The Old English

Teutonic origin
A branch of the great Aryans or Indo-European family of languages
Anglo-saxon Literature
1. The love for freedom
2. Responsiveness to nature
3. Strong religious convictions
4. A belief in Wyts, or Fate
5. Reverence for womanhood
The ruling motive in every warriors life
Northumbrian Literature
(650 and 850)
Bede- the Northumbrian School of Writers
Poets – Cynewulf and Caedmon
Northumbria was conquered by Danes
They destroyed the monasteries and libraries
1.Epic or heroic poem
Long verse narrative
Formal and elevated style
Centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure
Traditional epic or folk epic
(i) Beowulf (‘Geatas’ King)
Pagan origin
heroic
Anonymous origin
Theme: Continental Germanic
Written by a Christian for the ‘chirstianization’
West Saxon dialect: Anglian Dialect (Mercian or Northumbrian)
Hollywood movie in 2007

The ruinous deeds of the ravaging foe

 The Story
Prologue: Scyld, King of the Spear Danes
Heorot (a mead hall)
Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow sails to Denmark
Helps the Danish King Hrothgar of a monster Grendel
Revenge by Grendel’s mother (same fate)
King of Geatas-reign for 40 years
Slays a dragon-mortally wounded
The poem concludes with the funeral ceremonies in honour of the dead
hero
 The Style
The language is forceful and expressive
Kenning (compound words)
The use of repetition and variation
Strongly rhythmical
Stressed syllables with alliteration
Caesura
 Translation
Scot Edwin Morgan
Irishman Seamus Heaney (Irish Nobel Laureate)
2.The Pagan Poems
 (i) Widsith
Pagan origin
The far traveler
The personal life of the minstrels, wandering life of gleeman
Literature as a paying profession
The oldest poem in the language
150 lines in verse
A traveler (imaginary), recounts the places and illustrious people
Historically-important;Poetically-little merit
 (ii) Waldere
Heroic
2 fragments
60 lines
The exploits of Walter of Aquitaine
Little is preserved
A finest narrative piece
 (iii) The Fight at Finnsburh
Heroic
A fragment (drawn over the wooden cover of the book homilies)
War song,
Homeric power the defence of a wall by Hanaef(60 warriors) attack of Finn
50 lines
A finely told description of the fighting at Finnsburh (5 days)
Allusion- the Finn Episode in Beowulf
(iv) The Battle of Brunanburh
Heroic
A spirited piece of poem on the famous battle (937)
(v) The Battle of Maldon
Battle (993)
Individual deeds of valour and feelings of the warriors
Sentiments (Byrthtwold)
(vi) Deor’s Lament
Picture of Saxon Scop, or minstrel (sorrow)
Arranged in strophes
Refrain “His sorrow passed away so will mine”
That Evil ended. So also may this!
3. The Elegies
(The Exeter Book)
Monologues
(i) The Wanderer
 (ii) The Seafarer
The hardship of ocean life
Allegory: troubles of seaman are symbols of the troubles of this life
(iii) Wife’s Lament
(iv) Husband’s Message
 4.The Caedmon Group
Bede in his Ecclesiastical History tells the story of the lay brother
Caedmon
Divinely inspired
(Hilda of Whitby 658-80) A monk, sang Biblical events
(i) Cademon’s Hymn
(655 A.D.)
Cademon- Anglo-saxon Milton
09 Lines in length
Repetition
Parallel phrasing
Paraphrase (more than one
author)
The story of Genesis, Caedmon and a part of Daniel
Bede comments Caedmon “transformed the whole course of Bible
history into most delightful poetry”
The story of Paradise, the Fall, and the Deluge, the sweep of a saxon
army to battle
Judith, an apocryphal book of the Old Testament (battle and victory)
 (ii) Christ and Satan
The Genesis, Exodus, and Daniel
Junius MS
Strong and spirited
Gift of descriptive writing
Choice of incident
 5.The Cynewulf Group
Cynewulf signature in runic characters
Signed poems: The Christ, Juliana, The Fates of the Apostles, and Elene
Unsigned: Andreas, the Phoenix, the Dream of the Rood, the Descent
into Hell, Guthlac, the Wanderer, and some of the Riddles
(i) Juliana
 (ii) Elene
The finding of true cross
 (iii) Christ
A didactic poem
Celebrating the nativity; the Ascension; Doomsday
A deep love for Christ and a reverence for the Virgin Mary
Reflects the spirit of early Latin Christianity
(iv) The Fates of the Apostles
(v) The Dream of the Rood
9th century
The finest of all Old English religious poems
Intensity of feeling, brilliance of conception
Lo! I will tell the dearest of dreams
 Andreas
The story of St Andrew, who crosses the sea to rescue his comrade St
Matthew
6.Prose
 (i) Alfred (848-901)
The father of English prose
He begin his translations due to the lamentable state of English learning
Ten commandments ending with the Golden Rule
(a) The Pastoral Care of Pope
Gregory
Shepherds’ Book
(b) The History of the World
of Orosius
Universal History and Geography
 (c) (673-735) Bede’s
Ecclesiastical History of the
English People
Venerable Bede- first great scholar
The father of English Learning
Lost translation of the Gospel of John
(d) Boethius’ Consolation of
Philosophy
(e) The Soliloquies of St
Augustine
 (ii) Aelfric
Best known for his grammar
Church-man (abbot of Eynsham in 1005)
(a) The Catholic Homilies
2 series of sermon
(b) The Lives of the Saints
Before 998
Translations from scriptures
Complicated thoughts into narrative form
alliterative
 (c) Colloquy
A dialogue between master and pupils
(iii) Wulfstan
Bishop of Worcester
Archbishop of York
Brilliant preacher
(a) Sermo Lupi and Anglos
Repetition of ideas
Alliterative nature
Fluent and powerful
7. The Anglo-saxon Chronicle
A or Parker and the E or Laud MSS (915)
Local events and miscellaneous items
Shows varying points of view in their attitude to events
1154 (E)
Long passages of narrative and descriptive
Character studies
The horrors of Stephen’s reign
A brief extract from the description of William the Conqueror (1086)
 The Manuscripts
(a) The Beowulf MS – British Museum (Beowulf and Judith) C. 1000
(b) The Junius MS – Bodleain Library, Oxford (Cademonian Poems)
(c) The Exeter Book – Exeter Cathedral library C.1050 ( 2 Signed Cynewulf poems)
(d) The Vercelli Book – Cathedral Library at Vercelli ( 2 signed Cynewulf poems: Elene,
Andreas and The Dream of the Rood)