English Sastra

English Study and Literature

Sunday, 17 May 2015

Old English Period Literature Summary

Background and Summary

The old period is a long one for it opens in the fifth century and does not conclude, as is often, with the
Norman Conquest in 1066, but rather continues in prose at least till 1150. The events, however, must be
dismissed briefly. The departure of the Roman in 410 left the British population open to inroads of the
invaders from north. According to Bristish traditionsthe English from continent came first as mercenaries
to help in defense agaist the Picts and Scots; but soon they began to settle in the country, and
archeological evidence shows that certain permanent settlements had been made in the last quarter of
the fifth century if not before. In the course of time they gained possession of all the land. Then followed
the Christianizarion of pagan English tribes, beginning in Northumbria with the work of Irish
miisionaries. Though the influence from Rome begins in Kent (597). In succession followed the inroads
of Danes in the ninth century; the rise of Wesse among the early English Kingdoms with important
contribution of Alfred the great; the establishment of Dane law in England with the permanent
settlement of Danes in the country; the accession of a Danish King (1017) and the Norman influnce on
the English court which began before the conquest in 1066.

Literay Works

Very little indeed is known of the origin of English literautre. It is important from the outset to
remember that the extent remains of English litrature have cown down to us in late copies, some of
which were made three hundred years after the composition of the poems themselves. And so far as the
poets are concerned again very litltle or nothing is known beyond the names of two of them.

Beowulf

The name of the poem is continental Germanic, and it is likely, that it was the subject of lays long before
its present version was composed. There is no mention of England and Beowulf himself is King of the
‘Geatas’. Though there is much in the poem which can be considered ‘Pagan’ and which suggests that
the poem in origin maybe considered as such, the extent version was clearly written by a christian for
Christianization.
In outline Beowulf may be said that Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, sails to Denmark with a band of warriors
and rids the Danish King Hrothgar of a terrible monster called Grendel. The mother of Grendel, seeking
vengeance for the death of her son, meets the same fate and Beowulf, fittingly feasted and rewarded,
returned to this native land. He becomes King of Geates and after a prosperous reign of some forty years
slays a dragon which had ravaged his land, but in the fight he hismelf receives a moral wound. The poem
concludes with the funeral ceremonies in honour of the dead hero.

The Pagan Poems

Most old English poery can be said to be “Christian” but a few pieces are distinctly secular. It would be
better in many respects to refer to them as national rather than pagan.

-Widshit, usually considered to be the oldest poem in the language. It consists nearly 150 lines of verse,
in which a traveler, nore imaginary than real, recount the places and illustrious people he has visited.
The poem is of especial importance of historica point of view, but poetically it is of lttle merit.

-Waldare, consists of two fragments, some sixty three lines in all, telling of some of theexploits of Walter
of Aquitaine. The work has vigour and power and it is to be gratly regretted that so little is preserved.

-The Fight at Finnsburh, is a fragment of some forty eight lines with a finely told description of the
fighting at Finnsburh.

-The Battle of Brunanburh, is a spirited piece on the famous battle which took place in 937.

-The Battle of Maldon describes the battle which took place in 993, with emphasis on individual deeds of
varlour and on the feelings of the warriors. It is particularly outstanding for sentiments expressed by
those of aged Byrhwold.

-Elegies, these poems, among which are The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Wife’s Lament, and Husband’s
Message appear in the Exeter Books.

The Caedmon Group

The Cynewulf Group

Four poems contain the signature of Cynewulf Christ in runic characters; Juliana, Elene, and the Fates of
the Apostles. This is all that is known of the poet, though unfortunately it has not prevented critics from
deducing additional facts about his life.

Prose

a. Alfred

Alfred began his seires of translations due to the lamentable state of English learning, largely the result
of destrcution of Danes. The King in order to encourage learning among the clergy translated some
popular books into his own tongue. These works are his contribution to English literature. The fine
important literature are Pastoral, Care of Pope Gregory, The History of the World of Orosius, Bede’s
Ecclesiastical History, Boethius, Consolation of Phylosophy and Soliloqueies of St. Augustine.

b. Aelfric

Several of his works are extant. The Catholic Homilies, Lines of the Saints and His Colloqucy are of great
interest as a dialogue between master and pupils not only from literary but also from the historical point
of view.

c. Wuflstan

He was Bishop of Worcester and Archbishop of York. His most famous piece is the sermo lupi Anglos. It
is fluent and powerful; indeed wulfstan must have been a most brilliant preacher.

d. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle

This Chronicle was probably inspired by Alfred, who himself may well have dictated some of the entries
more particularly those dealing with his own campaigns. It is extent in several manuscript.
http://englishsastra.blogspot.com/2015/05/old-english-period-literature-summary.html?m=1

Middle English

1. The event that marks the end of the Old English period, and the beginning of the Middle English
period, is the arrival of the Norman French in England, following their victory at Hastings under William
the Conqueror in 1066. It was the last invasion in England but had an enormous influence in many
aspects of British life: habits, language, society, literature, justice, etc.

2. These French-speaking invaders became the ruling class, so that the language of the nobility, the
government, the law and civilized life in England for the next two hundred years was French. It is the
source of words like army, court, defence, faith, prison and tax. Yet the language of the peasants
remained English.

3. Middle English has a very low bending compared with the old English. The system undergoes
significant changes: before some pronouns started with h, but in the middle English start with th. For
example:  wat heo ihoten weoren & wonene heo comen.  what they were called and from-where they
came.  'cómo fueron llamados y desde dónde venían‘. Grammar

4. Labial Dental Alveolar Alv.-pal. Velar Labiovel ar Glotal Oclusivas / Africadas /p/ pin /t/ tente /tʃ/
chirche (> church) /k/ kin /b/ bit /d/ dart /dʒ/ brigge (> bridge) /ɡ/ good Fricativas /f/ fool /θ/ thank /s/
sore /ʃ/ scip > ship /x/ thought /ʍ/* which /h/ happen /v/* vertu > virtue /ð/ then /z/* Zephirus
Nasales /m/ map /n/ nap /ŋ/* song Aproxima ntes /l/ lay /r/rage /j/ yelwe /w/ weep

5. The Normans bequeathed over 10,000 words to English (about three-quarters of which are still in use
today), including a huge number of abstract nouns ending in the suffixes, prefixes.

6. Perhaps predictably, many of them related to matters of crown and nobility; of government and
administration; of court and law; of war and combat; of authority and control; of fashion and high living;
and of art and literature. Curiously, though, the Anglo-Saxon words cyning (king), cwene (queen), erl
(earl), cniht (knight), ladi (lady) and lord persisted.

7. Sometimes French and Old English components combined to form a new word, such as the French
gentle and the Germanic man combined to formed gentleman. Sometimes, both English and French
words survived, but with significantly different senses

8. Their exposure to various culture enabled Normans to bring together elements from different cultures
and this reflected in their clothing as well. Norman Men’s Clothing Until the middle of the 10th century,
Normans relied mainly on their battlefield prowess to thrive since they had few other means of earning
sufficient subsistence. Consequently, Norman men dressed conservatively and in a way which reflected
their martial interests.

9. Norman Women’s Clothing Exposure of Norman society to many different cultures was better
reflected in the dressing of Norman women. The typical dress of a Norman noble woman included a
chemise, a gown and a cloak. The chemise was the primary layer of dress worn by the women and was
unusually long in length. On top of it, the women wore a gown which was loose in fitting and was knee-
length. Finally, a cloak was worn on top of the gown. The gown’s neck-opening usually carried elaborate
embroidery while precious brooches were used to clasp a cloak in place. Towards the late 11th and 12th
centuries, cloaks evolved to include bands used together with the brooches which ran around the
shoulders of the wearer, giving the cloak a tighter look.

https://www.slideshare.net/carlos240790/middle-english-67953184

Middle English

After the Norman Conquest, many Anglo-Saxon nobles were dispossessed and a new French-speaking
(Anglo-Norman, technically) aristocracy came to power. Of course these cultural shifts did not occur in
all places overnight. However, over time, the Norman nobles cultivated a taste for continental styles of
literature such as Courtly Love, Romance, and the matter of Arthur, while older fashions, such as
Germanic/Heroic literature, fell into disuse. Later in this period, speakers saw the rise of a more
standard form of English, based primarily upon the dialects of London. Meanwhile, many authors wrote
in French because it was the prestige language of the court, such as Marie de France (Lays and Fables)
and Wace (Brut).
Women Writers

A brief note on women writers: in the Old English period, nearly all vernacular texts, prose or poetry,
have come to us anonymously, so there is no sure way to assess if or how many women were “authors”;
yet the likelihood is low, given that most writing took place in all-male monasteries, and texts do not
mention female poets. In the Middle English period though, we have a clearer picture because named
authorship came to be considered important— major works by women include The Book of Margery
Kemp, the first autobiography in English, Julian of Norwich's Showings, a series of mystical and
theologically rich visions, and the works of Marie de France. It should also be noted that a great deal of
literature was being produced during this time in a dialect of English up in Scotland as well, though for
brevity, we will only mention the “Scottish Makars” William Dunbar, Robert Henryson, and Gavin
Douglas in passing.

Poetry—Lyrics/Ballads

There are a great number of anonymous lyric poems and ballads found in manuscripts from this entire
period. These tend to be short pieces written in rhymed couplets that reflect on such topics as the cycle
of nature ("sumer is i-cumen in"), religious reflections ("Adam Lay a-bunden"), or romantic laments.

The fourteenth century is quite pivotal for England, as well as for the whole of Europe. Between 1347
and 1350, a plague, commonly called "The Black Death" ravaged the whole of Europe, with upwards of
30% of the entire population dying from the disease in that short period of time. The plague killed
indiscriminately among rich and poor, secular and clerical, and this left enormous gaps in social
institutions. For instance, manual laborers came to be paid much much higher wages after the plague
because there were so few to work the fields. This social instability gave the merchant classes an
unprecedented amount of power and social mobility, which in turn encouraged rapid urbanization. In
the latter half of the fourteenth century, two of the era's most famous poets emerged from this urban
merchant background: Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower. Chaucer is famous for his Canterbury Tales
and Gower for Confessio Amantis. Each is a collection of tales united by a frame narrative. This style of
tale was an innovation borrowed from Meditterranean authors such as Giovanni Boccaccio (who used a
plague frame narrative for his Decameron). This increasing influence from Mediterranean and
continental literature may also have to do with increasing interaction of English people with these
regions due to the Hundred Years War (in France) and the Crusades to the Holy Land.
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales narrates the journey of a group of travellers who are going from London to
Canterbury on pilgrimage. Along the way, they have a story telling contest, and so each of the 29
pilgrims is supposed to tell their own kind of tale. Although the work remained unfinished at the time of
Chaucer's death, it has been cherished for centuries because of Chaucer's skill at creating extremely
vivid characters who tell highly memorable stories, sometimes touching, sometimes comic, sometimes
disturbing. His most famous characters include the Miller, the Wife of Bath, the and the Pardoner.

Courtly Love

Courtly Love was a literary trend that flourished especially among the French nobility. This genre exalted
an idealized code of chivalry, in which a knight vows undying loyalty to his lady, who may bestow favor
upon him, but who never (in theory) takes him as a lover— though this last aspect was often subverted
in literature as well as in life. Chaucer wrote one of the finest examples of the genre in his long narrative
poem Troilus and Criseyde, which adapts the story of the Fall of Troy to a Courtly Romance sensibility.
Among Chaucer’s shorter works are the Parliament of Fowls, in which he may have invented Valentine’s
Day, The Book of the Duchess, and many others. In the century after his death, Chaucer’s admirers and
poetic imitators were many, for he was quite popular in his day. They include John Lydgate, Thomas
Hoccleve, and John Skelton—such authors helped solidify Chaucer’s position as “Father of English
Poetry”, which is, of course, a contestable title, given how much poetry came before Geoffrey. This is
not to say that he was not utterly influential for later English literature, merely that he was not first.

Religious Upheaval

The social upheaval of the era was no stranger to religion. Up to this point, the Catholic Church,
centered upon the Vatican in Rome, had been the dominant leading voice for the Western Christian
faith. However, voices of dissent began to crop up during this period, many of which rallied around an
Oxford scholar and theologian named John Wycliffe, who promoted the translation of the scriptures into
plain English. His hope was that people could inform themselves on matters of belief, rather than having
to rely upon priests to translate and interpret Latin scripture for them. Those who held such opinions
came to be called Lollards, and they were often considered radical enemies of the faith, subversive to
the authority and unity of the Church.

Whether he identified as a Lollard or not, the writings of William Langland vividly portray the spiritual
concerns of the day. His Piers Plowman, which he revised several times over the course of his life, is an
extended series of allegorical dream visions in which the narrator goes on a spiritual journey to find
Truth. At first he tries to do so by seeking out Do-well, Do-bet, and Do-best (allegorical figures
representing the attempt to earn one's salvation by means of good works), but eventually he realizes
that Truth is better accessed by means of working with Piers the Plowman, a figure for Christ, who
bestows grace on all who work with him freely and evenly. Lollardry and other such movements can be
seen as the first stirrings of a social movement that would later give way to the Reformation.

Regionalism and Nostalgia

Meanwhile, although poets like Chaucer and Langland were concerned with national and global matters,
some poets looked back with nostalgia upon the past, and turned to regional identity as a source of
solace amidst all the chaos of the era. The Pearl Poet, so called because his works are anonymous, left us
with two poems considered the crowning achievements of the Alliterative Revival. Gawain and the
Green Knight tells an Arthurian tale, but alters it by telling it in a deliberately archaic form highly
reminiscent of Anglo-Saxon poetry. It uses the same style of obscure vocabulary and scheme of
alliteration, though with an innovative stanzaic form; each stanza ends with a "bob and wheel" rhymed
couplet. This fusion of old and new is taken even further in Pearl, an intricately wrought and deeply
moving dream vision that chronicles a father's struggle to cope with the loss of his great pearl, now
buried in his garden (this is often read as an allegory for the loss of a daughter named Marguerite). The
daughter appears to him in her heavenly glorified body and walks him through his theological
questionings and doubts about his faith. This growing tension can be found throughout the Middle
English period, whether in the bustling city of Chaucer or the nostalgiac countryside of the Pearl Poet.

Prose— Romance, Arthuriana, and Malory

Along with Courtly Love came the continental genre of Romance. This is a type of narrative that is
focused on a knight's quests and adventures in the service of his lady. Such tales, wildly popular with the
nobility, are notable for their narrative innovation (they read much more like modern novels than
previous literature) and for their fantastic material. Dragons, unicorns, giants, wizards, lions, and even
robot-like automata are among the obstacles to be overcome by knights on such quests. It should be
noted that the use of "Romance" as a phrase does not necessarily connote the presence of romantic
lovers' plots (though these do occur from time to time) but moreso to the open-ended adventurous
quality of the tales. These tales are often centered upon the adventures of the court of Arthur at
Camelot and the exploits of his knights.
The invention of the printing press (by Johannes Gutenberg in 1455) and its importation to England (by
William Caxton, ~20 years later) was a major game changer for literature. It empowered English as a
prestige language as well as making books much more affordable in general. Among the earliest printed
works was Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, a lengthy chronicle-style account of Arthur's life story and
many adventures (including the famous quest for the Holy Grail). Other important prose works included
the scientifically progressive work of Roger Bacon, and the major historical/encyclopedic translations of
John Trevisa.

Rise of Drama

This era also saw a resurgence in the popularity of drama. Early on, this form consisted of two major
types: Morality Plays and Mystery Plays. The former aim to impart moral, ethical, and spiritual truth by
means of dramatizing an allegorical life. Famous examples include the plays Everyman and Mankind. The
latter include the York Cycle of plays, held yearly for the summer Feast of Corpus Christi in the northern
city of York. This cycle consisted of a series of plays, each sponsored by a local guild and each presented
on its own pageant wagon(s). The plays dramatized the whole story of the Bible, from creation to the
second coming of Christ and it could take as long as 12 hours of continual performance, one station at a
time, for the whole cycle to unfold across the city. There were also traveling shows such as the N-town
plays.