Old English poetry

3
 Society
• Primitive?
• Beowulf might create this misconception; violent
fighting; the 3 fights with the monsters – story-type
convention; not a realistic representation of the time;
• England, not a primitive society at this time;
• The Anglo-Saxon period (1st half of the 5th century till
1066); after the 7th century, a period of conversion to
Christianity; saints from these days, still recollected
(e.g. Aidan);
• Other signs of a sophisticated society – monasteries,
architecture, religious orders;
 Society
• King Alfred (849-899) – Leader:
• English navy established,
• army reformed,
• promoted education,
• defeated the Vikings,
• a system of national and local government (contd later),
• law courts,
• tax collecting, the most advanced in Europe (e.g. Domesday Book
(1086), survey commissioned by William I, impossible to produce
without the Anglo-Saxon sense of administration), source of info
nowadays;
• Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, history of England from the Roman
invasion to 1154, series of chronicles in OE, began in he 9th
century, continued during Kind Alfred’s reign – source that
presents a complex society, changing, adjusting, evolving).
 Literature of the time
• Vernacular literary culture;
• Much has been lost over time;
• Other epic poems besides Beowulf;
• Considerable body of lyric poetry;
• Anonymous;
• Caedmon (7th century), Cynewulf (9th century)
– biblical and religious themes;
 The Seafarer
• Falls in 2 halves;
• A speaker – hardships, difficulties, isolation of life at
sea; also laments life on shore, no longer part of it;
• Paradoxical – nostalgic about the past, deep love of
the sea, despite loneliness;
• 2nd half – the speaker, new direction; grows more
religious; recalls life at sea as a Christian path to
self-denial; life on earth, transient; insignificant
compared to the idea of heaven;
• Draws upon a poetic tradition;
• Elegy (complaint about hardships of life in the first
person; reflection upon a particular theme)
 The Wanderer
• Speaker in exile; seeks a new lord, the
protection of a new mead-hall;
• Sense of despair and fatigue;
• Sea imagery, an idea of exile and loneliness;
hostile universe, human beings battered and
tossed aimlessly;
• 2nd part, the speaker – general experience of
humanity; people suffer, war, ravages of time;
comfort – hope of heaven.
 Elegies
• Both poems – elegies; meditation upon a particular theme
(death, war, loss);
• Mid-17th century, the term, a more precise meaning, a
poem of mourning;
• In The Seafarer, The Wanderer – elegy (life as struggle);
rooted in the poem’s culture; speaker forced to live alone,
deprived of friends, forced to live in exile;
• The Wanderer - fate conspires against the individual;
• The Seafarer – a characteristic Anglo-Saxon life view;
melancholy; life, difficult; subject of suffering; one has to be
strong, surpass the difficulties, grows old;
• In the end, religious consolation; subtlety – awareness of
life as pain and the comfort in religion; the 2 sections – 2
ways of looking at the world, society (pagan, Christian).
 Battle poems
• Also battle poems in OE poetry;
• The Battle of Brunanburh, how Athelstan
defeated the Scots and Vikings; life as an
armed struggle; composed end of the
Anglo-Saxon period, still on the traditional
values of strength and courage;
• The Battle of Maldon, attempt to oppose the
Vikings; heroic
Christian poems – The Dream of the Rood
• OE poems – overtly Christian;
• The Dream of the Rood, a dream vision; the poet
encounters a speaking rood (cross); tells about the
Crucifixion; how it was buried; resurrection as a
Christian symbol; witness to the Crucifixion; parallel to
Christ; heroic warrior;
• Ends in religious homily; hope for heaven; powerful –
the way the speaking cross, a sense of its humiliation
and terror for being chopped down when Christ
punished as a criminal; the cross, now proud; move
from negative to positive feeling, end of the poem,
poet’s response at the end of the poem.
 Language
• OE – dominant in England for several hundred yrs;
imported; evolved; died (in its original form);
• Spoken and written in various forms for 8 centuries
(5th-12th);
• Derived from several West German dialects; brought by
invaders;
• Existed alongside Latin;
• Spoken throughout England by the 8th century;
• 4 main forms;
• Constantly changing; powerful;
• Considerable Danish impact upon it;
• Language of the usurper, invader;
 Language

• Displaced Celtic;
• After the Norman Conquest to be absorbed by
2 languages – Latin, Norman French;
• To be used in some monastic centres up to the
12th century; existed in isolation;
• OE in literary texts;
• The influence of Norman French