Anglo-Saxon RootsPessimism and Comradeship

First Milestones

Much ancient English literature has been

lost or exists only in fragments.

Our study of English literatures will begin

with the Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf.

First Milestones

The greatest work of the early period of

English literature was the creation of

minstrels or scops.

Early literature was sung, recited, or

spoken, not written or printed.

Oral literature is a literature of the ear.

It is also typically a communal experience.

The Latin Legacy

Beowulf—dates from around the 8th

century, during the Dark Age that fell

after the Romans left the British Isles.

The Romans left one monument behind

them, the Latin language used by the

church.

The Latin Legacy

During this time, England was under

invasion by the Angles, Saxons, Jutes,

Danes, and Vikings.

These newcomers brought with them a

tribal, oral literature.

Synthesis

The Christian missionaries who came to

England brought with them the Bible, and

inevitably, long rooted pagan traditions

collided with Christian beliefs.

The result was a clash of cultures that

would influence language and literature up

until 1066, when the Normans came to

England.

This Poem Doesn’t Rhyme

Anglo-Saxon literature is principally

poetic, mainly because its continuity

depended on the scop or the singer.

The poetry does not use rhyme, nor does

it obey the complicated meters of Latin

poetry.

This Poem Doesn’t Rhyme

It is composed in half lines, units that

make memorization easier, and these half

lines are divided by a silent pause or

caesura, a “cut.”

The poetry is alliterative, meaning that in

a pair of poetic lines four or five words

might begin with the same consonant

sound.

This Poem Doesn’t Rhyme

Additionally, it is organized around stresses, not syllables.

Half lines and organization by 2 stresses per half line are found in both English and American poetry to this day.

Kennings, traditional phrases or figures of speech such as ban-haus (bone house) for body, or woruld-candel (world candle) for sun, are another prime feature of Anglo-Saxon poetry.

Rhythm: Old English has four main emphases

(or beats) in each line, reflecting the way these

poems were performed to the accompaniment

of loud strums on a harp or lyre. Scops, or

bards, accompanied by a harp or lyre, sang their

verse tales to audiences in mead halls.

Kennings: bards used many traditional phrases,

unique figures of speech called kennings.

Examples swan-rad (swan’s road) for sea, hilde-

leoma (light of battle) for sword, and mere-hraegl

(sea garment) for sail.

Important Characteristics of Old

English Poetry

Alliteration: The verse was highly alliterative; in a

pair of poetic lines, four or five stressed words

might begin with the same consonant. Example:

Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Repetition: as in Hebraic poetry of the Old

testament, statements are repeated, in differing

words, for emphasis.

Rapid narrative style: Unnecessary details are

omitted so that the story can move forward

unhindered. This is especially true of the epic

Beowulf.

Important Characteristics of Old

English Poetry

Anglo-Saxon Variety

The poetry of Anglo-Saxon England, from

the 8th to 11th centuries, falls into distinct

genres, including hymns or secular songs;

elegies; riddles and other minor works;

and of course epics, such as Beowulf.

Elegy vs. Epic

Elegies are less heroic than stoic. They celebrate suffering nobly borne.

In two of the greatest of them, The Wanderer and The Seafarer, the singers are men who have lost their ring-giver (thegn or chief), and with that their communities.

As the lines from these poems testify, the invaders who came from Friesland and northern Germany brought along with their swords and chainmail, a somber view of life, a kind of tough pessimism.

A line from Beowulf sums up the overriding mood: “Wyrd bith full aread,” Fate will be fulfilled.

Beowulf Background

The Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf conveys an overwhelming sense of the virtue of comradeship, based on the sword.

Beowulf is the only Anglo-Saxon or Germanic epic to have survived in something like the form in which it was first recited.

It was composed for recitation sometime between the 6th

and 8th centuries by pagan invaders from the northeast.

It was handed down through generations of minstrels until it was transcribed by a monk who couldn’t resist inserting Christian doctrine at various points circa 1000 AD.

The 3,000 line narrative can be divided into two parts; the first part is twice as long as the second.

In the poem, Beowulf is a Geat, a member of a tribe in what is now Sweden. He is a mighty warrior, not yet a king, but destined to be one.

Summary and Reaction

In the first part of the epic, Beowulf comes to Denmark to help Hrothgar, king of the Scyldings, whose great hall has been terrorized by a monster, Grendel for 12 years.

Beowulf defeats both Grendel and the monster’s mother, and there follows feasting, drinking, and treasure giving before Beowulf sails back to his own people.

Summary and Reaction

In the second part of the epic, which takes place many years later, Beowulf is king of the Geats, but now his kingdom is being terrorized by a dragon. Beowulf slays the dragon but is mortally wounded, and the poem ends with Beowulf's burial.

Readers who come to Beowulf for the first time usually have two very different reactions. The first is incomprehension; the language is so foreign that it jars. The second reaction is just the opposite. Even for someone who has not read the poem, it seems familiar, mainly because of the echoes of the work we see in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

Why Read It?

Beowulf is in some ways a time machine. Reading it can take us back and connect us with people who are no longer here.

It is, in a sense, a conversation with the dead. In fact, this is one reason to read and study literature and the reason that it lives for us.

This living quality of literature—the fact that it is still animated over centuries—makes it worth our time and effort and makes the historical approach to literature valuable.