Anglo Saxon literature and Characteristics

The literature from the time of Anglo Saxons era is also referred to as old English literature. This is
basically due to the reason that a lot of the literature during the times of the Anglo Saxons were
written in the old English language.The time period which majorly saw the Anglo Saxons literature was
from the 7th century right up till the time right before the Norman conquest in the year 1066. Thus,
quite a good number of decades witnessed the great rich culture of the Anglo Saxons Literature.
The different genres and themes on which the poetry of the Anglo Saxons literature is based are:
Heroic Poetry
Latin Poetry and Classical Poetry
Elegiac Poetry
Christian Poetry
The different genres and themes on which the prose of the Anglo Saxons literature is based
are:
 Secular Prose
 Christian Prose
Apart from the proses and the poems, there were also many riddles based on the variety of same
genres which marks the literature of the Anglo Saxons times. It is known that the Anglo Saxons were
dedicatedly religious.This is the reason why, if one goes deep into the literature of the Anglo Saxons
times, they will find that from poems to proses and riddles, a good part of the Anglo Saxons literature
is based on the religious background. This religious part of the Anglo Saxons literature marks the
presence of the Anglo Saxons Christian literature.
Characteristics of the Anglo Saxons Period in History of English Literature
According to the study and research of the history of Anglo Saxons literature, there are many
characteristics of the Anglo Saxons literature. Following mentioned are five characteristics of Anglo
Saxons literature which are considered to be the most important ones:

 Anglo Saxons made the use of blank verses to write their poetries. The meaning of the term
‘blank verse’ is that there is no such presence of any end rhyme which occurs from one line to
another line.
 Making use of caesura was very common amongst the Anglo Saxons literature. The term
‘caesura’ means to take a breath or to take a pause whilst in the middle of a particular line. The
caesura really helped the scop to recite the long poems and epics of the Anglo Saxons literature.
 The main motive of the Anglo Saxons literature was to be of high morale to the ones who used
to listen.
 It was also very common for the use of kennings. The terms ‘kennings’ is nothing but a phrase of
metaphorical nature which was used to describe any figurative description.
 Alliteration was a commonly used poetic device during the Anglo Saxons literature.

Some of the most important works from this period include the poem Beowulf, which has achieved
national epic status in Britain. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of early English history. The
poem Cædmon's Hymn from the 7th century is one of the oldest surviving written texts in English.
Old English poetry
Manuscripts of Old English Poetry
Old English poetry is of two types, the heroic Germanic pre-Christian and the Christian. It has survived
for the most part in four manuscripts. The first manuscript is called the Junius manuscript (also known
as the Caedmon manuscript), which is an illustrated poetic anthology. The second manuscript is called
the Exeter Book, also an anthology, located in the Exeter Cathedral since it was donated there in the
11th century. The third manuscript is called the Vercelli Book, a mix of poetry and prose; how it came
to be in Vercelli, Italy, no one knows, and is a matter of debate. The fourth manuscript is called the
Nowell Codex, also a mixture of poetry and prose.
Alliterative Verse
The most popular and well known understanding of Old English poetry continues to be Sievers'
alliterative verse. The system is based upon accent, alliteration, the quantity of vowels, and patterns
of syllabic accentuation. It consists of five permutations on a base verse scheme; any one of the five
types can be used in any verse. The system was inherited from and exists in one form or another in all
of the older Germanic languages.
Kenning
Two poetic figures commonly found in Old English poetry are the Kenning, an often formulaic phrase
that describes one thing in terms of another, e.g. in Beowulf, the sea is called the swan's road and
Litotes, a dramatic understatement employed by the author for ironic effect.
Oral Craft
Old English poetry was an oral craft, and our understanding of it in written form is incomplete; for
example, we know that the poet (referred to as the Scop) could be accompanied by a harp, and there
may be other aural traditions we are not aware of.

Poetry represents the smallest amount of the surviving Old English text, but Anglo-Saxon culture had
a rich tradition of oral story telling, just not much was written down or survived.
Poets
Most Old English poets are anonymous; twelve are known by name from Medieval sources, but only
four of those are known by their vernacular works to us today with any certainty: Caedmon, Bede,
Alfred, and Cynewulf.

In 1066, the Normans led by William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings in
Southern England.Within a century, they had adopted French ideals and customs and had become a
very polished and intellectual European people. It is said that the union of Norse and Gallic blood had
produced a culture that had the best qualities of both—-the strength and energy of one and the
curiosity and imagination of the other. So when William came with his Normans, they were hardly the
“heathens” who had sacked Northumbria over a century previously. They brought an intellectual
curiosity to England and a cosmopolitan vision of the world. The Norman conquest led to social,
cultural and political upheavals in England. It signalled the end of the Old English language as it
absorbed more French words and idioms. This invasion removed the English ruling class and replaced
it with a very foreign monarchy. This brought about a complete change in the English culture and
language. Latin remained as the language of the Church and learning while French became the
language of the aristocracy (though intermarriage and exchanges with servants meant one had to
engage in some bilingualism). There were various dialects of the Celtic language still spoken in areas
like Cornwall, Scotland and Wales. Literature during this time concerned itself with mainly three
subjects: religion, courtly love, and King Arthur.
Historia Regum Britanniae
Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh monk, wrote Historia Regum Britanniae in 1136 as a complete
history of the Britons in Latin. He collected several Celtic legends and reframed them through his
imagination. There is little factual validity of the book as historiography. However, this book has acted
as source material for later writers. Shakespeare’s King Lear. Malory’s Morte d’ Arthur and Tennyson’s
Idylls of the King were founded on this work of Geoffrey. The book is an interesting assortment of
pagan and Christian legends, of commentary and pure invention. It was extremely popular at the time
and gave a new direction to the literature of England by showing the wealth of poetry and romance
that lay in its own tradition of Arthurian romances.
Brut
Layamont, an English priest, wrote Brut (also known as The Chronicle of Britain) in c. 1200, in the form
of riming chronicle. The poem begins with the destruction of Troy and escape of Aenaes the Duke into
Italy. His grandson Brutus sets out to find a new land in the West. After this, the Briton kingdom is
founded. The final part of the poem is about King Arthur and his knights. The poem is 16,096 lines
long and is the first historiography written in English since the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Named for
Britain’s mythical founder, Brutus of Troy, the poem is largely based on the Anglo-Norman Roman de
Brut by Wace, which is in turn a version of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Latin Historia Regum Britanniae.
The poem was written in Anglo-Saxon language with certain French influences already at work in
rimes and assonances.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The most important of all Arthurian Romances are those of the Gawain Cycle, narrating the exploits of
Sir Gawain, a knight at Arthur’s court. Out of these, the most popular one till today is the story of “Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight” for several reasons. Firstly, although the source material is French, the
English workmanship is the finest. Secondly, the poem exhibits finest dramatic qualities and vivid
descriptions. It is an interesting combination of French and Saxon elements. It is written in elaborate
stanza combining meter and alliteration. Each stanza ends with a rimed refrain, known as “tail rime”.
“Owl and the Nightingale”
was one of the many fables and satires which were copied or translated from the French. The poem
is a long debate between an owl and a nightingale. While the nightingale represents the gay side of
life, the owl represents the sterner side of law and morals. It combines the characteristics of
burlesque comedy, parody, traditional beast fables and popular verse satire.
The Pearl“The Pearl” is an intensely human and realistic picture of a father’s grief for his little
daughter Margaret. It is a late 14th-century Middle English poem with elements of medieval allegory
and dream vision. There is a complex system of stanza linking and other stylistic features. Although
the poet is anonymous, it is believed that it was the same person who wrote Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight because of stylistic and thematic similarities. It was also found in the same manuscript
where Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was found. “The Pearl” is 1212 lines long with 101 stanzas of
12 lines each.
 Religious and didactic writings.
 Romances.
 Lais and fabliaux.
 Political and historical writings.
Latin influence
One of the most obvious changes that occurred after the Norman conquest was that of the language:
the Anglo-Norman. When William the Conqueror was crowned as king of England, Anglo-Norman
became the language of the court, the administration, and culture. English was demoted to more
common and unprestigious usages. Anglo Norman was instated as the language of the ruling classes,
and it would be so until about three centuries later. But not only the upper classes used French,
merchants who travelled to and from the channel, and those who wanted to belong to these groups,
or have a relationship with them, had to learn the language.
These events marked the beginning of Middle English, and had an incredible effect in the way English
is spoken nowadays. Before the Norman conquest, Latin had been a minor influence on English, but at
this stage, some 30000 words entered the English language, that is, about one third of the total
vocabulary. But vocabulary was not the only thing that changed in the English language. While Old
English had been an extremely inflected language, it now had lost most of its inflections.
The influence of the Normans can be illustrated by looking at two words, beef and cow. Beef,
commonly eaten by the aristocracy, derives from the Anglo-Norman, while the Anglo-Saxon
commoners, who tended the cattle, retained the Germanic cow. Many legal terms, such as indict,
jury, and verdict have Anglo-Norman roots because the Normans ran the courts. This split, where
words commonly used by the aristocracy have Romantic roots and words frequently used by the
Anglo-Saxon commoners have Germanic roots, can be seen in many instances.
French Influence
Since French-speaking Normans took control over the church and the court of London. A largest
number of words borrowed by the government, spiritual and ecclesiastical (religious) services. As
example – state, royal (roial), exile (exil), rebel, noble, peer, prince, princess, justice, army (armee),
navy (navie), enemy (enemi), battle, soldier, spy (verb), combat (verb) and more. French words also
borrowed in English art, culture, and fashion as music, poet (poete), prose, romance, pen, paper,
grammar, noun, gender, pain, blue, diamond, dance (verb), melody, image, beauty, remedy, poison,
joy, poor, nice, etc. Many of the above words are different from modern French in use or
pronunciation or spelling.

▪ Chaucer and his contemporaries (religious absolutism and seeds of

Reformation, Black Death and major political developments in congruence
with the literary productions
• The Renaissance:
▪ The meaning and genealogies of the arrival of the Renaissance at the
English scene
▪ Reformation of religion ( From Germany to Britain)
▪ Scientific developments
▪ Humanism
▪ Arts and Painting
▪ Italian influence on English imagination
▪ The Elizabethan era ( Major dramatists including Shakespeare, Marlowe
and Ben Jonson , Prose writers , poets and other treatises
• Puritanism and Restoration:
▪ Major political developments ( Divine Right theory, Suspension of
Parliament, Civil War in England, the Commonwealth)
▪ Metaphysical Poets (John Donne)
▪ Milton and Puritan Age
▪ Cavalier Poets
▪ Restoration Drama
▪ Glorious Revolution 1688
▪ Philosophical Creations of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke
• 18th Century:
▪ The age of prose and satire
▪ Major writers and their works
▪ Journals
▪ The spirit of Neo-Classicism
▪ Rise of English novel
• Romantic Movement:
▪ An Introduction to Romanticism
▪ Major literary figures and the monumental works (Blake, Byron, Keats,
Shelley, Wordsworth, Cowper
• Victorian Era:
▪ The spirit of the Victorian age ( The tussle between science and morality,
science and nature
▪ Industrialism
▪ The Victorian novel, poetry and prose works
▪ Seeds of British Colonialism in Asia and Africa
• 20th Century Literature:
▪ Modernism and its genealogies
▪ World Wars and their impact on literary imagination
▪ Major writers, dominant genres and movements originating in 20th century