The Battle of Maldon

A Literary History Survey

The first period of English literature dealt with in this textbook is marked by Caedmon's Hymn, the earliest poem, dated to the late 7^th century, and The Summoning of Everyman, the 15^th- century morality play. This impressive time length is justified by the strong oral tradition of epic narrative and lack of written sources. The Norman Conquest in 1066 symbolically puts an end to the Old English or Anglo-Saxon language, and signals the beginning of Middle English.

Numerous military and cultural invasions left their trace in English history, architecture, language and literature. From London's foundation around 43 AD, England was a province of the Roman Empire, and | its Celtic-speaking inhabitants were called Britons. After the Roman legions left the island in the _: 5^th century, Britain was invaded by the sea-faring Germanic tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, and was given the name England.

What we know about the island before the Anglo-Saxon invasion is taken from The History of the Kings of Britain (1136) by Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh cleric. He wrote that Brutus, a descendant of the Trojan Aeneas, founded the country and named it Britain. Britain was gradually evangelized by missionaries from Pope Gregory the Great (ca 540-604) and from the Irish monasteries.

In the 9^th century the Anglo-Saxons were themselves invaded by the Danes, who repeatedly attacked the northern and eastern coasts and robbed the monasteries, the centres of learning. But Alfred, king of the West Saxons from 871 to 899, united the early established kingdoms of the South and suppressed the Danes. One of the last Old English heroic poems, The Battle of Maldon, describes his defeat in the county of Essex at the hands of the Danish invaders in 991:

Then he¹ ordered each of his warriors his horse to loose

Far off to send it and forth to go,

To be mindful of his hands and of his high heart.

Then did Offa's² Kinsman first know

That the earl would not brook cowardice,

Loosed he from his hands his darling to fly,

His Hawk to the wood, and to the battle strode.

From that one could tell that the chieftain would never

Weaken in the warfare — when he his weapons seized.

King Alfred was also an enthusiastic protector of literature, himself translating Latin works and probably initiating the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a detailed Old English record of major events in England up to the middle of the 12^th century.

The average life span at that period was brief, and life was full of struggle and intertribal wars. Thus, the Anglo-Saxons believed in inevitable fate, wyrd, as defining human destiny, and did not believe in afterlife. Such a view on life is reflected in the grave mood of Beowulf, the most significant of Old English epic poems.

After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, England was taken by the Normans, the descendants of Germanic adventurers from northern France. They were absorbed into the culture of the Roman Empire, were slowly christianized, spoke Norman French, and were great builders of castles and churches. They brought over the cult of worshipping the Blessed Virgin, Mother of Christ. The Norman way of life was closer to that of the Mediterranean, filled with the sun, wine and laughter. But the Anglo-Saxons were different, borrowing their grim, heavy and humourless mood from the seas of the North and the Druids' religious beliefs and practices. All these features together have contributed to the richness and variety of English.

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