Old English literature in the period of Anglo-Saxon ethnic extension

It is often postulated that there is a dark age between the arrival of the Anglo - Saxons and the first arrival of Old English manuscripts. A few scattered inscriptions in the language date from the 5th and 6th centuries, written in the runic alphabet which the invaders brought with them, but these give very little information about what the language was like. The literary age began only after the arrival of the Roman missionaries, led by Augustine, who came there to Kent in 597 AD. Because of the increasingly literary climate Оld English manuscripts also began to be written much earlier, indeed, that the earliest vernacular texts from other north European countries. The first texts dating from around 700, are glossaries of Latin words translated into English, and a few early inscriptions and poems. But very little material remains from this period. Doubtless many manuscripts were burnt during the 8th century Vikings invasion. There are a number of short poems, again almost entirely preserved in the late manuscripts, over half of them concerned with Christian subjects –legends of the saints, extracts from the Bible, and devotional pieces. Several others reflect the Germanic tradition, dealing with such topics as war, travelling, patriotism, and celebration. Most extant Old English texts were written in the period following the reign of King Alfred, who arranged for many Latin works to be translated including Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. But the total corpus is extremely small and makes about 3, 5 million – the equivalent of about 30 medium-sized modern novels. Only five per cent of this total is poetry [14; 16; 24; 28; 39; 41].

The Anglo-Saxon ethno-social system began forming as a result of British invasion at the end of the 6th century.

This brought about some considerable changes in the social structure of the Anglo-Saxon society. To get a better understanding of the Anglo-Saxon society it is worth considering the Old-English words of status. The key-words are given below in order of precedence:

cyning ‘chief’, later the founder the royal dynasty

ealdorman ‘sub-king’, a kind of hereditary aristocracy; later replaced by the

term eorl

þegn ‘warrior’

čeorl ‘a free man’, ‘farmer’

þeow ‘a slave’, ‘servant’

The given structure provided an effective functioning of considerably tough ethno-social system needed for the Anglo-Saxons during the period of their ethnic extension when the former tribal organization of the society did not meet the stereotypes evoked by military orientation of the ethnic dominant at that time. As a result, there emerged a peculiar class of professional warriors who swore to their lords in exchange for lands and gifts seized in the military campaigns. The kings and noble people belonged to the ruling upper circles, whereas professional soldiers – took an interim niche in the social hierarchy standing between noble and common people [2; 13; 15; 41].

I.V. Shaposhnikova points out that a þegn was a personal servant who was one degree higher in the ranks of freeman than a čeorl. As servants of the King the status of þegn gradually rose, until they formed the elected nobility of the Kingdom [41].

The analysis of early Old English written records allows singling out two distinct imperatives throughout the period of the Anglo-Saxon ethnic extension. On the one hand it was militancy, the orientation to the persecution of the war and submission of the person’s concerns to this imperative and on the other hand there existed an archetypal fear to be reduced to the status of social outcast, a person deprived of any kind of rights. The cowards were most commonly threatened with exile. This was the severest punishment for their ‘inglorious act’ to live a shameful life in exile. In the time of instability and violence the fear of being reduced to the position of an exile was so strong that it became one of the prevailing motives in the early Anglo-Saxon literature.

Whereas warfare for the sake of wealth provided the motive power that moulded ethnic stereotypes thus organizing the passionateness of the early Anglo-Saxons in the period of their ethnic extension. The same warfare motive underlay the ethnics justifying the prevailing stereotypes. This epoch of great deeds and brave heroes is known in literature as the Heroic Age. The folk epic Beowulf is considered to represent the most telling evidence of the outlook and temper of the Germanic mind [7; 19; 39; 41].

The epic Beowulf is of about three thousand lines. This poem seems to have originated on the Continent, but when and where are not now to be known. It may have been carried to England in the form of ballads by the Anglo-Saxons; or it may be Scandinavian material, later brought in by Danish or Norwegian pirates. At any rate it seems to have taken on its present form in England during the seventh and eighth centuries. It relates how the hero Beowulf, coming over the sea to the relief of King Hrothgar, delivers him from a monster, Grendel, and then from the vengeance of Grendel’s only less formidable mother. Returned home in triumph, Beowulf much later receives the due reward of his valor by being made king of his own tribe, and meets his death while killing a fire-breathing dragon which has become a scourge to his people. As he appears in the poem, Beowulf is an idealized Anglo-Saxon hero, but in origin he may have been any one of several other different things. Perhaps he was the old Germanic god Beowa, and his exploits originally allegories, like some of those in the Greek mythology, of his services to man; he may, for instance, first have been the sun, driving away the mists and cold of winter and of the swamps, hostile forces personified in Grendel and his mother. Or, Beowulf may really have been a great human fighter who actually killed some especially formidable wild beasts, and whose superhuman strength in the poem results, through the similarity of names, from his being confused with Beowa. This is the more likely because there is in the poem a slight trace of authentic history. Beowulf presents an interesting though very incomplete picture of the life of the upper, warrior, caste among the northern Germanic tribes during their later period of barbarism on the Continent and in England, a life more highly developed than that of the Anglo-Saxons before their conquest of the island.

Outside of Beowulf and a few fragments, the recording of Anglo-Saxon heroic story begins with a 9th century entry in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 755 (actually 757). To this can be added a few of the annals devoted to the combats of King Alfred’s son and grandsons in the tenth century. While not a Chronicle poem, The Battle of Maldon has a place in this range, if only as an inspired response to what otherwise the Chronicle (in the Canterbury and Peterborough manuscripts) records for 991 as ealdorman Byrthnoth’s death in battle at Maldon. Typically, guides, translations and readers introducing students to Old English texts highlight three of the stories from this range of years: the story of West Saxon feud are called Cynewulf and Cyneheard (chronicle entry 755), The Battle of Brunanburh, (entry for 937), and The Battle of Maldon (sometime after 991). Traditionally, and here all introductions in Old English readers follow suit, these narratives are seen as enshrining, in some literary intensified way, heroic values reflecting their ancient, Germanic roots.

Hence, the literature of the Old English period was not notable for its diversity of literature genres. The leading place was taken by heroic romances and religious writings. Obviously, heroes of the old times had no time to think of love as in ancient epic romances love did not play any important role. However, the situation considerably changed in the subsequent period [6; 8; 17; 28; 54].