April 1, 2008
Study Notes for Grade 11 Englsih
Old English:

Anglo-Saxon Period: AD 449 to A.D.1066

The name Anglo-Saxon denotes two of the Germanic tribes—Jutes, Angles and Saxons that came to England after the Romans left in A.D. 410.
The Angles came from the place Angeln, hence their name. The old Saxon word angul or ongul means hook, and the English word angle is used in the sense of fishing. Saxon comes from seax, or sax, meaning a short sword, so Saxon means the swordsman. The Angles were the most numerous of the conquering tribes, so the new land became known as Anglalond, changing to Englelond, and then England. By the year AD 1000, these people were referred to as Anglisaxones, that is the Saxons of England, to distinguish them from the Saxons of the Continent. King Alfred referred to his beloved “Englelond” and his brave “Englisc”. The name Anglo-Saxon was first used by William Camden in his History of Britain.
The literature of the period sprang from two sources:
1. Secular works, from the minstrels, or scops of the day, and
2. Religious writings, from the monasteries.
We have only a few works remaining from this period. Most works were destroyed by the invasions of Vikings during the 8th and 9th centuries. The works that we have come to us in the following manuscripts:
Exeter’s Book: The poetry, in the Exeter Book's 131 surviving parchment leaves, is the largest collection of Old English literature we have, found in the Exeter Cathedral library. The Exeter Book is our only surviving source for most works it contains, the most famous of which are "The Wanderer," "The Seafarer," "Widsith," "Wulf and Eadwacer," "The Wife's Lament," and a great collection of the witty riddles at which the Old English poets excelled.
The Junius MS (Manuscript): Of the four surviving manuscripts of Anglo-Saxon poetry, MS Junius 11 is the only one which is illustrated. This tenth-century manuscript contains four poems based on the Old and New Testaments: Genesis A and B, Exodus, Daniel, and Christ and Satan. It was given by Francis Junius in 1677 to the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
The Vercelli Book, is named after the location in which it was discovered, in Vercelli, Italy, where it seemingly arrived in the twelfth century. It was 'discovered in the nineteenth century when a German, Friedrich Blume, who was looking for legal manuscripts, came across it. Its 135 leaves, written by a single scribe, contain next to a group of homilies 6 poetic texts, including The Dream of the Rood and two poems ascribed to Cynewulf, namely The Fates of the Apostles and Elene.
MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv ("Beowulf" and "Judith"). The sole surviving manuscript, in which Beowulf was copied along with Judith, belongs to the tenth or early eleventh century. Although written in Late West Saxon, which was the literary koine of the period, the poem is presumed to have originated either in Northumbria or Mercia. Generally called the Beowulf Manuscript, and also containing three prose pieces (The Passion of St Christopher, The Wonders of the East, and The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle),
Secular Works:

The greatest work of the time was Beowulf, author unknown. This is the first English epic—some consider the greatest epic—in our literature. This work was written about A.D. 700, determined by the values and image of life that are presented in the poem. The only surviving copy of the poem in presently in the British Museum—the manuscript Cotton Vitellius A xv. This copy of the poem was almost lost in a fire in 1731, while being housed in Ashburnham House in London. The edges of the manuscript were scorched in the fire, then it was allowed to deteriorate for another 150 years. Fortunately, two copies had been made of the original manuscript before the fire; if this had not been done, some words at the edge of the manuscript would have been lost forever.
The poem is about the hero, Beowulf, who saves King Hrothgar from the ravishings of the monster, Grendel. Beowulf then fights Grendel’s mother. He becomes king and rules wisely, until he dies at the end of the poem fighting a dragon, once again defeating evil. The poem is a mixture of pagan and Christian values.

Other secular works that still remain are:
“Widsith”, the wide goer or wanderer, is the oldest work in English. It expresses the wandering life of the gleeman, earning his living by his singing.
“Deor’s Lament” This picture of the Saxon scop is of a man living in sorrow, realizing that at any time a better poet may supplant him.
“The Seafarer” This poem shows the hardships of the ocean life, and deals with allegory, in which the troubles of the seamen are symbols of the troubles of life.
“The Fight at Finnsburgh” is a fragment of fifty lines, discovered on the inside of a piece of parchment drawn over the wooden covers of a book of homilies. It is a war song, describing the defense of a hall by Hnaef.
“Waldare” the story of Walter of Aquataine, escaping form Atilla the Hunn.

Christian Writers and Their Works:

Two schools of influence spread Christianity in England:
Under the leadership of Augustine of Rome, this influence spread in the south and center of England, especially in Essex. It founded schools and partly educated the poor people, but produced no lasting literature.
The other influence came under the leadership of Aidan, from Ireland, (which country had been a center of religion and education for all Western Europe. The monks of this school laboured mainly in Northumbria, and therefore this literature is called the Northumbrian School. The work was centered at Whitby. The three greatest writers are Bede, Cædmon, and Cynewulf.
Bede (673-735): known as the Venerable Bede, (Venerable means worthy of respect) is generally called the “Father of our English Learning,” yet, he wrote almost exclusively in Latin. His most important work is the Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Not only is this an historical account, but also contains stories of saints and missionaries. His last work was a translation of the Gospel of Saint John into Anglo-Saxon, but this translation has been lost.
Cædmon: (circa 664) nicknamed the Anglo-Saxon Milton, his greatest work is Paraphrase, the story of Genesis, Exodus, and a part of Daniel. (This work may be the work of more than one writer.)
Cynewulf: (circa 750) Wrote The Christ, a story of Christ’s birth, ascension to heaven, and a rendition of doomsday (The Book of Revelation; Juliana; The Fates of The Apostles and two epics, Elene (the story of finding the true cross) and although not signed by Cynewulf it is attributed to him, and Andreas (the story of St Andrew rescuing his comrade, St. Matthew, from cannibals, by crossing the sea. The shipmaster, who sails the boat, is Christ in disguise.)
Another person of influence on English Literature was King Alfred (848-901), known for his translations. King Alfred was the fifth son of the previous king. Not expected to be king, he was well educated. After his four older brothers died, some in battle, he found himself king. His country was being invaded by the Vikings, and everything in their path was destroyed. After Alfred the Great pushed back the Danes, who destroyed all manuscripts of the day, he set about to educate his people. He translated Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and he began The English or Anglo-Saxon Chronicles; each year, scribes were to write of the important happenings of the year, work which was carried on after his death, until a hundred years after William the Conqueror. From a literary point of view, little happened of significance during the last two hundred years of the period. The period ended with the invasion of William of Normandy in October 1066, which was well chronicled in the Anglo-Saxon Chhronicles.

Middle English: Anglo-Norman, Age of Chaucer, Revival of Learning

II. Anglo-Norman Period, 1066-1350

The Anglo-Norman Period began with the conquering of Harold, the last of the Saxon Kings, at the Battle of Hastings, in October 1066, by William of Normandy. Three consequences of the Norman Conquest to the country and subsequently to its literature were:
· The Normans reintroduced the Roman culture, at a time culture was declining.
· The Normans forced a national ideal on England, giving a strong central government to replace the loose authority of the Saxon chief over his tribesmen.
· The Normans brought the wealth of a new language and literature, and our English absorbed both.

Writers:

Geoffrey de Monmouth (d.1154) Geoffrey’s Historia Regum Britanniæ (written in Latin) became a source book for later writers. Shakespeare’s King Lear, Malory’s Morte d’ Arthur, and Tennyson’s Idylls of the King were founded on this work.

Layamon (c1200) Brut This poem is about the early settlers of Britain. It begins with the destruction of Troy, and the flight of “Æneas the duke” into Italy. Brutus, a great-grandson of Æneas, gathers his people and sets out to find a new land in the west. Then follows the founding of the Briton kingdom, and the last third of the poem, which is over thirty thousand lines in length, is taken up with the history of Arthur and his knights.

Literary Forms of the Period:

Two literary forms developed during this period, the romance and the ballad.
The ballad developed out of the French, Chansons de Geste, songs celebrating great deeds. The best known was a series of ballads called The Geste of Robin Hood.
The romance also developed. The romance was a long narrative poem, about knights dealing with themes of virtue. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was one of the best of these romances.

Other poems of this period:

In the same manuscript with Sir Gawain, three other poems were found:
“The Pearl” the story of a father grieving for the death of his daughter, his “precious pearl without spot”.
“Cleanness” Moralizes on the basis of Bible stories.
“Patience” is a paraphrase of the Book of Jonah.