The Anglo-Saxon period

Social Background
 The early years of British history are full of wars and invasions of the British

islands by many tribes, among which we remember:

 The Iberians. Little is known about them, they lived in Britain since the Stone

age and through the Bronze and Iron ages. They were famous for their mines

of gold.

 The Celtics. They came from the North and imposed their laws, language and

customs on the Iberian people. They were able in fishing, hunting and

agriculture. They also were good traders in the Mediterranean sea.

 The Romans. They invaded and civilized the South and the East, founding some

cities, among them London (Londinium), which was a commercial centre of

about 15.000 people. The Romans were good farmers, and had minor industries

and mines, and they also built good roads. The official Roman cults were

practised but they also tolerated Celtic gods, and Christianity was introduced in

Britain too. Since the local people were not trained in arms, when the Romans

came back to Italy, Britain was invaded by some other invaders.

 After a period of distruction, Anglo-Saxon invaders settled in Britain. They were good

farmers and fishermen, and brave and loyal to their chiefs, living in small communities.

 Their economy was based on agriculture, but they could also become pirates if needed,

they liked fighting and drinking. They had great respect for their women.

 Anglo-Saxons liked music and singing. Songs were sung during their meetings after a battle

or in relaxation moments, sitting round a fire in the centre of the halls, listening to the

minstrel, who was a storyteller and recited about war, battles, adventures, and heroic

legends. This material was handed down orally from generation to generation, forming the

bulk of the earliest English Literature, better known as Anglo-Saxon Literature.

Anglo-Saxon Literature
 It traces back to the Seventh Century. It includes all English works prior to the

Norman Conquest of 1066 and mainly consists of poetry.

 There are four principal Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts containing all this poetry:

Cotton Vitellius Manuscript – Junius Manuscript – Exeter Book – Vercelli Book.

The works they contain have not reached us in the original dialects, but in the

Wessex dialects.

 All Anglo-Saxon poetry can be divided into two groups, generally defined as

Pagan and Christian.

 The Pagan group can hardly be considered a truly national product, since it

contains elements common to Germanic history as well. It is partly the product of

the culture which was brought to Britain with the German invasion of the fifth and

sixth Centuries and which introduced a number of sagas, tales and legends long

known to all the Germanic tribes.

 The Christian poetry derived its subjects from the Bible and the lives of the saints,

which were paraphrased for moral purposes.

 The two forms of poetry coexisted until the coming of the Normans. Only the

Christian one continued and was later influenced by the new Mediterranean

civilization. We lost traces of original pagan poetry.

Pagan poetry
 It was originally oral, and only long after its composition, it was written down
in monasteries, by monks who probably interpolated Christian elements
absent in the earliest versions.

 This poetry is divided by subject into two sub-groups: epic and lyric.

 The oldest and best known pagan epic is Beowulf, which is contained in the
Cotton Vitellius Manuscript.

 Beowulf is the title of an Old English poem, that probably dates from the
early eight century, although it is not known when or where it was written or
composed. It is a story deriving from a Scandinavian saga, which after oral
transmission, it was probably written in words by a scholar.
Beowulf: The plot

 The poem consists of two stories unified by the presence of the same hero.

 The first part presents Beowulf as a young man going to help Hrothgar, king of

the Danes, whose palace of Heoroth has been regularly attacked for 12 years

by a monster called Grendel. Beowulf leaves his country, reaching Heoroth.

When Grendel comes during the night, Beowulf struggles and kills it by

plucking off one of its arms. But Grendel has a mother, who wants to avenge

her son, and Beowulf has to fight her too. He finally kills her in a cave at the

bottom of a pool, with the help of a mysterius sword.

 The second story is about Beowulf in his old age, when he has been

king of the Geats for 50 years. It describes Beowulf’s last and fatal

battle againts a fire-breathing drangon, trying to destroy the country,

after discovering the theft of the trasure it had been guarding.

Although old, Beowulf fights the monster accompanied by his faithful

retainer Wiglaf. Beowulf manages to kill the monster but he is

wounded and dies after giving Wiglaf directions for his burial.
 The poem is about 3200 lines long and has some important features:

 Language: it’s written in Wessex dialect and is characterized by the high poetic
diction typical of all epic poetry and of the features of Old English verse, which are:

- each long line is divided in two halves in the middle, held by the
allitteration;

- It’s rich in kennings (metapholical circumlocutions used to describe a person

or a thing, like banhus = bone house for saying «body»);

- There are no rhymes except occasional ones.

 The presence of nature, typical of Scaninavian countries, the North Sea often
rough and stormy, the land is swept by the winds and hosts cruel mysterious
creatures. Nature is presented as the people and events, pervaded by a general
melancholic and solitary atmosphere.
 Social and historical accuracy: the poem is a picture of the aristocratic life of

sixth-century Geats, Danes and Sweeds, appearantly revealing a way of life ruled

by simple natural laws (eating, drinking, fighting, hunting and sleeping). But in

the backgrounds there are mead-halls (sala dell’idromele) and palaces, where

banquets and meetings are held. The social pattern is described in accuracy of

feudal and based on a precise hierarchy, of men of action devote to their lords.

 Mythical elements: although focusing on real historical events, the poem also

represents a fantastic world peopled by monsters, dragons and other imaginary

creatures, revealing the symbolical force of good struggling against the forces of

evil.
 Christian elements: in spite of pagan setting, the poem contains some

Christian interpolations, due to the monk who wrote it down. The whole

atmosphere sounds Christian, in the particular conception of life, based on

moral virtues and generosity versus cowardice and cruelty. We are no longer

in a genuine pagan atmosphere. Beowulf himself can ideally be identified

with Christ, especially in the first part, where, to save Heorot (= the world)

and the Danes (=mankind), he struggles in the lake (=hell) angainst Grendel’s

mother (= the devil), with the help of a special sword (in shape of a cross).