Old and Middle English Literature

Nice cross-references to Ulysses, Chapter 14, Oxen of the Sun.

Old English

Anglo-Saxons

No literature survives from England at the time of the Roman occupation

End of Roman occupation of Britain: 410

Anglo-Saxon (Germanic invaders) conquest of Britain - fifth century onward

King Alfred the Great of Wessex (849-901)

King Edward the Confessor - 1042

But at least we can no longer rightfully call these centuries the Dark Ages. Besides, such generalizations only go to show the fatal fallacy of attempting to read and interpret life from the imperfect written records of an era. Even the apparently clod-like Anglo-Saxon of this period might have uttered indignantly the simple speech of the murderer in Macbeth: "We are men, my liege!"

- p. 19

Heroic and Christian Epics

Four surviving heroic epic poems:

• Widsith
• Beowulf
• The Fight at Finnsburg
• Waldere

Four important manuscripts of Old English poetry:

• Exeter Book (975)
• Beowulf Manuscript (1000 - British Museum)
• Junius Manuscript (1000 - printed by Huguenot scholar Dujon in 1655)
• Vercelli Book (1000s - large number of prose compositions)

The author wisely decides not to quote from the poem, as that would have ballooned a pocket-sized book into a doorstop, but here are the sections of Beowulf the author highlights:

Lack of space forbitds the quoting here of extensive passages from the poem, but certain lines are especially recommended. There are the final measures of the Prologue, the stern commentary on the passing of Scyld; the grim stage-entrance of Grendel; the horrifying account of the destruction of Grendel's prey; the picturesque contest with Breca in the storms of the winter sea. There are the lines describing the behavior of the Danes on the morning after Beowulf's fight with Grendel, how they went to visit the scene and then came home rejoicing - and here we are told something of the real genesis of a heroic epic, for the Danes spoke of Bowulf's deed...

A most noteworthy passage, sometimes called the first bit of landscape in English literature, although this honor would be a difficult one to bestow justly, is the description of the approach to Grendel's lair.

- p. 27-28

Other heroic epics are listed, two in particular:

• The Battle of Brunanburh - part The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (year 937), chronicles defeat of Norsemen and Scots by English under Athelstan, successor of King Alfred
• The Battle of Maldon - tale of defeat of band of Englishmen under Byrhtnoth by invading Danes in 991

Excerpts from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are on that page.

Cynewulfian Cycle:

• Andreas
• The two Guthlac poems
• Dream of the Rood
• The Phoenix
• The Harrowing of Hell
• The Bestiary (or Physiologus)

Other Old English Poetry

The Christian epic shows that the cleric, while he was aware of the grimness of nature and the mighty adversaries of the soul, was able to soften them through the essential hopefulness of his religion.

- p. 35

Two poems:

• The Wanderer (eloquent poem of brooding sadness)
• The Seafarer (in the Exeter book)
• The Ruin (in the Exeter book, beautiful example of Old English elegiac verse)

The Harrowing of Hell - recounts a story of Christ's three days in Hell

Anglo-Latin Literature of hte Old English Period

Venerable Bede - Anglo-Latin writer

Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne - important Anglo-Latin writer

Bede's writings:

• Commentaries on the Bible
• Works on scientific subjects/natural phenomena
• Lives of martyrs and saints
• The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731)
• On Metrics, On Orthography, and On the Tropes of the Scriptures serve to illustrate clerical didacticism
• De Temporibus, De Ratione Temporum, and De Natura Rerum exemplify encyclopedic knowledge of "divine operation"
• Lives of the Holy Abbots - contributions to ecclesiastical biography
• Ecclesiastical History - unmatched

Alcuin (735-804) played an important part in the conduct of Charlemagne's Palace School

Alcuin is not the equal of Bede either in literary skill or in intellectual versatility. It takes a corageous and confirmed scholar to wade through Alcuin's tracts...

A realization of Alcuin's position and achievement adds greatly, nevertheless, to an understanding of the work of Alfred the Great.

- p. 47