Old English literature
The Old English language, also called Anglo-Saxon, was the earliest form of English. It is difficult to give exact dates for the rise and development of a language, because it does not change suddenly; but perhaps it is true to say that Old English was spoken from about A.D. 600 to about 1100. The greatest Old English poem is Beowulf, which belongs to the seventh century.
It is a story of about
3,000 lines, and it is the first English epic. ー The name of
its author is unknown. Beowulf is not about England, but about Hrothgar, King
of the Danes, and about a brave young man, Beowulf, from southern Sweden, who
goes to help him. Hrothgar is in trouble. His great hall, called Heorot, is
visited at night by a terrible creature, Grendel, which lives in a lake and
comes to kill and eat Hrothgar’s men. One night Beowulf waits secretly for this
thing, attacks it, and in a fierce fight pulls its arm off. It manages to reach
the lake again, but dies there. Then its mother comes to the hall in search of
revenge, and the attacks begin again. Beowulf follows her to the bottom of the lake
and kills her there. In later days Beowulf, now king of his people, has to
defend his country against a fire—breathing creature. He kills the animal but is
badly wounded in the fight, and dies. The poem ends with a sorrowful description
of Beowulfs funeral fire. Here are a few lines of it, put into modern letters:
epic, the story
in poetry of the adventures of а brave man (or men)
alegdon tha
tomiddes maerne theoden
haeleth
hiofende hlaford leofne
ongunnon tha on
beorge bael-fyra maest
wigend weccan
wudu-rec astah
sweart ofer
swiothole swogende leg
wope bewunden
The sorrowing
soldiers then laid the glorious prince, their dear lord,
in the middle.
Then on the hill the war-men began to light the
greatest of funeral
fires. The wood—smoke rose black above the
flames, the
noisy fire, mixed with sorrowful cries.
The old
language cannot be read now except by those who have made a special study of
it. Among the critics who cannot read Old English there are some who are unkind
to the poem, but Beowulf has its own value. It gives us an interesting picture
of life in those old days. It tells us of fierce fights and brave deeds, of the
speeches of the leader and the sufferings of his men. It describes their life
in the hall, the terrible creatures that they had to fight, and their ships and travels.
They had a hard life on land and sea. They did not enjoy it much, but they bore
it well.
ª angel, a
servant of God in Heaven. According to old accounts, Satan and other angels
disobeyed God and became the Devil and the Devil’s servants in Hell.
~ hell, the
place for punishment for evil.
ª Apostle, one
of the twelve men chosen by Christ to preach to others.
The better
poems is The Dream of the Rood (the rood is Christ’s cross.) This is among the
best of all Old English poems. Old English lyrics include Deor’s Complaint, The
Husband’s Message, The Wanderer and The Wife’s Complaint. Deor is a singer who has
lost his lord’s favour. So he complains, but tries to comfort himself by
remembering other sorrows of the world. Of each one he says ‘That passed over;
this may do so also.’ There are many other poems in Old English. One of the
better ones is a late poem called The Battle of Maldon. This battle was fought against
the Danes in 991 and probably the poem was written soon after that. It has been
highly praised for the words of courage which the leader uses:
hige sceal the
heardra heorte the cenre
mod sceal the
mare the ure maegen lytlath
her lith ure
ealdor eall forheawen
god on greote a
maeg gnornian
se the nu fram
this wigplegan wendan thenceth.
The mind must
be the firmer, the heart must be the braver, the
courage must be
the greater, as our strength grows less. Here lies
our lord all
out to pieces, the good man on the ground. If anyone
thinks now to
turn away from this war-play, may he be unhappy for ever after.
In general it
is fairly safe to say that Old English prose8 came later than Old English
verse; but there was some early prose. The oldest Laws were written at the beginning
of the seventh century. Some of these are interesting. If you split a man’s
ear, you had to pay 30 shillings. These Laws were not literature, and better
sentences were written towards the end of the seventh century. The most
interesting piece of prose is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, an early history of
the country. There are, in fact, several chronicles, belonging to different
cities. No doubt KING ALFRED (849-901) had a great influence on this work. He
probably brought the different writings into some kind of order. He also
translated a number of lyric, a poem, originally one meant to be sung ー which expresses the poet’s thoughts and feelings.
ª prose, the
ordinary written language, not specially controlled like verse
Latin books into
Old English, so that his people could read them. He brought back learning to
England and improved the education of his people. Another important writer of
prose was AELFRIC. His works, such as the Homilies (990-4) and Lives of Saints10
(993—6), were mostly religious. He wrote out in Old English the meaning of the
first seven books of the Bible. His prose style11 is the best in Old English,
and he uses alliteration to join his sentences together.
ºHomily,
religious talk.
ー Saint, holy man.
ー style, manner of writing; one writer’s special way of using
language.
Source:
Thornley G. C.
& Gwyneth Roberts(2003). An Outline of English Literature. Longman
Group Ltd.
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