ANGLO-SAXON (670-1100)

Introduction: The Anglo-Saxon period denotes the initial settlement of British history. It includes the recreation of an English Nation. The earliest phase of English Literature started with Anglo-Saxon literature of the Angles and Saxon (the ancestors of the English race) much before they occupied Britain, they lived along the coasts of Sweden and Denmark. They belonged to Germanic Tribes. The land which they occupied in Britain was called “Engle-land”. They first landed in Engle-land in the middle of the fifth century and by 670 A.D. they had occupied almost the whole of the country. These tribes were fearless, adventurous and brave. Like other nations they sang at their feasts about battle, gods and their ancestral heroes. It was in these songs of religion, wars and agriculture.

Social Setup: Anglo-Saxon community was basically the rural one, where primary all classes of society lived on the land and the top of the social system was the royal house. The main division in Anglo-Saxon was between slaves and free. Slavery was an important part of the Anglo-Saxon economy. These varied at different times and in different areas, but the most prominent ranks within free society were the king, the nobleman and the ordinary freeman. They were pagan and catholic but conversion to Christianity took place mainly during the seventh & eight centuries. Feasts and festivals were very popular among the pagans, and despite religious reforms of the Christian church. When the Germanic tribes migrated from the continent, they brought with them a well-developed legal system. The hundred courts were the lowest echelon of the judiciary system. As there were no jails or prison officers, there were only three options when passing sentence: fines, mutilation, or death. A men’s life was more than his work; his dream was ever greater than his achievement. The five slogans or principles of Anglo-Saxon’s society were;

1.    Love of personal freedom

2.    Responsiveness to nature

3.    Religion

4.    Love for womanhood

5.    Struggle for glory.

All these principles are reflected in their literature. They were full of emotions and aspirations, and loved music and songs. 

Literary Features: Old English is not uniform. It consists of various dialects, but literature needs to treat it as a language. Anglo-Saxon speeches were poor and ordinary. They were leading to the introduction of Latin literacy and to the founding of monasteries as centers of learning and culture. They also initiated a plan of educational reform which focused on the production of manuscript written in English rather than Latin. Legal documents written in Latin but boundary clauses written in Old English. Medical texts were written in both languages. About 30,000 lines of Old English poetry survive, representing a range of genres including elegies, heroic verse, love poetry, dream vision, narrative, religious poetry and riddles. A smaller amount of poetry survives in other sources, including the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where some of the entries are in verse rather than prose. Their language is only a branch of the great Aryan or Indo-European family of languages. Modern English is a form of Anglo-Saxon literature.

Historical Events: In 731A.D. Bede completed his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. In 878 A.D. Alfred the Great is driven into the Somerset marshes, but then defeats the Danes at Edington. In 891 A.D. Earliest manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was written. In 924-39 A.D. Reign of Athelstan, generally acknowledged first King of England. In 960 A.D. Dunstan becomes Archbishop of Canterbury. The Anglo-Saxon Kings, of whom Alfred the Great was the most prominent, ruled till 1066 A.D and defeated by the Anglo-Norman in the battle of Hasting. 

There are few famous writers of Anglo-Saxon Period. 

1. CAEDMON: He was the earliest Old English Christian poet whose name is known. His date of birth was unknown but he died in between 670-680 A.D. The greatest work attributed to Caedmon is the so-called Paraphrase, and his name is still associated with it. Though we have Bede’s assurance that Caedmon ‘transformed the whole course of Bible history into most delightful poetry’. According to Bede, Caedmon became the founder of school of Christian poetry and the he was the first to use the traditional metre diction for Christian religious poetry. His fragmentary hymn to the creation remains a symbol of the adaptation of the aristocratic-heroic Anglo-Saxon verse tradition to the expression of Christian themes. His story is known from Bede’s History of the English People, which tells how Caedmon, an illiterate herdsman, retired from company one night in shame because he could not comply with the demand made of each guest to sing. Then in a dream a stranger appeared commanding him to sing of “the beginning of things,” and the herdsman found himself uttering “verses which he had never heard.” When Caedmon awoke he related his dream to the farm bailiff under whom he worked and was conducted by him to the monastery at Streaneshalch (now called Whitby). The abbess St. Hilda believed that Caedmon was divinely inspired and, to test his powers, proposed that he should render into verse a portion of sacred history, which the monks explained. By the following morning he had fulfilled the task. At the request of the abbess he became an inmate of the monastery. Throughout the remainder of his life his more learned brethren expounded Scripture to him, and all that he heard he reproduced in vernacular poetry. All of his poetry was on sacred themes, and its unvarying aim was to turn men from sin to righteousness. In spite of all the poetic renderings that Caedmon supposedly made, however, it is only the original dream hymn of nine historically precious, but poetically uninspired, lines that can be attributed to him with confidence. The hymn—extant in 17 manuscripts, some in the poet’s Northumbrian dialect, and some in other Old English dialects—set the pattern for almost the whole art of Anglo-Saxon verse. 
2. ALDHELM (639-709): He was a Latin poet and scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature. Aldhelm of Malmesbury has been described as 'the first English man of letters'. He was the first Germanic author to compose extensively in Latin metrical verse, and his Latin works were amongst the most influential in Anglo-Saxon England. Aldhelm can also be considered the best-read of Anglo-Saxon poets, in both senses of the phrase: he read most and was most read. The figure and work of Aldhelm is used as an example of how Anglo-Saxon poets often occupied a luminal position between Latinate and Germanic culture. His surviving works include a small collection of letters on various topics, a long treatise on Latin verse composition. Aldhelm is perhaps best known for his prose style. His studies included Roman law, astronomy, mathematics, and difficulties of the calendar. Aldhelm was appointed in 675 A.D. to be first abbot of Malmesbury and later bishop of Sherborne. Aldhelm's innovations in Latin verse technique are emphasized, in particular his special debt to the specific techniques of Old English vernacular verse. Famouse work: Prose; De Laude Virginitatis, Poetry; Carmen de Virginitatis. 
3. BEDE (637-735): The Venerable Bede, as he is generally called, first great scholar and “the father of English learning”, wrote almost exclusively in Latin. His books and the stories of his gentle and heroic life from the history of literature. His works, over forty in number, covered the whole human knowledge in his day. In all strictly historical matters Bede is a model. His most important work for us is the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, it is a fascinating history to read even now. His last work, the translation of the Gospel of John into Anglo-Saxon, having been unfortunately lost.
4. CYNEWULF: Cynewulf, the greatest poet of Anglo-Saxon. Cynewulf (late 8th or 9th century) was identified, not certainly, but probably, with a Cynewulf who was Bishop of Lindisfarne and lived in the middle of the eighth century. He was a wandering singer or poet who lived a gay and secular life. Finally, after a dream in which he had a vision of the Holy Rood, he changed his life, became a religious poet, sang of Christ, the apostles, and the saints. His work represents an advance in culture upon the more primitive Caedmonian poems.
5. ALFRED (849-901): Alfred played an important role in this literary movement. He surrounded himself with scholars and learned men. He began to translate the works which seemed to him most apt to civilize his people. In this way he became the father of English prose-writers. He translated Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the Angles. Much more important, and among the best of Alfred's works, is the version of Boethius De Consolatione Philosophiae.