Lecture 1--Anglo Saxon Poetry

Kent-Drury
ENG 202

Lecture #1: Anglo-Saxon Poetry and Language

Our course covers three literary periods:

Medieval period (~500 C.E.-1500 C.E.)
Renaissance (1500 C.E.-1640 C.E.)
Long 18th century (1640 C.E.-1798 C.E.)

We begin in the Medieval period, which is further divided into three periods of importance to literary scholars:

~500 C.E.	1066 C.E.	~1500 C.E.
Fall of Roman Empire and withdrawal of Rome from Great Britain	Norman Conquest--William the Conqueror invades from France;	Invention of movable type

These medieval period divisions are useful in terms of the language in which literary works were created and the ways in which literature was disseminated:

Anglo-Saxon, the primary language of literary production until the Norman Conquest, was a germanic, inflected language spoken in England. To speakers of English today, it is considered and taught as a foreign language. (An inflected language is one that relies more on endings than on word order.)
Middle English evolved as at least four separate dialects after the Norman Conquest, as more Latinate constructions mixed with Anglo-Saxon. Middle English evolved as a language depending more on word order to convey meaning than on inflections, though we still have some inflections in English today (for instance, the verb form walk versus walked, to denote verb tense).
Modern English volved from the dialect of Middle English known as West Midland, which was the dialect in which Chaucer wrote. It is closer to modern English, but still difficult for contemporary readers.

Although we will not have time to learn Anglo-Saxon and Middle English in our course, we will touch on their features and practice a few short passages.

We begin the course by talking about some of the earliest poetry in the English language, written in Anglo-Saxon. Here is a poem in Anglo-Saxon you probably know well in Modern English--(link to poem). Read it several times while listening to the attached sound file. Can you tell what it is just by listening? (Your discussion board post for this week will include the opportunity for you to say what you learned from this encounter with very early English.)

The earliest poem we have in English is "Caedmon's Hymn." Your reading for this week includes three stories from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People--all of which will be addressed in your discussion board post. One of the readings provides the backstory for the composition of "Caedmon's Hymn." Here is the poem in Anglo-Saxon and in modern English, along with explanations of how Anglo-Saxon poetry worked, why Caedmon's Hymn was considered such a good poem, and a sound file so that you can listen to the poem in Anglo-Saxon (link to poem).

Instructor