A History of English Literature.

Old English Literature

Alexei Chirdeachin, PhD, As.Prof.
 Old English Literature: 450–1066
 Old English literature, or Anglo-Saxon literature, encompasses the
surviving literature written in Old English in Anglo-Saxon England, in the
period after the settlement of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes in
England (Jutes and the Angles), after the withdrawal of the Romans, and
ending soon after the Norman Conquest in 1066. These works include
genres such as epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations,
legal works, chronicles and riddles. In all there are about 400 surviving
manuscripts from the period.
 Widsith, which appears in the Exeter Book of the late 10th century, gives
a list of kings of tribes ordered according to their popularity and impact
on history, with Attila King of the Huns coming first, followed by
Eormanric of the Ostrogoths. It may also be the oldest extant work that
tells the Battle of the Goths and Huns, which is also told in such later
Scandinavian works as Hervarar's saga and Gesta Danorum.
 Old English Literature: 450–1066 (cont.)
 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English,
from the 9th century, that chronicle is the history of the Anglo-
Saxons. The poem Battle of Maldon also deals with history. This is
a work of uncertain date, celebrating the Battle of Maldon of
991, at which the Anglo-Saxons failed to prevent a Viking
invasion.
 Oral tradition was very strong in early English culture and most
literary works were written to be performed. Epic poems were
very popular, and some, including Beowulf, have survived to the
present day. Beowulf is the most famous work in Old English, and
has achieved national epic status in England, despite being set in
Scandinavia. The only surviving manuscript is the Nowell Codex,
the precise date of which is debated, but most estimates place it
close to the year 1000. Beowulf is the conventional title, and its
composition is dated between the 8th and the early 11th century.
 Old English Literature: 450–1066 (cont.)
 Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous: twelve are known by name from
medieval sources, but only four of those are known by their vernacular works with
any certainty: Cædmon, Bede, Alfred the Great, and Cynewulf. Cædmon is the
earliest English poet whose name is known, and his only known surviving work
Cædmon's Hymn probably dates from the late 7th century. The poem is one of the
earliest attested examples of Old English and is, with the runic Ruthwell Cross and
Franks Casket inscriptions, one of three candidates for the earliest attested
example of Old English poetry. It is also one of the earliest recorded examples of
sustained poetry in a Germanic language. The poem, The Dream of the Rood, was
inscribed upon the Ruthwell Cross.
 Two Old English poems from the late 10th century are The Wanderer and The
Seafarer. Both have a religious theme, and Richard Marsden describes The Seafarer
as an exhortatory and didactic poem, in which the miseries of winter seafaring are
used as a metaphor for the challenge faced by the committed Christian.
 Classical antiquity was not forgotten in Anglo-Saxon England, and several Old
English poems are adaptations of late classical philosophical texts. The longest is
King Alfred's (849–899) 9th-century translation of Boethius' Consolation of
Philosophy.
 Old English Literature: 450–1066 (cont.)
 A large number of manuscripts remain from the Anglo-Saxon period, with most written
during its last 300 years (9th to 11th centuries).
 Manuscripts written in both Latin and the vernacular remain. It is believed that Irish
missionaries are responsible for the scripts used in early Anglo-Saxon texts, which
include the Insular half-uncial (important Latin texts) and Insular minuscule (both Latin
and the vernacular). In the 10th century, the Caroline minuscule was adopted for Latin,
however the Insular minuscule continued to be used for Old English texts. Thereafter, it
was increasingly influenced by Caroline minuscule, while retaining certain distinctively
Insular letter-forms.
 There are four major poetic manuscripts:
 The Junius manuscript, also known as the Cædmon manuscript, is an illustrated
collection of poems on biblical narratives.
 The Exeter Book is an anthology, located in the Exeter Cathedral since it was donated
there in the 11th century.
 The Vercelli Book contains both poetry and prose; it is not known how it came to be in
Vercelli.
 The Beowulf Manuscript (British Library Cotton Vitellius A. xv), sometimes called the
Nowell Codex, contains prose and poetry, typically dealing with monstrous themes,
including Beowulf.
 Old English Literature: 450–1066 (cont.)
 Old English poetry falls broadly into two styles or fields of reference, the heroic
Germanic and the Christian. Almost all Old English poets are anonymous.
 Even though all extant Old English poetry is written and literate, it is assumed that Old
English poetry was an oral craft that was performed by a scop and accompanied by a
harp.
 Most Old English poems are recorded without authors, and very few names are known
with any certainty; the primary three are Cædmon, Aldhelm, and Cynewulf.
 Cædmon is considered the first Old English poet whose work still survives. According to
the account in Bede's Historia ecclesiastica, he was first a herdsman before living as a
monk at the abbey of Whitby in Northumbria in the 7th century. Only his first poem,
comprising nine-lines, Cædmon's Hymn, remains, in Northumbrian, West-Saxon and
Latin versions that appear in 19 surviving manuscripts.
 Cynewulf has proven to be a difficult figure to identify, but recent research suggests he
was an Anglian poet from the early part of the 9th century. Four poems are attributed
to him, signed with a runic acrostic at the end of each poem; these are The Fates of the
Apostles and Elene (both found in the Vercelli Book), and Christ II and Juliana (both
found in the Exeter Book).
Old English Literature: 450–1066 (cont.)
 Although William of Malmesbury claims that Aldhelm,
bishop of Sherborne (d. 709), performed secular songs
while accompanied by a harp, none of these Old English
poems survives. Paul G. Remely has recently proposed
that the Old English Exodus may have been the work of
Aldhelm, or someone closely associated with him.
 Bede is often thought to be the poet of a five-line poem
entitled Bede's Death Song, on account of its appearance
in a letter on his death by Cuthbert. This poem exists in a
Northumbrian and later version.
 Alfred is said to be the author of some of the metrical
prefaces to the Old English translations of Gregory's
Pastoral Care and Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy.
 The Anglo-Saxons formed the basis of English culture, religion, and language and
ruled England for 600 years. The term Anglo-Saxon refers to a group of settlers
from the German regions of Angeln and Saxony who took over England after the
fall of the Roman Empire. The Anglo-Saxons first introduced Old English
literature in the fifth century. We refer to the years between 450 and 1066 as the
the Old English or Anglo-Saxon period. The Old English language, or Anglo-
Saxon, is the foundation of Modern English, although if untrained Modern English
speakers could hear someone speaking Old English, they would not be able to
understand it.
 One of the first examples of literature written during the Old English period was a
poem written by a man named Caedmon, who was a cattle herder around 680 A.D.
Caedmon's poem survived because it was written down by a monk named Bede in
733 A.D. Many writings from Anglo-Saxon literature were preserved after being
written down by clerics or others with knowledge of a story through the years.
 The Exeter Book is the most popular book in Old English Literature. It contains a
total of 131 stories. It is the only surviving source for many popular pieces of
literature written in Old English times, including 'The Wanderer,' 'The Seafarer,'
and 'The Wife's Lament.'