古英语和中世纪文学

2. Beowulf– national epic ★ the longest and most monument of A-S poems ★ the oldest surviving epic in British literature.
• oral form (6th),written down(7th or 8th)
Anglo-Saxon Period
Historical background literature
• historical background: the making of Britain
A. Briton (Celtic tribes)
B. the Roman Conquest---Roman Briton
Anglo-Saxon poetry
※ the bulk of A-S poetry extant is religious or Christian two Christian poets Caedmon Cynewulf
• The verse form for Old English poetry is an alliterative line of four stressed syllables and an unfixed number of unstressed syllables broken by a caesura and arranged in one of several patterns. Lines are conventionally end-stopped and unrhymed. The form lends itself to narrative; there is no lyric poetry in Old English. A stylistic feature in this heroic poetry is the kenning, a figurative phrase, often a metaphorical compound, used as a synonym for a simple noun, e.g., the repeated use of the phrases whale-road for sea and twilight-spoiler for dragon
―Anglo-Saxon Chronicle‖ — ―Old English Chronicle‖ ① A.D.1 to A.D.1154 ②contents: folk literature, natural phenomenon,
comments on kings (point of view of common people), passages describing the terrible political oppression and economic exploitation of common people
3. Other Old English poems include various riddles, charms, saints’ lives, gnomic poetry, and other Christian verse
A-S prose: earliest in Latin



Bede Alfred the Great Aelfric
Alfred’s contributions to English Literature ① numerous translation from Latin ② rather free way in translation ③ the role he played in the launching of ―Anglo-Saxon Chronicle‖
2. King Alfred the Great (Wessex)
Life story: traveling experience to cultural center of Europe, in 871 became the king of Wessex, fight against the Danes, strength his nation and gather many scholars, do translation together, died in 901.
2. verse literature in oral form
3. The authors are mostly unknown
4. poems in alliteration
5. prose in Latin
More materials on-line
• http://www.bartleby.com/65/an/AnglSxLit.html • http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~hanly/oe/503.html • http://www.answers.com/anglosaxon/literature
within a century all England was Christianized
Anglo-Saxon Literature
1. Brief introduction:
• collective, working • History, legend, contemporaneous events, orally or sung, entertainment • professional: scops (own making), gleeman (retelling ) wandering minstrels
3. Aelfric
• chiefly religious in content, mainly some homilies. • translate in Anglo-Saxon of the first seven books of the Bible and wrote a treatise ―Concerning the Old and New Testament‖—a popular introduction to the contents of the Bible in old English.
F. social and religious features • Continent: tribal society, agriculture • late: feudal shape: class division
king—earl—freeman—serf
• heathen St. Augustine in 597
1th Julius Caesar
A.D.43 Claudius
C. mid-5th Anglo-Saxons (Angles, Saxons, Jutes)
Anglo-Saxon period
seven kingdoms:
north: Mercia and Northumberland (7th, 8th)
1. Caedmon: the earliest known English poet (his story is charmingly told by the Venerable Bede). • the first ―Hymn‖ • ―Caedmonian poems‖ (anonymous authors): paraphrase of Bible— ―Genesis B‖.
Bible: holy book which forms the basis of the Christian faith the Old Testament: God and the Laws of God (Hebrew)
the New Testament: doctrines of Jesus Christ
1. Bede— ―The Ecclesiastical History of the English People‖ ① published in Latin, translated into AngloSaxon by king Alfred in 891. ② Roman invasion to A.D.731, relates history from religious point of view and full of strange stories and miracles. ③ ―Father of English History‖
2. Cynewulf: mythical figure • The finest poem: ―The Dream of the Rood‖, the first known example of the dream vision, a genre later popular in Middle English literature. • ―Christ‖: best known, didactic poem
Literary term
★ Epic: a long narrative poem telling
about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. Many epics were drawn from an oral tradition and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down.
• http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/World_Literatur
e/British/Anglo-Saxon
百度文库
12th-15th
Historical background literature
• background 1. the Norman conquest accelerated the development of feudalism. on land: the ruling class possessed large tracts of land on society: distinct class division, miseries of peasants on language: scholar wrote in French and Latin; enriched English.
south: Wessex (9th, 10th)
D. Danish invasion late 8th, Danes late 9th, Alfred the Great 11th, Canute 25 years E. Norman Conquest 1066 William: Duke of Normandy --- William I the end of Anglo-Saxon period beginning of feudal society
• set in Denmark and Sweden
Beowulf 1. 3183 lines 2. contents: 3 adventures Monster---Grendel Grendel’s mother fiery dragon
3. theme: primitive people’s struggle against hostile forces of the natural world under a wise and mighty leader 4. Features: ＊ part-historical and part legendary ＊ heathen tribal society, feudal elements, Christian coloring ＊A-S or old English; alliteration (P10); metaphor
O—Hebrew N—Greek first English version: John Wycliffe most influential version: King James Version
• Features of A-S literature 1. old English literature