Hallecks New English Literature | Page 8

The year 597 marks an especially important date, the coming of St.
Augustine, who brought the Christian faith to the Anglo-Saxons.
Education, literature, and art followed finding their home in the
monasteries.
For nearly 400 years after coming to England, the different tribes were
not united under one ruler. Not until 830 did Egbert, king of the West
Saxons, become overlord of England. Before and after this time, the
Danes repeatedly plundered the land. They finally settled in the eastern
part above the Thames. Alfred (849-900), the greatest of Anglo-Saxon
rulers, temporarily checked them, but in the latter part of the tenth
century they were more troublesome, and in 1017 they made Canute,
the Dane, king of England. Fortunately the Danes were of the same
race, and they easily amalgamated with the Saxons.
These invasions wasted the energies of England during more than two
centuries, but this long period of struggle brought little change to the
institutions or manner of life in Anglo-Saxon England. The witan, or
assembly of wise men, the forerunner of the present English parliament,
met in 1066 and chose Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon king.
During these six hundred rears, the Anglo-Saxons conquered the
British, accepted Christianity, fought the Danes, finally amalgamating
with them, brought to England a lasting representative type of
government, established the fundamental customs of the race,
surpassed all contemporary western European peoples in the production
of literature, and were ready to receive fresh impetus from the Normans
in 1066.
The Anglo-Saxon Language.--Our oldest English literature is written in

the language spoken by the Angles and the Saxons. This at first sight
looks like a strange tongue to one conversant with modern English only;
but the language that we employ to-day has the framework, the bone
and sinew, of the earlier tongue. Modern English is no more unlike
Anglo-Saxon than a bearded man is unlike his former childish self. A
few examples will show the likeness and the difference. "The noble
queen" would in Anglo-Saxon be _s=eo aeðele cw=en_; "the noble
queen's," _ð=aere aeðelan cw=ene_. _S=eo_ is the nominative feminine
singular, _ð=aere_ the genitive, of the definite article. The adjective
and the noun also change their forms with the varying cases. In its
inflections, Anglo-Saxon resembles its sister language, the modern
German.
After the first feeling of strangeness has passed away, it is easy to
recognize many of the old words. Take, for instance, this from
_Beowulf_:--
"...ð=y h=e ðone f=eond ofercw=om, gehn=aegde helle g=ast."
Here are eight words, apparently strange, but even a novice soon
recognizes five of them: _h=e, f=eond_ (fiend), _ofercw=om_
(overcame), helle (hell), _g=ast_ (ghost). The word _ðone_, strange as
it looks, is merely the article "the."
...therefore he overcame the fiend, Subdued the ghost of hell.
Let us take from the same poem another passage, containing the
famous simile:--
"...l=eoht inne st=od, efne sw=a of hefene h=adre sc=ineð rodores
candel."
Of these eleven words, seven may be recognized: _l=eoht_ (light), inne
(in), _st=od_ (stood), of, hefene (heaven),_sc=ineð_ (shineth), candel
(candle).
...a light stood within, Even so from heaven serenely shineth The
firmament's candle.
Some prefer to use "Old English" in place of "Anglo-Saxon" in order to
emphasize the continuity of the development of the language. It is,
however, sometimes convenient to employ different terms for different
periods of development of the same entity. We do not insist on calling a
man a "grown boy," although there may be no absolute line of
demarcation between boy and man.
Earliest Anglo-Saxon Literature.--As with the Greeks and Romans, so

with the Teutons, poetry afforded the first literary outlet for the feelings.
The first productions were handed down by memory. Poetry is easily
memorized and naturally lends itself to singing and musical
accompaniment. Under such circumstances, even prose would speedily
fall into metrical form. Poetry is, furthermore, the most suitable vehicle
of expression for the emotions. The ancients, unlike modern writers,
seldom undertook to make literature unless they felt so deeply that
silence was impossible.
The Form of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.--Each line is divided Into two parts
by a major pause. Because each of these parts was often printed as a
complete line in old texts, Beowulf has sometimes been called a poem
of 6368 lines, although it has but 3184.
A striking characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry is consonantal
alliteration; that is, the repetition of the same consonant at the
beginning of words in the same line:--
"Grendel gongan; Godes yrre baer." Grendel going; God's anger bare.
The usual type of Anglo-Saxon poetry has two alliterations in the first
half of the line and one in the second. The lines vary considerably in
the number of syllables. The line from Beowulf quoted just above has
nine syllables. The following line from the same poem has eleven:--
"Flota f=amig-heals, fugle gel=icost." The floater foamy-necked, to a
fowl