OLD English LITERATURE 

The pre- Christian Anglo-Saxon poetry

By the end of the sixth century England fell in the control of the Teutonic tribes who left the peninsula of Denmark and sought a new place in Britannia, which was then the territory of Rome.  These Teutonics were actually the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. Though being furious and violent, they were a singing folk. They sang the war deeds and also sang about the past happenings. They were freemen but attached to the court. They loved nature's beauty and jihad a deep respect to womanhood.

The Anglo-Saxon had a strong faith in Pagan gods like Mother Earth, Father Heaven and their son, the lovely summer. The greatest work of the Teutonic race is the 'Beowulf' 

 Beowulf as a folk epic:

The epic may be called as a long rhythmic narrative , which is filled by heroic characters and supernatural agencies who remain under the control of a perfect destiny. The theme spheres its action on the political or religious interest of people or of mankind. The epic is written about man and is left for men. It does not matter whatever the poet's concentration, whether authentic or folk, he concentrates all efforts on finding the destiny of Man and how it works upon him. From many a few are the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Iliad and the Odyssey, Milton's Paradise Lost and also Anglo-Saxon Beowulf.

Taking into account the subject matter of Beowulf, many call attention that it is  not to be called an epic. To S. A. Brooke, it is better to be called a narrative than epic poetry.The subject has not the weight or dignity of an epic poem, nor the mighty fates round which an epic should revolve. Its story is rather personal than moral."

In Spite of having the absence of a number of features of an epic, it is called an epic. Beowulf, the oldest epic in Germanic literature, has more than three thousand lines in length. It is the result of a laborious task of the Teutonics. Influenced by the Christianity, it was well- composed by an unknown poet in the eighth century. He engaged himself much to the originality of his work , but christening work. It included numerous episodes, so it was not an easy task to provide all the details at all as a narrative. Briefly the story is like this: Beowulf is the son of Ecgtheow. He sets his sail to Denmark with a band of heroes. He frees Danish king, Hrothgar, from the clutches of a dreadful monster, Grendel. Beowulf fights a brave fight with the monster and wounds him so hard that it is not possible to live any more. The monster has a mother. She is willing to take revenge for her son's death. After that, Beowulf , in the chill and dark water, fights with her and kills her. With the highly esteemed, Beowulf returns to his native land and thrones into the king. After fifty years, he has to fight with a dragon who has come to destroy his land. He was wounded in the fight and died. In conclusion with the funeral of a hero, the poem remains.

There are various reasons for it to consider Beowulf as an epic. It is full of epic elements. First, it is a narrative poem, a narrative feature is the primary element of an epic. An epic includes a hero. Beowulf is a hero, a fighter, a soldier. He features to the death for the good cause of his land. He is not an ordinary hero or war hero. Like the elements of medieval French epic, he is the champion of the true faith. He engaged in war with the power of darkness, the enemies of the whole human race. The phrases and expressions it has are concrete and not abstract such as 'sea-wood' ,'whales-road' etc. It also has a history of legend. Though it does not have all the features of an epic which are in inclusion by modern marks like invocation, proposition and so on, it is to remember that it was the creation of the eighth century for the modern man of the solid word, it is a serious kind of a narrative poetry. Therefore, it is called an epic.

 Does it not have any Christian elements ?

 Yes, it is a remarkable blending of Christian elements. It will not be erroneous to say that Anglo-Saxon literature is a perfect blend of Pagan and Christened elements. Before the coming of christianity, Anglo-Saxon literature was orally transferred. Perhaps,by the beginning of 600BC, the forms of Anglo-Saxon literature were being tried to pass in the writing composition by the Roman. The content  of Pagan past shed its wear , when Christian monks began writing and it came into a complete written form in the eighth century left out all the Pagan elements. 

The Pagan literature exists in short ballads. Each of the ballads separately celebrates the acts of the hero. Pagan poetry includes the wild nature scenery, fierce weather, unbearable climate, the icy and stormy sea, deadly fogs, marshy land ,hail and  rain, and all these fragments are found in Beowulf.

'Beowulf' notes with the impression of  melancholy on account of the passing away of fame or splendor. The whole poem is about sadness, melancholy and a sense of nothingness. Though nothingness is all about the poem, it has a heroic character that serves good and fights against evil. The poem does not fortify the overall energy. It embitters life. It takes us into a dark place where there is no sun and no light , only an unwholesome atmosphere. The poem 'Beowulf' is a narrative about an adventure. It tells us about the Christian idea of earthly life in gloomy scenery. It takes us into the land of a cold cell in a Northumbria cloister. 

The Teutonic olds were the worshippers of Heaven and the Earth. They thought them the father and mother of all things. Their son was the glorious summer. He fought with the winter and Frost Giants. These things link 'Beowulf' to Anglo-Saxon pagan poetry. Later on comes the Christian saints. The frost and gloom, being cruel and dreadful nature are embodied in Satan. It has the elements of Hope, Faith, and optimism which are manifested by their absence. In this poem we see that there are no hints of Hope and Faith. There is no god or goddess interested in fate, and also none to call on. The darkest deep world is the emptiness of all spiritual aids. No divine cloud, no shield, no fairy, no supportive voice, no miracle well are found in the battle with dragon or monster. If you do not conquer, you will die. Here it is not seen that the heart is comforted by hope or recovery of lost friends in another world. The value of valour and skill is praised above all.

In Spite of having a pagan atmosphere, 'Beowulf' shows the elements of christain world, especially with the references of the Old Testament and the God of the Church religion. Everything is about man who is the best gift by God.

The treatment of nature in old English poetry:

Anglo-Saxon literature has an intimacy of love of nature, especially in poetry. Anglo-Saxon, both the pagan and Christian, had a close proximity with nature. For an example;

" Blast of the tempest- it aids our oars;

Rolling of thunder- it hurts us not;

Rush of hurricane- bending its neck

To speed us whither our wills are bent."

The above quoted lines show us the remarkable expression of love and fondness for nature in old English poetry. Anglo-Saxon led a life of a Norse pirate. Though they believed in their actions, not in the favourable faith, it seemed that they had a strong relationship with the power of mightiness of nature. This strong relationship is expressed in poetry. It is noteworthy that the poet did not tend to describe nature for showing and sharing the power and authority of nature; therefore, he tended to describe the things which are witnessed by him in practical, and not imaginary. Also he was not meant to provide any background context of the human emotions; indeed, he meant it that nature was treated with aloneness.

The natural things the early English poets inclined to write were the sea, the sky and the frost land.

Anglo-Saxon had a profound love and fondness of the seas. They loved the stormy waves added to the oars' speed and the climatic changes meant for the birth of spring after the winter. It calls our attention to the Anglo-Saxon narrative of conflict. Poets were keen to produce the picture of man's struggle with the giant sea. 

" The wild rise of the waves

The close watch of night

At the dark prow in danger

Of dashing on lock.

       ***       *****       ****    ******

The wide joy of waters

The whirl of solt spray

     ***         *****      ******    ****"

There is no man among us

So proud in his mind,

Nor so good in his gift's

Nor so daring in deeds

Nor so dear to his lord

That his soul never stirred

At the thought of sea- faring."

              -Cynewulf's 'The Seafarer'

Another example shows us the the vigorous description of storm at sea from 'Andreas'

'Then was sorely troubled, 

Sorely wrought the whale- mere. Wallowed there the Horn- fish,

Glided through the great deep; and the gray- backed gull

Wheeled in air, of slaughter greedy! Dark the storm sun grew:

Waxed in the wind in gusts, grinded there the waves together,

Wet with washing waves- Horror rose

With the might of troops"

Nature's sky is also remarkable. Anglo-Saxons had a close observation of the natural objects. They have made a description of changes of the dawn, the upward sun, the evening and also dead night. For an example;

" Here first the Eternal Father, guard of all

Of Heaven and earth, raised up the firemement,

The Almighty Lord set firm by his strong power

The roomy land; gross green not yet the plain,

Ocean for spread hid the wan ways in gloom.

Then was the Spirit glorious bright

Of Heaven' s keeper borne over the deep

Swiftly The Life- giver , the Angle's Lord,

Over the ample ground bade come forth tight"

(The caedmon's description of the creation of the world)

The frost land was wild and uncultivated. It was seen where the English lived and made their small settlements. They described the trees, refuges in the forests, and also described animals such as the wolf, the stag, the eagle, the raven , the hawk ,the falcons, the nightingale and swan.

In Cynewulf's 'Andreas' we see the description of the coming winter in the land:

" Snow enchained the earth

With the whirling winter- flakes, and the weather agree

Cold with savage scours of hail; while the sleet and Frost,

Gangers grey of war were they - locked the grangers up

Of the heroes, and flock- hamlet! Frozen hard was all the land

With the chill of icicles: shrunk the courage of the water;

O' er the running rivers ice upraised a bridge,

And the sea- road shone."

 This is a high class work of nature poetry which is about nature alone.

THE Lyric IN THE Middle English POETRY

      The Middle English lyric does not come directly from any of the Old English genres. The limitation has been drawn by R. M. Wilson. He claims that no lyric poetry is extant from the Old English period, though the title is sometimes applied to a small group of poems which are better classed as elegies. It is impossible to tell whether this lack is due to the accidents of a later loss of texts or not. Practically, all the extant Old English poetry seems to be the result of a purely literary development in the monastery, or in the halls of the nobles. Since it was mainly written with the object of making christian teaching and ideals familiar and the heroes of the past, the fairly accurately, especially since the structure of that poetry, the conventional vocabulary, the alliterative metre with its traditional stress on scenes of violence, would be against the development of the lyric. But side by side with this literary and conventional poetry,there probably flourished a more popular type with loser structure and vocabulary nearer to the everyday speech of the common people . Such popular poetry has, however, left behind it only the barest stress of existence. There are many questions waiting for the answers: Did they belong to aristocratic poetry? Was the lyric strain developed?

To vividly assert, the twelfth century lyric had no direct evidence to England. The fragments preserved are before this.

There is little in the Middle English lyric which we can claim as an unmistakable development from Old English, but since we know nothing of Old English lyric poetry- not even whether it existed or not - the fact that we can trace no connection is of little value as evidence.

Whatever may have been the origin of the Middle English Lyric , doubtlessly true , has the close connection with the contemporary French lyric and with the Latin accentual poetry. The evidence of style, metrics and the subject-matter suggests that the influences are from Latin and from France. There are two schools of thought on the origin of the lyric. The first, the Middle English ‘carole’, a ring dance performed by participants who periodically sang and clapped. This periodic vocalisation led to specialization of one and gradually it came in the form of a kind independent introduction of new verses. This independence would have produced inspiration for individual composition.It is seen evidence from the text and manuscripts of the earliest carols suggests that they were composed by ecclesiastical authors for specific use in church procession. In any case the earliest extant lyrics are not based on the carole but are found in the twelfth century manuscripts and are of ecclesiastical rather than popular inspiration.

The earliest English lyric, the four-line Cnut’s Song,  was composed in the eleventh century by King Canute as he and his men rowed past the Isle of Ely and heard the monks singing at the abbey service. This lyric is significant because it shows an attempt to produce a quatrain rhyme, assonance and regular rhythm. We quote this quatrain in Modern English:

   “Merry sang the monks at Ely,

when king Canute rowed thereby;

Row, knights, near the land, 

And let us hear the song of these monks’’.

Generally , the lyrics are classified as secular or religious although it is not always easy to differentiate between the two unless we  adhere faithfully to the test  of the subject matter of the topic.

THE RELIGIOUS LYRICS:

The number of religious lyrics is bigger than secular lyrics. The religious lyric belonged to the world of the Church and had the international importance of circulation: the hymns to the Virgin; the sacred lullaby; the allegorical lyric; and the miscellaneous religion poem.

Some of the Latin hymns, for example Te Deum Laudamus, have become an elemental part of the ritual of the Church.In the Middle ages these hymns were composed by devout clerics all over Europe and it became impossible to limit into the national boundaries. In the form they are a development of Classical Latin prosody mixed with certain metrical forms peculiar to classical Greek.

 The subject matter is related to that hymns deal with the imminence of Judgement, with the necessary for man to keep watch. They idolize Rome both as a city and the abode of the church. Even they speak of the New Jerusalem, the Heaven.Though it is impossible to name all Latin Hymns, but few are such as Hilderbert’s Me recepter Sion illa and Bernard of Claivaux’s Hora Novissima  and those are noted English hymns of the nineteenth century and also inspiring.

Not only that, the hymns to the Virgin are found throughout the period in Latin, French and English.Thus, Deguileville pèlerinage de la vie Humaine is translated by Chaucer as his ABC poem, a series of glorifying stanzas of the Virgin and each stanza initiated by successive letters of the alphabet.

Another type of hymn to the Virgin is illustrated by the prologues to Chaucer’s Second Nun’s Tale and Prioress’s Tale. Both are associated with the mystic symbolism: unburnt bush, Lily of Heaven, and other esoterie parallels. There is also another one famous hymn of the  eighth century Ave Maris Stella, a favourite to the mariners and that was popular in the Middle English because of the special incidents of Mary’s life. The song of the Virgin to the infant Christ is an unusually inclining type of medieval religious lyric and its close attachment to the hymn to the Virgin is self-evident. 

Lastly, The falcon Hath Borne My Mate Away,  is very much worthy in any literature.

THE SECULAR LYRICS:

The commencement of English Secular Lyric is about 1250. Many of these secular lyrics are about the return of spring and the green world. Among them the famous one is  “The Cuckoo song Springtime’’

“ sumer is icumen in, 

Lhude sing cuccu !

Groweth sed and bloomth med

And springth the wode nu . 

sing cuccu !

Awe bleteth after lomb,

Llouth after calve cu,

Bulluc streteth , bucke verteth,

Murie sing cuccu !

Cuccu , cuccu,

wel singes thu, cuccu

Ne swik thu never nu !

Sing cuccu nu, Sing cuccu ! Sing cuccu , Sing cuccu  !

Sing cuccu, Sing cuccu un !”

 The above poem is about the freshness of the Spring time. It contains the purity of the morning of May. Similar to Canterbury Tales, the theme is about the return of vitality to the world, both the green world and the animal world. In the poem, the entire scene is dominated by the cuckoo. As well as having a musical note, the poem does have literary significance with the secular tune.

Another scular love poem in Middle English is Alysoun.

“BYTUENE Mershe and Averil 

 When spray beginneth to springe,

The luteful foul hath hire wyl

on hyre lud to synge:

Ich libbe in love-longinge

for semlokest of all thynge, 

He may me blisse bringe.

     ………………

Herkne it my roun.

An hendy hap ichabbe yhent,

Ichot from hevene it is me sent–

From alle waymmen my love is lent

And lyht Alysoum.”

As a love poem, the poem is a gem in Middle English lyric. In the background of returning of the delightful Spring, the lover expresses his yearns for the love that is the fairest of all things who may bring him bliss and in whose power he takes in. A pleasant fortune is sent to him from heaven, his love is turned away from all women and lights on Alysoun.

The poem also holds the description of Alysoun.  Her hair is fair in colour. Her eyes are brown, brows are black. She has a slandering and well- formed waist. She looks beautiful when she is laughing.

The structure of Middle English is complex in nature but precious and wonderful.The rhyme scheme is like pearl.The rhyme of the verses is ab ab. bbc; that of refrain ddc.

Thus we see that Middle English lyrics have both subjects: the religious and the secular subjects.

In these lyrics the influence of French and Latin literature is seen clearly and is important. From Old English the only borrowings which we can distinguish are a sense of transitoriness of worldly things and a fondness for alliteration. Sometimes alliteration and  rhyme used go parallelly but the complexity is the Pearl.

continued......