Anglo-Norman Period

Old English Prose.

Old English Lyrics

There are also 2 English poets Caedmon and Cynewulf. Also nothing now remains which is exactly Caedmon’s work. He was a poor countryman who used to stay apart when his fellows sang songs to God, because Caedmon was uneducated man and could not sing. All the old religious poems that were not assigned to Caedmon were invariably given to Cynewulf. Cynewulf almost certainly wrote 4 poems: “Juliana”, Elena”, “Christ” (the most notable), and “ The Fate of the Apostles”. His work represents an advance in culture upon the more primitive Caedmonian poems. Much of it shows acquaintance with Latin originals and seems to exhibit a more conscious effort to attain artistic form.

Old English lyrics includes “ Deor`s Complaint”, “The Husband`s Message”, “The Wanderer”, “The Wife`s Complaint”. Deor is a singer who has lost his Lord’s favour. So, he complains, but tries to comfort himself by remembering other sufferings of the world.

+For about 500 years, almost all Old English verse had the following characteristics:

-each line was made up of two half-lines, separated by a pause and joined by alliteration;

-each half-line consisted of two `feet` (a `foot` contains a number of unstressed syllables and a stressed syllable);

-the alliteration linking the two half-lines fell on the stressed syllables (at least one of the main stresses in the first half-line began with the same consonant sound as the first main stress in the second half-line);

-words beginning with the same consonant had the same sound and therefore alliterated (unlike in modern English);

-a word beginning with a vowel was regarded as `alliterating` with any other word beginning with a vowel even if that vowel sound was not the same.

Alfred the Great was the King of Wessex. He was an outstanding figure in English literature and a writer. He brought back learning and improved the education of his people. He founded the first public schools for young men. He learned Latin in order to translate into his own language books “ Needful for all men to know ”. So, he translated Bede’s work “ The History of the English Church”, and in his time Anglo-Saxon chronicles were began. It was the first prose work in British literature.

Another important writer of prose was Aelfric. He wrote “ Homilies ” (short moral essays), “Lives of Saints the Mostly Religious”. He wrote in Old English the first 7 books of the Bible. His prose style is the best in OE and he uses alliteration to joint his sentences together.

OE was spoken in very different dialects until 1066, when England was invaded by William the Conqueror and the Normans from France, who were descended from Scandinavian adventurers. So, they brought with them the culture of their country and the French language. Thus three languages were spoken in England: French-of the nobility, Latin was used by the churchmen and the common people spoke Anglo-Saxon.

The three social classes of the country had their own literature. The Normans brought the romance with to England. Unlike the epic, the romance told of the life of the men who was no longer connected with his people. The romance told of love and adventure and expresses the ideas of knighthood in feudal society.

Among the best known romances are the legends of “King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table”.

Later in the 15^th century, Sir Thomas Malory wrote the book ”Morte d’Arthur” (Death of Arthur) based entirely on these and other romances.

The literature of the church was scholastic, moralizing, and supported the feudal system. The books written in Latin by monks, taught the common people that they should be poor and obey their masters. Their sufferings on earth, the Church said, would bring them happiness in heaven.

The Anglo-Saxons composed their own popular poetry. The main genres were the fabliaux-funny stories about townspeople and the bestiaries-stories in which the characters were animals.

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