Extended Lesson Plan (ELP)

Course code: HEN-303 Course Title: History of English Literature Week # 04

Anglo Saxon Period (449-1066 A.D)

About the same time that a scop may have been singing in a noisy mead hall about

the heroic deeds of Beowulf, a monk named Bede was studying and writing in the

quiet library of a monastery. Whereas the gifted scop remained forever nameless,

the monk’s name became known throughout the world.

When Bede was a boy of seven, he went to study and live in a monastery at

Wearmouth, England. About two years later, Bede moved to a monastery in

Jarrow, just a short distance away. There he remained for the rest of his life,

devoting himself to religion and study.

A man of great scholarship, Bede had farranging interests that included religion,

poetry, grammar, music, art, mathematics, and science. In fact, his passion for

calculating time and dates led him to use a method of dating still in use today. This

method starts from the birth of Jesus in the year A.D. 1 (A.D. stands for the Latin

Anno Domini, “in the year of our Lord”). Bede’s use of this form of dating in his

histories helped to popularize it. (Some scholars later estimated Jesus’ birth to have

been six to seven years earlier than Bede believed.)

English, the language of the people. With almost forty volumes bearing his name,

Bede is the first important writer of prose in England and is considered the father

of English history. Bede’s masterpiece, The Ecclesiastical History of the English

People, documents the influence of the church on the development of English

civilization.

Fortunately for us, Bede was a talented storyteller. His histories are far more than

mere chronicles of events; they present meticulously researched stories of

conquests, saints, missionaries, and monasteries. To write his great works, Bede

did research in the library of the monastery, sent letters all over the world, and

spoke with artists and scholars from afar who visited the monastery. Bede reveals

in his histories how people actually lived, providing most of what we know about

life in Britain between the years 46 and 731.

Although Bede never left Jarrow, his reputation spread widely. About a century

after his death, he was given the title “Venerable” to honor his wisdom and piety.

In 1899 he was declared a saint of the Catholic Church.

“Bede makes every effort to be accurate. He admits wonders only after he has

investigated them and found them well authenticated. His standards of verification

are not ours, of course. If today a victim of snakebite were to drink down some
scrapings of Irish books and get well, we should not conclude that the scrapings

had worked the cure.” —Kemp Malone

“The image of Bede as a detached and saintly scholar does less than justice to the

complexity of his personality and of his work.” —Judith McClure and Roger

Collins

Bede was born in 672 or 673 and died in 735.

Caedmon

In this monastery of Whitby there lived a brother7 whom God’s grace made

remarkable. So skilful was he in composing religious and devotional songs, that he

could quickly turn whatever passages of Scripture were explained to him into

delightful and moving poetry in his own English tongue. These verses of his stirred

the hearts of many folk to despise the world and aspire to heavenly things. Others

after him tried to compose religious poems in English, but none could compare

with him, for he received this gift of poetry as a gift from God and did not acquire

it through any human teacher. For this reason he could never compose any

frivolous or profane8 verses, but only such as had a religious theme fell fittingly

from his devout lips. And although he followed a secular9 occupation until well

advanced in years, he had never learned anything about poetry: indeed, whenever
all those present at a feast took it in turns to sing and entertain the company, he

would get up from table and go home directly he saw the harp approaching him.

On one such occasion he had left the house in which the entertainment was being

held and went out to the stable, where it was his duty to look after the beasts that

night. He lay down there at the appointed time and fell asleep, and in a dream he

saw a man standing beside him who called him by name. “Caedmon,” he said,

“sing me a song.” “I don’t know how to sing,” he replied. “It is because I cannot

sing that I left the feast and came here.” The man who addressed him then said:

“But you shall sing to me.” “What should I sing about?” he replied. “Sing about

the Creation of all things,” the other answered. And Caedmon immediately began

to sing verses in praise of God the Creator that he had never heard before, and their

theme ran thus: “Let us praise the Maker of the kingdom of heaven, the power and

purpose of our Creator, and the acts of the Father of glory. Let us sing how the

eternal God, the Author of all marvels, first created the heavens for the sons of men

as a roof to cover them, and how their almighty Protector gave them the earth for

their dwelling place.” This is the general sense, but not the actual words that

Caedmon sang in his dream; for however excellent the verses, it is impossible to

translate them from one language into another10 without losing much of their

beauty and dignity. When Caedmon awoke, he remembered everything that he had
sung in his dream, and soon added more verses in the same style to the glory of

God.

Early in the morning he went to his superior the reeve,11 and told him about this

gift that he had received. The reeve took him before the abbess,12 who ordered

him to give an account of his dream and repeat the verses in the presence of many

learned men, so that they might decide their quality and origin. All of them agreed

that Caedmon’s gift had been given him by our Lord, and when they had explained

to him a passage of scriptural history or doctrine, they asked him to render13 it into

verse if he could. He promised to do this, and returned next morning with excellent

verses as they had ordered him. The abbess was delighted that God had given such

grace to the man, and advised him to abandon secular life and adopt the monastic

state. And when she had admitted him into the Community as a brother, she

ordered him to be instructed in the events of sacred history.14 So Caedmon stored

up in his memory all that he learned, and after meditating on it, turned it into such

melodious verse that his delightful renderings turned his instructors into his

audience. He sang of the creation of the world, the origin of the human race, and

the whole story of Genesis. He sang of Israel’s departure from Egypt, their entry

into the land of promise, and many other events of scriptural history. He sang of

the Lord’s Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven, the

coming of the Holy Spirit, and the teaching of the Apostles. He also made many
poems on the terrors of the Last Judgement, the horrible pains of Hell, and the joys

of the kingdom of heaven. In addition to these, he composed several others on the

blessings and judgements of God, by which he sought to turn his hearers from

delight in wickedness, and to inspire them to love and do good. For Caedmon was

a deeply religious man, who humbly submitted to regular discipline, and firmly

resisted all who tried to do evil, thus winning a happy death.

Though much of this Anglo-Saxon poetry is lost, there are still some fragments

left. For example, Widsith describes continental courts visited in imagination by a

far-wandering poet; Waldhere tells how Walter of Aquitaine withstood a host of

foes in the passes of the Vosges; the splendid fragment called The Fight at

Finnesburg deals with the same favourite theme of battle against fearful odds; and

Complaint of Deor describes the disappointment of a lover. The most important

poem of this period is Beowulf. It is a tale of adventures of Beowulf, the hero, who

is an champion an slayer of monsters; the incidents in it are such as may be found

in hundreds of other stories, but what makes it really interesting and different from

later romances, is that is full of all sorts of references and allusions to great events,

to the fortunes of kings and nations. There is thus an historical background.

After the Anglo-Saxons embraced Christianity, the poets took up religious themes

as the subjectmatter of their poetry. In fact, a major portion of Anglo-Saxon poetry

is religious. The two important religious poets of the Anglo-Saxon period were
Caedmon and Cynewulf. Caedmon sang in series the whole story of the fate of

man, from the Creation and the Fall to the Redemption and the Last Judgment, and

within this large framework, the Scripture history.

Cynewulf‘s most important poem is the Crist, a metrical narrative of leading events

of Christ‘s ministry upon earth, including his return to judgment, which is treated

with much grandeur. Anglo-Saxon poetry is markedly different from the poetry of

the next period—Middle English or Anglo-Norman period—for it deals with the

traditions of an older world, and expresses another temperament and way of living;

it breathes the influence of the wind and storm. It is the poetry of a stern and

passionate people, concerned with the primal things of life, moody, melancholy

and fierce, yet with great capacity for endurance and fidelity.

The Anglo-Saxon period was also marked by the beginning of English prose.

Through the Chronicles, which probably began in King Alfred‘s time, and through

Alfred‘s translations from the Latin a common available prose was established,

which had all sorts of possibilities in it. In fact, unlike poetry, there was no break in

prose of Anglo-Saxon period and the Middle English period, and even the later

prose in England was continuation of Anglo-Saxon prose. The tendency of the

Anglo-Saxon prose is towards observance of the rules of ordinary speech, that is

why, though one has to make a considerable effort in order to read verse of the

Anglo-Saxons, it is comparatively easy to understand their prose. The great success

English prose were Alfred the Great, the glorious king of Wessex, who translated a

number of Latin Chronicles in English, and Aelfric, a priest, who wrote sermons in

a sort of poetic prose.