Literatura de los países de habla Inglesa – Prof.

Romina Paola Piñeyro

INTRODUCTION
Anglo Saxon Literature is the first exponent of English Literature. It is the literature of
those Teutonic tribes which from the end of the 5 th century invaded Britain, a land
inhabited by the Brithons, a Celtic Race subdued by the Romans and already
Christianized. At first, invaders from Engle land were fierce and terrible, wandering
tribes, but then, 2 centuries later, when their writings started to appear, they were partly
civilized. Angles, Saxons and Jutes in Northumbria and Mercia had undergone mass
conversion and had become settlers.
So, broadly speaking, Anglo Saxon Literature as we know it is from the 7 th to the 11th
centuries the work of clerks who preserved it in its entirety.
Anglo Saxon poetry is generally elegiac in form and edifying in spirit. It is one long
lamentation brought about by the convert to Christianity. So, names like Aldhelm (640-
709), “Venerable Bede” (673-735) appear, all engaged in the Christian religious cause.

 First fragment of literature→ Caedmon’s hymn (around 670).

HYMN /hIm/ A religious song that is usually sung in churches.

 ELEGIES /elədƷI/→ A poem or other piece of writing expressing sadness,

especially because of someone’s death.
“ Deor’s Lament”

Fragment:
And so I can sing of my own sad plight
Who long stood high as the Heodenings’s bard
Deor, my name, dear to my lord
Mild was my service for many a winter
Kingly my king till Heorrenda came
Skilful in song and usurping the land-right
Which once my gracious lord granted to me.

That evil ended. So also may this!

“The Seafarer” – “The Wanderer”

Fragment:
(...)Where is the warrior now?
Where is the war horse?
 In the nights of the past
As if they never had been(...)
He, who has wisely mused on these mouldering ruins,
And deeply ponder this darkling life
Must brood on old legends of battle and bloodshed
And heavy the mood that troubles his heart(...)

Themes:

Eg: “The dream of the Rood”

This is my hearts’s desire, and all my hope
Waits on the Cross. In this world now
I have few powerful friends(...)

ALL THE TEXTS IN THE ORAL TRADITION IN ANGLO SAXON LITERATURE

ARE IN POETRY FORM

BEOWULF is the only long epic poem.

The old hero dies in the most triumphant moment of his life.

Fragment:
That was the last fight Beowulf fought
That was the end of his work in the world

Beowulf is the beginning of a heroic tradition