THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD

 

THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD 

The Anglo-Saxon period in the history of English literature covers the period from the middle of the 5th century CE to the Norman Conquest of 1066. Around 450 CE, three major Germanic tribes, the Jutes, the Saxons and the Angles entered the British Isles. These invaders gradually adapted to the local culture of the Celts whom they had displaced, leading to the production of a language that came to be known as Old English. Later invaders from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the Scandinavian Vikings, made different parts of England their home and led to further modification of the language. These Germanic Anglo-Saxon tribes embraced Christianity in the 7th century and developed a literature in the written form. This literature is known as Anglo Saxon literature or Old English literature.

Anglo-Saxon literature is a synthesis of many different linguistic groups that successively occupied or conquered the British Isles. The earliest were the Celts which consisted of the Gaels and the Britons. The Gaelic people did not exert much influence on English literature in the early period as they settled in the Scottish Highlands. The Britons inhabited the present region of Wales and England and were subsequently conquered by the Anglo-Saxons. However, many of them intermarried with the conquerors and influenced Anglo-Saxon literature. The influence of the Britons on Anglo Saxon literature can be said to consist of two main characteristics: the first is a vigorous emotionalism exhibiting vivacity, love of novelty, bravery, yet an impractical nature. The second characteristic is the exhibition of a delicate sensitivity to beauty and fantasy. These characteristics are clearly depicted in the story Kilhwich and Olwen. Here, we find beautiful descriptions of the hidden charms of nature like hills, forests, and the pleasant breeze, the flowers in the meadow, and graceful young maidens and youth. The characteristic imagery of the literature of the Britons ranges from different hues of rich colour to descriptions of whatever took their fancy like attractive objects, sights, sounds, movement and the like, which were all woven into supernatural romances or fantastic tales. The imagery conjured up by these tales probably inspired the fairy scenes of Shakespeare and the lyrical poetry of Tennyson in the later period.

In descending order of quantity, Old English literature consists of:

·      sermons and saints' lives;

·      biblical translations;

·      translated Latin works of the early Church Fathers;

·      Anglo-Saxon chronicles and narrative history works;

·      laws, wills and other legal works;

·      practical works on grammar, medicine, geography; and

·      poetry.

In the first century CE, the Romans conquered the British Isles and introduced Roman civilisation and later, Christianity to the Britons of the towns and plains. With them, came the Latin language and for nearly three hundred years, it was the language of the ruling elite. However, the Romans do not appear to have influenced Old English literature. By the beginning of the fifth century, harassed by the invading Anglo-Saxons, the Romans abandoned Britain and by the middle of the fifth century, the Jutes, Angles and Saxons who came in successive bands, established permanent settlements on the island. These Anglo-Saxon tribes were barbarians and led a semi-pastoral life and basic agricultural practices.

They were war-like and many earned their livelihood through piracy, and looting and pillaging. By nature, they were also ferocious, cruel, strong, courageous and deeply loyal to their chieftains or kings, and comrades. These qualities found a strong expression in their literature. The Anglo-Saxon conquest of the British Isles took place over a period of nearly 150-200 years. While the earlier invaders initially settling on the eastern and southern shores, they gradually made in-roads into the interior of the island by defeating the early Roman invaders. In course of time, the Angles settled in the east and north, the Saxons in the south, and the Jutes, who were numerically smaller, in the region of Kent. They established separate kingdoms which were often at war with one another as well as with the Britons. The Britons tried in vain to resist the onslaught of the Anglo-Saxons and by the seventh century, the Anglo-Saxons occupied almost the entire region that is present day England.

The Anglo-Saxon conquest virtually destroyed the earlier Celtic and Roman civilisation. They burnt cities, slaughtered the inhabitants and occupied the land. Establishing themselves as masters of the farmlands, these barbaric warriors were surrounded by bondsmen and slaves drawn from among the defeated people. It is believed that many Britons were kept alive as slaves and wives. In course of time, the Anglo-Saxons transformed into a race of farmers and developed a flourishing trade with the European continent. Towards the end of the sixth century, Christian missionaries from Rome had arrived and in 597 CE Saint Augustine landed in Kent and converted the kingdom. By the middle of the seventh century, after fierce fighting, Christianity had been established in most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms located in the southern half of the island. In the northern part, in Ireland, meanwhile, Christianity had already been established by simple missionaries although it was not patronised by Rome. The Christian faith propagated by the Romans, brought with it imperial architecture, music, education, and the zeal which over time, would establish the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church in the Western world. When the king of North Umbria, the most powerful Anglican kingdom, decided in favour of the Roman church as against the Irish, it resulted in the supremacy of the former over the island of Britain. This had far-reaching consequences in the medieval period when a common religion bound Britain with Rome, resulting in spiritual efflorescence. This was mainly due to the establishment of a network of monasteries that became centers of learning and literature.

Anglo Saxon Poetry:

Early Anglo-Saxon poetry exhibits pagan characteristics as it was composed before the conversion to Christianity. It consists of epic poems and ballads of fierce warriors that reflect the life of the Anglo-Saxons before they conquered the British Isles. The Anglo-Saxons believed in the efficacy of magical charms and their ballads developed through story-telling among groups when they probably retold and re-enacted achievements in hunting or war. These popular stories were passed down orally from one generation to the next. The professional minstrels or bards known as scops or gleemen who were adept storytellers had popularized these ballads of brave deeds by wandering from village to village interacting with different tribes. Their storytelling was often accompanied by the harp. They also began to compose formal poetry and many minstrels also entertained at the courts of the barbarian chieftain or king or warriors during feasts with tales of heroes and battles and the achievements of their patron. Although, the majority of these popular ballads have been lost over time, some of them fired the popular imagination and developed into formal epic poetry. Very often, the minstrels composed these epics by stringing together different ballads that deal with the exploits of a single hero or with a single event.

One of the most popular surviving epic is that of Beowulf. Beowulf consisting of about three thousand lines is one of the most well-known Anglo -Saxon epic poems. This poem had its origins in the European continent and was carried to England in the form of ballads by the Anglo-Saxons. Portions of this epic are of Scandinavian origin probably brought to England by Danish or Norwegian pirates. It developed into a formal epic poem during the seventh and eighth century. This powerful poem narrates the story of the hero Beowulf who comes from the sea to the aid of King Hrothgar and delivers him from the monster Grendel. Following this, King Hrothgar and his people are confronted with the wrath of Grendel’s mother who seeks revenge. Ultimately, the latter is also killed by Beowulf. A triumphant Beowulf returns home and his heroic deeds are rewarded by his tribe, who make him their king. However, his kingdom is threatened by a fire-breathing dragon. Beowulf dies a hero’s death while killing the beast and saving his people from harm.

The picture presented in Beowulf of the life of the upper caste warriors belonging to the northern Germanic tribes is incomplete. One sees only glimpses of the later period of barbarism of these tribes in England and the larger continent. It is nevertheless an interesting description. War, feasting and hunting seem to be the chief occupations of Hrothgar and his lot, if the depictions by the poets/bards of his life are anything to go by. The poem maintains a grim and sombre mood throughout its deployment and very rarely betrays traces of delight in the beauty that the world has to offer. For the greater part of the poem, hardy satisfaction at performing well as a warrior and protector with a fierce natural environment providing impediments along the way, take center stage.

Beowulf is hardly the correct place to look at for finer artistic graces and the structural subtleties characteristic of later literary periods. Thus one finds more dramatization than clarity in the narrative. The characters are mostly two dimensional, tailored by the poet(s) to suit the demands of an audience that was presumably not very perceptive or attentive to the minutiae of details. But the sheer power and virile barbarism that the epic poem exudes make it a memorable one, especially if one does not forget that it was the product of a long period of poetic evolution.

In the kingdom of North Umbria, located in present Yorkshire and southern Scotland, the capital city York and its various monasteries became the chief centers of learning and culture in Western Europe. The Anglo-Saxon poetry produced in this region exhibits like Beowulf, a certain Pagan spirit. Its other characteristics are ingenious and skillfully developed riddles in verse form, representing an early form of popular literature like the ballads and charms. The surviving specimens of Pagan lyrical poems are pensively melancholic- dealing with the harsh and tragic aspects of life, and the power of oceans and storms, the inevitability and dreariness, banishment and the separation of friends. Some Celtic influence is discernable in the common tender notes of pathos. The majority of this Anglo-Saxon poetry of the Northumbrian period was the product of the Christian monasteries or under monastic influence.

The earliest Christian writer was Caedmon, who rendered portions of the Bible in Anglo -Saxon verse, towards the end of the seventh century. Another scholar was Bede, a Christian monk whose forty Latin prose-works summarized most of the knowledge of his time. Cynewulf was another important poet whose religious poetry in the Anglo-Saxon language deals with Christ, Christian apostles and heroes. Thus, much of the Anglo-Saxon prose and poetry of the Northumbrian period display the lingering of the Pagan heritage and consist of powerful narratives of sea voyages, battles, acts of vigour and passion and an adventurous life. The Christian influence is seen in the religious beliefs of Providence and dependence on God and Christ, where the latter replaced the kings of old.

Anglo-Saxon Prose, The West Saxon Prose Period:

This period is marked by the attacks on the Anglo-Saxons by the non-Christian Danes or Northmen who hailed from the Scandinavian Peninsula and the neighboring coast. In the ninth century, the Danes repeatedly attacked and looted England, conquered North Umbria, destroyed the churches and monasteries, resulting in an almost complete destruction of learning. King Alfred (871-901 CE) of Wessex, the region of the West Saxons, tried to negotiate peace by ceding to the Danes the entire northeastern part of the island. Following the restoration of peace and stability, Alfred worked hard to restore learning in his kingdom. He himself translated manuals of history, philosophy and religion from Latin into Anglo Saxon. His greatest work was the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, a series of annals starting with the Christian era, kept at various monasteries that recorded the most important historical events mainly of England up to the eleventh century. These chronicles are characterized by brief accounts bereft of any details except for the spirited narrative that deals with the exploits of Alfred, where the narrator is sometimes roused to the verse form. The two important extant pieces of Anglo Saxon poetry of the West Saxon period were written in the tenth century. These describe the two great battles against invading Northmen at Brunanburgh and Maldon.

The West Saxon period has produced literature of relatively little significance. Most of the writing that survives this period is generally didactic and riddled with exaggerated symbolism, in the form of religious prose – hagiographies, sermons, biblical and monastic literature. Meanwhile, several wars ravaged the country. Post Alfred’s death, within fifty years, his descendants had managed to seize back England from the Danes (most of whom till the land today comprise a large segment of the ‘English’ race). However, towards the close of the tenth century, the Danish again emerged from the Baltic lands, unleashing death and destruction upon the Anglo-Saxons. By the eleventh century, many had entered the Christian fold and in the beginning of the twelfth century, Canute a Christian Danish king began to rule over the region (for twenty years). In such times, understandably little of literature could flourish. Thus, early Anglo-Saxon literature was the product of different racial groups that exhibited Pagan, as well as, Christian influences. The Norman Conquest at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 marks the end of this early Anglo Saxon literature which would now enter into a new phase after the death of King Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon ruler. William of Normandy brought fresh new influences from France, which replaced the earlier Pagan traits. 

The Norman Conquest put an end to serious literary works in Old English language and gave the rise to Anglo-Norman literature, commonly dated between 1100/1200 and 1350s, and considered to be the first phase in the development of English literary phenomena during the Middle Ages.