[Music] e The Poetry of anglo-saxon England is the oldest English poetry in existence but it is

also the fruit of even older traditions and practices among the members of the Germanic tribes
who were the Continental ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons poetry satisfied a number of basic
needs these pre-literate cultures depended solely on the spoken word to express their beliefs to
preserve their history and to provide their entertainment their poets whose task it was to shape
the spoken word fittingly for these purposes played an essential part in all of them the first thing
to realize about anglosaxon poetry I think is that it's not really an early stage of English poetry
it's a late stage of drama poetry because the Anglo-Saxons were Germanic peoples who came
over bringing with them a really quite ancient tradition of poetry and that is carried on when they
were in England uh this means in particular that the meter and style of all anglo-saxon poetry
really is in the traditional Germanic mode and that means a litera of verse which is unlike
modern verse in having no rhyme doesn't count syllables um and also in the language which goes
along with the meter really so in those technical respects it's pretty pure Germanic verse and
comparable to the kind of thing you find in early German verse the figures that the poet presents
are set firmly in a fourth or fifth century Pagan reality now this is a past that for an Anglo-Saxon
Christian was beyond hope they lived without the benefit of the Christian Revelation their souls
as pagans would inevitably be damned after their death and there was basically no hope for them
the problem for the Anglo-Saxons was that they came to England as a pagan Germanic culture
which prized ancestry and prized genealogy as a major value in its whole cultural scheme and
they were very reluctant to give up on their ancestors in some ways and many critics have seen
bolf as an attempt at a kind of Salvage project that could never be fully carried out because the
poet would be up against the demands of his theology which required that these characters be
damned in the end but nevertheless he seems determined to present them to us in as favorable a
light as possible these are the most noble pagans imaginable bolf fulfills the heroic ideal virtually
without putting a foot wrong ever in the end the poet has to present this to us as not quite enough
from a Christian perspective but he plays with perspective in the poem very very carefully and
allows himself as much sympathy towards the heroic Pagan past as medieval Christian Author
could allow himself nothing survives of the Poetry the Germanic tribes composed but the later
poetry of anglo-saxon England responds quite strongly to its influence the expressions of
Christian belief and doctrine that are the primary concern of most Anglo-Saxon poets are shot
through with the language style and sensibilities of their Continental predecessors although the
language and verse form of Anglo Saxon poetry is purely Germanic it's disappointing how little
there is of Germanic antiquity paganism in Anglo sex and poetry if you feel there might be
exciting stuff about the Germanic gods and so and you find really rather little and most of what
we know about Germanic religion wooden and Thor and blood xes and uh and so on is derived
not from Anglo-Saxon sources but from uh Scandinavian sources but there are heroic legends
that you find again not as many as you might hope but still there are some certainly in bearwolf
and another poem called weed Seath but on the whole it's rather disappointing in that respect
how the Germanic past influence the Anglo-Saxon poet stands out the most fully in bwolf which
is considered by modern Scholars to represent one of the greatest literary achievements of anglo-
saxon England bearwolf is thought to have been composed between 700 and 750 ad and is
known to us because of a single surviving manuscript that dates back approximately to 1,000 ad
one has to remember that there are only about 30,000 lines of anglosaxon poetry surviving in
only four manuscripts and what we have is not the sort of Oxford book of anglo-saxon verse the
best what we have is what four monks chose to copy and among other things they chose to copy
bearwolf rather surprisingly really I think they the man who copied bearwolf was probably
actually interested in Monsters and he was compiling an Oxford book of monsters if you like so
there's no guarantee at all that bearwolf was the best of its type in Anglo-Saxon history but it's
the best of its type surviving having said that I don't mean that it isn't any good uh it is very good
but uh we don't know whether it was a classic in its time listen we've had word of the might of
the spear Kings of the people in ancient days how those princes performed Deeds of great Valor
from hosts of enemies from many nations did shill shaving often seiz their meat Hall benches
striking Terror into their leaders long after he first was was found a destitute foundling he knew
some comfort for that growing great beneath the skies thriving in worldly honors until every
neighboring tribe across the sea was compelled to obey him and offer him tribute that was a good
King The Shield shaving mentioned here is not an English hero but the legendary founder of a
fifth century Danish Dynasty who is alluded to in a number of ancient Germanic Legends we
know too little about the composition of beerwolf to understand exactly why the poet chose a
Scandinavian setting for his great work but the world he depicts in these opening lines is a pre-
christian Germanic world that haunts the verse of nearly every anglosaxon poet whose work has
survived from the comparatively civilized times of the beerwolf poet the early days were an age
of stark contrast the peace and mutual goodwi of the Mew faced at every turn the threat of
treason and violence violence of men violence of nature violence of Monsters the author of
bwolf uses material from the Germanic past for a number of reasons first to give a semi-realistic
historical background to the poem although his character is a legendary monster killer the poet is
able to put him in a historical setting that would have a great deal of resonance for his immediate
audience beyond that the historical material provides a contrast with the legendary matter of bol's
own career in this it provides a human perspective on the Superhuman Excellence of Beowolf
where beow Wolf's combats with grindle grindle's mother and with the dragon are reasonably
uncomplicated Affairs morally these are figures of Supernatural evil uh whom baywolf is
entirely justified in in in killing as he does uh the stories of human conflict of the passions that
engender it of the cultural situations that give rise to it all emphasize the Tangled and difficult
and morally compromised character of the heroic ideal on the ground in real time so that you
have a an idealized portrait of it in bwolf contrasted against a realistic analysis of it in all its
glories and failings uh in that that's played out in the context of the historical matter as well
history in a sense swallows this poem at the end bolf dies thinking that the dragon horde he's
uncovered will be the salvation of his people whereas various narrators in the wake of be Wolf's
death let the audience know in no uncertain terms that b Wolf's death is an unmitigated disaster
for his people he's ruled them well for 50 years and there is no no one to replace him and they are
ringed with hostile peoples who will come swarming in for the kill in the wake of bol's death
sooner or later and these are the peoples that have been involved in the historical feuding with
be's people so they are historical figures themselves and will come barging in on the poem like
an unwelcome intrusion of reality into the slightly more unreal fairy tale aspect of the poem with
its with its dragon slaying hero the reputation of shield and of every other leader who appears in
bearwolf rests on their success as Protectors of their people through wise government and martial
prowess the individual hero such as bearwolf himself demonstrates his worth by living up to the
heroic ideal that informs most Germanic literature this ideal demands that the truly worthy man
be above all honest and loyal true to his Lord and a keeper of all his promise promises the author
of baywolf is drawn to what I call the edges of the heroic ideal in a number of ways he tells quite
a few stories along with the story of bolf modern critics refer to these as digressions although
they're generally linked very closely to the matter of the main tale and in these he presents us
with persons and situations uh where the heroic ideal simply ceases to function for various
reasons some of them involve simply bad kings who don't rule well some of them involve good
Kings who find themselves in nevertheless hopeless situations the character of frothgar at the
poem's opening is a classic example of this the poet is very definite about his being a good King
yet he finds himself unable to defend his meat all against the monsters who are haunting it those
who fulfill the ideal receive its greatest blessings honor and protection in the me Hall and the
rich Rich gifts that their lord distributes with great ceremony to show his regard for his followers
loyalty well I think Germanic poetry had always been inclined towards heroic subjects and
certainly the surviving anglo-saxon poetry um has a lot of heroism in it of two types really there's
a lot of what I might call Christian heroism uh treatments of saints for example represent them as
Heroes fighting in God's cause against the devil against God's adversaries and in the dream of the
Roode uh Christ is represented very much in a heroic fashion he strips himself for battle when he
approaches the cross for example but the more obvious form of heroism to us is the heroism of
ordinary men fighting enemies and there's a good deal of that in anglosaxon poetry uh the poem
called The Battle of molden which comes from the very end of the Anglo-Saxon period
sometime in the 990s getting on from 1066 uh is an example of that it's a it's a poem based on an
actual battle between the men of Essex who in those days were heroic and uh the Vikings and the
leader of the Essex men bernoth is certainly conceived in a heroic vain although he's also
criticized for a sort of heroic rashness and there is a sense here and in other Anglo Saxon poems
that Heroes can get carried away and risk themselves and their followers un necessarily simply
out of their high heart this is the heroic ideal in brief it is explored and celebrated by The Poets of
anglo-saxon England who enter into extreme circumstances to test the ideal to help us understand
beerwolf in context it is important to look at other anglo-saxon poetry the late 10th Century
poem known as the Battle of molden for instance celebrates a famous English defeat a
succession of English Warriors give voice to the heroic ideal as they face the Stark choice
between death in battle and the coward's shame should they flee KRA thought must be the
Sterner heart the Keener Spirit the higher as our strength dwindles here lies our leader cut down
in death that good man stretched out on the earth whoever thinks to flee now from this battle play
shall lament it bitterly forever bwolf addresses the theme of Exile in a number of different ways
most prominently uh in the case of the Monsters uh grel and his mother who are the first on the
scene in the poem the PO describes them as descended from a race of giant beings who
ultimately were descended from Cain the first murderer and God has exiled these because of
Cain's sin and killing Abel uh they Cosmic Exiles if you like as figures of profound evil at the
end of the poem bolf is fighting this Dragon which has been guarding a horde of ancient wealth
and the poet tells the story of this wealth and how it came to be buried beneath the Earth by the
last survivor of a culture whose material Remains the gold represents and this figure has a little
song that he chants as he's putting the last of the gold in it's often referred to as the song of the
last survivor where he is in a state of mourning over his culture which has now vanished uh he's
the sole representative of it and it takes up many of the themes of Exile uh that we see in other
poems like The Wanderer rather ironically the dragon's raids are prompted by the theft of a cup
from his horde which was committed by another solitary character who appears to have fallen
out of favor with his Lord and is in something like that condition of Exile who stumbles on The
Horde and takes the cup in an effort to buy back his Lord's favor and it's his Exile if you like that
is the uh spark that sets off the final crisis in the poem that will lead to be Wolf's death discover
the past with exclusive history documentaries from history hit and uncover the secrets of some of
the most famous people and events in history history hit gives you access to a growing range of
documentaries presented by and featuring historians at the Forefront of research and debate
whether you are looking to find out more about carismatic leaders like Cleopatra or to discover
the story behind the industrial revolution history hit will have something for you we also aim to
bring you the stories and legends that shaped our world through our award-winning podcast
Network sign up now for a free trial and absolute history fans get 50% off their first 3 months
just be sure to use the code absolute history at checkout if a man was cast out from society for
criminal Behavior or if by chance or cowardly design he outlived his Lord he suffered the horror
of Exile this is the worst fate that can befall any member of a heroic Society where individual
identity depends wholly on the support and structure of the entire Community this narrator of the
Old English 8th Century elegy known as The Wanderer stands in just such a predicament and
gives eloquent testimony to the grief it entails in terms of style and content The Wanderer is
often compared to the Sea farer another 8th Century poem in a litera of verse experts generally
agreed that both poems are consistently Christian with with a coherent theme namely that of
Faith relieving man's loneliness The Wanderer then appeals to others who have had similar
experiences he who has experienced it knows how sorrow is a hideous companion to him who
has few dear friends the paths of Exile claim him not highly wrought Gold Ice in his heart not
fame on Earth he remembers all men and the giving of treasure how his gracious Lord in his
youth used to show him Favor All Joy has perished one of the pivotal moments in the history of
anglo-saxon England was the coming of the mission led by St Augustine of Canterbury in 597
which resulted in the eventual conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity some poets
explored the mysteries of the new Faith using the images and ideals of the heroic tradition depict
in Christ as a successful warrior king there is a lot of Christian poetry in the four manuscripts
you've got to remember that those four manuscripts were written by monks that is they were
copied by monks and therefore they would favor Christian material and they certainly did favor
Christian material there are um versions of Bible stories a poem called Genesis another called
Exodus actually Genesis is a very interesting poem uh there are also quite a lot of poems on
Saints lives St Juliana and so on the best of the Christian poems and a very very remarkable
poem is the dream of the rude which is an account of a sort of account of uh the crucifixion of
Christ in a very um germanized way really in that Christ is represented as a hero conquering his
enemies and it's quite different from the sort of thing that one's accustomed to perhaps later the
suffering Christ and so on the dream of the rude was one of the earliest poems written before 750
ad as carvings recorded from around this time suggest it is generally regarded as one of the finest
most original and perfectly constructed religious poems the author of the dream of the rude the
poem that most strikingly Blends heroic and Christian themes creat an impossible Paradox in
heroic terms but in Christian terms he illuminates the central mystery of Christ's victory over
death I could have laid our enemies low completely but I stood fast the young Warrior stripped
himself that was almighty God strong and Resolute he climbed the lofty gall s high-spirited in
the sight of many when he desired to free mankind I trembled when that man embraced me but
still I did not dare to bend to the ground or fall upon the surface of the Earth for I had to stand
fast I was lifted up the cross and I raised High the mighty king the cross is personified here and
depicts itself as a loyal follower of its Lord Christ whom it describes as a Germanic Warrior
advancing boldly to battle yet the cross's Loyalty requires that it obey its Lord's command to
Stand Fast and become the instrument of his death a death which medieval Christian theology
interpreted as actually being Christ's moment of Triumph from this perspective the cross's
Loyalty serves its Lord's purpose after all with this unnerving dislocation of the heroic ideal the
poet has taken an abstract theological IC concept and made it accessible the dream of the rude
views a Christian Paradox through the lens of heroic ideals bearwolf looks in the other direction
its author regards his idealized hero from the vantage point of a Christian who feels every
Sympathy for the triumphs and tragedies of his Pagan characters despite his sympathy the
beerwolf poet acknowledges the essential hopelessness of the heroic Paradigm repeatedly
throughout the poem here he describes how rothgar the descendant of shi shaving has built a
magnificent me Hall a material symbol of his culture's yearning for order and Harmony he did
not fail of his boast he distributed Rings treasures at his Feast the hall towered lofty and wide
gabled it awaited the destructive billowing of hateful fire it was not yet the time when the sword
hate of son-in-law and father-in-law should awaken in deadly enmity here it is the moment of
Triumph that contains the hidden seeds of disaster the poet sees the newb built Hall in all its
Glory as awaiting its eventual destruction in a feud between kosar's people and those of his son-
in-law inelt this was a well-known event in Germanic Legend the common stock of Legend and
history shared by the poet and his audience allows him to make this illusion to the fate of roar's
hall with such economy many of the meat Hall scenes in bolf involve a great deal of ritual and
ceremony these Express the Anglo-Saxon author's ideal of a well-ordered society uh and they
involve rituals and ceremonies of address of gift giving of the passing around of the Mead cup of
course and all of these helped to cement the bonds and ties of loyalty and trust that underpin
Anglo-Saxon Society at least as a literary ideal Beyond this we can see how the crisis in the main
Narrative of bolf the assaults of the monsters both those of grindle and his mother and those of
the dragon at the end are directed in the first instance at Aid Hall uh it's roar's me Hall that is
haunted by Grendel's mother and made uninhabitable by night and it's bol's own me Hall that is
destroyed by the dragon in his first raids and this represents the threat from the outside to that
great good place which is the sheltered space where all the ideals of uh heroic Society can be
fully realized the poet also combines folklore and Christian tradition to give depth to his portrait
of beer Wolf's first two adversaries the monster grindle and his unnamed mother who haunt
roar's Hall by night and devour any they find there him sh for in kind the Creator had banished
him among the race of Cain the Everlasting Lord Avenged that murder when he slew Abel he
had no joy from that assault for the Lord exiled him far from the race of men for his crime all
sorts of unnatural progeny arose from him evil spirits and elves and Giants as well who wared
with God for many ages he gave them their reward for that it's a rather striking feature of bolf
that the poem's hero who over the course of a long career has many combats with human
adversaries that the poet never really focuses on those uh the main narrative is involved with B
Wolf's combats with the three monsters and uh in the first instance this does at least simplify the
moral background um in all of the stories that the poet does have to tell about human conflict of
humans fighting humans um he focuses inevitably on situations where the heroic code has
broken down where human passions can no longer be contained where there's a great deal of
moral ambiguity inevitably in uh the Rights and Wrongs of what happens so that in the first
instance focusing on B's monster fights simplifies the moral background it gives bolf clearly evil
adversaries uh against whom he must contend and and there's absolutely no question about that
what is interesting is as bwolf nears the end of his life as he's approaching his fight with the
dragon Memories of his career as an Earthly Warrior start crowding back in on him he has long
passages where he recalls uh his Lord helo's disastrous raid where he dies and bolf barely
escapes and many other events in uh the history of bol's own people the Gees in their contentions
with various human adversaries and it's almost as though as bwolf is coming to his own end he's
beginning to be overwhelmed by the human dimension of the heroic ideal um uh which has been
absent to a great extent from his main Endeavors in his fights with the monsters and again this
could be another way of the poet showing us in the end the inadequacy of the heroic ideal even
as excellently embodied as it was by his main character the poet makes grindle more than just a
Germanic Beman he is here given a lineage that goes back to Cain the first murderer there are
also apocryphal Traditions that identify the Giants mentioned in the Book of Genesis as The
Offspring of unions between Earthly women and Fallen Angels the poet was probably aware of
these Traditions so he is here extending Grendel's horrific ancestry right back to God's original
opponents the Fallen Angels who rebelled against him in the Deep past from this perspective the
nightly visitations in hrothgar's Hall become skirmishes in the cosmic battle between good and
evil that has gone on since before time itself a battle which Anglo-Saxon Christians believed
themselves to be engaged in as well by having bearwolf triumph over such a creature as grindel
the poet has paid him the highest compliment a medieval Christian Author could offer a pagan
hero it's no good pretending that everyone can enjoy anglo-saxon poetry apart from anything else
the language is very opaque if I recite to the opening lines of bearwolf you'll see what I mean it's
totally unintelligible to a Modern English person uh through linguistic change of course so one
has to learn the language and that's a rather painful process in fact as many undergraduates find
but if one does learn language and is able to read it in the original as distinct from translations
although there are good translations certainly of bear with but if you read it in the original one
does I think enter a world of extremely high and developed art um the um quality of the writing I
suppose is is one thing one would want to say it's a strange kind of writing it's not the kind of
writing that we're accustomed to the meter is different and so on and yet it's very polished and
very brilliant there is also if you ask what appeals to me personally I suppose the main thing
about apart from the Excellence of it is uh The Melancholy which Broods over most of it um it is
a deeply Melancholy verse as recorded in the four manuscripts and bearwolf has a very strong
sense of the sadness of life and the transience of things and these seem to be profound truths
which one can read about in poems like that to some effect [Music]