A SURVEY IN

ENGLISH
LITERATURE
ASST. PROF. DR. MEHRAN SHADI
• Ideas, tendencies, schools, movements rather than facts
• Language
• Religion: druidism, conversion to Christianity (7th cent.)
• Poetic tradition
CELTS AND ROMANS

• Celts called it Britain (6th BC)

• Albion
• 54-54 BC Caesar
• 42 AD Emperor Claudius
• 61 uprising by natives and the massacre of 70000 Romans
• Roman wall towards the North
• Roman way of life
 ANGLO-SAXON INVASION

• 410 Rome withdraws forces

• 449 Teutonic tribes invasion: Picts, Scots, Jutes, Angles, Saxons
• Vortigern (5th cent.)

• Venerable Bede (673-735)

• Historia Ecclessiastica Gentis Anglorum (731)

• Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex, Wessex
• King Alfred of Wessex (971-901)
• Saxonia, Anglia, Rex Anglorum (Pope Gregory 601)
• England (1000)
 CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY

• Starting from the 3rd cent.

• Pope Gregory sent a mission to England in 567
• Policy of Moderation
• Mixture of Pagan and Christian Values
 LANGUAGE

• Paleolithic language when there was no English channel.

• Neolithic (stone age) language
• Celts
• Latin
ANGLO SAXON ENGLISH / OLD ENGLISH

• everything differs, vocab, spelling, pronunciation, grammar

• Unilingual language: purely Teutonic
• Inflectional (Latin, Modern German)
• Verbs have person, number, tense
• Nouns have case, number, gender
• Internal change (man to men) or affixes

• Inflectional languages
• Analytic: strict word order, prepositions, auxiliary words
• Synthetic: inflections Four major dialects: Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, West Saxon (1000)
OLD ENG. / MODERN ENG.

• Complex gender system: Wif (woman) is neuter.

• Inflections of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (in modern English prnouns and a few irregular plurals)
• Verbs
• seven classes of strong verbs: interior vowel changes in conjugation
• Three classes of weak verbs: inflectional endings

• Inflections of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives

• Word order was more fluid: SVO not necessarily followed.
• Pronunciation: harsh guttural sounds, e.g. knight, brought, thought
• Vocabulary: 30000 words
 THE ANGLO-SAXON LITERARY CULTURE

• Tacitus (55-120 A.D.) : Germania (98 A.D.)

• Northern coldness and pessimism
• Power of fate
• Military virtues of courage, endurance and obedience to leaders
• Love of battle

• Germanic warrior band: Comitatus

• Hero king
• Thanes

• Oral Tradition
• Scop (shaper): a professional bard in seek of patronage
• They immortalized kings and heros
• Both a composer and performer
MIXTURE OF CHRISTIAN AND SECULAR VALUES

• Church as the only medium of copying texts

• Policy of moderation
• God as Wyrd (fate)
• Jesus and his disciples as comitatus and his thanes
• i.e. Beowulf
• Much of Old English poetry has perished. What is extent is in 4 manuscripts compiled
around 1000 A.D. in West Saxon dialect.
OLD ENGLISH POETRY, INTRO

• Two half lines separated by a distinct pause called Caesura

• Each line contain four accented syllables and a varying number of unaccented syllables
• Alliteration but no rhyme
• Alliterative poetry is closely related with Roman conquest, esp. latter part of the 14 th century

• Rhythm: pounding
• Kenning: a condensed metaphor: sun=world candle; king= ring giver
• Litotes: negation of a contrary;
• Variation: a kind of repetition; e.g. Widsith spoke, his word-hoard unlocked.
OLD ENGLISH PROSE

• Flourished much later than poetry:

• the prestige and magic of poetry acted as a discouragement to prose
• Oral tradition
• Latin as the language of serious compositions

• King Alfred (849-901)

• Preface to the Pastoral Care: the first significant prose in English
• Boethius: The Consolations of Philosophy
• Translation of Bede’s Church History

• The venerable Bede (673-735), (Northumbria)

• The first writer to conceive of the English as one nation
• Historia Ecclessiastica Gentis Anglorum (from 55 B.C. to 731 A.D.)
• Anecdotes, dramatic speeches and miracles
• He mentions sources and assesses their reliability
HEROIC POETRY

• Epic is an ancient literary form which is rooted in oral tradition

• Epic is a long narrative poem in elevated style presenting characters of high position in a
series of adventures which form an organic whole through the central figure.
• Epic hero is central
• Setting is vast
• Actions consists of deeds of valor and supernatural courage
• Supernatural forces intervene
• The style is elevated
• Conventions such as invocation and medias res, epic similie, etc
PRIMARY, FOLK, ORAL, HOMERIC

• It was song in halls as a form of courtly poetry

• It has spontaneity, tragic quality, and supposed historical trurth
• It is about nobles, made by nobles, and performed by nobles
• aristocratic, festal and ceremonial tone
• Its has epic solemnity.
• Full of repetition, stylized diction of oral poetry, stock words
• e.g. Iliad, Odessey, Beowulf
• Subject matter is a personal endeavor: Trojan war is not as important as Achilles! It is just a background to a
personal story, to Achilles’ wrath, suffering, repentance, and killing Hektor.
• Meaningless suffering
• The hero does not develop
SECONDARY, WRITTEN, LITERARY, VIRGILIAN

• Subject matter is more serious, national or international

• the founding of Rome in Aeneid or the fall of man in Paradise Lost
• Meaningful suffering
• It is meant for the privacy and informality of silent reading
• The use of slightly unfamiliar words, e.g. archaisms
• The use of proper names
• Allusion to sources of interest
• Continuity of style
• More philosophical, more didactic, highly allusive and more learned
• Characters are more symbolic
• Style is more polished, consistent and accurate
• Beowulf’s personal pride vs. Aeneid’s loyalty to family, gods, and Rome.
OLD ENGLISH HEROIC POETRY

• Scops sing them in halls

• A means of preserving fame, worldly fame
• Celebrates Germanic values: fame, ambition, honor, loyalty
• Achilles stops fighting because he thinks his honor is offended by Agamemnon.

• Theme of sacrifice
• Loyalty in fighting for the hero-king

• King: the protector of warriors; ring-giver; dispenser of treasures

BEOWULF

• Composed by an anonymous writer in the 8th century A.D.

• The extent version is in West Saxon dialect, copied about 1000 A.D.
• Primary epic
• Setting: Hrothgar’s hall (Heorot)
• Characters:
• Herothgar
• Grendel: A demon descended from Cain, the first murderor.
• Beowulf: nephew of the Geatish King, Hygelac
• Grendel’s mother

• Deals with Danes and Geats: nothing except the language is English
• The flower of a pagan Germanic culture
• Absolute hero vs. responsible hero: Achilles vs. Hector
• Mixture of German and Christian values: Germanic sternness and Christian charity
BATTLE OF MALDON

• Byrhtnoth, the Earl of Essex fight Viking invaders in 991.

• Similarities with Homer and Beowulf
• Scops are good at depicting defeat rather than victory\
• The poet glorifies the comitatus values of loyalty, courage, and heroism
OLD ENGLISH RELIGIOUS POETRY

• Conversion to Catholicism in 664

• Mixture of old and new values: Moses, Christ and God as Beowulf
• Caedmon and his school
• Late 7th and early 8th centuries
• Caedmon is the first known poet in English language
• Received a divine gift of composing religious poetry
• Religious narrative poems drawn from Bible
• Paraphrasing and versifying biblical stories and scriptural matters
• Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, Christ and Satan, Judith
OLD ENGLISH RELIGIOUS POETRY

• Cynewulf and his school

• Higher literary sophistication
• liturgy and Saint’s life
• Highly intricate use of images, symbols and allegories
• The Fates of the Apostles, The Ascension, Juliana, Elene
FOR THE NEXT WEEK

• Battle of Maldon
• Scops explain defeat better than victory.
• The poet is familiar with Beowulf and Homer

• The Myth of King Arthur and the knights of the round table