Lesson 1 | The Anglo-Saxon Period

Reference: https://www.academia.edu/40516591/Norton_Anthology_of_English_literature_Vol._1
Learning Objectives:
1. Read, discuss, and write about Old English poetry and prose.
2. Examine the selections in terms of the following elements:
a. Old English Poetry
b. Old English
3. Read about Old English language.
4. Write response papers about the period or the selections
A. The Anglo-Saxon Period
Only four manuscripts in Old English survived: Beowulf, The Exeter Book, The Vercelli Book, and Bede’s
Ecclesiastical History of the English People. None of these are in the author’s hand; all were copied by monks around
1000. The first modern English version of Beowulf did not appear until 1833. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the
English People was written in Latin, not Old English; the work is an important mirror of Anglo-Saxon society. “The
Seafarer,” which is a part of the Exeter Book, is a fine representative of Anglo-Saxon lyric verse, one that has
influenced modern poets.
Old English Poetry
The Anglo-Saxon invaders brought with them a tradition of oral poetry; nothing was written down before the
conversion to Christianity. The earliest records in the English language are in manuscripts produced at monasteries
and other religious establishments, beginning in the 7th century.
Question: What is the over-all tone of the literature during the Anglo-Saxon Period?
Answer: ___________________________________________

B. Ecclesiastical History of the English People

By Bede

Study Questions:
1. Par 1, what influence did Caedmon’s religious verses have upon the listeners?
2. Par 2, where did Caedmon have his famous dream? What work did he have to do that night?
3. Par 3, What did the learned men conclude had been “conferred” on Caedmon and by whom?
4. According to Caedmon’s hymn, why did God create the “heavens”? why did he create dry land?
5. What change in stature does Caedmon undergo? In light of his change why might the place in which
Caedmon had his dream be especially significant?
6. How would you characterize the kind of world God created, according to Caedmon’s Hymn?
7. What can we conclude about Caedmon’s significance to the people, and especially to the scholars, of his
own time from the fact that he is included in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People?

C. The Seafarer
I can relate the reality, a song  about myself—
go on about the going, how I in toilsome times
often endured desperate days. (1-3)

Bitter breast-cares have I abided,

explored in a boat many sorrowful places,
the terrible tossing of waves —
where the narrow night-watch
often seized me at the stem of the ship
when it crashes upon the cliffs. (4-8)
Oppressed by chills were my feet, 
bound up by frost,  with cold chains, 
where these sorrows sighed
hot about the heart — hunger tearing within
the sea-wearied mind. He does not know this fact
who dwells most merrily on dry land—
how I, wretchedly sorrowful, lived a winter
on the ice-cold sea, upon the tracks of exile,
deprived of friendly kinsmen,
hung with rimy icicles. Hail flies in showers. (9-17)
There I heard nothing except the thrumming sea,
the ice-cold waves. Sometimes the swan’s song
I kept to myself as diversion, the cry of the gannet
and the curlew’s voice for the laughter of men—
the seagull’s singing for the drinking of mead.
Storms beat the stony cliffs there, where the tern calls him
with icy feathers. Very often the eagle screeches

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with wet feathers. No sheltering kinsfolk
could comfort this impoverished spirit. (18-26)
Therefore, he really doesn’t believe it—
he who owns the joys of life
and very little of the perilous paths, living in the cities,
proud and wine-flushed — how I must often
endure on the briny ways wearied. (27-30)
Dusky shadows darken. It snowed from the north,
binding the earth in ice. Hail fell to the ground,
coldest of grains. Therefore, they come crashing now,
the thoughts of my heart whether I should test out
the profound streams, the tossing of salty waves.
My mind’s desire reminds me at every moment,
my spirit to outventure, that I should seek
the homes of strange peoples far from here. (31-8)
Therefore there is no man so proud-minded over this earth,
nor so assured in his graces, nor so brave in his youth,
nor so bold in his deeds, nor his lord so gracious to him
that he will never have some anxiety about his sea-voyaging—
about whatever the Lord wishes to do to him. (39-43)
Neither is his thought with the harp, nor to the ring-taking,
nor to the joys in women, nor in the hopeful expectation in the world,
nor about anything else but the welling of waves—
he ever holds a longing, who strives out upon the streams. (44-7)
The groves take on blossoms, beautifying the cities,
gardens grow more fair, the world hastens —
all these things make the hurrying heart mindful,
the soul to its travels, to him who so imagines
on the flood-ways, to travel far away. (48-52)
Likewise, the cuckoo admonishes him with a sorrowful song,
summer’s warden sings, pronouncing pain,
bitter in the breast-hoard. Men do not know this thing,
pleasure-wealthy people, what some experience
who venture widest on the ways of exiles. (53-7)
Therefore now my mind departs outside its thought-locks,
my heart’s insides, with the ocean’s tide,
across the whale’s domain, departing broadly,
the corners of the earth —it comes again to me
gluttonous and greedy—the lone-wing keens,
whetting the heart without warning onto the deadly way,
across surface of the waters. (58-64a)
Therefore, they are hotter for me, the joys of the Lord,
than this dead life, loaned on land. How could I ever believe
that earthly weal will stand on its own eternally?
Always one of three things in every case,
will occur to obscure matters before his time is through:
disease or old age or else the blade’s hatred
will usurp the life from the fated, hurrying from here. (64b-71)
Therefore, for every man, praise from the after-speakers
and the living shall be the best of eulogies
that he labors after before he must go his way,
performing it on earth against malice of enemies,
with brave deeds, opposed to the devil,
so that the children of men might acclaim him afterwards,
and his praise shall live ever among the angels,
forever and ever in the fruits of eternal existence,
joys among the majesties. (72-80a)
The days have departed, all the presumption
of earthly rule—there are no longer
the kings or kaisers or the gold-givers such as there were,
when they performed the greatest glories among them
and dwelt in the most sovereign reputation.
Crumbled are all these glories, their joys have departed.
The weaker abide and keep hold of the world,
brooking it by their busyness. The fruits are brought low.
The glory of the earth elders and withers,
as now do all men throughout middle-earth.
Old age overtakes him, blanching his face—

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the greyhaired grieve. He knows his olden friend,
the noble child, was given up to the ground. (80b-93)
Nor can the flesh-home, when the life is lost,
swallow down sweetness, nor suffer sorrow,
nor stir its hands, nor think with its mind.
Although one’s brother may wish to strew the grave
with gold for his sibling, to bury beside the dead
many treasures that he would wish him to have—
That gold cannot comfort him, the soul filled with sins,
which he hid before now while he was alive,
from the terror of God — (94-102)
Mighty is the fear of the Measurer, therefore the earth shall be changed—
he established the unrelenting ground,
the corners of the earth and over-heaven.
Foolish is he who dreads not the Lord, his death comes unexpected.
Blessed is he who lives humbly, his reward comes in heaven.
The Measurer endows the heart in him because he believes in its power.
Man must steer a strong mind, and hold it firmly,
assured among humanity, clean in his ways. (103-10)
Every man must keep himself with moderation,
to those beloved and those he deadly hates,
even though he may wish them be filled with flames
or burned up upon a pyre,
his own confirmed friend. Outcomes are stronger—
the Measurer mightier still—than the thoughts of any man. (111-6)
Let us consider where we should possess our home,
and then think about how we may come there again—
and then we should strive also 
so that we may be allowed to do so,
into those eternal beatitudes— (117-20)
There life pertains to the love of the Lord,
hope in heaven. Thanks be to the Holy One,
so that he may honor us, the Lord of Glory,
Eternal Master, for all time. Amen. (121-4)

Evaluate the poem. How was the seafarer portrayed? Comment on its composition/writing.

1. Where did the speaker see suffering? (Lines 4-5)

2. Name 3 hardships that the speaker endured at sea.
3. What does the soul do?
4. What are the speaker’s two conflicting attitudes toward the sea? Which attitude seems stronger? Why do
you think this is so?
5. The lines “Let us consider where we should possess our home, and then think about how we may come
there again—“ Where is home, according to the speaker? How do you know?
6. In your own words, how would you characterize the speaker’s view of his life? in what tone is that view
expressed?
7. State the theme of the poem.

D. Beowulf

1. How are the AS concern with fate and fame evidenced in Beowulf?
2. Based on their characterizations, what universal forces might each represent? What universal struggle might
they represent?
3. Why does Beowulf begin and end with a funeral? What does this reveal about one of the themes of the
myth?
4. Why does the Beowulf author make Grendel’s mother more difficult to kill than the son? What effect does
this have on Beowulf’s heroism and the myth?
5. Charles W. Kennedy calls it a poem of cultivated craftsmanship, sophisticated rather than primitive.”
Through what evidence in the selection can we conclude that the world of Beowulf was primitive yet
civilized? How would you distinguish between the two?
6. State the theme.

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The Anglo-Saxon Period Mastery Test

1. Describe the mood of the poem, “The Seafarer”.

2. Why does the seafarer feel that his life as sea was hard?
3. Why does the seafarer miss the sea?
4. What is the seafarer’s attitude towards fate?
5. A belief in God plays an important role in the selections in this unit. Choose one of the three works and
describe the author’s beliefs about God.

Answers
1. Caedmon’s verses inspired people to despise the world and aspire to heaven.
2. Caedmon had his dream in a stable. He had to take care of the horses at night
3. He learned men concluded that “heavenly grace” had been conferred on Caedmon by God.
4. He created the heavens to be a roof over humankind
The land was created for the living to dwell in.
5. Caedmon changes from a humble stable worker to a revered monk and poet.
The stable recalls the story of Christ’s humble birth.
6. The world is the work of God’s hand and as such is one of his wonders.
7. We can conclude that Caedmon was admired as an important poet and religious figure of his day.
Poets of any age express the beliefs, values, and feelings of their society.

1. The seafarer is melancholy as he reflects on the sadness of his life at sea and his yearning for that same
life. he feels the only true happiness is in heaven.
2. He was often cold, hungry, and lonely.
3. He misses the excitement of adventures on the sea. He also feels no one on land can understand what he
has experienced on the sea, and that feeling sets him apart.
4. He feels that he will never know when his own death will come and that fate is more powerful that his own
free will.
5. In Beowulf – God decides for a person to die; God sends a hero to protect people against evil; any challenge
to good will fail because God is more powerful that evil. Caedmon pf Whitby – God grants talent as a gift;
God’s gift implies an obligation – the talent must be used. God intervenes in human destiny; God must be
praised. “The Seafarer” – God is more powerful that the individual, God gives true joy; our home is with God.

The Anglo-Saxon Period Mastery Test

Answers

1. The seafarer is melancholy as he reflects on the sadness of his life at sea and his yearning for that same
life. he feels the only true happiness is in heaven.
2. He was often cold, hungry, and lonely.
3. He misses the excitement of adventures on the sea. He also feels no one on land can understand what he
has experienced on the sea, and that feeling sets him apart.
4. He feels that he will never know when his own death will come and that fate is more powerful that his own
free will.

Theme: Life and art may be transformed by God.

Theme: Life at sea, while exciting, is filled with hardships and God rule men’s lives.
Synopsis: in the first part of the poem, the poet describes the difficulties of his life at sea.
Answers to Study Questions:

1. He saw it in a hundred ships, in a thousand ports, and in himself.

2. He endured cold, hunger and loneliness.
3. His soul roams with the sea throughout the world.
4. A. The speaker is both attracted and repelled by the sea.
B. The attraction is stronger.
C. The speaker may be more strongly attracted to the sea because he has spent so much of his life
there and feels out of place on land.
5. A. Home is heaven.
B. the speaker states that nothing remains of the wealth of the world after death and that the joys of God are
the enduring value.
6. A. The speaker sees his life as filled with hardship, the only real happiness coming after death.
B. The tone of the poem, particularly at the beginning, is melancholy.