowulf a man of immense strength and courage, and a mighty swimmer. When he heard the story, Beowulf was stirred to go and fight the monster and free the Danes, who were his father’s friend. With fourteen companions he crossed the sea. There is an excellent bit of ocean poetry here, and we get a vivid idea of the hospitality of a brave people by following the poet’s description of Beowulf’s meeting with king Hrothgar and Queen Wealhtheow, and of the joy and feasting and storytelling in Herriot. Now night comes on; the fear of Grendel is again upon the Danes, and all withdraws after the king had warned Beowulf of the frightful danger of sleeping in the hall. But Beowulf lies down with his fighters, saying proudly that, since weapons will not avail against the monster, he will grapple with him bare handed and trust to a warrior’s strength.
Grendel was killed by Beowulf: ----
At the sight of men again sleeping in the hall, Grendel laughs in his heart, thinking of his feast. He seizes the nearest sleeper, crushes his ‘bone case’ with a bit, tears him limb from limb, and swallows him no time. When Grendel attack Beowulf, a sudden terror strikes the monster’s heart. He roar’s struggle to escape, tries to jerk his arm free; but Beowulf leaps to his feet and grapples his enemy bare handed. Tables are overturned. The whole building quakes. Then Beowulf’s companions are their feet; hacking vanity at the monster with sword and battle-axes, adding their shouts to the crushing of furniture and the howling ‘war song’ of Grendel.
Outside in the town, the Danes stand shivering at the uproar. Slowly the monster struggles to the door, dre=aging Beowulf, whose fingers crack with the strain, but who never relaxes his first grip. Suddenly a wide wound opens in the monster’s side; the sinews snap; the whole arm is wrenched off at the shoulder; and Grendel escape shrieking across the moor, and plunges into the sea die.
To avenge, Grendel’s mother
renews the attacks:--
At daylight came the Danes and all the day long, in the intervals of singing, story-telling, speech making and gift giving, they return to wonder at the mighty “grip of Grendel” and to rejoice in Beowulf’s victory. They became perfectly happy thinking that Grendel has been killed by Beowulf.
When night falls a great feast is spread in Herriot, and Danes sleep once more in the great hall. At midnight comes another monster, a horrible, half-human creature, mother of Grendel, raging to avenge her son. She thunders at the door, the Danes leap up and grasp their weapons; Beowulf told them not to fear. Then Beowulf plunges into the horrible place, while his companions wait for him on the shore. For a long time he sinks through the flood; then, as he reaches bottom, Grendel’s mother rushes out upon him and drags him into a cave, where sea monsters swam at him from behind. Suddenly, he catches sight of a magic sward, hanging on the wall, made by the giants long ago. Struggling up, he seize the weapon, whirls it and brings down a clashing blow upon the monster’ neck. Grendel’s mother falls and the fight is won.
The underwater cave is full of treasures; but Beowulf heads them not, for near him lies Grendel, dead from the wound received the previous night. Again Beowulf swings the greet sword and strikes off his enemy’s head. Taking the hilt and the head, the hero enters the ocean and mouths up to the shore. Laden with honours and presents from the Danish king, Beowulf sails back to his own country.
Beowulf fight with Dragon: - The second part takes place fifty years later when Beowulf has long been king of Geats. Some jewels are stolen from an ancient treasure guided by a dragon, who thereupon sets out in furry to devastate the king’s realm. Beowulf slays the dragon and saves his people. But he himself is mortally wounded during the en-counter by the monster’s venomous tooth. Beowulf dies nobly. He sacrified his life for his subjects. A funeral mound is erected, the mourning retainers march round the pyre and the poem ends with elegiac lines in praise of its hero. Here the story ends.
OTHERE PAGAN POEMS
1. Widsith:- It means ‘the far traveller’. It is usually considered to be oldest poem in the language. It consists of nearly 150 lines in verse. It expresses the wandering of the gleeman, who goes forth into the world to abide here or there, according as he is rewarded for his singing.
2. Waldere :---It consist of two fragments, some sixty-three lines in all, telling of some of the exploits of Walter of Aquitaine.
3. The Fight at Finnsburh :- It is a fragment of some forty-eight lines, with a finely told description of the fighting at Finnsburh, allusion to which is made in the Finn Episode in Beowulf.
4. The Battle of Brunanburh :- It is a spirited piece on the famous battle which took place in 937.
5. The Battle of Maldon :- It narrates which took place in 993, with emphasis is on individual deeds of valour and on the feelings of the warriors.
THE ELEGIAC/LYRICAL POEMS
These poems, among which are The Wanderer. The Seaferer, Wife’s Lament and Husband’s Message, appear in the Exeter Book . Besides these there are also - The Ruin, The Resignation, The Riming Poem, Wulf and AEdwacer, Deor’s Lament.
The Seaferer :- The poem seems to be in two distinct parts. The first shows the hardships of ocean life. The second part is an allegory, in which the troubles of the seaman are symbols of the troubles of this life, and the call of the ocean is the call in the soul to be up and away to its true home with God . Wheather the last was added by some monks who saw the allegorical possibilities of the first parts, or whether some sea-loving Christian scop or poet wrote both, is uncertain.
Deors’s Lament :- In ‘Deor’, we get another picture of the Saxon scop or minstrel , not in glad wandering, but in manly sorrow. ‘Deor’ is much more poetic than ‘Widsith’, and is the one perfect lyric of the Anglo-Saxon Period . The other two fine lyrics are The Wife’s Complaint and The Husband’s message.
BEDE(673-735) (CAEDMON GROUP)
The venerable Bede, as he is generally called, our first great scholar and “the father of our English learning”, who wrote almost exclusively in Latin. The most important work of Bede was --- Ecclesiastical History of the English People. In the Ecclesiastical History, Bede tells us how Caedmon suddenly and miraculously received the gift of song and ‘at once began to sing in praise of God’ – verses he had never heard before. Bede quotes in length, displaying to a remarkable degree the qualities of repetition and parallel phrasing.
A.S. CHRISTIAN OR RELIGIOUS POETRY
CAEDMON (SEVENTH CENTURY)
What little we know of Caedmon, the Anglo-Saxon Milton, as he is properly called, is taken from Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. Caedmon’s works are Hymn (9 lined poem), The Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, Christ and Satan. The last four poems are preserved in Junius Manuscript.
Hymn :- If Beowulf and fragments of our earliest poetry were brought into England, them the Hymn is the first verse of all native English song that has come down to us, and Caedmon is the first poet to whom we can give a definite name and date. The words were written about 665 A.D., and are found copied at the end of a manuscript of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History.
Judith: -- Beside the above mentioned Poems, we have a few regalements of the same of the same general character which are attributed to the school of Caedmon. The longest of these is Judith, in which the story of an apocryphal book of the Old Testament is done into vigorous poetry.
CYNEWULF (EIGHTH CENTURY)
We also know little of Cynewulf, indeed, it was not till 1840, more than a thousand years after his death, that even his name became known. Though he is the only one of the early poets who signed his works, the name was never plainly written, but woven into the verses in the form of secret ‘runes’ (runic letter), suggesting a modern charade, but more difficult of interpretation until one has found the key to the Poet’s signature.
Works of Cynewulf: -- The only signed poems of Cynewulf are The Christ, Juliana, Elene, and The Fates of Apostles. Unsigned poems attributed to him or his school are Andreas, The Phonix, and the Dream of the Rood, The Descent into Hell, Guthlac and some of the Riddles.
Cynewulf hides and at the same time reveals his name in certain verses of the Christ, for instance---
Than the Courage-hearted quakes, when the king (Lord) he hears
Speak to those who once on earth but obeyed Him weekly,
While as yet their Yearning pain and their Need most easily
Comfort might discover… Gone is then the Winsomeness
Of the earth’s adornments! What to Us as men belonged
Of the Joys of life was locked, long ago, in Lake-flood.
All the Fee on earth.
Decline of Northumbrian Literature: --- Towords the end of the century in which Cynewulf lived, the Danes swept down on the English Coasts and overwhelmed Northumbria. Monasteries and Schools were destroyed; Scholars and teachers alike were put to the sword. So all true Northumbrian literature perished, with the exception of a few fragments, and that which we now possess is largely a translation in the dialect of the West Saxons. This translation was made by Alfres’s scholars. Thus, with the conquest of Nortumbria ends the poetic period of Anglo Saxon literature. With Alfred the Great of Wessex, prose literature of Anglo-Saxon period makes a beginning. ANGLO-SAXON OROSE LITERATURE
ANGLO-SAXON PROSE LITERATURE
ALFRED (848-901)
King Alfred was called the father of English prose. In Alfred’s time, all education had been in Latin. He set himself the task, first, of teaching every free-born Englishman to read and write his own language. Aside from his educational work Alfred is known chiefly as a translator. He himself began to learn Latin, that he might translate the works that would be most helpful to his people. The five important translations are ----
i) Pastoral Care of Pope Gregory
ii) History of the World of Orosius
iii) Ecclesiastical History of Bede
iv) Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius
v) Soliloquies of St. Augustine.
He is best known for his Grammar, several of his works are extent these are Catholic Homilies, Lives of the Saints, Colloquium.
Wulfstan was a preacher. He was Bishop of Worchester and Arch-bishop of York. His most famous piece is Semo Lupi ad Anglos.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: - The A. C Chronicle is one of the most impressive landmark in the history of Anglo-Saxon literature. It contains a record of significant events in the history of Old English literature by Alfred.
A short Sketch of Anglo-Saxon Period :- Our literature begins with song and stories of a time when our Tutonic ancestors were living on the borders of the North Sea. There tribes of these ancestors, the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, conquered Britain in the later half of the fifth century, and laid the foundation of the English nation. The first landing was probably by a tribes of Jutes, under chiefs called by the chronicle Hengist and Horsa. The date doubtful, but the year 449 is accepted by most historians.
These Old ancestors were hardy warriors and sea rovers, yet were capable of profound and noble emotions. Their poetry reflects this double nature. Its subjects were chiefly the sea and the plunging boats, battles, adventure, brave deeds, the glory of warriors, and the love of home. Accent, alliteration, and an abrupt break breaking the middle of each line gave their poetry a kind of martial rhythm. In general the poetry is earned and somber, and pervaded by fatalism and religious feeling. A careful reading of the few remaining figments of Anglo-Saxon literature reveals five striking characteristics: the love of freedom; responsiveness to nature, especially in her sterner moods; strong religious convictions, and a belief in Wyrd, or Fate; reverence for womanhood; and a devotion to glory as the ruling motive in every warrior’s life.
In our study we have noted:
(1) The great epic or heroic poem Beowulf, and a few fragments of our first poetry, such as “Widsith,” “Deor’s Lament” and “The Seafarer.”
(2) Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon life, the form of our first speech.
(3) The Northumbrian School of writers. Bede, our first historian, belongs to this school, but all his extant works are in Latin. The two great poets are Caedmon and Cynewulf. Northumbrian literature flourished between 650 and 850. In the year 867 Northumbria was conquered by the Danes, who destroyed the monasteries and the liberies containing our earliest literature.
(4) The beginnings of English prose written under Alfred (848-901). Our most important Prose work of this age is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was revised and enlarged by Alfred, and which was continued for more than two centuries. It is the oldest historical record known to any European nation in its own tongue.
OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE
|
Important Dates |
Events |
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43 AD |
Britain came to be invaded and finally conquered by Rome |
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410 AD |
Roman left England |
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449 AD |
Angles Saxons and jutes came into England |
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597 AD |
In 597 AD, St Augustine came to |
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871 AD |
Alfred(848-901) became king of Wessex. |
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878 AD |
King Alfred defeated the Danes and converted into Christianity. In this year, the Treaty of wedmore also signed. |
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937AD |
The Battle of Brunanburh. |
|
993 AD |
‘The Battle of Maldon’ was held I the year 993. |
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1066 AD |
This year is famous for Norman conquest of England and the beginning of Anglo-Norman literature of England. At the Battle of Hastings William, the Duke of Normandy invaded England defeating the last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold the ultimately William became the master of England. |
IMPORTANT FACTS
- The Celtic people also known as Brythorns, lived in the land, better known as Britain.
- Originally the name Anglo-Saxon denotes two of the three Germanic tribes, - Jutes, Angles, and Saxons , - who in the middle of the fifth Century left their home on the shores of the North Sea and the Baltic to conquer and colonize distant Britain. ‘Angeln’ was the home of one tribes.
- The Old Saxon word ‘angle’ or ‘ongul’ means a hook , and the English verb ‘angle’ is used invariably by Walton and older writers in the sense of fishing. We may still think, therefore,of the first angles as hook-men, possibly because of their fishing, more probably because the shore where they lived, at the foot of the peninsula of Juteland, was bent in the shape of a fishhook.
- The name Saxon from ‘Seax’, ‘Sax’ a short sword, means the swordman, and from the name we may judge something of the temper of the hardy fighters who proceded the Angles into England.
- The Angles were the most numerous of the conquering tribes, and from them the new home was called ‘Anglalond’. By gradual changes this became first ‘Englelond’ and then England. According to another openion, the name ‘England’ came from ‘Angul’ a particular place where the old Teutonic race, the Angles used to live.
- The word ‘English’ comes from
Anglisko, which in O.E. ‘Englisc’.
- Anglo-Saxon life is summed up in
five great principles their love of personal freedom, their responsiveness to
nature, their religion , their reverence for womanhood, and their struggle for
glory as a running motive in every noble life.
Beowulf 3182 lines:---(a)Danish king Hrothgar, wife wealhtheow
(Hero of the epic) Went to save
(b) Ecgtheow, the king of the Greats
(Faithers)
(c) Hygelac, after the death of Ecgthew,
became the king of the Geats.
(Uncle)
(d) Herprot (Attended the Hall)
(e) Wiglaf, who sang of Beowulf’s heroic
Character at the time of his death.
(Follower)
(f) Grendel, Grendel’s mother and
Dragon. (Killed)
Northumbrian Writers: (a) Cynewulf
(b)Caedmon
(c) Bede
The Manuscripts poetry preserved:
(a) The Exeter Book
(b) The Vercelli Book
(c) The Junius MS (So-Called Caedmonian poems)
(d) The BeowulfMS(Beowulf, judith)
Major English Dialects:
(a) West Saxon
(b) Kentish
(c) Mercian
(d) Northumbrian
Anglo-Saxon Elegiac/Lyrical Poetry:
(a) Wulf & Edwacer
(b) The Riming Poem
(c) The Resignation
(d) Wife’s Lament
(e) The Seafarer
(f) Husband’s Message
(g) Deor’s Lament
(h) The Ruin
(i) The Wanderer
Pagan Poetry:
(a) The Battle of Brunanburh (b) The Battle of Maldon
(c) The Fight at Finnsburh
(d) Beowulf
(e) Waldere
(f) Widsith
Anglo Saxon Lyric Poetry (a) The Husband’s
Message
(b) Deor’s Lament
(c) The Wife’s complaint
Anglo-Saxon Heroic or National Poetry:
(a) Battle of Maldon
(b) The Fight of Finnsburh
(c) Beowulf
(d) Waldere
Caedmon’s Works: (a) Exodus
(b) The Genesis
(c) Daniel
(d) Christ & Satan
(e) Hymn
Cynewulf’s Works: (a) Elene(Signed)
(b) Juliana (Signed)
(c) The Christ (Signed)
(d) The Fates of Apostles (Signed)
(e) The Descent into Hell
(f) Andreas (unsigned)
(g) The Phoenix (unsigned)
(h) The Dream of the Rood
(i) Guthlac(unsigned)
Alfred’s Translations from Latin:
(a) ‘Consolation of philosophy’ of Bothius
(b) ‘History of the World of Orosius
(c) ‘Soliloquuies’ of St Augutine
(d) ‘Ecclesiastical History’ of Bede
(e) ‘Pastoral Care’ of Pope Gregory
(f) Anglo-Saxon Chronicle(Probably inspired by him)
Aelfric’s Works: (a) ‘Grammar’
(b) ‘Colloquium’
(c) ‘Catholic Homilies’
(d) ‘Lives of Satan’
Wulfstan’s Work: (a) ‘Semo Lupi ad Anglos’.
BEOWULF (WHAT TO LEARN HEART FOR EXAM)
Beowulf was the hero of the epic (?) poem Beowulf,. He belonged to the Geats, a section of the Germanic race. His father was Ecgtheow, king of the Grats. Later his uncle, Hygelac, after his father’s death, became the king of the Geats. He sails to Denmark, and the helps the Danish king, Hrothgar, by killing a monster-Grendel. The name of the great hall of Hrothgar is Heorot. The name of the Queen Wealhtheow. Beowulf killed-Grendel’s Mother and after fifty years –Fire Dragon. Wiglaf, a valiant follower of Beowulf sang of Beowulf’s heroic character of the time of his death. Beowulf contains 3182 or 3183 lines. Beowulf gives us a picture of a Germanic race during the Sixth or Seventh Century A.D. The dialact of the text is West Saxon though there is clear evidence that it was written in some Anglian dialect, but whether Mercian or Northumbrian is uncertain.
THE END OF A.S. PERIOD
Alfred, the glorious king of wessex , was a lover of learning, and it is for this reasons especially that he is significant to English Literature. He brought foreign scholars to England, he instituted the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the most important historical document of the period , because there were no text books in English, he had important Latin works translated, and even translated some of them by Himself. When he died, in 901, he had done much to repair the damage wrought by the Danes.
A Century later, however, England was attacked again by the Danes, who this time virtually overrun the country. Finally in 1066 the embattled little island fell to another group of invaders, The Normans under William the Conqueror, who brought the English period to a close. It would be native, of course, to think that Old English literature ceased over-night; there were entries made in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as late as 1154. By the year 1100, however. Old English literature had ceased to be produced, for all practical purposes.By Common agreement, Beowulf is considered the earliest important poem in any of the Germanic languages. Some others are; The Wanderer and The Seafarer, meditative lyrics of high merit; The Battle of Maldon and The Battle of Brandenburg stirring short heroic narratives (the second has been translated by Tennyson), Widsith and Deor’s Lament, poems dealing with the life of the scop. The Dream of the Rood, an appealing religious poems in which the Cross tells its story.
Most Old English literature is anonymous. It seems fitting to close this account with mention of two poets whose names we know. One of these is Cynewulf, whose signature. In runic letters arranged in acrostic fashion of found in four poems. The other is Caedmon. We know of Caedmon only from Bede’s account of him Ecclesiastical History, but this account has made him famous.
Caedmon was a poor, uneducated man living as a lay brother in a monastery. He knew nothing at all about poetry, when, at a feast, the harp was passed around him for the monks to entertain each other, he would jump up from the table and run away. Then one night as he slept in the stable, it being his duty to care for the cattle, an angel appeared to him in a dream and said-
“Caedmon, sing me something.”
"I know nothing to sing," Caedmon replied, "that way I left the
feast and came here."
The angle spoke again:
"Nevertheless, you can sing for me"
"what shall I sing?"
"sing about the creation."
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