UNIV OF

OLD ENGLISH PERIOD

EPIC AND CHRONICLE

About the end of the first quarter of the fifth century after Christ (ca. 428) there arrived in Britain a group of pagan Germanic tribes known as Anglo-Saxons. These invaders brought with them numerous literary and historical traditions preserved by their poets

scops or gleemen. In 597 Augustine introduced into the south of England the Roman form of Christianity; a few years earlier (563) the great Irish missionary, Columba (Columcille), had brought the doctrines of Celtic Christianity into Scotland, whence they spread southward as far as Yarrow and Whitby (the monasteries of Bede and of Cædmon) before they were met and displaced (in 664) by the doctrines of Rome.

It is to the Christian scholars and poets of England that we owe the preservation of the small body of native Anglo-Saxon literature which has come down to us. To them also are due several Old-English versions of Biblical stories, numerous homilies and saints' lives in the language of the people, and certain Latin works on themes introduced in part from the Continent. Several translations from Latin into Anglo-Saxon are attributed to Alfred the Great (849-901).

The monks who composed or recorded Anglo-Saxon poetry on secular subjects were influenced by conflicting motives. Though they were Christians, they were close kin to warlike men whose ideals were far from those of the meek and lowly Jesus, and they retell the old tales with a scarcely suppressed gusto. Yet being Christians, they naturally purify and ennoble their themes and idealize their characters by the omission of much that is barbaric and by the infusion of a spirit which is in part chivalric and is altogether Christian. Their attitude toward their material may be compared with that of Tennyson, who long afterward attempted to reconcile the dubious moral standards of mediæval Arthurian story with the ideals of Victorian society to explain the unfaithfulness of Guinevere on the basis of nineteenth-century ethics. Even when retelling Biblical stories, the Anglo-Saxon poets interpret their stories in terms of pagan society. Their lack of historical sense, which seems to us childish, is thus responsible for what most clearly reflects contemporary life in the Old English Christian epic (e.g., Judith). Hence we cannot regard Anglo-Saxon epic literature as reflecting perfectly the life of our barbaric ancestors. Even Beowulf is not properly Anglo-Saxon either in subject or in treatment. In subject it is continental — probably Scandinavian —; in form and treatment it is sophisticated and Christian. AngloSaxon prose reveals a love of learning and an acquaintance with Greek and Roman literary culture and philosophy which proves that England during the Dark Ages was by no means isolated from what was best in the great stream of Classical and Early Christian culture which survived the barbarian invasions of southern Europe. Both in religious prose and in poetry, whether written in Latin or in the vernacular, the literature of early England reveals a mysticism, an exalted faith, and a divine enthusiasm hardly to be found elsewhere except in the early Christian literature of Ireland.

But the Old English writings discussed above by no means constitute the whole foundation of the literary culture which has since flourished so abundantly in Britain. In this connection, several significant facts, seldom brought out in histories of literature, should be constantly borne in mind if we are to read intelligently the later pages of this volume. Before the Germanic invaders ever set foot on British soil, the land was inhabited by a group of tribes known as Celts, who had a literature of their own, which, though not written down till late in the Christian era, is known to have been varied in content and rich in imaginative power. Here for example are to be sought the beginnings of the legends about King Arthur. Moreover, by 428 these same Celts had for several centuries been under the rulership of Rome, from whom they had received Christianity as well as much pagan culture. From the fifth century till the Norman conquest (1066) frequent contact between British and Irish monasteries was the means of introducing the literary culture which the Irish people, Christian since the early fifth century, had imported from the Continent or had developed independently. Finally, it was during the Anglo-Saxon period that England was invaded by the Scandinavians, who in their turn made contributions to the literature and culture of the island. In short, we should never forget that although the foundation of our language is Anglo-Saxon, the background of our literature extends far beyond the limits of strictly Anglo-Saxon writings.

POETRY