Transcript Document
English Literature
郧阳师专英语系英美文学精品课程
Part I The Anglo-Saxon period (449-1066)
1. Historical background
2. literature
3. Old English Poetry: Beowulf
1. Historical background:
About 449 a band of Teutons, called Jutes, left Denmark, landed on the Isle of Thanet. Warriors from the tribes of the Angles and the Saxons soon followed, and drove westward the original inhabitants. The Jutes, the Angles and the Saxons were different tribes of Teutons. The Angles, an important Teutonic tribe, furnished the new home, which was called Angle-land afterward shortened into England. The language spoken by these tribes is generally called Anglo-Saxon or Saxon. It is the beginning of old English.
2. Literature:
The literature of this period falls naturally into two divisions: pagan and Christianity.
Pagan
represents the poetry which the Anglo-Saxons probably brought with them in the form of oral sagas —the crude material out of which literature was slowly developed on English soil.
Christian
represents the writings developed under teaching of the monks.
the old English poetry can be divided into two groups: the secular and the religious.
The secular group:
Beowulf
,
The Wife’s Complaints
The religious group:
Genesis A
and
B
are two poems based on the Old Testament.
3. Caedmon, the “Father of English Song” First Old English Christian poet, whose fragmentary hymn to the creation remains a symbol of the adaptation of the aristocratic-heroic Anglo-Saxon verse tradition to the expression of Christian themes. His story is known from Bede's
Ecclesiastical History of the English People
one night in shame because he could not comply with the demand made of each guest to sing. Then in a dream a stranger appeared found himself uttering “verses which he had never heard.” When Caedmon awoke he related his dream to the farm bailiff under whom he worked and was conducted by him to the monastery at Streaneshalch (now called Whitby).
,
which tells how Caedmon, an illiterate herdsman, retired from company commanding him to sing of “the beginning of things,” and the herdsman The abbess St. Hilda believed that Caedmon was divinely inspired and, to test his powers, proposed that he should render into verse a portion of sacred history, which the monks explained. By the following morning he had fulfilled the task.
At the request of the abbess he became an inmate of the monastery. Throughout the remainder of his life his more learned brethren expounded Scripture to him, and all that he heard he reproduced in vernacular poetry. All of his poetry was on sacred themes, and its unvarying aim was to turn men from sin to righteousness. In spite of all the poetic renderings that Caedmon supposedly made, however, it is only the original dream hymn of nine historically precious, but poetically uninspired, lines that can be attributed to him with confidence. The hymn —extant in 17 manuscripts, some in the poet's Northumbrian dialect, some in other Old English dialects —set the pattern for almost the whole art of Anglo-Saxon verse.
4. Old English Poetry: Beowulf
Beowulf
is the national epic of the Anglo-Saxon and English people. It consists of 3182 lines and is to be divided into two parts.
Beowulf
is folk legend brought to England by the Anglo-Saxons from their continental homes. Beowulf is a grand hero. He is so, simply by his deeds. He is faithful to his people. He goes alone, in a strange land, to venture himself for the deliverance of his people. He forgets himself in face of death. Though the poem was written in the tenth century, its hero was no doubt mainly the product of a primitive, tribal society on the continent.
Beowulf and the Dragon
, lithograph by Rockwell Kent, 1932.
Beowulf is a heroic poem, the highest achievement of Old English literature and the earliest European vernacular epic. Preserved in a single manuscript (Cotton Vitellius A XV) from
c.
1000, it deals with events of the early 6th century and is believed to have been composed between 700 and 750. It did not appear in print until 1815. Although originally untitled, it was later named after the Scandinavian hero Beowulf, whose exploits and character provide its connecting theme. There is no evidence of a historical Beowulf, but some characters, sites, and events in the poem can be historically verified.
The poem falls into two parts. It opens in Denmark, where King Hrothgar's splendid mead hall, Heorot, has been ravaged for 12 years by nightly visits from an evil monster, Grendel, who carries off Hrothgar's warriors and devours them. Unexpectedly, young Beowulf, a prince of the Geats of southern Sweden, arrives with a small band of retainers and offers to cleanse Heorot of its monster. The King is astonished at the little-known hero's daring but welcomes him, and after an evening of feasting, much courtesy, and some discourtesy, the King retires, leaving Beowulf in charge. During the night Grendel comes from the moors, tears open the heavy doors, and devours one of the sleeping Geats. He then grapples with Beowulf, whose powerful grip he cannot escape. He wrenches himself free, tearing off his arm, and leaves, mortally wounded.
The next day is one of rejoicing in Heorot. But at night as the warriors sleep, Grendel's mother comes to avenge her son, killing one of Hrothgar's men. In the morning Beowulf seeks her out in her cave at the bottom of a mere and kills her. He cuts the head from Grendel's corpse and returns to Heorot. The Danes rejoice once more. Hrothgar makes a farewell speech about the character of the true hero, as Beowulf, enriched with honours and princely gifts, returns home to King Hygelac of the Geats.
The second part passes rapidly over King Hygelac's subsequent death in a battle (of historical record), the death of his son, and Beowulf's succession to the kingship and his peaceful rule of 50 years. But now a fire-breathing dragon ravages his land and the doughty but aging Beowulf engages it. The fight is long and terrible and a painful contrast to the battles of his youth. Painful, too, is the desertion of his retainers except for his young kinsman Wiglaf. Beowulf kills the dragon but is mortally wounded. The poem ends with his funeral rites and a lament.
It is significant that his three battles are not against men, which would entail the retaliation of the blood feud, but against evil monsters, enemies of the whole community and of civilization itself. Many critics have seen the poem as a Christian allegory, with Beowulf the champion of goodness and light against the forces of evil and darkness. His sacrificial death is not seen as tragic but as the fitting end of a good (some would say “too good”) hero's life.
Beowulf
belongs metrically, stylistically, and thematically to the inherited Germanic heroic tradition. Many incidents, such as Beowulf's tearing off the monster's arm and his descent into the mere, are familiar motifs from folklore. The ethical values are manifestly the Germanic code of loyalty to chief and tribe and vengeance to enemies. Yet the poem is so infused with a Christian spirit that it lacks the grim fatality of many of the Eddic lays or the Icelandic sagas. Beowulf himself seems more altruistic than other Germanic heroes or the heroes of the
Iliad.
That is not to say that
Beowulf
is an optimistic poem. The
suggests that its total effect is more like a long, lyrical elegy than an epic. Even the earlier, happier section in Denmark is filled with ominous allusions that were well understood by contemporary audiences. Thus, after Grendel's death, King Hrothgar speaks sanguinely of the future, which the audience knows will end with the destruction of his line and the burning of Heorot. In the second part the movement is slow and funereal; scenes from Beowulf's youth are replayed in a minor key as a counterpoint to his last battle, and the mood becomes increasingly sombre as the
wyrd
(fate) that comes to all men closes in on him. John Gardner's
Grendel
(1971) is a retelling of the story from the point of view of the monster.
The most striking feature of the poem is the use of
alliteration.
In alliterative verse, certain accented words in a line began with the same consonant sound. There are generally four accents in a line, three of which show alliteration. e.g. Of men he was the mildest and most beloved, To his kin the kindest, keenest to praise.
Other features of the poem are the use of metaphors and understatements. Such as metaphor: E.g: "swan's path" or "whale's road" for sea. Understatements: E.g: "not troublesome" for welcome.