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ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE
Sources:
Primary Sources:
Anonymous, Beowulf, ed. Wren, C.L. (London: Harrap, 1953)
Anonymous, Beowulf, modern English version in The Oxford Anthology of English Literature, ed.
Kermode, F., J. Hollander et al., (Oxford: OUP, 1973), pp. 20-98
Assers Life of King Alfred, Trans. S. Keynes, M. Lapidge, Penguin, 1983
Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Trans.L.Sherley-Price, Penguin, 1990
Caedmons Hymn, both versions in The Oxford Anthology of English Literature, ed. Kermode, F.,
J. Hollander et al., (Oxford: OUP, 1973), pp. 19-20
Secondary sources:
Baugh, A.C., ed., A Literary History of England (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1948), pp. 3105
Daiches, D., A Critical History of English Literature, vol.1 (London: Secker & Warburg, 1969),
pp. 3-30
Day, M.S., A History of English Literature to Sixteen Sixty (Doubleday, 1963), pp.39-45
Fletcher, R.H., A History of English Literature (Boston: Badger, 2007 [1919]), pp. 35-52
Moody, W.V., Lovett, R. M., History of English Literature (New York: Scribner, 1918), pp, 1-22
Wren, C.L., Introduction.Beowulf (London: Harrap, 1953), pp. 9-84
A. Historical Background:
1. The Anglo-Saxon invasions and their organization:
- [see detailed account in Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Bk.I, 15; 25].
- beginning with the 5th c. England was invaded by Germanic tribes:
The Jutes : Kent, Isle of Wight
The Saxons: Essex, Sussex, Wessex
The Angles: East Anglia, Middle Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria
- after their invasion, the Anglo-Saxons settled down into seven kingdoms [Heptarchy] that began
to fight for supremacy
- he most important kkingdoms that emerged were
- Mercia under King Offa
- Wessex under King Alfred the Great
2. The Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity:
(i) The Celtic mission:
- After St. Patrick converted the Irish (5th c), Ireland becomes a center of Christian spirituality
and missionarism.
- Sister monasteries houses
- 6th c. Columba (Iona)
- 7th c. Aidan (Lindisfarne)
- 8th c. Bede (Jarrow and Wearmouth)
(ii) The Roman [Gregoria] mission:
- 6th c. (597) a mission was sent by Gregory the Great led by St Augustine. In Kent he converted
Ethelred, whose Frankish wife, Ethelberga, was already a christian
B. Anglo-Saxon literature:
1. General aspects of Anglo-Saxon literature
(i) Anglo-Saxon literature combines:
- The Germanic tradition of heroic poetry
- Christian themes, which are borrowed or adapted
- Latin and Greek themes, adapted by Christianity (classical elegy, eulogy, consolatio, the
ubi sunt theme, etc).
- Adaptations of style and conventions can be found working in both ways:
- Christian personalities are describes as warlike figures: Moses [Exodus}, Christ [Dream
of the Rood]
- Germanic heroes take over Christian features [Beowulf]
(ii) Purposes of Anglo-Saxon literature: entertainment, morality, history
- to entertain (the scop or bard)
- to praise or console
- to preserve important events, personalities, lineages (historical and exemplary, moral)
(iii) Style (written texts) marked by
- caesura into half lines
- alliteration
- kennings (fixed metaphors) : sea - riding place of the whale; feather- bird's joy, etc.,
2. Corpus of manuscripts
- Cotton Vitellius:
The Life of St. Christopher, The Wonders of the East, The Letter of Alexander, Beowulf,
Judith
- The Junius Ms.,
- The Book of Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, Christ and Satan
- The Exeter Book:
- Christ, Juliana, The Wanderer, The Seafrer, Widsith, Deor's Lament
- The Vercelli Book:
- The Book of Andreas, The Fate of Apostles, The Address of the Soul to the Body, The
Dream of the Rood, Elene
3. Chronology:
First period: 7th-9th centuries
Poetry:
(a) Religious poetry (7th c.):
- Caedmon's school: Caedmon's Hymn; also: Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, Christ and Satan
- Cynewulf's school: The Fate of the Apostles, Christ (Ascension), Juliana, Andreas,
Guthlac, Elene)
- The Dream of the Rood
- The Anglo-Saxon Bestiary: The Whale, The Panther; The Phoenix (Lactantius)
(b) Courtly poetry:
- Widsith, Deor's Lament
(c) Heroic poetry:
- Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon
Prose:
- Anglo-Latin prose writings and translations (7th c.-9th c);
- 7th -8th c. The Canterbury School (Theodore of Tarsus, Hadrian)
- Aldhelm (rhythmical poetry in Latin)
- 7th c. The Jarrow and Wearmouth School (Benedict Biscop)
- 7th -8th Venerable Bede : Anglo Latin writer, monk (Jarrow); he wrote grammatical and
rhetorical handbooks; scientific treatises; biblical commentaries;
-The Ecclesisastical History of the English People: useful information concerning the life
and mentality of the Anglo-Saxons
Second period: 10th 11th centuries: the early Renaissances:
(a) The Alfredian Renaissance (9th-10th c.)
(b) The Benedictine Revival (10th c.)
(a) The Alfredian Renaissance:
- King Alfred the Great (871-900) of Wessex:
- a significant military leader, administrator and scholar
- Alfred's educational programme was meant:
- to link Anglo-Saxon culture to the continent, especially to the classical European
traditions of ancient Greece and Rome;
- to institute some continental legitimacy for the Anglo-Saxon kingdom
- to educate the clergy into classical and Christian culture
- to develop a complex programme of translations from Latin into Anglo-Saxon:
- Alfred wanted to develop a complex programme of translations from Latin into Anglo-Saxon:
- He himself translated various works:
Historical: (5th c), Orosius, Historia universalis (The History of the World); Venerable
Bede (7th c), Historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum
Biblical: The Psalms
Theological: Gregory the Great, The Pastoral Care (De cura pastoralis): the duties of the
clergy; bishops must be learned in order to be able to teach others; St. Augustine,
Soliloquies (Soliloquia):
Bk I. Search for the presence of God through: hope, faith, charity and truth (sperantia,
fides, caritas, veritas)
Bk.II.on the immortality of the soul
Bk.III. of Seeing God (wisdom that accompanies the soul in its afterlife)
Philosophical: Boethius (6th c.): The Consolation of philosophy
Bk.I.: knowledge of the self
Bk.II.: the fickleness of Fortune
Bk.III.true happiness is in God alone
Bk.IV.: evil never goes unpunished nor good unrewarded
Bk.V. on man's free will which is consonant with God's foreknowledge
TEXT II
Beowulf
1. Basic information:
- Ms. Cotton Vitellius A XV
- Composed in East Anglia probably by a Danish cleric around 700, subsequently in written
form around 1000, in Late Wessex dialect, recorded by two scribes
- the earliest epic, it deals with Scandinavian characters: Geats, Danes, Swedes
- contains significant pagan elements in descriptions of customs, rites, deities
- Christian elements refer mostly to Old Testament [Cain, Fall of Angels, the Deluge], while
other [references to Christ, angels, holy relics, cross, etc] are missing
- influences: it is possible the English author may have known the Aeneid], perhaps Homer, as
well as religious Anglo-Saxon poems
2. Structure [narrative]:
- divided into two episodes: B. as a young warrior and B as old king
- elaborate complex of fact and myth
3. Characterization of Beowulf:
- Beowulf, the hero, is high-minded, courageous, gentle, and eventually sacrifices himself for
his people
4. Aim of the poem
- similar to the Roman Aeneid, exalting a past belonging to the poet's culture, but which is
expressed under the influence of a foreign civilization (as was Greece to the Latin poet Virgil)
- a picture of a heathen and heroic society coloured by Christian ideals of thought and deed
Excerpt: Beowulf [final part]