Course paper

THE TOPICALITY -BEOWULF //-THE ANGLO-SAXON EPIC POEM
The aim of my course paper is to reveal old English poem
To reach the aim I put forward the following tasks:

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  to study a literary genre
  
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  to investigate Beowulf
  
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  to analyse the anglo-saxon epic poem
  

The subject of my course paper is content Beowulf //-The Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem


The theoretical value of the course paper is of this research lies in its usage for future scientific writings on the given topic: articles, thesis, essays, etc.;
The course paper includes introduction, 1 chapter , conclusion and list of references.
II.MAIN PART

1.English Literature at the turn of the 7^th and 8^th century
The beginnings of English literature appeared in the 7th or 8th century ad. After the Romans withdrew their troops from Britain in 410, there followed a long period of social unrest, war, and turbulence. The Britons were forced to defend themselves alone against Picts and Scots from Scotland. Then the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes came from the European continent. They plundered city after city. If these invaders left any literature, none of it has survived. By the middle of the 6th century the Britons had been pushed to the western borders of England, where they set up small tribal governments. When this society became established, English literature began.
In 597 Pope Gregory I sent Augustine to convert the British to Christianity. He established a Benedictine abbey at Canterbury as the seat of his diocese. This became the center of learning and scholarship of all Western Europe.
EARLY WORKS OF SCHOLARSHIP
Bede the Venerable, a monk, was the greatest Anglo-Saxon scholar. His beautifully written Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) is a monumental account of his times.
Another monk, Alcuin, was probably the most learned man in the Europe of his time. He was a liturgical reformer and was largely responsible for the revival of Latin scripts under Charlemagne. Alfred the Great made contributions to this already rich literature by writing in the native tongue and encouraging scholarly translations from Latin into Old English (Anglo-Saxon).
Alfred translated some Latin texts himself into the tongue of the West Saxons; and it was under him, probably, that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was begun. This history of the chief events of each year is of prime importance to historians. Under Alfred, Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica also was translated from the Latin, so that the people could study their past.