Old_English

• The setting is vast in scope, covering great nations, the world, or the universe; • The action consists of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage;
Beowulf
• Beowulf is the conventional title of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.
Old English and Middle English Literature

Content
Old English Beowulf Middle English Geoffery Chaucer The Canterbury Tales
Qs
• Who were the earliest settlers of Britton/England? What do you know about them (home, language, belief, life style)? • What are the 3 conquests? What effects they had upon the nation? • Ideologically what is the most significant change in people’s spiritual life? • How was the nation developed politically or what changes were there in the form of the social structure? • In terms of literature, what influence had the French upon England?
Oral Tradition
• Oral literature corresponds in the sphere of the spoken (oral) word to literature as literature operates in the domain of the written word. It thus forms a generally more fundamental component of culture, but operates in many ways as one might expect literature to do.
Some features of Epics
• The herois a figure of imposing stature, of national or international importance, and of great historical or legendary significance;
Beowulf
• In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats in Scandinavia, comes to the help of Hroð the king of the Danes, whose gar, mead hall (Heorot) has been under attack by a being known as Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland in Sweden and later becomes king of the Geats. After a period of fifty years has passed, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is fatally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants bury him in a tumulus, a burial mound, in Geatland.
Old English
(between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century)
Historical Background • 400 B.C., the Celts from west of France • By the end of the 5th century, three Teutonic tribes, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes conquered and almost exterminated the Celtic tribes. • 3 invasions • 4th to the 6th century: Romans • 6th century to 1066: Anglo-Saxon Conquest • In 1066: Norman Conquest
• folk epics, folklore, proverbs and folksong • Literate societies may continue an oral tradition - particularly within the family (for example bedtime stories) or informal social structures.
The structure of Beowulf
• The poem also begins in medias res ("into the middle of affairs") or simply, "in the middle", which is a characteristic of the epics of antiquity. Although the poem begins with Beowulf's arrival, Grendel's attacks have been an ongoing event. An elaborate history of characters and their lineages are spoken of, as well as their interactions with each other, debts owed and repaid, and deeds of valour.
• Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts.
• The epic poet recounts the deeds of the heroes with objectivity. Some famous epics are Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey, the Old English Beowulf, Virgil's Aeneid, Dante's Divine Comedy, Milton's Paradise Lost.
Old English
• Old English is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southern and eastern Scotland, more specifically in the England Old Period, between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. • Old English is a West Germanic language, developing out of Ingvaeonic (also known as North Sea Germanic) dialects from the 5th century. AngloSaxon literacy developed after Christianisation in the late 7th century. The oldest surviving text of Old English literature is Cædmon's Hymn, composed between 658 and 680. • Old English had a grammar similar in many ways to Classical Latin, and was much closer to modern German and Icelandic than modern English.
Old English Literature
• • • • • Beowulf, an epic poem; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a record of early English history; the Franks Casket, an early whalebone artefact; and Caedmon's Hymn, a Christian religious poem. There are also a number of extant prose works, such as sermons and saints' lives, biblical translations, and translated Latin works of the early Church Fathers, legal documents, such as laws and wills, and practical works on grammar, medicine, and geography. • Still, poetry is considered the heart of Old English literature. Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous, with a few exceptions, such as Bede and Caedmon.