OLD ENGLISH- ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD (450 – 1066)

 

OLD ENGLISH

ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD (450 – 1066)

The Old English Period, or the Anglo-Saxon Period, extended from the invasion of Celtic England by Romans, Three Germanic tribes (The Angles(=Hook man), Saxons(=Sword man) and Jutes) in the first half of the 5^th century to the conquest of England in 1066 by the Norman French under the leadership of William the Conqueror.

Note: Celts – up to 55BC; Romans—up to 407AD; Anglo-Saxon--- up to 787AD; Viking—Up to 1066AD;

Poetry:

The Anglo-Saxon had no alphabet. Literature of this period is almost wholly verse. Heroic poetry is very common. Their poetry is accentual and Alliterative. Their literature is 2 types: Pagan(oral tradition) and Christian (of god and saints).

 

Northumbrain School: The greater part of Anglo-Saxon poetry is religious. It is associated with two names – Caedmon and Cynewulf. The first is historical, the second more or less mythical.

1)     Bede: Father of our English Learning. – Wrote the first history of England, “Ecclesiastical History of English People,” in Latin.

2)     Caedmon: First poet, known as Anglo-Saxon Milton. He wrote “Paraphrase”- Transformed the whole Bible story into poetry.

3)     Cynewulf- wrote “The Christ” poem.

Famous poems of this age:

Beowulf: It is the earliest and greatest heroic epic in Anglo-Saxon. It is a poem of more than 3000 lines celebrating the heroic deeds of the warrior who gives his name to the poem.  Begins with a prologue, begins with the story of a baby sleeping in a boat with treasures, came to the Danes land, and becomes King Scyld. Hrothgar, king of Danes, (one of the descendants of King Scyld) builds a hall called ‘Heorot’ where all knights gather to feast. Monster Grendel kills the knights for 12 winters. Beowulf fights with monster cuts the hands of the monster and hangs it over the king’s seat. Mother of Grendel attacks and seizes the advisor of the king. Beowulf enters the home of the mother monster and cuts the head of monster with sword(the sword melts). He left all the treasures in the home of monster. In the last part of the poem, old Beowulf fights with another monster and kills it, but heavily injured by it, he dies. His followers throws all the treasures at Beowulf’s feet. By death he gained more riches.

 

The Seafearer: hardships of a seaman in ocean.

Two other poems of the Pre-Christian period which tell us the primitive past are Widsith and Doer’s Complaint.

Widsith: Wide goer or wanderer - Expresses the wandering life of gleeman.

Doer: wandering of a Saxon scop. Famous line: “His sorrows passed away, so will mine.”

Prose:

King Alfred (848 - 901) was not only a greatest of Anglo-Saxon kings; he was also a great literary figure. He is usually regarded as the founder of first English prose. He wrote the first Historical Record- “English or Saxon Chronicle”