Old Enghlish Literature Anglo-Saxon literature The act of reading becomes a scene in which the reader is alone, distanced from the claims of domestic and public life. What is read is specicall! a boo", that is, the material form texts assume in a world shaped both b! the technolog! of printing and b! #omantic notions of the self. Old English was the language spo"en b! the Anglo-Saxons before the $orman %on&uest. Old English literature or Anglo-Saxon literature, encompasses literature written in Old English, in Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon England from the 'th centur! centur ! to the decades after the $orman %on&uest of ()**. +%dmons +%dmons !mn+, composed in the 'th centur!, centur!, according to /ede, is often considered the oldest extant poem in English, whereas the later poem, The 0ra1e is one of the final poems written in Old English, and presents a transitional text between Old and 2iddle English. The 3eterborough %hronicle can also be considered a late-period text, continuing into the (4th centur!. The poem /eowulf, which often begins the traditional canon of English literature, is the most famous wor" of Old English literature. liter ature. The Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon %hronicle has also pro1en significant for historical stud!, preser1ing a chronolog! of earl! earl ! English histor!. 5n descending order of &uantit!, Old English literature consists of6 sermons and saints li1es7 biblical translations7 translated Latin wor"s of the earl! %hurch 8athers7 Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon chronicles and narrati1e histor! wor"s7 laws, wills and other legal wor"s7 practical wor"s on grammar, medicine, geograph!7 and poetr!. 5n all there are o1er 9)) sur1i1ing manuscripts from the period, of which about (:; (:; are considered +ma
Old English literature has gone through different periods of research7 in the (;th and earl! 4)th centuries the focus was on the 0ermanic and pagan roots that scholars thought the! could detect in Old English literature. Later, on account of the wor" of /ernard 8. upp=, the influence of Augustinian exegesis was emphasised. Toda!, Toda!, along with a focus upon paleograph! and the ph!sical ph!sical manuscripts themsel1es more generall!, scholars debate such issues as dating, place pla ce of origin, authorship, and the connections between Anglo-Saxon culture and the rest of Europe in the 2iddle Ages, and literar! merits. A large number of manuscripts remain from the Anglo-Saxon period, with most written during its last >)) !ears ?;th to ((th centuries@, in both Latin and the 1ernacular. There were considerable losses of manuscripts as a result of the issolution of the 2onasteries in the (*th centur!. Scholarl! Scholarl! stud! of the language began in the reign r eign of Bueen EliCabeth 5 when 2atthew 3ar"er and others obtained whate1er manuscripts the! could. Old English manuscripts ha1e been highl! priCed b! collectors since the (*th centur!, both for their
historic 1alue and for their aesthetic beaut! with their uniforml! spaced letters and decorati1e elements. There are four major poetic manuscripts 6
The Dunius manuscript, also "nown as the %dmon manuscript, is an illustrated collection of poems on biblical narrati1es. The Exeter /oo" is an antholog!, located in the Exeter %athedral since it was donated there in the ((th centur!. The e ercelli /oo" contains both poetr! and prose7 it is not "nown how it ca came me to be in ercelli. The /eowulf 2anuscript ?/ritish Librar! %otton itellius itellius A. x1@, sometimes called the $owell %odex, contains prose and poetr!, poetr!, t!picall! dealing with monstrous themes, including /eowulf. Se1en ma
@, who distinguished fi1e distinct alliterati1e patterns. is s!stem of alliterati1e 1erse is based on accent, alliteration, the &uantit! of 1owels, and patterns of s!llabic accentuation. 5t consists of fi1e permutations on a base 1erse scheme7 an! one of the fi1e t!pes can be used in an! 1erse. The s!stem was inherited from and exists in one form or another in all of the older 0ermanic languages. Two poetic figures commonl! found in Old English poetr! are the "enning, an often formulaic phrase that describes one thing in terms of another ?e.g. in /eowulf, the sea is called the whale road@ and litotes, a dramatic understatement emplo!ed b! the author for ironic effect. Alternati1e theories ha1e been proposed, such as the theor! of Dohn %. 3ope ?(;94@, which uses musical notation to trac" the 1erse patterns. D. #. #. Tol"ien Tol"ien describes and illustrates man! of the features of Old English poetr! in his (;9) essa! essa ! +On Translating /eowulf+. E1en though all extant Old English poetr! is written and literate, it is assumed that Old English poetr! was an oral craft that was performed b! a scop and accompanied b! a harp. Original Christian poems
5n addition to /iblical paraphrases are a number of original religious poems, mostl! l!rical ?non-narrati1e@.
The Exeter /oo" contains a series of poems entitled %hrist, sectioned into %hrist 5, %hrist 55 and %hrist 555. %onsidered one of the most beautiful of all Old English poems is ream of the #ood, contained in the ercelli /oo". 5t is a dream 1ision of %hrist on the cross, with the cross personified, spea"ing thus6 G5 endured much hardship up on that hill. 5 saw the 0od of hosts stretched out cruell!. ar"ness had co1ered with clouds the bod! of the Lord, the bright radiance. A shadow shadow went forth, dar" under the hea1ens. All creation wept, mourned the death of the "ing. %hrist was on the cross.H Iream of the #ood The dreamer resol1es to trust in the cross, and the dream ends with a 1ision of hea1en. There are a number of religious debate poems. The longest is %hrist and Satan in the Dunius manuscript, it deals with the conflict between %hrist and Satan during the fort! da!s in the desert. Another debate poem is Solomon and Saturn, sur1i1ing in a number of textual fragments, Saturn is portra!ed as a magician debating with the wise "ing Solomon. Prose
The amount of sur1i1ing Old English prose is much greater than the amount of poetr!. poetr !. Of the sur1i1ing prose, the ma
The Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon %hronicle was probabl! started in the time of Fing Alfred the 0reat and continued for o1er >)) !ears as a s a historical record of Anglo-Saxon histor!. histor!. A single example of a %lassical romance has sur1i1ed, it is a fragment of the stor! of Apollonius of T!re, T!re, from the ((th centur!. A mon" who was writing in Old English at the same time as Aelfric and Wulfstan was /!rhtferth of #amse!, whose boo"s andboc and 2anual were studies of mathematics and rhetoric. Aelfric wrote two neo-scientific wor"s, exameron and 5nterrogationes Sigewulfi, dealing with the stories of %reation. e also wrote a grammar and glossar! in Old English called Latin, later used b! students interested in learning Old 8rench because it had been glossed in Old 8rench. There are man! sur1i1ing rules and calculations for finding feast da!s, and tables on calculating the tides and the season of the moon.
5n the $owell %odex is the text of The Wonders Wonders of the East which includes a remar"able map of the world, and other illustrations. Also contained in $owell is Alexanders Letter to Aristotle./ecause this is the same manuscript that contains /eowulf, some scholars speculate it ma! ha1e been a collection of materials on exotic places and creatures. There are a number of interesting medical wor"s. There is a translation of Apuleiuss erbarium with stri"ing illustrations, found together with 2edicina de Buadrupedibus. A second collection of texts is /alds Leechboo", a ()th-centur! boo" containing herbal and e1en some surgical cures. A third collection, "nown as the Lacnunga, includes man! charms and incantations. Anglo-Saxon legal texts are a large and important part of the o1erall corpus. /! the (4th centur! the! had been arranged arr anged into two large collections ?see Textus Textus #[email protected]! include laws of the "ings, beginning with those of Aethelbert of Fent, and texts dealing with specific cases and places in the countr!. An interesting example is 0erefa which outlines the duties of a ree1e on a large manor estate.There is also a large 1olume of legal documents related to religious houses. Old English literature did not disappear in ()** with the $orman %on&uest.2an! sermons and wor"s continued to be read and used in part or whole up through the (9th centur!, centur !, and were further catalogued and organised. uring the #eformation, when monastic libraries were dispersed, the manuscripts were collected b! anti&uarians and scholars.These included Laurence $owell, 2atthew 3ar"er, #obert /ruce %otton and umfre! Wanle!. Wanle!.5n 5n the ('th centur! there began a tradition of Old English literature dictionaries and references.The first was William Somners ictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum ? (*K;@.Lexicographer Doseph /osworth began a dictionar! in the (;th centur! which was completed b! Thomas $orthcote Toller Toller in (:;: called An Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon ictionar!, which was updated b! Alistair %ampbell in (;'4. /ecause Old English was one of the first 1ernacular languages to be written down, nineteenthcentur! scholars searching for the roots of European +national culture+ ?see #omantic $ationalism@ too" special interest in stud!ing Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon literature, and Old English became a regular part of uni1ersit! curriculum. Since WW55 there has been increasing interest in the manuscripts themsel1esI$eil themsel1esI$ei l Fer, a paleographer, published the groundbrea"ing %atalogue of 2anuscripts %ontaining Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon in (;K', and b! (;:) nearl! all al l Anglo Saxon manuscript texts were in print. D.#.#. Tol"ien Tol"ien is credited with creating a mo1ement to loo" at Old English as a sub*@. Old English literature has had some influence on modern literature, and notable poets ha1e translated and incorporated in corporated Old English poetr!. We Well-"nown ll-"nown earl! translations include William 2orriss translation of /eowulf and ECra 3ounds translation of The Seafarer. The influence of the poetr! can be seen in modern poets T. S. Eliot, ECra 3ound and W. .
Auden.Tol"ien Auden.Tol"ien adapted the sub
5oschici Alina #omana-EngleCa, 0rupa 4
