3. Old English Period
o The earliest phase of English literature started with Anglo-Saxon
literature of the Angles and Saxons (the ancestors of the English
race) much before they occupied Britain.
o English as common name and tongue of these tribes. Before they
occupied Britain they lived along the coasts of Sweden and Denmark,
and the land which they occupied was called Engle-land.
o These tribes were fearless, adventurous and brave.
o Kept Romans in terror.
4. They sang at their feasts about battles, gods and their
ancestral heroes, and some of their chiefs were also
bards.
It was in these songs of religion, wars and agriculture,
that English poetry began.
5. Poetry
Though much of this Anglo-Saxon poetry is lost, there
are still some fragments left.
‘The Fight At Finnesburg’
The most important poem of this period is Beowulf. It is
a tale of adventures of Beowulf, the hero, who is an
champion and slayer of monsters.
After the Anglo-Saxons embraced Christianity, the poets
took up religious themes as the subject-matter of their
poetry.
Two Important Religious poets:
I. Caedmon
II. Cynewulf
6. Beginning Of English Prose
Chronicles began in King Alfred’s time.
Pioneers of Prose
i. Alfred the Great
ii. Aelfric, a priest, who wrote sermons in a sort of poetic
prose
7. The Angles and Saxons first landed in England in the
middle of the fifth century, and by 670 A.D.
Ancestors of the English race.
The Anglo-Saxon kings, of whom Alfred the Great was
the most prominent, ruled till 1066, when Harold, the last
of Saxon kings, was defeated at the Battle of Hastings by
William the Conqueror of Normandy, France.
8.
9. Five Great Principles
I. Love of personal freedom
II. Responsiveness to nature
III. Religion
IV. Love for womanhood
V. Struggle for glory
