Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Poetry:

*The Anglo-Saxon/old English period goes from the invasion of Celtic England by the Angles, Saxons
and Jutes in the first half of the 5th century up till the 11th century (conquest in 1066 by William of
Normandy).

*Many Anglo-Saxon poems, in the form they are extant (of a document; still in existence, surviving)
were not written down until perhaps 2 and 1 half centuries after their compositions. As Anglo-Saxons
were pagans they had an oral literature. Old English poetry was performed by the scops(travelling
minstrels) who were the memory bank for the tribe. Anglo-Saxon poems that were told orally
survived/have been preserved thanks to the Christian monks who wrote them down nearly at 733 C.E.

*After the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in the 7th century, they began to develop a
written literature. The Church and the Benedictine monastic foundations and their Latin culture
played an important part in the development of Anglo-Saxon England cultural life, literacy and
learning. Anglo-Saxon England is thought to have been rich in poetry, but very little of it survives.
Most of the available corpus of Anglo-Saxon literature, little more than 30,000 lines in all, survives in
just four manuscript books.

*Old-English is a term used to refer to the language and either oral (composed) or written (written
down) literature in vernacular old English language/Anglo-Saxon English in England during the rule
of the Anglo-Saxons.

*From the Anglo-Saxon period dates what is known as Old English literature composed in the
vernacular Anglo-Saxon/old English language. It encompasses/ includes early national poetry: Pagan
Epic Poetry and Pagan Elegies, old English Christian Poetry, Latin writings and Old English Prose.

1. Pagan Epic Poetry Beowulf is the chief Anglo-Saxon epic poem. It is wholly mysterious. No one
knows who wrote it, or when, or where, or why. Beowulf is a narrative poem of 3,182 lines,
transmitted in a manuscript written between the tenth and the twelfth centuries, but much older. To
some it is the symbol of the antiquity and continuity of English poetry. But it never mentions people
who are known to bave lived in Britain. All its allusions are Continental or Scandinavian. Apart from
Beowulf, the only surviving remains of early national epic poetry are a fragment, s Lament, The
Finnesburgh Fragment, (50 lines), and two short fragments (63 lines together) of Waldere, The Battle
of Maldon, The Battle of Brunanburh.

2 Pagan Lyrical and Elegiac Poems There is little else surviving of Anglo-Saxon literature which makes
direct contact with the older heroic view. Dear's Lament, an interesting poern of forty- two lines, is the
complaint of a minstrel who,after years of service to his lord, has been supplanted by a rival,
Heorrenda. He comfort himself by recounting the trials of Germanic heroes, all of which were
eventually overcome. But the main interest of the poem lies in its combination of this kind of suhject
matter with a personal, elegiac note, Together with Deor's Lament, there are other Anglo- Saxon
clegies: The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Ruin, The Wife's Lament, The Husband's Message,wulf, and
Rain Elegies is no more than a label of convenience applied to a small group of poems not unlike each
other in theme und tone, In Saxon poetry, the lyric mood is always the elegiac. The so-called elegies
are pocms where the topic itself is loss: loss of a lord, loss of a loved one, the loss of fine buildings
fallen into decay READING THE ELEGLAC MOOD The elegiac mood wells up, then, in a great
number of old English poems. But the six so-called Elegies are poems where the topic itself is loss -
loss of a lord, loss of a loved one, the loss of fine buildings fallen inlo decay. They are all to be found in
the Exeter Book, a manuscript now in Exeter Cathedral Library Al the heart of Anglo-Saxon society lay
two key relationships. The first was that between a lord and his retaincrs, one of the hallmarks of any
heroic society, which guaranteed the lord military and agricultural service and guaranteed the retainer
protection and land. The second was the relationship, as it is today between any man and his loved
one, and the family sumounding them. So one of the most unfortunate members ofthis world (as for
any) was the exile, the man who because of his own weakness (cowardice, for example) or through no
fault of his own, was sentenced to live out his days wandering from place to place, or anchored in
some alien place, far from the comforts of home. This is the situation underlying four of the elegies.

3. Old English Christian Poetry. Religious poetry seems to have flourished in northern England-
Northumbria- throughout the eighth century, though most of it has survived only in West Saxon
transcriptions of the late tenth century Monks produced not only manuscripts, masonry, sculpture
and missionaries but also a lot of Christian poetry. Much of it consists of retellings of books and
episodes from the Old Testament. Much of this religious poetry is anonymous but the names of two
poets are known: CAEDMON(d. c. 6700, the first English poet known by name, and CYNEWULF(ate
eighth or early ninth century) They wrote on biblical and religious themes. According to Bede
Caedmon became the founder of a school of Christian poetry and the he was the first to use the
traditional metre diction for Christian religious poetry. This period of Old English poetry is called
"Caedmonian". All the old religious poems that were not assigned to Caedmon were invariably given
to Cymewulf, the poet of the second phase of Old English Christian poetry. With Cynewulf, Anglo-
Saxon religious poetry moves beyond biblical paraphrase into the didactic, the devotional, and the
mystical. The four Anglo-Saxon Christian poems which have the name of Cynewulf are Christ, Juliana,
Elene, and The Fates of the Apostles. All ese poems possess both a high degree of literary
craftsmanship and a note of mystical contemplation which sometimes rises to a high level of religious
passion. One of the most remarkable poems written under the influence of the school of Cynewulf is
The Dream of the Rood.

The Development of the English Language The origins of the English language can be traced back to
the settlement of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in Britain in the fifth century AD. The languages
spoken by the three Germanic tribes were mutually intelligible and Hn quickly fused together to form
old English. Old English differed from Modern English in spelling, pronunciation, grammar and
vocabulary. over eighty-five percent of Old English words do not exist any more. The words that are
left generally refer to everyday common objects or family relations. They include words like mann
(man), cild (child) and hus (house). Grammatical words such as pronouns, prepositions and auxiliary
verbs are also of Anglo-Saxon origin.

Anglo-saxon Literature We know very little about the people who composed Anglo-Saxon poetry
because their work belonged to an oral tradition. They were travelling minstrels called scops who
performed for noblemen in the halls of kings. Their social function was very important because they
knew the old stories the first settlers had brought with them in the fifth century from their continental
homelands, and they were in a sense the memory bank for the tribe or the kingdom's history. Anglo-
Savon poetry is musical and the scop often accompanied himself on a harp or a lyre. Musical elements
of the language such as alliteration" and rhythm. were important because they helpod the scop to
memorise the often very long works, and so facilitated the handing down of poems orally, from
generaton to generation. The poems composed by the scops can be divided into two groups: Pagan
and Christian. The Pagan group includes sagas, tales and legends that are common to all Germanic
cultures and which were brought to Britain during the carly nvasions. The subjecls of the Cliristian
poetry were taken from the Blble and the lives of the saints. Caedmon (mid-seventh century) and
Cynewulf (eighth century) were the most important writers of religious poetry. Caedmon wrote
poems based on stories from the old Testament. Cynewulf wrote poems about the lives of the saints
and apostles nks What remains of early Anglo-Saxon poetry today was written down by monks in
monasteries from the end of seventh century onward. The monks often eliminated pagan aspects of
the works that contrasted with religion and added elements of Christian morality.

Only about 30,000 lines of Anglo-saxon verse survive today. About ten percent of this corpus is
formed by the 3,182 lines of the 2 epic poem Beowulf, the oldest existing work of literature in the
English language. The Angles Saxons and Jutes took the story to Britain during their fifth century
invasions, then the story was passed on from generation to generation until it was eventually willlen
down by an anonymous writer, probably in the eighth century. The only surviving manuscript of the
poem dates from the tenth century. It is currently housed in the British Library in London ing The
poem tells the story of the hero Beowulf in his fights against supernatural creatures and includes
many relerences to other stories and historical events. Most of the main aclion lakes place in Geatland
(in sweden) and on the Danish island of Sjaelland (Zealand) during the sixth century. However, the
many digressions extend the poem's geography to the rest of Denmark, northern Germany, Poland
and the Low Countries.Although there is no evidence that Beowulf himself ever existed, it seems that
several poems were composed about the character. The poets obviously had a deep knowledge of
Germanic history and even though Beowulf is a legendary figure the events of the poem occur in a real
place and in a precise historical setting. The oldest example of Anglo-saxon prose is represented by
laws written at the beginning of the seventh century. Howevcr, thc most importani document from
that period is the Anglo-saxon Chronicle. It was originally compiled on the orders of King Alfred the
Great in approximately AD 890 and subsequently maintained and added to by generations of
anonymous scribes until the middle of the twelfth century. It is a detailed timeline of English history,
which includes information on agriculture, science, law, battles, religion and many other topics. It
does not present a complete history of those times and it is not one hundred percent accurate but it
does give some idea of what happened in Britain over one thousand years ago.