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    A Course On English Literature

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    Pilar Espitia

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 18
    Availabe rom New Dtetons rerything 8 Nothing Labysinths Seven Nights reanamrser sensei teehee ot PROFESSOR BORGES A COURSE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE JORGE Luis BORGES EDITED, RESEARCHED, AND ANNOTATED. BY MaRriN’ ARIAS AND MARTIN HADIS A NEW DIRECTIONS Book cemagiomey weet Serer oF 020135 Nae See ‘ere: Ee ree png tin newppe mapn e Ae pera ae yh yom bys ma ‘pearance ite pence yy maton eo Sescpcca cn ot pen in ane able wrk wasp with te ri spat of “Su Talon Supe Pra BAUS y ob Ar and Wop oe Aces Reb, Oa eid Edd grant de Appar aes Mtoe Rea Et ny alo Rape Amina uRLsHERS NOTE: Man i ed ai faulting aie Ti, Baro wrntnoco fora tography and asin epemeney al “The ier west thank Eli We for siting i on, ook dg yi rei Svc nase ihe Used Ser mere Neto tne ped on ae pope Fogel New Benen ookin 3. EES) aime Condy Png sk Cada Lied ia of Congres Cogn Pb Dae og Jor a 1895-986 ‘Rages loos Haga Peed ergs coun on Engler Joe Ll orgs ded nh btn seat Mare a Mai ‘ESe eed fo te Sah Pree ee nnd coms fe eager Bor pin 96 athe ‘hee eae ies nating ‘Sisteasiizaws} a es 1th ics ding a Anna et bas ae aut a3 Fo ee eons mn ny Ar Nad TE lg Ie Hag Mart, 197% er Se, Kt, ‘emt Te Ws Coane 00 Eng bas ani0s016s ew Dion Hols pb or ome Lagi 1 Rew Dens abating Crprtin ‘0 ai remo, Now York 1001 tnt TABLE OF CONTENTS: ‘The Anglo-Saxons. Genealogy ofthe Germanic kings. Poetry and kernings. 1 Beowull, Description ofthe Germans. Ancient funeral rites. 8 ‘cxase'a Beomll. Bravery and boastfulnese: Beowulf as compared tothe compadrtos. 12 ‘etase a The Finnsburh Fragment. The Vikings. Anecdotes from Borges’ trip to York. “The Battle of Brunanburb." Tennyson's translation. 24 exes 8 “The Battle of Maldon.” Christian poetry "Caedmon's Hymn." The ranic alphabet. Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon clepes. 35 ceuaze 6 The origins of poetry in England. The Anglo-Saxon clegies. Christian poetry: “The Dream ofthe Rood.” 47 ceuass 7 The tivo books written by God. The Anglo-Saxon besiars Riddles, “The Grave.” The Baile of Hastings. $7 euase eA bri history until the eighteenth consury The life of Samuel Jobnson. 71 ‘cxass 9 Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, by Samuel Jobnson ‘The legend of the Budd. Optioisms and pessimism. Leibnie and Voltaire. 77 40 Samuel Jobnson as seen by Boswell. The at of biography. Boswell and his critics. 88 ‘euase 11 The romantic movement. The ife of James Macpherson. ‘The invention of Ossian, Opinions about Ossian. Polemic with Jobnson, Reappraisal of Macpherson. 100 uae 12 Life of William Wordsworth The Prelude and other bo coms. 108 ceuass 13 The life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. A story by Henry ‘James, Coleridge and Macedonio Ferndndez, compared. Coleridge and Shakespeare, In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, 118 ceuaze 14 Coleridge's final years. Coleridge compared to Dante [Alighieri Coleridge's poems. “Kubla Kban.” Coleridge's dream. 127 ccuase 18 The life of William Blake. The poem “The Tyger.” Blake and Swedenborgs philosophy, compared. A poem by Rupert Brooke, Blake's poems. 137 6 Life of Thomas Carlyle. Sartor Resartus by Carlyle Carlyle, precursor of Nazism. Bolivar’ soldiers, according 10 Cargle. 148 ‘exase 17 The Viciorian era The lif of Charles Dickens. The novels of Charles Dickens. Wilians Wilkie Coins. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, by Dickens. 158 ceuass 18 The life of Robert Browning, The obscurity of bis work His poems. 164 ‘exace 19 Robert Browning's poems. A chat with Alfonso Reyes. “The Ring and the Book. 170 ‘exane 20 The life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Foaluation of Rossetti 14s. poet and a painter. The theme ofthe double (fete). A book of echumed poems, Rossetts pooms. History cyclically repeated, 180 cexaze 24 Rosset poom. Rossetti as seen by Max Nordau. “The Blessed Damozel,” “Eden Bower,” and “Troy Town.” 191 cusses 22 The ie of William Morris. The three subjects worthy of postr. King Arthur and the myth ofthe return ofthe ero. Morris's interests, Morris and Chawcen “Dhe Defence of Guenevere.” 212 ‘cuss 23 “The Tune of te Seven Towers,” “The Sailing of he ‘Siword,” and The Eathly Paradise, by William Morris, ‘The leelandic sagas. The story of Gunnar. 224 ceuase 24 The Story of Sigurd the Vosung, by William Morris, ‘The bifeof Robert Louis Stevenson, 236 25 The works of Robert Lous Stevenson New Arabian (ight, “Markbein,” The Srange Cas of DJ aud Me Hyde, Jekyll nd Hyde inthe movies. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, “Requiem, byStevenson. 244 eenocue 252 ‘arvenworo, by Martin Arias 253, onors im cuass, by Martin Hadis 258 mnonoras 267 woex 301 “T know, or rather T've been told because I cannot see, that more and more students keep ‘coming to my clases, and that many of ther are not even registered. So, I guess we can assume ‘they want to listen to me Fight?” Tooge Las Borges, interview with BD., 1968, published in Clarion December 7, 1985 i Citations from Litraturas germans medievales (Me dieval Germanic Literature] and Breve antologia an- slosajona [Brief Anglo-Saxor Anthology] cefet tothe 1997 edition of Obras completas en colaboracién [Complete Collaborative Works] (OCO) published by moot Fitores. (Other citations from ocher works by Borges refer tothe edition of his Obras compltas (Complete Works] (OC), published by EmecéEdicores in Buenos Aires 197, ‘When a chapter numberof ga indicated ina note, thie alwaye corresponds to the edition that appears in the Bibliography, ac the end of his volume -TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: In certain passage, we ave re ‘ined Borges's translations into Spanish of poetry ovig~ nally written in English, We have added alongside, in brackets, the corresponding lines ofthe English oig= nal exoept when those ins appea inthe tex nearby. ABOUT THIS BOOK ‘These classes were secorded bya small group of students of English it erate so that other students, who couldnt attend class because they were working, would beable to study the material. The transcriptions ‘ofthese recordings, produced by the same student, form the basis of this book, “The tapes have been lst; they were probably used to tape other classes in other subjects, Such earcessnss might seem unpardonable to ts today. However, we ned to understand that in 1966—the year these lectures were given—Jorge Luis Borges was not yet considered the in isputable genius he is today. With the constant political changes in Ar- ‘gentna his taterients about current evens received more publicity than his literary work, For many ofthe students in his class, Borges—though faneminent writer nd dzectr of the National Library—must have sim- ‘ly been one more profesog. The transcriptions af the clases, therefore, ‘were made forthe purposes of studying che material, and were probably done quickly in order to prepare for the exam. ‘We might, in ac, be grateful fortis there was no attempt to mod ify Bongee’sepoken language, nor eit his sentences, which have reached ns inact with their repetitions and ther platiudes. This fidelity can be ‘erilid by comparing Borges’ language herewith that of other texts of his oral discourse, such as his many lectures and published interviews, ‘The transcribers also made certain to note under the transcription of cach class the phrase: “A faithful version.” This faithfulness was main- tained fortunately, not ony in Borges dscousse, bu also in asides and colloguilisms the pofessor used to address his students. (On the other hand, du tothe trancibers’ rush and lack ofschot ship, each proper name, tte, of foreign phrase was writen phonet- cally such that most of the names ofthe suthors and les of the works ‘were writen wrong; the recitations in Anglo-Saxon and English s well as ceymologicaldigresions, were compleel eile in che orginal tean- scriptions. TEvery single one of the names appearing in the text had co be checked. Te was not dificule to figure out that “Roseti” was Dante Gabriel Rosset, Ietook considerably longs however, to puzzle out that ‘Wado Thou” was, in fact, the poet Rober Southey, or that the tran scriber had written “Bartle” at each mention ofthe philosopher George Berkeley. Many ofthese names required laborious searches Such was the case of the Jesu from the eighteenth century, Martino Dobrizhof- fer—who appeared in the orginal as "Edoverck Hoffer" ~or of Profs sor Livingston Lowes, whose name wa transcribed asifc were the ttle ‘ofa book, “Lyrics and Lows.” The wanserbers' lack of familiarity withthe literary ext unde dis- cussion was abvious on many occasions. Names as wellknown as those ‘of De Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appear i the original with strange spellings, ‘threatening to turn thererribe duality ofthe characeer into mulepiciy, For example, De. Jekyll is “Jagui,” *Shekl,” “Shake,” "Sheke,” and “Shake,” whereas Me. Hyde is “Hi,” “Hid,” and “Halt,” variations thae sometimes appese on the same page and even nthe same paragraph. Tewas ofen dificult to determine if all the variations refered tothe same petson, Hence, the hero Hengest appears in one line withthe corect spelling, but inthe next he's turned nto “Heinrich”; the philosopher Spengler is hiding behind the names “Stendler,”“Spendle,." or even fu- ther removed, “Schombex” Borges’ poetic citations were equaly legible. Some, once revealed, turned out to be comic. Perhaps the most significant of dhese was the line fcom Leaves of Grass: “Walt Whitman, un cosmos, hijo de Man- battan” "Wale Whitman, a cosmos, of Manhattan the son"] appears in the orginal transcription as “Wale Whioman, wx coj, hijo de Manbat- ton” [Wale Whiman, a gimp, of Manhattan the son”) a vasaton that surely would have disturbed the poet, ‘During his classes, Borges often asked his students olen hi their ‘yes and thee voies to read poems outloud. Asthe student read, Borges ‘would comment on each stanza. Inthe orginal transcription, however, the poems cecited by the students were removed. In thei absence, Borges’ comments on the stanzas appeared one ontop ofthe other and ‘were wholly indecipherable. In order to eestore coherence to these classes, the recited stanzas were found, and Borges’s commentaries were interspersed through a truly laborious eting and reassembling task. ‘Sch work required the restitution of quotes in Old English tht had been ransribed phonetically from the original. Though seriously dis- rorted, these were recognizable and were eplaad with the orginal text, PPanctation in Borger'stext, inconsistent inthe quick, orginal tan- scription, had ta be completly changed, always with the goal of follow ing the rhythm of the spoken presentation. “his econ required the correction of al possible facts, fixing errors of transcription and making the necessary corrections, The original sources of most ofthe texts were found, and endnotes were added of: fering the poems in thee original languages ff they were brief) orn frag Tn some eases for the sake ofthe eades, certain minor changes were ocr 1. Missing words were added (conjunctions, prepositions, ctcetera) that Borges surely spoke, despite thei absence in the ‘original eansription. 2. Other conjunctions used in spoken language, but that made ‘comprehension ofthe writen text more dificult, were elimi- nate. 3, Ina few places, it was necessary to bring a subject and verb closer together where Borges’ enthusiasm led him into along gression a practice that is acceptable in spoken language, but a writen text, che tea of discourse is completly los. “The order of phrases in a sentence was changed around, but wwithous omitting a single spoken word [As none of these changes altered the words or the essence of Borges’ discourse, we preferred aot to indicate when this was done, s0 8510 avoid iscubing the reader, On other occasions, words nor spoken by Borges were added ro the extn brackers to faitate comprehension. “The endaotes mostly supply information about work, people, oF events in order to enrich the teading ofthese classes. We most resisted the temptation to link subjects in these classes with the rest of Borges’ ‘oeuvre. The eelationship berween Borges the writer and Borges the teacher isso close chat it would requite an almost infinite quantity of notes; moreover, out goal has not been to carry outa ritique or an analysis of che tex. “Maa ofthe notes ae brief biographies: the elatve length of each des nt eflet our judgment ast the value ofthe perso or thing, but rathes, in most cases, was determined by two factors: 1) hw unknown a particular eeference might be, and 2) relevance within the context ofthe class. Hence, Ullas, the Gothic minister, and Snore Stacuson, the Ielandic historian, recsive afew lines; while chose figures who are ‘more recent oF well known—ot only mentioned i pasing-—have notes ‘containing only their date, nationality and a few facts that allow for easy identification. “The reader wil ind that many ofthese shor biographical notes cor respond to famous figures, but tae doesnot mean that we assume the reader i not familiar them. The presence of these notes allows the reader to situate these figures historically, chis in consideration ofthe liberty ‘ith which Borges leaps from century to century, continent to continent, ‘contrasting and comparing. ‘We don't know if Borges knew about the existence of these eran- ‘éviptions; we ae, nevertheless, certain that he woud be pleased to know ‘that chese pages carry on his work a a teacher. A limitless numberof readers can now join ll chose students to whom Borges taught English literature for many years with dedication and affection. ‘We hope the reader enjoys eading tis book as much as we enjoyed cing it. ‘Mares Anas Manes Hans Buenos Aires, February 2000 cLass 1 English iteratute starts to develop a the end of the seventh or the be ting ofthe cighth cencry. The fist works we have come from that fra, predating any from any ther European literature, Tn these frst wo ‘unis, we will discuss this literature: Anglo-Saxon poetry and prose. In ‘order to lear the material in these lasses, it would be helpful for you toconsult a book Iwrote with Me, Vézquet called Literaturas german cas medioales [Medieval Germastic Literatures} It was published by Editorial Fab. Before continuing I would like to make lear that eis course wil be underaken fom che standpoint of lteratre, with refer fences made tothe economic, politcal, and socal contexc only when nec- sary forthe understanding ofthe texts. ‘ecus begin his ist clas, then in which we wil discuss epe poetry and the Anglo-Saxons, who atived inthe Bish Iles after the departare ‘of the Roman legions. We ar talking about the fifth century, che year 44, approximately. The British Iles were Rome's remotes colony, the one farthest tothe north, nd ithad been conquered all the way to Cale- dona, pare of present-day Scotland, which was inhabited by the Pics, 2 people of Celtic origin separated from the rest of Britain by Hadian. ‘all To the south lived the Celts, who hed converted to Christianity, and the Romans. Inthe cites educated people spoke Latin; the lower ‘lasses spoke various Gaelic dialects. The Celts were a people who lived in the regions of Iberia, Switzerland, Tirol, Belgium, France—and Britain, Thee mythology was wiped ou by the Romans andthe barbs jn invasions, except in Wales and Ieland, where some remnants oft were preserved In the year 449, Rome collapses and is legions withdraw fom Britain, The was an extremely important event because the country was left without the defenses tha counted on and was vulnerable to atacks by the Pies from the north and the Saxons from the east. The Saxons ‘were thought of asa confederation of marauding tribes, fr Taira does rot refer to them as a “people” in is Germania. They were “of North- Sea Geemanic stock,” and were related tothe Vikings, who came later. ‘They inhabited the Lower Rhine region andthe Low Countries. The An- os inhabited southern Denmark, and the utes, as their name indicates, lived in Jutland: And soit happened that a Celie chieftain, a Britain, ‘upon sting thatthe south and the west were being threatened by ma- ‘auders realized he could pit them agaist each other. To this end, be summoned the Jutes eo help him in his struggle against the Picts. And that’ when two Germanic chieftains asve: Hengest, whose name means “allio,” and Heres, whose name means "mare. “Germanic,” then, isthe generic designation ofa group of ries, ach with diferent rule, who spoke similar dialects, out of which came ‘modern Danish, German, English, teeters. They shared some of the same mythologies, though only the Nosse one has survived, and then ‘only inthe remotest past of Europe: Iceland. We know of certain cn: ‘nections between them from the mythology preserved in the Fda: for ‘example, that the Norse god Odin was the German Woran and the En- ‘lish Woden The names ofthe gods have persisted in the names of che days ofthe week, which were translated from Latin to Old English: ‘Monday isthe day of the moon. The day of Mars, Tuesday, isthe day ofthe Germanic god of war and glory. The day of Mercury became the day of Woden in Wednesday. The day of Jove became Thurslay, day of “Thos, with his Norse name. Friday isthe day of Venus, the goddess of beauty ia German it Fria, and Fri in England. Sararday isthe day of Saturn, The Lord's day—-domsingo {in Spanish], and in Taian domenicaremained the day ofthe sun, Sunday. ‘Very litle of Anglo-Saxon mythology has been preserved. We know that the Norsemen worshipped the vallkyries—warsior goddesses who ‘oul fy and wio carried the sous of dead warriors to paradise; we also ‘know that these were worshipped in England, chanks to atrial held in the ninth century of an old woman accused of being a Valkyrie. In other words, Christianity changed these warior women who carried the dead to paradise on thee flying horses into witches. The old gods were com- monly interpreted as devil ‘Although the Germanic peoples were not politically unified, they id acknowledge unity of difecent kind: navonal unity. Ts foreigners were called seal, which becomes “Welsh” in English, and means “the ‘people from Wales," goles fin Spanish]. This word alo remains in the ‘word “Galicia,” or galo [in Spanish. That is, the name was used for anyone who was not German... So, the Clic chieftain Voriger sum- rmoned the Picts to help him, but when they launched thee oariven boats—they didn't have ssileand they landed in Kent Couny, the Celts immediately waged war and defeated them quit easly. So easily infact, that they decided to invade thee entice county. This eannot rally be called an armed invasion, because the conquest was carced out almost peacefully. Immediately thereafter the fist Geemanic kingdom of En- land is formed, with Hengest as is ruler. Thereafter, many other small kingdoms were formed. At the sme ime, the Geemans were abandon ‘ng, en masse, the southern regions of Denmark and Jutland, and found ing Northumbria, Wessex, Bericia. This entie assorament of small kingdoms converted to Christianity one century later as a result of the cfforts of moaks who hailed from Rome and leland, These efforts, at first complementary, son grew into rivalries beeween the monks from those two places. There are several interesting aspects ofthis spistul ‘conquest, the fs being the way the pagans accepted Christ. The Ver" ‘erable Bede tells of a king who had two altars: one devoced to Chist and the thee to the devils These devils were, without a daub, the Gee manic gods Here we come to another problem. The Germanic kings were dire descendents oftheir gods, And a chieftain could not be prohibited fom paying homage to his ancestors. Thus, the Christin priests, whose re- sponsibility twas torecard the genealogies ofthe kings—some of which have been passed on 10 us—found themselves in che dilemma of not wanting to contradice the kings and, at the same kime, nor efute the Bibl. The solution chy came up with was relly very curious. We must zealize that forthe ancients the past did not extend beyond fifteen oF ‘renty generations they could not conceive af a pastas long as we do. So, after several generations, we come toa kinship with the gods, who in tum are related to the Hebrew paviatchs. Hence, for example, we have Oain’s great grandfather, the nephew of one ofthe patriarchs. And from there, itis a direct line to Adam. At the most ther concept ofthe pst extended to fifcen generations, ora bit more. The lerature ofthese peoples spans many centuries, and most oft has been lst Because of the Venerable Bele, we date its beginnings to around the mide ofthe ith century. And from the year 449 until 1066, the Batle of Hastings, out ofthis entire period, thete remain only four ‘main codices and a few other bits5The frst codex, the Vereli ook, was discovered inthe monastery of the same name inthe north of Italy inthe lst century. Iris a notebook written in Anglo-Saxon, assumed 10 hhave been brought there by English plgcims on their way back from Rome, and who, freunstely for ur, forgot the manuscript inthe convent. There ae ather codices: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a translation of Boethias, one of Orosus las, and Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn ‘And that ill. Then come the epic poems. The famous Beowulf, a com- position of litle fewer chan 3,200 fins, suggests, perhaps, cht there ‘were other epic poems that vanished, But they areal completely hypo- ‘hetical. Moreover considering thatthe epic poem appears after the pro- liferation of short cantos and arses from them, is also reasonable to baieve chat that one is unique. | _Incvery instance, poetry comes before prose. Iseems that man sings before he speaks. But there are other very important reasons fr this. A verse, once composed, serves as 2 model. I is repeated over and over ‘gain, and chen we hare poem, Prose, onthe ater an, is mach more complexy and requires a greater effort. Moreover, we must not forge the ‘maemonic valu of verse. Thus in Indi, the codices are writen in verse? assume they must have some poetic value; this is ne why they were svrtten in verse, bat rather because in that form twas easier to remem ber them. ‘We must look closely at what we mean by “vere.” This word has avery elastic meaning, It x noe the same concept foe all peoples in all, eras, For example, we think of hymed and iorlabic vere the Greeks though of sung vers, noted frit parallel stracuzes, for its phrases thar balanced one another. Germanic verse i nothing ike tis It was difficult to discover the rues that determine how these verses were con- structed, because in the codices the lines areatwriten—as ace ours— cone under the other, bat rather continuously. Moreover, hey have no punctuation. But finaly, c was discovered that each ine has three words whose fist syllables are stressed and that chey ae allierated. Rhymes have also been found, bu thes ste acidental those who listened to this poetry probably didn't hear them, And I say thse who listened because these poems were meant to e reed of sung, accompanied by a harp There isa Geemanist who says that altrated vers has the advantage of forming @ unit, But we must mention here its disadvantage, whichis thatit doesnot allow fr stanzas. Indeed, if we hear a zhymeia Spanish, ‘we are led to expecta conclusion; that is if fouedine stanzas first line ‘ends in fa, followed by ewo verses ending in ~aba, we expect the fourth line to also end ina But cis does not happen with alliteration. After several verses the sound ofthe fst one, for example, has vanished from ‘ur minds, and ence the sensation ofthe stanza disappears. Rhyming allows fr lines tobe grouped together. Late, the Germanic poets discovered the refrain and sed it inte quently. But poetry had developed another hierarchical poetic instru- rent: that i, kennings—dlesriptive, crystallized metaphors! Because poets were alvays talking about the same things, always dealing with ‘the same themes—hat iss peat, kings, swords, the earth the sand as these were words that did no begin withthe same lets, they had to find a solution. The ony poetry that existed, as have said, was epic po cee: (There was no erotic poetry. Love poetry would appear much ate, in che nath century, with the Anglo-Saxon elegiae poems) For this po cry, which was only epic, they formed compound words to denote things ‘whose names did not begin withthe requisite leer These kinds of for ‘mations re quite possible, and normal, inthe Germanic languages. They realized chat these compound words could very well be used as metaphors. In chis way, they began to call the sea “whaleroad,” sal- rox,” or “ish-bath; they called the ship “sea-stallion™ or "sex-stag™ ‘or "sea-boas,”alvays using the names of animals as a general rule, they ‘thought ofthe ship asa fiving being. The king was called “the people's shepherd” and also—this surely for the minstrels sake, for their own benefit—*ring-give.” These metaphors, some of which are beautiful, ‘were employed lke clichés. Everybody used them, and everybody us. derstood them, In England, howeves, poesfsally realized that these metaphors— some of which, repeat, were very beautiful ike the on that called the bird the *sommer uardian"—ended up hobbling poetry, so they were slowly abandoned, In Scandinavia on the other hand, they carried them to their inal stage: they cceated metaphors out of metaphors by using ‘successive combinations. Thus, ia ship was “seahorse” and the sea was, “gull’s fie” then a ship would be “horse ofthe gull’ fi.” And this could be called a metaphor ofthe fst degree. As a shield was the "pi rates moon”shilds were round and made of wood-—and a spear was the “shields serpent,” foe the spear could desteoy the shel, that spear would be the “serpent of ce pirates moon.” ‘This show an extremely complicated and obscure poetry evolved, Ikis, of couree, what happened in lenened poetry, within the highest spheres of society: And as these poems were recited or sung it must be assumed that the primary metaphors, those chat served asthe founda tioa, were already familiar the audience, Familiar even very familia, almoet synonymous with the word il. Be chat as it may the poetry became very obscure, so much so that finding the eal meaning is like solving a puzzle. So much so that sevibes from subsequent centuries show in the teanscrptions of these same poems we have now, that they id not understand them. Here's fey simple kenning: “the swan of the beer ofthe dead,” which, when we first seit, we don'tnow how to intexpet. So, i we break it down, we se that "beer of the dead” means blood, and “swan ofthe blood” means the bird of deat, the raven, sO ‘we see that “ewan ofthe ber ofthe dead” simply means “raven.” And in Scandinavia, whole poems were writen lke this and with increasing complexity, But this did noe happen in England. The metaphors re- mained in the first degre, without going any further [As fr the use of alliteration, iis interesting to ote that averse is ‘considered allerativ evn if ¢ contains stressed words begining with diferent vowels. Ia verse contains a word with che vowel 2, another ‘with and another with they aealliterated, In fact, we eannot know ‘exactly how the vowels were pronounced in Anglo-Saxon. Undoubtedly, (Old English had a much more open sound and was more voiced than English is now, Now, in English, consonants serve as the high points of the syllables, On the contrary, Anglo-Saxon or Old Engish—these words are synonymons—was highly vocal? Besides this, the Anglo-Saxon lexicon was completely Germanic. Be fore the Norman Congest, the only other significant influence was the introduction of aboue five hundred words from Lati. These words were, for the most par, religious of if wot lions, they named concepts that had not previously existed among those peoples. [As far as the religious conversion ofthe Germanic peoples, iti | ‘worth noting that being polythesti, they had no problem aeepting yet another god one mores nothing. For us, for example it would be eather ifclt to accept poythestic paganism. But for the Germanic peoples, iewas ng; at first Crist was merely a new god. The isue of conversion, _moreoves, presented few problems. Conversion was nt, as itis now, a individual ace; athe ifthe king converted, the entize people converted, "The words that found a place in Anglo-Saxon, because they epee. sented new concepts were, for example, ones like “emperog.” a notion they did not have. Even now the German word kaiser, which means the same thing, comes from the Latin caesar. The Germanic peoples ia fact, ‘knew Rome well, They acknowledged it as a superior culture and ad- medi. That is why conversion to Christianity meaat conversion to a superior civilizations chad, without a doubs,incontroversibl appeal ln the next class, we wil lok at Beowulf, poem from the seventh century, the oldest epic poem, prior to “Song ofthe Ci from the ninth or tenth century, and Chanson de Roland, written a cencury before Cid and the Nibelugenled. I is che oldest epic poem in all of European, Tterature We will then continue with ehe Fiansbush Fragment. cLass 2 Inu las class, said that today we would discuss the epic poem Be- ‘owl, As we shall se, the protagonists a knight who embodies ll the ‘ieues held in high regard during the Middle Ages loyalty, bravery— this is all inthe book bythe Venerable Bede. Bat let's dig nto Beowulf “The name intel s 2 metaphor that means "bee-wolf,” in other words beac” Iris truly along poem: it contains alittle fewer than 3,200 lines, all of which follow the law of Germanic vrsfication: alliteration. Its language is intricate; it makes constant use of whaticaled “hyperba- ton," thats the alteration of the logical sequence of words ina sentence. We know this was not the wsval form of che Germanic language, and much less so of is poetry, because another fagment that has been pre saved, the Finnsbarh Fragment, employs very direct language. Twas previously belived tha the style of Beownif belonged to primitive, barbaric stage of poetic creation. Subsequently, however, ‘Germanise discovered that lines from the Aeneid weee woven into the ‘poem, and that elsewhere, passages from that epie poem were brought fn, then interspersed in the ext. Hence, we have realized that we arenot

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