The Anglo-Saxon period
1. brief history.
After the withdrawal of Roman troops, Anglo-Saxons and Jutes arrived in England from northern Germany and Denmark in about 5th century. They were different tribes of Teutons (Germanic people). England, the name comes from Angle-land. The Angles is an important Teutonic (Germanic ) tribe. The language they spoke is called old English.
2. Anglo-Saxon literature.
Writings in old English, c.650—1150. Old English poetry is heroic, drawing on Germanic myth and custom, or Christian. Nearly all of it survives in only four manuscripts, and it is the literature closest to Germanic oral sources.
Widsith (7th cent.) or The Traveler’s Song is an early example. The epic Beowulf , based on oral sagas, survives in an 8th century Christian version. The elegiac undercurrent in Beowulf is central to such poems as Deor, The Wanderer, and The Seafarer, which contrast a happy past with a desolate present. Heroic battles are the theme of The Battle of Maldon and The Battle of Brunanbur h. Of the Christian poets, Caedmon and Cynewulf are known by reputation. The Dream of the Rood is the earliest dream vision poem in English.
Old English verse is alliterative and unrhymed. Prose was written in Latin before King Alfred, who had many works translated. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, continued for several centuries, from Caesar’s conquest to some time after Alfred’s death . Two preeminent prose writers were Aelfric and Wulfstan, authors of homiletic sermons.
3. Alfred 871-899, the Saxon king, was a great warrior and scholar. He fought Danish Viking invaders and staved them off the kingdom. He used the peace he had won to concentrate on his work of founding schools to improve education, and restoring monasteries to invigorate religious life. Famous schol ars came to Alfred’s court at Winchester to help him to translate from Latin the first books to be written in the Eng lish language. Alfred also had the chance to frame laws and so civilize his subjects. The most important law by him was, “Do not to others what you would not have them do to you.”
4. The song of Beowulf
It is an English epic reflecting the features of the tribal society of ancient times. It has over 3000 lines, divided into two parts with an interpolation between the two. The whole song is essentially pagan in spirit and matter, while the interpolation is obviously an addition made by the Christian who copied it.
5. The subject matter
It recounts Beowulf’s struggle with the water monster Grendel and Grendel’s mother; the hero’s victory in old age over a dragon; and his death and funeral. The poem in alliterative verse fuses Christian elements with a picture of old Germanic life.
6. alliteration
repetition of the first sound or letter of a succession of words. e.g. safe and sound.
