The Anglo-Saxon Period of
English Literature
450-1066
Beginnings of British
Culture
 First knowledge comes from the conquering of Britain by
Julius Caesar in first century B. C.
Celtic peoples of much of Britain adapted to Roman ways. Much
of the island was never conquered--Wales, Scotland, and other
areas. The Romans protected against Saxon invasions
 Romans began leaving around 400 A. D. because of
threats at home. Local peoples were not well adapted
to protect themselves.
 Around 450, Germanic tribes--Angles, Saxons, and
Jutes--began the invasion of Britain and conquered most
of the island. Tribal name “Angl(i)I” apparently gave
England its name. “Britain” comes from the name of the
Celtic speaking peoples--”Britons.”
Beginnings of British
Culture
 The “Britons” had been Christianized to some extent by
the Romans, since Rome had become Christian by the
fourth century A. D.. Anglo-Saxons (as the invaders
were called) were pagans. Beginning in 597 A. D. St.
Augustine of Canterbury began the conversion of the
Anglo-Saxons.
 Viking invasions began soon after the Anglo-Saxon
conquest (think “Hagar the Horrible”). Scandinavian
peoples conquered large tracts. Alfred, King of the West
Saxons, stopped them in the ninth century and united
much of Southern England.
Anglo-Saxon Literature
 Little is known of pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon writings.
 Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People gives
useful information on peoples and events.
 Poetry follows the warrior code:
Kinship is critical. Death of a kinsperson must be avenged.
Tribe is ruled by a chieftain (Lord) who chooses his war band
(thanes), many of them blood kin.
Those who are loyal to the lord are rewarded with the mead hall
fellowship and with rings.
Thane is obliged to fight and die beside the lord. If the lord is
killed in battle, the thanes must stand and fight till the death
over his body.
Anglo-Saxon Literature
Those thanes who fail to fight are outcasts, doomed
to wander alone.
Swords or other weapons often have names in the
poems.
The battle poems have a sense of doom, perhaps
reflecting the conflict the Christian writer who wrote
down the poems saw between Christianity and the
warrior way of life. The ideal is perfect courage in a
lost cause.
Heroic poetry presupposes fate--or wyrd--though
sometimes a determined man can overcome his
wyrd.
Anglo-Saxon Literature
 Anglo-Saxon poetry came in the form of “speakings,” an
oral tradition.
They had a runic alphabet used for tombs, sword pommels, or
boxes, but apparently no writing equipment.
Thus, the early “speakings” were recorded by clerics, the only
people who could write. Clerics thus got to choose what we get
to read from the time. Anything they disapproved of would not
have been recorded, or would get substantial change.
Some of the Anglo-Saxon runes survived for a time in the new
written language to express certain sounds.
Lines are broken by a caesura ( a pause that separates the line
into two parts.)
Anglo-Saxon Poetry
The poet makes frequent use of “kennings,”
which are synonyms for simple nouns, such as
“the sea wood” for “ship” or “the whale’s road”
for “sea.”
Instead of rhyme, the lines are linked by
alliteration, the repetition of initial consonant or
vowel sounds: “The fair breeze blew, the white
foam flew” (Coleridge)
The Hero in Literature and
Myth
Represents the best of a nation or a race.
Is often the savior of his race.
May have connection to the gods or some
other aspect of divinity.
Is often rejected by his own people
May be a scapegoat whose death is
necessary to save his people.
Examples: Odysseus, Beowulf
Beowulf
 Our Beowulf manuscript dates to the tenth century A. D.
and describes a setting from the sixth century in the
“mother country” to the Anglo-Saxons--the island of
Zealand off the coast of Sweden.
 The manuscript survived when others were burned or
used to wrap packages during the rioting after Henry
VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries (1535-39).
Laurence Nowell saved it in 1560s and Robert Cotton kept it ,
but it was nearly lost in a fire.
 The work was taught in literature classes in the early
20th century, but not really appreciated as literature
until J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Beowulf: the Monster and the
Critics.”
Beowulf--You Can’t Tell the Players
without a Scorecard
 Beowulf--the epic hero and a thane to the king of the Geats.
 Hygelac--king of the Geats and Beowulf’s lord.
Also Beowulf’s uncle and kinsman.
 Ecgtheow--Beowulf’s father
 Hrothgar--king of the Shield Danes (sometimes Bright Danes).
 Wealhtheow--Hrothgar’s queen.
 Unferth--Dane warrior who insults Beowulf but later provides a
sword.
 Aeschere--counselor to Hrothgar killed by Grendel.
 Grendel--the fen monster.
 Grendel’s mother--demon spawn descendent of Cain
General Characteristics of
the epic
 Holman and Harmon describe the epic as a “long
narrative poem in elevated style presenting characters in
high position in adventures forming an organic whole
through their relation to a central heroic figure and
through their development of episodes important to a
nation or race.” Holman describes a theory which
suggests that epics originate in scattered works and
“through gradual accretion these episodes were molded
into an organic work”. Others believe the epic is the
work of a single genius.
Types of Epic
Folk Epics--authorship is uncertain and
the work springs from an uneducated
people, possibly through an oral tradition.
Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad
Beowulf
The Song of Roland
The Nibelungenlied
•Characteristics of
Literary Epic
Hero of national importance
Setting is vast
Action consists of deeds of valor
Supernatural machinery
Sustained elevated style
Invocation to the muse
Opening in medias res
Opening epic question
Literary Epics
Virgil, The Aeneid
Milton, Paradise Lost
Dante, The Divine Comedy
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Richard Adams, Watership Down
Some Interpretations of Beowulf
 Early critics found Beowulf to be a work written by and
for pagans to which Christian copyists added a veneer
of Christianity.
 Others find it a work from Germanic society in a very
early stage of conversion to Christianity--all allusions are
to Old Testament.
 Tolkien finds Beowulf to be a Christian poem (written in
the time of Bede) about a Pagan past, not an epic but
elegaic (a tone of sadness) and lyric (expressing
“emotion of author in melodious verse”). The monsters
have always been here and represent the enemies of
good.