A COURSE OF a SURVEY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE (UNIVERSITY STUDENTS INTERNAL USE)

QUANG BINH UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
................    ..............

A COURSE OF A SURVEY OF ENGLISH
AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
(UNIVERSITY STUDENTS - INTERNAL USE)

Compiled Vo Thi Dung, Ph.D

QUANG BINH, 2016


PREFACE
A course of a survey of English and American literature is intended chiefly
for student university who begin their studies of English and American literature.
This course aims at providing the students with a general knowledge about
English and American literature from the beginning to the present day. Each
chapter contains a timeline of historical events along with the dates of key literary
texts by the movement’s authors. These timelines are designed to help students
make connections between and among the movements, eras, and authors covered in
each chapter. Students are required to master the way it goes in connect with its
historical background and the typical authors and works of each period.
More than just a survey course, it shows students how Britain’s and
America’s cultural landscape acted upon its literature – and how, in turn, literature
affected the cultural landscape. A course of a survey of English and American
literature, studentsa hold a thought-provoking conversation with the giants of
British and American literary history. As students finish the course and find
themrselves on the threshold of the 21st century, they better understand what it
means to be both British and American, and a human being in an increasingly
complex world.

We would be very happy if this material proved to be helpful for the study of
the literature as a great pleasure. We highly appreciated to receive the ideas and
comments from the readers so that it will be corrected and used in an effective way.
The author
Vo Thi Dung, Ph.D

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TABLE OF CONTENT
Page

Part I.
CHAPTER 1: SURVEY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
I. Brief introduction
II. Overview of English literary history
+ The Old English period
+ The Middle English period
+ The Modern English period
CHAPTER 2: THE OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE
I. English literature in the making (450-1066)
+ The earliest inhabitants of England
+ The Romans conquest
+ The English (or Anglo-Saxon) Conquest
+ The Danish conquest
+ The Norman Conquest
II. The division of English literary history
III. Some feature of the Old English literature
+ The prevalence of poetry over prose
+ Oral

+ Anonymous
+ Translation
+ Religious inclination
IV. Old English poetry: Typical Old English Verse: Beowulf
V. Old English prose
VI.Old English drama
CHAPTER 3: THE MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE
I. Historical background
II. Language and literature
+ The Middle English language
+ The Middle English literature
+ Typical authors and works: Geoffrey Chaucer
CHAPTER 4: THE MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE
+ The Renaissance
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+ The Classic literature
+ The Age of Enlightenment
+ The 19th century English literature
+ English literature in the 20th century
Part II.
CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF AMERICAN LITERATURE
+ Historical background
- Early American and colonial period to 1776
- The religious life
- The American Revolution
+ Literature
- The literature of exploration
- The early colonial literature in New England: Puritan literature

+ Typical authors and works
CHAPTER 2: THE MIDDLE AMERICAN LITERATURE
+ Historical background
- Expansion to the West
- Slavery
- Industrialization and immigration
+ Literature:
- The Romantic period
- Typical authors and works
CHAPTER 3: THE MODERN AMERICAN LITERATURE
+ Historical background
- The Roaring twenties
- America and two world wars
- The world depression
- The New Deal era
- Post - war American: the Cold war
+ Literature:
- Modernism
- Prose writing
- Typical authors and works
References
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PART I
ENGLISH LITERATURE

For more than 1,500 years, the literature of this island has taught, nurtured,
thrilled, outraged, and humbled readers both inside and outside its borders.
Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Swift, Wilde – the roster of British writers

who have made a lasting impact on literature is remarkable. More importantly,
Britain’s writers have long challenged readers with new ways of understanding an
ever-changing world.
ENGLISH LITERARY HISTORY
- The Middle Ages (to 1485): Beowulf, Geoffrey Chaucer,The Gawain-Poet, Sir
Thomas Malory.

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- The Renaissance (1485-1660): Often broken down between “The Sixteenth
Century” (1485-1603) and “The Seventeenth Century” (1603-1660).
- “The Sixteenth Century”: Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, Sir Philip Sidney,
Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare.
- “The Seventeenth Century”: John Donne, Ben Jonson, Andrew Marvell, John
Milton.
- The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (1660-1798): John Dryden,
Daniel Defoe, Aphra Behn, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Henry Fielding,
Samuel Richardson, Samuel Johnson, Laurence Sterne, William Blake.
- The Romantic Period (1798-1832): William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, John Keats, Jane
Austen, Sir Walter Scott.
- The Victorian Age (1832-1901): Thomas Carlyle, Lord Tennyson, Robert
Browning, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, George Eliot,
Matthew Arnold, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde.
- Modernism (1901-?): William Butler Yeats, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, D. H.
Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot.

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CHAPTER 1
SURVEY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
I. BRIEF INTRODUCTION
1. What is literature?
The subjects we learn at school can be divided roughly into two groups: the
science and the arts. The sciences include mathematics, geography, chemistry,
physics, and so on. Among the arts are drawing, painting, modeling, needle-work,
drama, music, literature. The purpose of education is to fit to us for life. In a
civilized community, and it seems to follow from the subjects we study that the two
most important things in civilized life are Arts and Sciences.
Why then are the arts and the sciences important? I suppose with the sciences
you would say the answer is obvious. We have radium, penicillin, television and
recorded sound, motors, cars, air-conditioning… These achievements have never
been the primary intention of science; they are sort of by-product, the things that
emerge only when the scientists has done his main job. That main job simply
started: to be curious, to keep on asking the question ‘why”? And not to be satisfied
till the answer has been found. The scientist is curious about the universe: he wants
to know why water boils at one temperature and freezes at another; why cheese is
different from the chalk; why one person behaves different from another; Not only
‘why’ but ‘what’? What is salt made of? What are the stars? The answers to these
questions do not necessarily make our lives any easier. But the questions have to be
asked. It is man’s job to be curious; it is man’s job to try to find out the truth about
the world about us, to answer the big question ‘what is the world really like?’, ‘The
truth about the world is about us”. Think over the word ‘truth’ for a moment. It is a
word used in many different ways - ‘you’re not telling the truth.’ ‘Beauty is truth,
truth is beauty.’…I want to use it here in sense of what lies behind an outward
show. Let me hasten to explain by giving an example. The sun rises in the east and
sets in the west. That is what we see; that is ‘outward show’. In the past the
outward show was regarded as the truth. But then a scientist came along to question

it and then to announce that the truth was quite different from the appearance: the
truth was that the earth revolved and the sun remained still – the outward show was
telling a lie. The curious things about scientific truths like this are that they often

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seem so useless. It makes no difference to the average man whether the sun move
or the earth moves. He still has to rise at dawn and stop work at dusk. But because
thing is useless it does not mean that is valueless. Scientists think it worthwhile to
pursue truth. They do not expect that laws gravitation and relatively are going to
make much different to everyday life, but they think it is a valuable activity to ask
their eternal questions about the universe. And so we say that truth-the thing they
are looking for-is a valuable.
A value is something that raise our lives above the purely animal level- the
level of getting our food and drink, producing children, sleeping, and dying. This
world of getting of living and getting children is sometimes called the world of
subsistence. A value is something added to the world of subsistence. Some people
say that our lives are unsatisfactory because they are mostly concerned with things
that are permanent-things that decay and change. Truth is a thing that will last
forever.
Truth is one value. Another is beauty. The scientist’s concern is truth; the
artist’s concern is beauty. Some people-those clever thinkers called philosopherstell us that beauty and truth are the same things. But in fact, the beauty and truth are
two of the qualities of God.
Anyway, both the scientist and artist are seeking something which they think
is real. Their methods are different. The scientist set his brain to work and, by a
slow progress of trial and error, after long experiment and enquiry, he finds his
answer. This is usually an excitement moment. The artist wants to make something
which will produce just those sorts of excitement in the minds of other people-the
excitement of discovering something new about the reality. He may make a picture,

a play, a poem… but he wants to make the people who see or hear or read his
creation feel very excited and say about his creation. ‘That is beautiful.’ Beauty,
then you could define as a quality you find in any object which produces in your
mind a special kind of excitement, an excitement somehow tied up with a sense of
discovery. It not be something made by man; a sunset or a bunch of flowers or a
tree may make you feel this excitement and utter the word ‘beautiful!’. But the
primary task of natural things like flowers and trees and the sun is perhaps not to be
beautiful but just to exist. The primary task of the artist’s creation is to be beautiful.
2. What is English literature?

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English literature is literature written in English. It is not merely the
literature of England or of the British Isles, but a vast and growing body of writings
made up the work of authors who use the English language as a natural medium of
communication. In other words, the English literature refers not to a nation but to a
language. There is a tendency among some people regards, for instance, American
literature as a separate entity, a body of writings distinct from that of the British
Isles, and the same attitude is beginning to prevail with regard to the growing
literatures of Africa and Australia. Joseph Conrad was a Pole, Demetrios
Kapectanakis was a Greek, Ernest Hemingway is an American, Lin Yutang is a
Chinese, but English is the medium they have in common, and they all belong-with
Chaucer and Shakespeare and Dickens-to English literature. On the other hand, a
good deal of the work of Sir Thomas More and Sir Francis Bacon-both
Englishmen-is written not in English but in Latin, and William Beckford and T.S
Eliot have written in French. Such writings are outside the scope of our survey.
Literature is an art which exploits language. English literature is an art which
exploits the English language. But in this brief history we must confine ourselves to
the literature produced in the British Isles.

To the writer, geography seems to be more important than history and the
geography of England that is perpetually reflected in its literature, far more than the
pattern of events which we call the history of a nation. England is an island and the
sea washes its literature as much as its shores. It’s a cold, stormy sea, quite unlike
the placid Mediterranean or the warm water of the tropics. Its voice is never far
away from the music of English poetry, and it can be heard clearly enough even in
the novels of a ‘town’ writer like Dickens. The landscape of England is variedmountains, lakes and rivers- but the uniform effect is one of green gentlenessdowns and farms and woods. The English landscape made Wordsworth; tropical
jungles could never have produced a poet like him, and, often, when we read him in
the tropics, we find it hard to accept his belief in a kindly, gentle power brooding
over nature-it does not fit in with snakes and elephants and tigers and torrential
rain. We have to know about the English landscape before we can begin to
appreciate the English nature poets.
Ruling sea and land is the English climate. In the tropics there are no seasons
except the rainy and the dry, but in England one is aware of the earth approaching

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and retreating from the sun-springs, summer, autumn, winter and the festivals
associated with these seasons. The longing for spring is a common theme with
English poets, and Christmas, the winter festival, is the very essence of Charles
Dickens. Four distinct seasons, but all comparative gentle- the summer is never too
hot and the winter is never arctic. Snow and frozen ponds and bare trees are
common images in English literature, but it is only by a great effort of the
imagination that the inhabitant of a perpetually warm land can bring himself to
appreciate their significant for the English poet and his English reader. It is has
been said that the English climate is responsible for the character: they are cold
rather than hot-blooded, temperate rather than fiery, active because of the need to
keep warm. Therefore, unkind person said – you can stand the English climate, you
can stand anything. The English have, for nearly a thousand years, been free of

domination by foreign powers (an island is not easy to invade), and this has made
them independent, jealous of their freedom, but also a little suspicious of
foreigners. The English are, in fact, a curious mixture, and their literature reflects
the contradictions in their character.
3. The world of literature
‘Literature is what is beautiful aesthetically expressed in verbal symbols and
images. Literature is shaped content and a significant form.
Literature is one of the seven arts of the human kind. Other arts are painting,
music, sculpture, architecture, landscape gardening and cinema. We read (the silent
print on a page of literary book) and we enter a mysterious world. That is near to us
and removes from us. It is a world in which we sometimes find our own concernsour own hopes and fears, loves and hatreds. It is a world sometimes so remote from
our concerns that we forget about them, and return to them to find that they look
different…’
II. THE DIVISION OF ENGLISH LITERARY HISTORY
The literary history of England may be divided into three periods:
1. The Old English period 450 AD – 1066 (Anglo-Saxon)
The so-called "Dark Ages" (455 CE -799 CE) occur when Rome falls and
barbarian tribes move into Europe. Franks, Ostrogoths, Lombards, and Goths settle
in the ruins of Europe and the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes migrate to Britain,
displacing native Celts into Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Early Old English poems

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such as Beowulf, The Wanderer, and The Seafarer originate sometime late in the
Anglo-Saxon period. The Carolingian Renaissance (800- 850 CE) emerges in
Europe. In central Europe, texts include early medieval grammars, encyclopedias,
etc. In northern Europe, this time period marks the setting of Viking sagas.
During this period the language of the country was called Old English
(abbreviated OE), or Anglo – Saxon. Its vocabulary was limited. Old English was

very different from the English we read and hear today. However, we have to
remember that scholarly works during this period were written in Latin. It was not
until in the second half of the ninth century that there was a serious attempt to
establish a written prose literature in English.
anser goos (i.e. ‘goose’)
lepus, leporis hara (i.e. ‘hare’)
nimbus storm (i.e. ‘storm’)
olor suan (i.e. ‘swan’)
brodor (brother)
hus (house)
wif (wife)
roote (root)
don (done)
gif (if)
2. The Middle English period 1066 – 1500 (c.1066-1500CE)
In 1066, Norman French armies invade and conquer England under William
I. This marks the end of the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy and the emergence of the
Twelfth Century Renaissance (c. 1100-1200 CE). French chivalric romances--such
as works by Chretien de Troyes--and French fables--such as the works of Marie de
France and Jeun de Meun--spread in popularity. Abelard and other humanists
produce great scholastic and theological works.
Late or "High" Medieval Period (c. 1200-1485 CE): This often tumultuous
period is marked by the Middle English writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, the
"Gawain" or "Pearl" Poet, the Wakefield Master, and William Langland. Other
writers include Italian and French authors like Boccaccio, Petrarch, Dante, and
Christine de Pisan.

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During this period the language of the country called Middle English. Middle
English was in a state of continuous change. The vocabulary of the language was
enriched borrowing many words from French and Latin.
3. The Modern English period after 1500
In this period, the English is substantially very much like the English used
today. It has been called Modern English. But there is one thing we should know
not until the 18th century did English spelling come to be standardized.
Corresponding to these three periods, there are the Old English literature; the
Middle English literature and the Modern English literature.
Although we know very little of this period from literature some poems have
nevertheless reached us. In those early days songs called epics were created in
many countries. The epics tells of some events from a people history, sings the
heroic deeds of a man, his courage and his desire of justice, his love for his people
and self-sacrifice for the sake of his country.
IV. PRACTICE
* For each statement, write T if the statement is true or F if it is false
1. BC is the English abbreviation for Before Christ, it is sometimes correctly
concluded that AD means After Death, i.e., after the death of Jesus.
Literature is one of the seven arts of the human kind. Other arts are painting,
music, sculpture, architecture, landscape gardening and cinema.
2. English literature is not merely the literature of England or of the British
Isles, but a vast and growing body of writings made up the work of authors
who use the English language as a natural medium of communication.
3. Britain’s history is considered to begin in the 10th century, when it was
invaded from the Continent by the fighting tribes of Angles, Saxon and Jutes.
4. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to
Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the fifth century, are called Middle
English.
5. Most Old English words were Germanic, having come from the languages of
the Angles, Jutes and Saxons. French, however, also had a strong influence

on early English.
6. During Middle English the vocabulary of the language was enriched
borrowing many words from French and Latin.

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7. An epic poem is very famous in old English literature. It is a long, serious,
poem that tells a story about an important event.
* Choose the word or phrase which best completes each sentence. Circle A, B, C,
D to indicate the correct answer.
1. English language had become popular around the world since……….
century.
a. 16
b. 17
c. 18
d. 19
2. ………. and ……. had a big influence on enrich vocabulary of the Middle
English.
a. French/Germany
c. Latin/Celt
b. French/Latin
d. Celt/Germanic
3. The Roman invasion took place in 43 A.D and stay until 410 A.D. The
language of the land then consisted of ……….
a. Latin and Celtic
c. Latin and Celts
b. French and English
d. Latin and German
4. Early Old English poems such as Beowulf, The Wanderer, and The Seafarer

originate sometime late in the ……….. period.
a. Norman French
c. Jutes
b. Anglo-Saxon
d. Vikings
5. Anglo - Saxon language (Old English) was brought to England in……….
a. 300
b. 450
c. 500
d. 600
6. In ………….., Norman French armies invade and conquer England under
William I. This marks the end of the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy.
a. 1166
b. 1100
c. 1066
d. 1200
* Choose the word/phrase from the box to fill in the gaps in the following
sentences
reflected
fought over significant
narrative poetry oral tradition
diversity
1. The structure of the Globe and the other London theatres has a ……………..
influence on English drama at its greatest period, because of the audiences
which these buildings accommodate.
2. The range of Shakespeare's audience is ………….. in the plays, which can
accommodate vulgar comedy and the heights of tragic poetry.

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3. Some of Chaucer's work is prose and some is lyric poetry, but his greatest
work is mostly ……………., which we find in Troilus and Criseyde and
The Canterbury Tales.
4. …………. was very strong in early English culture and most literary works
were written to be performed.
5. The linguistic …………. of the islands in the medieval period contributed to
a rich variety of artistic production, and made British literature distinctive
and innovative.
6. The poem Battle of Maldon celebrated the real Battle of Maldon of 991, at
which the Anglo-Saxons failed to prevent a Viking ………….
7. The Last of the Mohicans takes place during the French and Indian War of
the 1750s. During the war, the French and English.................. who would
control the colonies, and the French allied themselves with some
American Indian nations, sometimes with bloody and disastrous results.
* Complete sentences with prompt given
1. It’s no wonder that + clause
2. Much of someone's writing centers on something
3. Years after one’s graduation with the class of + time, + clause
Years after Hawthorne’s graduation with the class of 1825, he would
describe his college experience to Richard Henry Stoddard.
4. In fact, throughout most of one’s career, someone was one of the most
popular writers in + phrase.

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CHAPTER 2
THE OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE
I. ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE MAKING (450-1066)

1. The earliest inhabitants of England
The first known settlers of Britain were the Gaels, who invaded the island
from Northern Europe before the 6th century B.C.
A second wave of migration brought into Britain several Celtic tribes which
in their turn drove the Gaels westward: these Celts of the second migration were
known as the Britons. So, the first inhabitants of England were the Gaels and the
Britons, the two main races of the Celts.
2. The Romans conquest (55BC-the 5th century)
Julius Caesar invaded England in 55 B.C. and again in the following year.
He revealed the country to the Roman world but did not conquer it. The conquest
of England was undertaken by the Emperor Claudius in A.D 43. The Roman easily
conquered the plains of the South and the Midlands but they could not penetrate
into the mountain of Scotland. The Picts and Scots, two Celtic tribes who lived
beyond the Clyde, resisted them victoriously and the Romans finally built wall of
70 miles long across the narrowest part of the island to protect the North of
England again them.
Though the Roman occupation lasted until the early years of the 5th century,
Latin did not succeed in superseding the language of the conquest nation; it was
spoken only in the towns and by the educated classes. However, England they
became an Imperial province, enjoying Roman civilization.
3. The English (or Anglo-Saxon) Conquest (450-1066)
When Rome was menaced by the Barbarians, the Roman legions were called
back. After the Romans withdrew their troop from England in 410 A.D., the
Britons were forced to defend themselves alone against the Picts and Scots, and
after that, the Jutes, the Angles and the Saxons (Teutonic or Germanic invaders),
who came in 449 A.D from Jutland, from England (the district now we call
Sleswich) and from the plains of Low Germany. The Gaels and the Britons were
driven back into the mountains of Wales, Cornwall and Scotland, and after 200
years of cruel fighting, the English conquest was complete. Long before the

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Norman Conquest in 1066, these Teutonic tribes has become so welded together as
a nationality that they called their adopted country Engla-land, land of the Angles,
or England, and their language Englisc, or English. The new invaders were the
Christianized by Saint Augustine in 597 and except for an interval of a centuryfrom 900 to 1035 ­when the Dance succeeded in occupying the island, the AngloSaxons rule lasted uninterruptedly the Norman Conquest in 1066.
4. The Danish conquest (middle of 8th century- 1035)
In the middle of the 8th century, new invaders appeared raided the coast of
England. Finally they occupied and settled in the North and East of the country.
These Viking of Scandinavian invaders came from Norway and Denmark between
the 8th and 11th centuries. One of the Danes, Cannut, became king of the United
England from 1016 to 1035.
5. The Norman Conquest (1066)
In 1066 William the Conqueror led the Norman army in the last successful
invasion of England. These new invaders were men of Norse blood - the very
brothers of the Vikings who had been raiding the shores of England - who,
however, brought with them the tongue and the literature of French.
Long after the conquest, bitter hatred prevailed between the Anglo-Saxons
and their victors- the Norman – but the two races and the two languages were at
last fused into one, and so began English civilization, whose characteristics are half
Saxon and half French.
II. THE DIVISION OF ENGLISH LITERARY HISTORY
The literary history of English may be divided into three main periods:
1. The Old English period (450-1066)
During this period the language of the century was called Old English
(abbreviation OE), or Anglo-Saxon. Its vocabulary was limited.
Old English was different from the English we read and hear today.
However, we have to remember that scholarly works during this period were
written in Latin. It was not until in the second half of the ninth century that there

was a serious attempt to establish a written prose literature in English.
Specimen: Cwom pa to flode
(Came then to the flood)
2. The Middle English period (1066-1500)

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During this period the language of the country called Middle English. Middle
English was in a state of continuous change. The vocabulary of the language was
enriched borrowing many words from French and Latin.
Specimen: Whan that April with his showre soote
The drought of March hath pereed to the roote
And bathe every vein in wich licuor
Of which vertu engendred is the flowr
(When that April with his shower sweet
The drought of March has pierced to the root
And bathe every vain in such liquor
Of which virtue engenderd is the flowers)
3. The Modern English language (after 1500)
In this period, the English is substantially very much like the English used
today. It has been called Modern English. But there is one thing we should know
not until the 18th century did English spelling come to be standardized.
Corresponding to these three periods, there are the Old English literature; the
Middle English literature; the Modern English literature.
Specimen: When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
I all alone beweep my outcaste state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
(From Sonnet XXIX by William Shakespeare 1564-1616)
III. SOME FEATURES OF THE OLD ENGLISH LITERTURE

There is not much to say about Old English literature. Almost like the draw
literature of any land, Old English literature has the following features:
1. The prevalence of poetry over prose
This is easy to understand. The ear liked to hear rimes sung, which, thereby,
could be memorized more easily.
2. Oral
The songs and the stories of these early days were not written but completely
oral. They were composed, preserve, and sung by professional minstrels called
scoops. Scoops were men of importance in society.
3. Anonymous

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The authors of any literature works in Old English are unknown. The
antiquity of the works, the manuscript origin, and the traditional nature of the dawn
literature testify to this anonymity.
4. Translation
Most literature works, poetry and prose, were translation from Latin models.
The Bible and the lives of saints were books that people liked to read most.
5. Religious inclination
Nearly all the literature was religious in content. Even the story of Beowulf,
pre-Christian in its origin, also assumed a religious character. Note also that this
period is a period in which the monks were the only educated class. This well
explains the clerisy preponderance in literature activity.
The most notable of the earliest English literature is BEOWULF. This is an
old Christianity and Paganism. The events of Beowulf took place in Denmark and
Sweden, but the customs am manner those of the Anglo-Saxons people.
IV. OLD ENGLISH POETRY
Old English poetry included long epic heroic poems, which drew on the

Bible as well as on pagan sources for their content. Some poetry was also based on
historical events. With a history of invasions and occupations, many writings of
this era are chronicles, annals, and historical records. Some are in the forms of
poetry and describe various battles, for example, "The Battle of Maldon" and "The
Battle of Brunanburh". The themes are war, conquest and bravery. Many eighthcentury works depict Anglo-Saxon resistance against the Vikings. Lament and
melancholy are frequently present in describing man's struggles against his
environment, life's difficulties, and the passage of time. Life is fleeting. Often a
prologue and epilogue express hope in God's compassion and mercy. Examples of
such poems include "The Wanderer", "The Seafarer" and "The Ruin". Other poems
depict the separation of a man and a woman and the accompanying sadness, such as
in "The Wife's Lament" and "The Husband's Message". In these types of poem the
man may have been exiled and sometimes there is hope, sometimes not.
Collectively, Old English poems that lament the loss of worldly goods, glory, or
human companionship are called elegies. Beowulf is the best-known and bestpreserved Old English verse. Caedmon and Cynewulf were well-known Old

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English religious poets in the 7th and 9th century respectively. Much Old English
poetry is difficult to date and even harder to assign to specific authors.
1. Typical Old English Verse: BEOWULF
Beowulf is an epic poem of over 3,000 verses, whose manuscript dates from
about the 10th-century. The poem is the only epic from the time that has been
preserved as a whole. Its author is unknown, but he seems to have had a good grasp
of the Bible and other great epics, such as Homer's Odyssey. The work glorifies a
hero and the values of bravery and generosity. The story is set in Scandinavia
around 500-600 AD - a time of battles and conquests by Germanic Anglo-Saxon
tribes in Denmark and southern Sweden. Its sources are old legends of these tribes
who had moved north from Germany over Scandinavia and into Britain. It also
reflects the acceptance of Christianity by these new British settlers at the end of the

sixth century.
The first part of the story takes place in Denmark. King Hrothgar is being
pestered by a water monster, Grendel, who is killing his men. Beowulf comes to his
aid and kills Grendel and later, at the bottom of the lake, also Grendel's mother,
who comes to avenge her son. The second part happens in southern Sweden about
fifty years later. Beowulf himself is a king and has to fight a fire-breathing dragon.
As with other Old English literature, this epic incorporates both pagan and
Christian ideas. The monster-slaying hero has his origin in two ancient fairy tales.
From the pagan traditions also come a love of war and the virtue of courage. The
biblical Old Testament supplies the idea about giants and monsters having
descended from Cain's line. The poem is sometimes seen as a conflict between
good and evil. From the Christian tradition, it incorporates morality, obedience to
God, and avoidance of pride.
There are many contrasts, for example, water and fire, youth and old age, life
and death, rise and fall of nations and individuals, friendship and desertion,
faithfulness and betrayal, heroism and cowardice, hope and resignation, good and
evil, as well as the past, present and future.
Elegy is apparent throughout - life is passing and is full of struggles and
suffering, (This theme has an application also for modern life and the struggles of
mankind.) This is contrasted by the courage of the main hero, said to be the

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"kindest and noblest of earthly kings and the most desirous of praise and glory".
The poem begins and ends with the funeral of a king.
The work, written in characteristic Old English verse style, has artistic
maturity and unity. It uses alliteration (words beginning with the same sound),
kennings (metaphorical descriptive phrases or compound words), and internal
rhyme (a word within a line rhyming with a word at the end of the line). Each line

has two beats or stressed syllables. The style of poetical descriptions and word
pictures with much repetition makes the action move slowly.
The poem is an important source of historical information which was later
confirmed by archaeology. The tone and descriptions capture the rough, cold and
gloomy North Sea atmosphere, as well as life's struggles of the people of that time
who had to deal with many trials and obstacles. The poem was originally recited by
a court singer and poet called "scop", who accompanied it with music and made
occasional changes according to the inspiration of the moment.
The story: Original version

Modern version
Once upon a time, in the far north of what is now called Europe, there was a
kingdom known as Geatsiand, and its ruler was named Hygelac. It was a harsh
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country, with high mountains and narrow stony valleys, and it had a long seacoast
with many harbors and inlets, and the men who lived there were famous for their
bravery on both sea and land.
Now, for many years Hygelac ruled over his people with a stern but kind
hand. Beside him was his queen, named Hygd, and called the Wise and Fair. About
the king and queen were gathered the finest lords of the land. All were valiant
warriors whose courage had been proved.
Among the number of youths who were in thrall to Hygelac was Beowulf,
the son of the king’s sister. As a small boy, Beowulf had shown such strength of
body that Hygelac had early named him one of his thanes. So his mother and father
gave him up, and young Beowulf went to live with his uncle, to learn the arts of
war and the handling of ships.
For several years he led a lonely life, for so great was the strength of his
limbs that even among those men of vast vigor he was a youth to be marveled at.

As the years slipped by and he grew to manhood, he became more and more sullen
in his strength, and his companions dubbed him “The Silent.” His movements were
clumsy. He tripped over his sword. He broke whatever he touched. The other
youths laughed at him for his awkwardness, but in secret they envied the immense
spread of his shoulders and the terrible swiftness of his stride.
When Beowulf had at last reached the full tide of his manhood, a feast was
held one night in the king’s drinking-hall. From all over Geatsland famous warriors
and earls gathered at the drinking-benches of their king to hear the songs of the
minstrels and take part in games and feats of strength.
At the feet of the royal couple sat Beowulf, at a table especially prepared for
the king’s earls. But Beowulf, unmindful of the talk about him, sat in gloomy
silence, brooding.
His strength was great, but there was no use for him to put it to, and he
longed for wild adventure and the chance to stretch his muscles to the limit of their
power.
Then, at a signal from Hygelac, the minstrel came forward with his harp. He
was a tall rugged man, with a beard streaked with gray. He had the air of one who
had traveled long distances, and his blue eyes were wide and fixed like one used to
watching the far horizon.

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Around him was wrapped a cloak of deep blue, held together by a curious
clasp of gold. Beowulf, noting the clasp, thought it resembled a coiled snake, for
there were two green stones set in it which glittered. This man, Beowulf thought,
has been in far-away places. He will chant us a good song.
Then the Wanderer (for so he was called) sat down upon a wooden stool,
threw back the cloak from about his arms, and with long thin fingers struck the
resounding strings of his harp.

He sang in a sharp voice that was like the crying of birds on the gray sea, hut
there was sweetness in it at the same time which held his hearers, and the lords of
Geatsiand leaned forward on their benches in eagerness to catch every word.
He sang of the vast and frozen North, where winter lay upon the land for
many, many months, and men fight in the gloomy light of the night-burning sun.
He sang of endless forests stretching black and forbidding in a sea of snow; of
mountains higher and bleaker than the highest mountains of Geatsiand; of the
strange and fearful demons that inhabited this ghostly region.
Then the tune of the Wanderer changed. His voice fell to a lower note, and
he sang of Hrothgar who was king of the Danes, that country not far from
Geatsiand, across the water.
He told a sad story of desolation and despair in Hrothgar’s land, because of a
beast which had struck mortal fear into the hearts of the lords of Daneland. For on
one cruel night, twelve years before, there had come a monster, part animal, part
man, part bird. The lords of Daneland were sleeping soundly, and the monster, who
was called Grendel, had forced open the solid doors of the king’s ball and carried
away in their sleep thirty of the greatest earls of the Danes.
There had been lamentation throughout the land, and many were the attempts
to slay Grendel, but none had succeeded. And for twelve long years Grendel
repeatedly visited the king’s hall and wrought destruction there. Now the land was
despoiled of its youthful strength, and there remained to the king only those
fighters whose early vigor had long since passed, and Daneland had become a
country of old men and defenseless women.
Now, all the while that the Wanderer was singing, Beowulf sat as one
bewitched.

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He leaned forward upon the table, his arms folded under his still beardless

chin, his eyes fixed upon the minstrel. Now and again he lifted his head and shook
out the fair hair that hung beneath the golden band encircling his wide white
forehead. The huge bracelets that weighted his wrists gleamed like his eyes, and the
jeweled collar about his throat was tight because of the swelling veins of his neck.
One thought possessed him:
He would seek out this monster, Grendel, and slay him - yes! slay him with
bare hands!
He saw himself face to face with the monster Grendel, and suddenly a wild
cry broke from his lips and he leaped from his seat.
“Lords of Geatsiand and earls of Hygelac,” he shouted, as the minstrel
finished the song, “I am the son of Ecgtheow and of Hygelac’s sister, and in olden
times this Hrothgar was a war-brother of my father. Therefore I claim kinship to
him, and I will go to the land of the Danes and I will slay this Grendel!”
Then there was great confusion in the hail of Hygelac, and the earls called to
one another, and dogs barked. But Hygd the queen stood up amid the turmoil, and
holding a jeweled cup in her two hands because of its weight, stepped down to
where Beowulf was, and offered him the cup, and smiled at him in affection.
Once again Hygelac commanded silence among the guests in the drinkinghall, and turning to Beowulf said: “The time has come, Beowulf, for you to prove
your worth. The gods have gifted you with the strength of thirty men, and this
strength you should use to the advantage of your fellows, our neighbor Hrothgar is
in sore need. Go forth, then, from Geatsland to the land of the Danes, and do mortal
combat with this Grendel-fiend.”
For seven days and seven nights there were great preparations in the halls of
Hygelac the Great, that Beowulf might go on his adventure fully equipped for
whatever a aited him in Daneland. From the group of companions who had come to
manhood at the same time as himself, Beowulf selected fourteen earls to
accompany him. He had winched to go alone to the land of the Danes, but his uncle
the king had commanded that he be suitably companioned on such a voyage, so that
at the court of Hrothgar it could not be said that Hygelac had sent the, youth upon a
fool’s errand and badly equipped.

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Special shields were made, of stout wood covered with thick hides and
bound with iron and studded with golden nails. Rich cloaks of scarlet and blue
there were for the warriors, and massive bracelets of fine gold for their arms and
wrists, and collars of gold wire.
When at last they stood ready in the meadhall of Hygelac, they were a fine
company of young men, whose like was not to be seen in all the countries of the
North. Each stood well over six feet in height, with broad shoulders and sturdy
legs; and each was swift as a deer.
Then came the signal for the journey down to the beach where a ship lay in
readiness to receive Beowulf and his earls, and with torches flaming in the grayness
of approaching dawn, they departed.
They came at length to the coast of Dane land and the sea boiled white
between them and the land, and the land itself was scarred and pitted with a
thousand narrow inlets, which were treacherous to seafarers unfamiliar with them.
The forests that clung to the shore line were half hidden in gray mists that moved
and twisted like smoke about the trees, but as the storm lessened, they beached
their boat on a tiny strip of sand at the edge of a deep forest hung with gray fog and
silent as death.
That night, after Beowulf and his companions had rested, for the first time in
twelve years there was a great banquet in the hall of Hrothgar. The place was
decorated with fine hangings, the gold-bright roof burnished until it shone like the
sun, and the benches had been scraped and polished by many willing hands. Huge
fires were built on the hearths, and the smell of roasting meats pervaded the hall.
The fires were burnt out on the hearths when the last of Hrothgar’s train had
departed. Then Beowulf and his companions set themselves to fastening tightly the
door of the hall. They secured it with wooden bolts and tied it with leathern thongs,

and so strong was it that no mortal could have passed through.
Then the warriors of Geatsland unfolded their cloaks upon the benches and
laid themselves down to slumber, and Beowulf stretched his great length upon the
dais of the king, and resolved that through the long night he would never once close
his eyes. Near the door lay the young Hondscio, Beowulf’s favorite earl, who
swore that if anyone broke through the door he would be the first to give the
intruder battle.

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Silence crept over the shrouded forms where they lay upon the floor and
benches, and there was no sound save their steady breathing and the faint sighing of
the night wind in the trees about the hall.
Beowulf, upon his couch, lay still as death, but his eyes moved here and
there in the deepening gloom of the hail.
Outside, a fog was creeping up from the sea, obscuring the moon in milky
eclipse, and at last there was not even the sound of the wind in the trees. To
Beowulf the deep silence seemed full of moving things invisible to human eyes.
Gradually there came over him a kind of drowsiness that he fought to ward off. His
eyelids fluttered against his eyes, and then he swooned with a sleep that lay upon
his limbs like a heavy garment.
But suddenly there was a rustling among the wet trees, and a noise like the
deep grunt of a pig, but soft and low, startled the fog- bound night, and the drops of
mist-water on the trees fell sharply to the ground like heavy rain. Then the fog
parted evenly, and in the wide path it made through the night a Shadow loomed
gigantic in all that was left of moonlight.
Slowly, slowly it neared the great hail and the night shuddered at its coming,
and behind it, as it moved, the fog closed again with a sucking sound. And the
Shadow stood before the great door of the hail, and swayed hideously in the ghastly

light.
Within there was a deep stillness, and Beowulf and the Geatish earls slept
soundly, with no knowledge of what stood so evilly beyond the door. For the
monstrous Shadow was the fiend Grendel, and standing there in the fog- strewn
night he placed a spell upon those who slept to make them sleep more soundly.
But Beowulf hung between sleeping and waking, and while the spell did not
completely deaden his senses, it so ensnared his waking dream that he fought
desperately against it in his half-sleep and was not quite overpowered.
Little by little the thongs that secured the door gave way, and the huge
wooden bolts yielded under the pressure that was strained against them, but no
sound broke upon the silent struggle that went on between Grendel and the door.
Beowulf tossed and turned in waking, but the other earls of Geatsiand fell deeper
and deeper into the swooning sleep.

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