Chapter I - The Anglo-Saxon period

Part I
Anglo-saxon, or Old English belongs to the low German family of languages, of which Dutch is
the most representative in the modern laguages.
The Anglo-Saxon tribes :
- the Saxons - dwelling near the mouth of Elbe
- the Angles - inhabiting the southwest part of Denmark
- the Jutes - extending north of the Angles into modern Jutland
Their early poetry give glimpses of little tribal or family settlements, bounded on one side by
wild moors and dense forests where dwelt monstrous creatures of mist and darkness, and on teh
other by the stormy northen oceans.
They had two passions: war and wandering; they've found satisfaction in the life of the sea
without caring about penetrating far inland.
The sea-faring life, full of danger and change was the fruitful source of early poetry.
The poetry which has come down to us from this early period has been worked over by later
hand and given a Christian coloring. From other sources we know that they had other beliefs,
they had some primitive gods. They had Woden, which was the father of the later dynasty of
gods and patron of seers and travellers, Thor, the god of thunder, and Frea, the mother of gods
and giver of fruitfulness. These are commemorated in our names for the days of the week:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Two classes of singers were recognized in that period:
-the gleeman (gleoman) - this type of singer did not create his own songs but chanted what he
learned from others
-the scop - this type is the poet proper, who took the crude materials of histrory and legend and
shaped them into songs.
The most important poem of the period is "Beowulf", along with "Deor's Lament" and "Widsith".
"Beowulf" has over three thousand lines in lenght. This poem is about a hero how fight for the
King of West-Danes, Hrothgar, with Grendel, a monstrous creature who troubled the King,
destroying Heorot. After the hero kills the creature and becomes famous for his deed, he fights

with the mother of Grendel, who is looking for revenge. After he loses one hand in the fight and
becomes an old respectable king- because meanwhile he becomes one, a new intruder appears in
his life. A fire-dragon is the one that brings the end of the hero by starting a fight and at the end
of it, Beowulf dies.
Part II
After this whole period of time, their future island-home was being made into a province of the
Roman-Empire. The population spread in France, Spain and all along the British island. But
there were the Celtic population which refuses to go and accept from curiousity and quickness
of sympathy the roman population. The celtic spirit, so fancy and spiritual, was quickly shut
down by the invaders which populated the island.
Pirate tribes- the Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes- came every spring on the celtic domain, and
the population, weakened by those civilised years along romans and the increasing numer of the
invaders, had been subjugated and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were build.
By that time, a Celtic leader appears, King Arthur the one that influenced that much the
inspiration in literature.
The Christian teaching came into England in two streams, one from Rome and one from Ireland.
Now, the literature did not developed that much but the teaching schools appeard.
Baeda, known as Venerable Bede was a gentle, laborious scholar whom wrote lots of book,
but the most relevant one is Ecclesiasticle History of the English People.
Caedmon was the first poet of Christian England. Caedmon had no special gift until he became
old and had a dream in which God appeard and told him to sing. He replayed that he has no ideea
how to sing, and what to sing. The God, told him to sing a part from the Bible. The morning,
Caedmon wrote everything that he sang in the dream, and so he became the first poet of the
Christian England by turning the biblical narrative into songs. The word had spread and quickly
he had to paraphrase into songs the whole Old Testament. He is well known for the Genesis,
Exodus, and a part of Daniel.
After Caedmon, the new poet that arises is Cynewulf, a young and sensitive write whom
transcends from a wild esthetics to a religious, soft one. He is well-known for Andreas and The
Pheonix.
The fact that the language was changing and apparentely the spirit of literature was dead, all the
efforts in making a vital native literature were fruitless. The truth is that they needed new blood
to refresh the literature spirit and come to a new kind of poetry. That era was almost gone, and
the future beholds its suprises, yet.

A HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

WILLIAM V. MOODY
ROBERT M. LOVETT

Summary:
Chapter I : Matei Andreea, group 3
Chapter II : Manta Alexandru Augustin, group 3
Chapter III : Oprea Simona, group 4
Chapter IV : Mihaila Oana Mihaela, group 3
Chapter V : Simion Stefan Teodor, group 5

(Charles Scribners Sons, New York, 1906)