Anglo-Saxon Literature (5^th C to 1066)

Introduction

This is the period of English Literature before the Norman Conquest (1066). It is also known as Old English Literature. It is marked by:

•   Great upheavals and decisive wars,

•  The coming and settling of races Jutland, Zealand, Eagles, and areas generally recognized as falling in Teutina
•  Military conquests and defeats.

The early literature expressed the life and experiences of these tribes. They belonged to Dane, Saxon, Jute, Norse, Frisian, and German stock.

Old English Poetry

Old English Poetry is classified into two categories:

•        National (heathen / Pre-Christian)
•     Christian

National poems entail the subject matter drawn from the customs and conditions of English life. While the Christian ones deal with the ideas of ecclesiastical and biblical matters.

National Poetry

The early national poems are mostly anonymous. They all belong to times anterior to “the unification of England” under King Alfred (AD- 866). The national poems are further divided into two groups.

•    Epic
•    Elegiac

These early poems were the creation of singers or bards not of a literary man. In those times, every chieftain had a bard or a singer linked to his hall, who sang in the evening at the “feast of the war deeds of the day or sages of the past”.

The bards had a very crucial place in the social life of the community. They were the historians, the recorder of events, the scribes, and the literary men. Some legends also make kings like Alfred and Hrothgar singers.

Epics

• Beowulf

One early epic poem in the history of English Literature is Beowulf. It is considered to be one of the earliest extant poems which were discovered in the nineteenth century. Its author is not known yet. Beowulf consists of 3183 lines. The poem is the finest example of a fantastic accumulation of myths and legends from various sources on historical personages and events...Read more.

• Finnsburgh / the fight at finnsburg

The subject matter of Finnsburgh is a long episode in Beowulf and three of the characters are mentioned in Widsith. The theme of this poem is the battle against fearful odds.

• Widsith

The poem opens with a scene of a young prince addressing his followers in an attempt to defend the hell in which they are sleeping. They go to the door of the hall__ the price (perhaps Hengest), Sigeferth, Eaha, Ordlaf, and Guthlaf. A short quarrel between Sigeferth and Garulf flares into a battle that goes on for five days. The news of the struggle is brought to King Hnaef. At this point, the fragment breaks off and we have to be satisfied with this much of the story... read more.

• The Battle of Bunauburgh

In this poem, one discovers distinct note of fierce heathenism, there is an obvious absence of the Christian qualities of human treatment. The lines express crude exultation over the vanquished foes and broken captives. The poem sings high praise of King Athelstan, King of Wessex, and Mercia who proved his uncommon valor.

•  Waldhere

This is a poem whose fragments are preserved in Royal Library in Copenhagen. It inspired the Latin epic poem Waltharius by Ekkchard of St. Gall, from the first half of the tenth century, and a Bavarian poem of the thirteenth century. Vilkina Saga of Norway contains two episodes in the poem. There is also said to be a Polish version of the story...read more

Anglo-Saxon Elegies

Intense sentiment of loss destruction is expressed in some elegiac works such as Deor, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Wife’s Complaint, The Ruined Burg, and others.

• The Ruined Burg

The Ruined Burg is full of sentimental lamentation for a city that has come to ruins. It is not a Christian poem, but it is full of emotions that we do not find in any of Anglo-Saxons poems...read more

 

• The Battle of Maldon

The first mingling of the Christian prayer with the pure Teutonic passion for war and noise and arms was to met with in the Battle of Maldon. Cazamian observes that this verse has been inserted in prose chronicle ‘glorify the great victory which Athelstan, the King of Wessex and Mercia, and his brother, Edward won at Bunanburgh in 937 over Scots under Constantine and Northmen whom Aulaf led out of Ireland’...read more

• Other Elegies 

 These elegiac poems in general highlight personal sufferings. They are radically different from the Anglo – Saxon war poems in which vigorous actions devoid of any human sentiments are glorified. In the elegiac poems human emotion flow from the effects of war and fights, loneliness, separation, exile, passionate yearnings, etc. This indicates changes that the Anglo-Saxon poetry appears to be undergoing at this stage...read more

1. The Seafarer
2. The Wife’s Complaint
3. The Husband’s Message
4. The Wanderer 
5. Deor / Deor’s Laments 

Anglo Saxons Christian Poetry

One of the notable landmarks in the growth and development of Anglo-Saxon Literature has been the Christian writings both in prose and poetry. Christian writings centered around and lives of the saints and martyrs such as Judith, Elene, Genesis, Exodus, etc. We also witnessed the elements of Christianity even in secular or non-Christian poetry, carrying the distinct tradition of heathenism...read more