Course paper

OLD ENGLISH POETRY
Beowulf, the most notable example of the earliest English poetry, is an odd blend of Christianity and paganism. Old English, the language of Beowulf, is the source of modern English. Although Old English differed greatly from the language of today, much of the vigor and precision of modern English comes from the many Anglo-Saxon forms still used. The older language was a highly inflectional one; that is, it had many case endings for the nouns, pronouns, and adjectives and a complex system of verbs. It resembled modern German in grammar and in much of its vocabulary as well.
The story of Beowulf takes place in lands other than England, but the customs and manners described were those of the Anglo-Saxon people. This epic poem describes their heroic past. It tells of Beowulf’s three fierce fights—with the monster Grendel, the equally ferocious mother of Grendel, and the fiery dragon. By conquering them, Beowulf saves his people from destruction.
The versification of Beowulf is highly stressed, with the strong beats falling upon syllables that alliterate—(that is, which repeat the same sound). These lines illustrate this forceful technique:
Lonely and waste is the land they inhabit,
Wolf-cliffs wild and windy headlands.
Much of Old English poetry, such as The Battle of Brunanburg and The Battle of Maldon, is heroic and martial. The Wanderer and The Sea-Farer have a sad and pleasing lyric quality.
Only two Old English poets are known by name. Caedmon was an unlearned cowherd. According to legend, he was inspired by a vision and miraculously acquired the gift of poetic song. Unfortunately, only nine lines by this first known poet survive. The second known poet was Cynewulf. Little is known of him except that he signed his poems in a kind of cypher, or anagram, made up of ancient figures called runes (an alphabet used by early Germanic tribes preceding the use of the Roman alphabet in England). His poems, such as Christ, deal with religious subjects.
For the first eleven hundred years of its recorded history, the island of Britain suffered a series of invasions. The southern part of the island, washed by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, was attractive to outsiders with its mild climate and rich soil. Each invasion brought bloodshed and sorrow, but each also brought new people with new culture and those different peoples created a nation.
250,000 years ago the island was inhabited by cave dwellers. Invaders from the Iberian peninsula (Modern Spain and Portugal) overcame their culture about 2000 B.C., erecting Stonehenge - the circle of huge upright stones. Then a new group, the Celts, appeared. Migrating from East, the Celtic people spread throughout Europe before reaching the British Isles around 600 B.C. They used bronze and later iron tools and grew crops. Some Celtic tribes, each with its own King, warred with each other, and erected timber and stone fortresses. Their priests - called druids - made sacrifices in forest shrines. The people who lived in Britain at that time were called the Britons.
In the 1st century before our era the powerful State of Rome conquered Britain. The Romans were practical men. They were very clever at making hard roads and building bridges and fine tall houses. The Romans taught Britons many things. But at the end of the 4th century they had to leave Britain because they were needed to defend their own country invaded by barbaric people.
As soon as Romans left, Britain had to defend the country from Germanic tribes called Angles, Saxons and Jutes. The Anglo-Saxons were advanced people and by the time they conquered Britain, they already had their own letters called “runes”, but still no written literature existed yet, and the stories and poems they made up passed from one generation to another verbally. Songs and tales composed by people when at work or at war, or for amusement (folk-lore) became wide-spread. There were also professional singers called “bards”. They composed songs about events they wanted to be remembered. Their songs were about wonderful battles and exploits of brave warriors. These songs were handed down to their children and grandchildren and finally reached the times when certain people who were called “scribes” wrote them down. (The word “scribe” comes from the Latin “scribere”-“to write”).
Many old English poems glorified a real or imaginary hero and tried to teach the values of bravery and generosity. Poets used alliteration (words that begin with the same sound) and kennings (elaborate descriptive phrases). They also used internal rhyme, in which a word within a line rhymes with a word at the end of the line.
The first major work of English literature is the epic poem “Beowulf”.
“Beowulf”
The beautiful Anglo-Saxon poem “Beowulf” may be called the foundation-stone of all British poetry. It tells of times long before the Angles and Saxons came to Britain. There is no mention of England in it. The poem was composed around 700 by an unknown author. This was about seventy years after the death of Mohammed and in the same age as the beginning of the great Tang Dynasty in China. Three hundred years later, about the year 1000, the manuscript, which still survives, was written down by an unknown scribe. The poem presents the legendary history of the Anglo-Saxons, and its author might have been descended from the original tribes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who invaded Britain from the European continent in the fifth century. Those people spoke Germanic language in which the poem is written. “Beowulf” is 3182 lines long, approximately 80 or 90 pages in book length. The narrative itself falls into two halves: the first part takes place in Denmark where, coming to the aid of King Hrothgar, Beowulf fights the monster Grendel and Grendel's mother. The second part is set in Southern Sweden where, after the death of King Hygelac and his son, Heardred, Beowulf has ruled in peace and prosperity far 50 years before being called upon to combat a dragon that is terrorizing the country after having its treasure hoard looted. “Beowulf” blends a fairy-tale narrative with considerable historical material. (Sweedish and Danish kings really ruled in the VI century).
The manuscript of “Beowulf” is in the British Museum, in London. It is impossible for a non-specialist to read it in the original, so it was translated into modern English language in the 20th century.
The story of Beowulf:
Once upon a time, many-many centuries ago, there lived a king of Danes named Hrothgar. He had won many battles and gained great wealth. He built a large and beautiful palace (Heorot) and he presented costly gifts to his warriors and gave splendid banques. But the joy of the king didn't last long. In the dark fens nearby there lived a fierce sea-monster Grendel. He wanted to destroy the palace Heorot as he disliked noise. Grendel looked like a man but was much bigger, and his whole body was covered with long hair, so thick and tough that no weapon could harm him.
One night when the warriors in Heorot were asleep, Grendel rushed in, seized thirty men and devoured them. The next night the monster appeared again. The men defended themselves bravely, but their swords could not even hurt the monster. From that time no one dared to come to Heorot. For twelve years the palace stood deserted. The news of the disaster reached Beowulf, nephew of Hygelac, king of the Jutes. Beowulf was the strongest and the bravest of all the warriors. He was said to have the strength of thirty men. He decided to help Hrothgar. With fourteen chosen companions he set sail for the country of the Danes. Hrothgar gladly welcomed Beowulf and gave a banquet in his honour. Late at night, when the feast was over, all went to sleep except Beowulf. Beowulf knew that no weapon could kill Grendel and decided to fight bare-handed.
Suddenly the man-eater rushed into the hall. He seized and devoured one of the sleeping warriors, and then approached Beowulf. A desperate hand-to-hand fight began. At first Beowulf's courage fled:
The demon delayed not, but quickly clutched
A sleeping thane in his swift assault,
Gulped the blood, and gobbled the flesh,
Greedily gorged on the lifeless corpse,
The hands and the feet. Then the fiend stepped nearer,
Sprang on the Sea-Geat lying outstretched,
Glasping him close with his monstrous clow.
But Beowulf grappled and gripped him hard,
Struggled up on his elbow; the shepherd of sins
Soon found that never before had he felt
In any man other in all the earth
A mightier hand-grip; his mood was humbled,
His courage fled; but he found no escape!
But soon, remembering the boast he had made at the banquet and his glorious duty, Beowulf regained his courage, sprang to his feet and went on fighting. It was so terrible that the walls of the palace shook. Beowulf managed to tear off Grendel's arm, and the monster retreated to his den howling and roaring with pain and fury. He was fatally wounded and soon died:
Each loathed the other while life should last!
There Grendel suffered a grievous hurt,
A wound in the shoulder, gaping and wide;
Sinews snapped and bone-joints broke,
And Beowulf gained the glory of battle.
Grendel, fated, fled to the fens,
To his joyless dwelling, sick unto death.
He knew in his heart that his hours were numbered
His days at an end. For all the Danes
There wish was fulfilled in the fall of Grendel.
The stranger from far, the stalwart and strong,
Had purged of evil the hall of Hrothgar,
And cleansed of crime; the heart of the hero
Joyed in the deed his daring had done.
The next night Grendel's mother, a water-witch, came to Heorot to avenge her son's death. While Beowulf was asleep she snatched away one of Hrothgar's favourite warriors. Beowulf decided to kill the water-witch too. He plunged into the water and found the water-witch in her den beside the dead body of her son. A desperate fight began. At first Beowulf was nearly overcome, as his sword had no power against the monster. But fortunately his glance fell upon a huge magic sword hanging on the wall. Beowulf killed the monster with its help. Then he cut off the heads of Grendel and of the water-witch and carried them to the surface. Heorot was freed forever.
Hrothgar poured treasures into Beowulf's hands.
At last the day came for Beowulf to sail home. Everybody regretted his departure. When Beowulf arrived in his own land, he gave all the treasures he had brought to Hygelac and the people. Beowulf was admired and honoured by everybody. After the death of Hygelac, Beowulf became the king of the Jutes.
For fifty years he ruled his country wisely and well until one day a great disaster befell the happy land: every night there appeared a fire-breathing dragon who came and destroyed the villages. Remembering his glorious youth, Beowulf decided to fight and save his people, but of all his earls only Wiglaf, a brave warrior and heir to the kingdom, had the courage to help him. In a fierce battle the dragon was killed, but his flames burnt Beowulf.
Beowulf ordered Wiglaf to take as much treasure as he could carry and give it to the Jutes. In his last hour he thought only of his people, for whose happiness he had sacrificed his life. Beowulf's victory over the monsters symbolized the triumph of a man over the powers of darkness and evil.
The Literature of the 7th - 11th Centuries
Anglo-Saxon Literature. The culture of the early Britons greatly changed under the influence of Christianity, which penetrated into the British Isles in the 3rd century. That was the time when many Christians escaped from Roman persecution to Britain and Gaul (France), which were colonies of the Roman Empire at that period.
At the end of the 6th century the head of the Roman church at that time Pope Gregory decided to spread his influence over England by converting people to Christianity and sent monks to the island. They landed in Kent and built the first church in the town of Canterbury.
Now the Roman civilization poured into the country again, Latin words once more entered the language of the Anglo-Saxons, because the religious books were all written in Latin. The monasteries, where reading and writing were practiced, became the centre of learning and education in the country. Poets and writers of that period imitated Latin books about the early Christians, and also made up stories of their own, about saints. The names of only two of those early poets have reached our days. They were Caedmon and Cynewulf.
Caedmon lived in the 7th century. He was a shepherd at Whitby, a famous abbey in Yorkshire. He composed his poetry in his native language, in the Northumbrian dialect of Anglo-Saxon. He composed hymns and a poem “Paraphrase”. This poem retells fragments from the Bible in alliterative verse. Many other monks took part in the work but their names are unknown.
Cynewulf was a monk who lived at the end of the 8th century. His name was not forgotten, as he signed his name in runes in the last line of his works. Two of his poems, “Elene” and “Juliana” are notable because they are the first Anglo-Saxon works to introduce women characters.
Along with religious poetry, folk-tales about worldly affairs were written down at the monasteries and put into verse by poets. These were wedding-songs, songs to be sung at feasts, war-songs, death-songs, and also ploughing-songs, and even riddles.
Thus, the spread of Christianity was crucial for the development of Anglo-Saxon culture. The Church brought contact with the distant and ancient Mediterranean world. To the illiterate Germanic tribes it brought the essential skill for advanced culture - writing. Soon Anglo-Saxon monasteries were copying books from Rome and beginning to produce manuscripts. The church also served as a force for unity and peace, trying to teach new values to these warrior-kings - compassion and cooperation, instead of arrogance and violence.
Written literature did not exist in the British Isles until about the year 700. It first comes to our attention in the work of the most famous of the Anglo-Saxon monks, the Venerable Bede.
The Venerable Bede (673-735)
The Venerable Bede is considered the father of English history, as he was the author of the most important history of early England. During his lifetime he was the most learned scholar in all of Western Europe. He was born in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in 673. He was orphaned when he was only seven and his relatives put him under the supervision of monks at Wearmouth Abbey. Two years later, in 682, he was sent to the newly built abbey of Jarrow, where he was to spend the rest of his life.
From boyhood Bede studied in the library of Jarrow. Then in 703, the year of the ordination to the priesthood, Bede began to write. During 28 years he completed forty books: commentaries on the Bible; lives of abbots, martyrs, and saints; books on philosophy and poetry.
Bede's masterpiece, completed in 731, when he was 51 years old, is his “The Ecclesiastical History of the English Race”, which describes the growth of the Christian church in England from the attack of Julius Caesar in 55 B.C. to Bede's own days. Although Bede was Anglo-Saxon, he wrote the work in Latin, the language he spoke and wrote. Late in the ninth century, scholars at the court of King Alfred translated it into Anglo-Saxon. “The Ecclesiastical History of the English Race” seemed to them one of the central works of their culture, worthy of reproduction into a language more people could read.
Alfred the Great (849 - 901)
The beginning of the 9th century was a troubled time for England. Da-nish pirates, called Northmen kept coming from overseas for plunder. Each year their number increased. When Alfred was made king in 871, England's danger was the greatest. Nevertheless, in a great battle fought by Alfred at Maldon in 891, the Northmen were defeated, and Alfred decided to make peace with them. The greater portion of England was given up to the new-comers. The only part of the kingdom left in possession of Alfred was Wessex.
Alfred was a Latin scholar. He is famous not only for having built the first navy, but for trying to enlighten his people. He drew up a code of laws and translated the Church-history of Bede from Latin into Anglo-Saxon, the native language of his people, and a part of the Bible as well. He created the first history of England, the first prose in English literature, the famous “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”.
The literature of the early Middle Ages and the church taught that man was an evil being and his life on earth was a sinful life. As man was subordinated to God he had to prepare himself for the after-life by subduing his passions and disregarding all earthly cares.