History of English

Literature 1

Teacher: dr Monika Mazure

Teacher: dr Monika Mazurek

k

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

http://chomikuj.pl/mazurekAP/

http://chomikuj.pl/mazurekAP/

Recommended Reading

• Carter, R. and John McRae. 1998.

The Routledge History of Literature in
English. London and New York:
Routledge.

• Daiches, D. 1969. The Critical History

of English Literature in Four Volumes.
London: Secker and Warburg.

Recommended

Reading:

• Helsztyński, S. 1974. Specimens

of English Poetry and Prose, part 1.
Warszawa: Państwowe
Wydawnictwo Naukowe.

• Lipoński, W. 2005. Dzieje kultury

brytyjskiej. Warszawa: PWN.

Recommended Reading

• Mroczkowski, P. 1986. Historia

literatury angielskiej. Wrocław.

• Sikorska, L. 2002. An Outline History

of English Literature. Poznań.

• The New Pelican Guide to English

Literature, vol. 1, Medieval Literature,
Boris Ford (ed.). 1987. London: Penguin.

Recommended Reading

• The New Pelican Guide to

English Literature, vol. 2, The
Age of Shakespeare. Boris Ford
(ed.). 1987. London: Penguin.

• Zbierski, H. 2002. Historia

literatury angielskiej. Poznań.

• Wielka historia literatury

anglojęzycznej. t. 1 i 2. red.
Mariusz Misztal, Kraków:
Wydawnictwo UP.

Anthologies of

Literature

• The College Anthology of English

Literature. Zygmunt Mazur and Teresa
Bela (eds). Kraków: Universitas, 1997.

• The Norton Anthology of English

Literature. 6th edition. M.H. Abrams
(general ed.). New York, London:
W.W.Norton and Company, 1996.

Anthologies

• The Longman Anthology of British

Literature. 2nd edition. Longman,
2003.

The Middle Ages

450- c.1450

The Old English or Anglo-
Saxon Period (c. 5th century –
1066)

• The Middle English period

(1066 – c. 1450 )

Before the Conquest

• Celtic invasion
• The Romans (they withdrew from

Britain c. 410)

• The Germanic invasions (410

B.C.) – Anglo-Saxon and Jutish

invasions

from

North-West

Germany

Before the Conquest

• 597 – Establishment of St. Augustine’s

Christian mission at Canterbury

• Irish missionaries start working at the

same time starting from Scotland and
moving southwards

• 793-95 – Viking invasion
• 802 England united, under King Egbert of

Wessex

Anglo-Saxon society

• They lived in small communities
• They were farmers or fishermen
• The values prevalent were: loyalty

to one’s lord, hospitality and acute
sense of Fate („wyrd”)

Tacitus (1st century

AD)

As for leaving a battle alive after your

chief has fallen, that means lifelong

infamy and shame. To defend and

protect him, to put down one’s own

acts of heroism to his credit – that is

what they really mean by allegiance.

The chiefs fight for victory, the

companions for their chief.

Tacitus (1st century

AD)

A man is bound to take up the
feuds as well as the
friendships of fathers or
kinsmen.

Old English Poetry

• THE HEROIC TRADITION: Beowulf

• THE ELEGIAC TRADITION: Deor’s

Lament, The Wanderer, The Seafarer.

• THE EARLY RELIGIOUS TRADITION: The

Dream of the Rood.

Influences

• 1. Heroic influence/ heroic code:

highlights insistence on the
development of the human spirit
in facing one’s foes and in fighting
against the dangerous forces of
nature (Sikorska 2007:22)

1. Heroic influence

• Numerous invasions
• Battles
• Establishment of early Germanic

states

• Germanic legends (man’s life is

seen as essentially tragic)

1. Heroic influence

• The ethos of heroic life pervades

Old English Literature ...

• The hero is a warrior representing a

certain code of behaviour: valour,
combat skills, physical strength. The
hero’s destiny is to die in battle, he
has to accept his fate with dignity.

1.1. The Warrior Code

• Loyalty towards one’s sovereign

and towards one’s fellow men

• Vengeance, understood as justice,

was exacted by blood or wergild
(an established price for
compensation depending on the
nature of the crime)

The Warrior Code

• Endurance in the face of adversity

in the world ruled by Wyrd (Fate)

• Deeds of courage bring

immortality and fame to the
warrior

Heroic tradition

• 1. Historical battle poems

• The Battle of Brunanburgh – recorded

under the date AD 937 which tells about

the victory of Aethelstan, king of

Wessex, over the Scots and Danes

• The Battle of Maldon – dated AD 991

tells in 325 lines about the death of

Byrhtnoth in the battle against the

Danes under Olaf Tryggvason (probably).

2. Christian Influence

• Literature originates in

monasteries as well as in courts or
lord’s halls.

• The arrival of St. Augustine in 597
• Christian themes start to appear

The elegiac tradition

poems mourning a loss of some kind

and attempting to find solace

e.g. The Wife’s Lament – the

speaker is a woman whose
husband had to leave the country
and she has been banished by her
in-laws to the forest.

Christian tradition

• The Anglo-Saxons were fatalistic and

did not know anything about afterlife.

Here is a quote from Bede’s History of

the English Church and People, written

in Latin in the early 8th century in

which King Edwin (of Northumbria) and

his advisers were debating whether to

be converted to Christianity in the 7th

century. He used an image of a sparrow

to express the doubts about afterlife:

Quotation

• Your Majesty, when we compare

the present life of the man with

that time of which we have no

knowledge, it seems to me like the

swift flight of a lone sparrow

through the banqueting hall where

you sit in the winter months to dine

with your thanes and counselors.

Quotation

• Inside there is a comforting fire to

warm the room; outside the wintry

storms of snow and rain are raging.

The sparrow flies swiftly in one door

and out through another. While he

is inside, he is safe from the winter

storms, but then he vanishes into

darkness from whence he came.

Quotation

• Similarly, man appears on earth

for a little while, but we know
nothing of what went before his
life, and what follows. Therefore, if
this new teaching can reveal
anything more certain, we should
follow it.

Popular genres

• Religious poetry

Caedmon’s Hymn
Genesis B
The Dream of the Rood
Judith

Caedmon

a shepherd working for the

monastery of Whitby

his story related by Bede in An

Ecclesiastical History of the English
People

his poetic talent the result of an

angelic visitation

Caedmon’s Hymn (656

– 680?)

Nu sculon herigean / heofonrices Weard
[Now must we praise / heaven-kingdom's

Guardian,]

Meotodes meahte / and his modgeþanc
[the Measurer's might / and his mind-plans,]
weorc Wuldor-Fæder / swa he wundra gehwæs
[the work of the Glory-Father, / when he of

wonders of every one,]

Caedmon’s Hymn

ece Drihten / or onstealde
[eternal Lord, / the beginning established.]

He ærest sceop / ielda bearnum
[He first created / for men's sons]

heofon to hrofe / halig Scyppend
[heaven as a roof, / holy Creator;

Caedmon’s Hymn

ða middangeard / moncynnes Weard
[then middle-earth / mankind's

Guardian,]

ece Drihten / æfter teode
[eternal Lord / afterwards made --]
firum foldan / Frea ælmihtig.
[for men earth, / Master almighty.]

Authorship

• Authors anonymous, even though

personal names appear in the titles

of liteary works, e.g. Caedmon’s

Hymn or Deor’s Lament. The names

might be mythical only, might

belong to the authors or might be

the names of the 1st person voice

who narrates the poem.

Poets known

• Cynewulf – a poet from the 8th or

9th century, he wrote only on
religious themes.

• Bede
• Caedmon
• King Alfred

Conclusions

1. The earliest Anglo-Saxon was

certainly oral poetry dealing with
heroic or legendary episodes
from the history of the Germanic
tribes, and would be performed
by scop or minstrel, accompanied
by a harp at feasts.

Anglo-Saxon prosody and

style

• Alliteration - the repetition of initial

identical consonant sounds or any

vowel sounds in successive or closely

associated syllables, esp. stressed

syllables.

Example:
Oft

Sc

yld

Sc

efing |

sc

eathena threatum

Anglo-Saxon prosody and

style

• The use of caesura which divides a line

into two halves, with two strong accents

in two half-lines

• Kennings – poetic description of

ordinary names, e.g.

• God – ‘a guardian of mankind’
• Lord – ‘a giver of treasure’
• The sea – ‘a whale-road’, ‘a swan road’

Popular genres

OE RIDDLES - they are short

descriptions of various enigmatic
objects and the reader has to
guess them. For example, they
may denote concrete objects (like
a shield), or abstract notions.

Popular genres – OE

charms

Wenne, wenne,

wenchichenne,

her ne scealt þu timbrien,

ne nenne tun habben,

ac þu scealt north eonene

to þan nihgan berhge,

þer þu hauest, ermig,

enne broþer.

Wen,a wen, little wen,
Here you shall not build,

nor have your abode,

But you shall go north to

the hill nearby

Where, benighted one, you

have a brother.

The features of OE

culture

oral-formulaic poetry
agonistically-toned (from Gr. agon –

fight)

flyting – a ritual exchange of insults

ANGLO-SAXON prose

• CHRONICLES
• “De Excidio et Conquesto Brittanniae”

by Gildas (c. 497-c. 570) relating the
history of Britain from the time of the
Roman invasions to the times of its
author,

• “Historia Brittonum” (c. 796) by

Nennius, a Welsh annalist

ANGLO-SAXON prose

• Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the

English Race (“Historia Ecclesiastica
Gentis Anglorum”), completed in 731.

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - documents

the history of England till 1154. It was a
work done by a number of hands, of
varying skill, but it is the first great
book in prose in English.

Denise Levertov

“Caedmon” (1987)

All others talked as if
talk were a dance.
Clodhopper I, with clumsy feet
would break the gliding ring.
Early I learned to
hunch myself
close by the door:
then when the talk began
I’d wipe my
mouth and wend
unnoticed back to the barn

Denise Levertov

“Caedmon”

to be with the warm beasts,
dumb among body sounds
of the simple ones.
I’d see by a twist
of lit rush the motes
of gold moving
from shadow to shadow
slow in the wake
of deep untroubled sighs.

Denise Levertov

“Caedmon” (1987)

The cows
munched or stirred or were still. I
was at home and lonely,
both in good measure. Until
the sudden angel affrighted me—light

effacing

my feeble beam,

Denise Levertov

“Caedmon” (1987)

a forest of torches, feathers of flame, sparks upflying:
but the cows as before
were calm, and nothing was burning,
nothing but I, as that hand of fire
touched my lips and scorched my tongue
and pulled my voice
into the ring of the dance

The End

The End