Anglo Saxon Literature

(Literature written in Old English period – 650 – 1100)

 In Anglo Saxon Literature as in other literatures - poetry preceded prose. The earliest
poets in Old English were the gleemen or the minstrels who sang about legends and
warriors in royal courts or on festive occasions.

 With the advent of Christianity the themes took to Christian themes. Therefore Old
English or Anglo Saxon Literature can be divided into three groups: heroic, elegiac and
Christian.

 Four manuscripts have been preserved in the entire known poetry of the Anglo - Saxons:
1. Manuscripts collected by Sir
Robert Cotton ( Beowulf)
2. Codex Exoniesis/ Exeter Book
3. Vercelli Book
4. Codex Junius

 Beowulf – the oldest surviving Germanic epic and the longest Old English (Anglo Saxon)
poem.

 “The Wanderer”, “The Wife Lament” “The Seafarer” etc. in the Exeter Book.

 Features of Anglo Saxon poetry:

The poetry is alliterative, one of its features is kenning (which is a metaphorical
phrase used in place of a common noun eg. Earth walker or traveler).

 Notable prose includes Anglo Saxon Chronicle, which is a historical record about the
time of King Alfred’s reign.
 Anglo Saxon values / traits – related to the culture & society
 The word “medieval” comes from the Latin words medium (middle) and aevum(age). As
the introduction to this section in the anthology notes, scholars tend to think about the
medieval period in two non-exclusive ways. Some scholars view the Middle Ages as the
beginning of a continuum of ideas that were further developed in the sixteenth century;
some view the Middle Ages as a period that was in some sense “created” by sixteenth-
century writers who wanted to emphasize the freshness of their contributions to literary
culture.