History of Old English Literature

A. Histor History y of Old Englis English h Litera Literatur turee Old English literature (sometimes referred to as Anglo-Saxon literature) encompasses

literature written in Old English (also English (also called Anglo-Saxon) in Anglo-Saxon England from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman the  Norman Conuest of !"##$ %C&dmon's % C&dmon's ymn% ymn% composed in the 7th century according to *ede is often considered the oldest extant poem in English whereas the later  poem The Grave is Grave is one of the final poems written in Ol d English and presents a transitional text  +etween Old and ,iddle English$ English$i.ewise the Peterborough the Peterborough Chronicle Chronicle continues  continues until the !/th century$ 0he poem Beowulf  poem Beowulf  which often +egins the traditional canon of English literature literature  is the most famous wor. of Old English literature$ 0he Anglo-Saxon 0he Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Chronicle has  has also pro1en significant for historical study preser1ing a chronology of early English histor y$ Alexander Souter  names  names the commentary on 2aul 2aul's 's epistles +y 2elagius 2elagius %the  %the earliest extant wor. +y a *ritish author% 3n descending order of uantity Old English literature consists of4 sermons and saints' li1es  +i+lical translations5 translated atin wor.s of the early Church 6athers5 6athers 5 Anglo-Saxon chronicles and narrati1e history wor.s5 laws wills wills and  and other legal wor.s5 practical wor.s on grammar  medicine medicine geography55 and poetry geography and poetry$$ 3n all there are o1er "" sur1i1ing manuscripts manuscripts from  from the period of which a+out !89 are considered %ma:or%$

B. Schol chola arsh rship

Old English literature has gone through different periods of research5 in the !9th and early /"th centuries the focus was on the ;ermanic and pagan roots that scholars thought the y could detect in Old English literature$ ater on account of the wor. of *ernard 6$ upp< the influence of Augustinian exegesis exegesis was  was emphasised$ 0oday 0oday along with a focus upon paleography upon  paleography and  and the physical manuscripts themsel1es more generally scholars de+ate such issues as dating place of origin authorship and the connections +etween Anglo-Saxon culture and the rest of Europe in the ,iddle Ages and literary merits$ Ages merits $

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C. Extant manuscripts

A large num+er of manuscripts remain from the AngloSaxon period with most written during its last ="" years (9th to !!th centuries) in +oth atin and the 1ernacular $ 0here were considera+le losses of manuscripts as a result of the >issolution of the ,onasteries in the !#th century$ Scholarly study of the language +egan in the reign of ?ueen Eli@a+eth 3

when ,atthew 2ar.er and others o+tained whate1er manuscripts they could$ Old English manuscripts ha1e +een highly pri@ed +y collectors since the !#th century +oth for

their historic 1alue and for their aesthetic +eauty of uniformly spaced letters and decorati1e elements$ 0here are four ma:or poetic manuscripts4 •

0he unius manuscript also .nown as the man hunt is an illustrated collection of  poems on +i+lical narrati1es$

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0he Exeter *oo.  is an anthology located in the Exeter Cathedral since it was donated there in the !!th century$

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0he Bercelli *oo.  contains +oth poetry and prose5 it is not .nown how it came to +e in Bercelli$

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0he *eowulf ,anuscript (*ritish i+rary Cotton Bitellius A$ x1) sometimes called the Nowell Codex contains prose and poetry typically dealing with monstrous themes including Beowulf $

Se1en ma:or scriptoria produced a good deal of Old English manuscripts4 inchester  Exeter  orcester  A+ingdon >urham and two Canter+ury houses Christ Church and St$ Augustine's A++ey5 regional dialects include4 Northum+rian ,ercian Dentish est Saxon (the last +eing the main dialect)$ Some Old English sur1i1es on  parchment stone structures and other ornate o+:ects$

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D. Old English oetry

All this poetry was composed in effecti1ely the same meter$ 0he metrical unit is the rhythmic phrase (half-line) usually of two stresses lin.ed into pairs +y alliteration$ Endrhyme is hardly e1er used and the meter is not sylla+le-counting$ Although it is theoretically 1ery different from most later poetry it feels in most respects natural and immediate to a modern ear when spo.en aloud$ Some poems recount or refer to inherited heroic legend$ ,uch else is religious$ Some of this is %pu+lic% poetry fairly o+1iously intended to edify its audience5 other religious poems seem rather to +e pri1ate and personal meditations on the human condition$ A few poems deal with e1ents of recent history whether as propaganda or memorial$ Some such as the iddles seem to +e primarily intended for entertainment although they come from a learned atin tradition$ Not all sur1i1ing Old English poetry is particularly good$ Some poems 1ersified saints' li1es or 1ersified translations of +oo.s of the *i+le ha1e little or no present-day interest other than for specialists$ *ut some poems still spea. 1ery directly to modern readers for instance %0he anderer% and %0he Seafarer% often paired and often translated$ 0hey gi1e an intense sense of weary longing in the midst of transience desolation and dar.ness transmuted into a hungry uest for enlightenment$ E. Old English rose 0he amount of sur1i1ing Old English prose is much greater than the amount of poetry$ Of the sur1i1ing prose the ma:ority consists of sermons and translations of religious wor.s that were composed in atin$ 0he di1ision of early medie1al written prose wor.s into categories of %Christian% and %secular% as +elow is for con1enience's sa.e only for literacy in Anglo-Saxon England was largely the pro1ince of mon.s nuns and ecclesiastics (or of those laypeople to whom they had taught the s.ills of reading and writing atin andFor Old English)$ Old English prose first appears in the 9th century and continues to +e recorded through the !/th century as the last generation of scri+es trained as +oys in the standardised est Saxon +efore the Conuest died as old men$

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1. Christian prose 0he most widely .nown secular author of Old English was Ding Alfred the ;reat (89G899) who translated se1eral +oo.s many of them religious from atin into Old English$ Alfred wanting to restore English culture lamented the poor state of atin education4

“So general was [educational] deca in !ngland that there were ver few on this side of the  "u#ber who could$$$translate a letter fro# %atin into !nglish& and ' believe there were not #an beond the "u#ber(  )   Pastoral Care * introduction Alfred proposed that students +e educated in Old English and those who excelled should go on to learn atin$ Alfred's cultural program produced the following translations4 ;regory the ;reat's The Pastoral Care a manual for priests on how to conduct their duties5 The Consolation of Philoso+h +y *oethius5 and The Solilo,uies of Saint Augustine$ Alfred the ;reat was also responsi+le for a translation of fifty 2salms into Old English$ Other important Old English translations include4 "istoriae adversu# +aganos +y Orosius a companion piece for St$ Augustine's The Cit of God 5 the ialogues of ;regory the ;reat5 and *ede's !cclesiastical "istor of the !nglish Peo+le$  Hlfric of Eynsham wrote in the late !"th and early !!th century$ e was the greatest and most prolific writer of Anglo-Saxon sermons which were copied and adapted for use well into the !=th century$ e translated the first six +oo.s of the *i+le (.ld !nglish "exateuch) and glossed and translated other parts of the *i+le$ is  %ives of Saints in the ulius manuscript contains Se1en Sleepers of Ephesus Saint ,ary of Egypt Saint Eustace and Saint Euphrosyne$ Hlfric also wrote an Old English wor. on time-rec.oning and pastoral letters$ 3n the same category as Aelfric and a contemporary was ulfstan 33 arch+ishop of Ior.$ is sermons were highly stylistic$ is +est .nown wor. is Ser#o %u+i ad Anglos in which he  +lames the sins of the English for the Bi.ing in1asions$ e wrote a num+er of clerical legal texts 'nstitutes of Polit and Canons of !dgar $ One of the earliest Old English texts in prose is the  /artrolog information a+out saints and martyrs according to their anni1ersaries and feasts in the church calendar$ 3t has sur1i1ed in six fragments$ 3t is +elie1ed to date from the 9th century +y an anonymous ,ercian author$

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0he oldest collections of church sermons is the Blic0ling ho#ilies found in a !"th-century manuscript$ 0here are a num+er of saint's li1es prose wor.s5 +eyond those written +y Aelfric are the prose life of Saint ;uthlac (Bercelli *oo.) the life of Saint ,argaret and the life of Saint Chad$ 0here are four li1es in the ulius manuscript4 Se1en Sleepers of Ephesus Saint ,ary of Egypt Saint Eustace and Saint Euphrosyne$ 0he essex ;ospels are a full translation of the four gospels into a est Saxon dialect of Old English produced a+out 99"$ 0he .ld !nglish Gos+el of 1icode#us manuscripts date from the !!th century A>$ Other translations include %$$$the Gos+el of Pseudo-/atthew 2indicta  salvatoris 2ision of Saint Paul  and the A+ocal+se of Tho#as%$ One of the largest +odies of Old English text is found in the legal texts collected and sa1ed +y the religious houses$ 0hese include many .inds of texts4 records of donations +y no+les5 wills5 documents of emancipation5 lists of +oo.s and relics5 court cases5 guild rules$ All of these texts pro1ide 1alua+le insights into the social history of Anglo-Saxon times +ut are also of literary 1alue$ 6or example some of the court case narrati1es are interesting for their use of rhetoric$ !. Secular prose

0he Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was pro+a+ly started in the time of Ding Alfred the ;reat and continued for o1er ="" years as a historical record of Anglo-Saxon history$ A single example of a Classical romance has sur1i1ed it is a fragment of the story of  A+ollonius of Tre from the !!th century$ A mon. who was writing in Old English at the same time as Aelfric and ulfstan was *yrhtferth of amsey whose +oo.s "andboc and /anual  were studies of mathematics and rhetoric$ Aelfric wrote two neo-scientific wor.s "exa#eron and 'nterrogationes Sigewulfi dealing with the stories of Creation$ e also wrote a grammar and glossary in Old English called  %atin later used +y students interested in learning Old 6rench +ecause it had +een glossed in Old 6rench$

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0here are many sur1i1ing rules and calculations for finding feast days and ta+les on calculating the tides and the season of the moon$ 3n the Nowell Codex is the text of The 3onders of the !ast  which includes a remar.a+le map of the world and other illustrations$ Also contained in Nowell is Alexander4s %etter to  Aristotle$ *ecause this is the same manuscript that contains Beowulf  some scholars speculate it may ha1e +een a collection of materials on exotic places and creatures$ 0here are a num+er of interesting medical wor.s$ 0here is a translation of Apuleius's  "erbariu# with stri.ing illustrations found together with /edicina de 5uadru+edibus$ A second collection of texts is Bald4s %eechboo0  a !"th-century +oo. containing her+al and e1en some surgical cures$ A third collection .nown as the %acnunga includes many charms and incantations$ Anglo-Saxon legal texts are a large and important part of the o1erall corpus$ *y the !/th century they had +een arranged into two large collections (see Textus 6offensis)$ 0hey include laws of the .ings +eginning with those of Aethel+ert of Dent and texts dealing with specific cases and places in the country$ An interesting example is Gerefa which outlines the duties of a ree1e on a large manor estate$ 0here is also a large 1olume of legal documents related to religious houses$ ". #eception of Old English

Old English literature did not disappear in !"## with the Norman Conuest$ ,any sermons and wor.s continued to +e read and used in part or whole up through the !th century and were further catalogued and organised$ >uring the eformation when monastic li+raries were dispersed the manuscripts were collected +y antiuarians and scholars$ 0hese included aurence Nowell ,atthew 2ar.er  o+ert *ruce Cotton and umfrey anley$ 3n the !7th century there +egan a tradition of Old English literature dictionaries and references$ 0he first was illiam Somner 's ictionariu# Saxonico-%atino-Anglicu# (!#J9)$ exicographer oseph *osworth +egan a dictionary in the !9th century which was completed  +y 0homas Northcote 0oller  in !898 called An Anglo-Saxon ictionar which was updated  +y Alistair Camp+ell in !97/$ *ecause Old English was one of the first 1ernacular languages to +e written down nineteenth-century scholars searching for the roots of European %national culture% (see 6

omantic Nationalism) too. special interest in studying Anglo-Saxon literature and Old English +ecame a regular part of uni1ersity curriculum$ Since 33 there has +een increasing interest in the manuscripts themsel1esK   Neil Der  a paleographer  pu+lished the ground+rea.ing Catalogue of /anuscri+ts Containing Anglo-Saxon  in !9J7 and +y !98" nearly all Anglo-Saxon manuscript texts were in print$ $$$ 0ol.ien is credited with creating a mo1ement to loo. at Old English as a su+:ect of literary theory in his seminal lecture  Beowulf7 The /onsters and the Critics (!9=#)$ Old English literature has had some influence on modern literature and nota+le poets ha1e translated and incorporated Old English poetry$ ell-.nown early translations include illiam ,orris's translation of Beowulf  and E@ra 2ound's translation of The Seafarer $ 0he influence of the poetry can +e seen in modern poets 0$ S$ Eliot E@ra 2ound and $ $ Auden$ 0ol.ien adapted the su+:ect matter and terminology of heroic poetry for wor.s li.e The  "obbit  and The %ord of the 6ings and ohn ;ardner wrote Grendel  which tells the story of *eowulf's opponent from his own perspecti1e$ ,ore recently other nota+le poets such as 2aul ,uldoon Seamus eaney >enise e1erto1 and L$ A$ 6anthorpe ha1e all shown an interest in Old English poetry$ 3n !987 >enise e1erto1 pu+lished a translation of Caedmon's ymn under her title %Caedmon% in the collection Breathing the 3ater $ 0his was then followed +y Seamus eaney's 1ersion of the  poem %hit+y-sur-,oyola% in his The S+irit %evel  (!99#) 2aul ,uldoon's %Caedmon's ymn% in his /o Sand and Gravel  (/""/) and L$ A$ 6anthorpe's %Caedmon's Song% in her 5ueuing for the Sun (/""=)$ 0hese translations differ greatly from one another :ust as Seamus eaney's Beowulf  (!999) de1iates from earlier similar pro:ects$ eaney uses 3rish diction across Beowulf  to +ring what he calls a %special +ody and force% to the poem foregrounding his own Llster heritage %in order to render (the poem) e1er more 'willa+le forwardFagain and again and again$'%

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