the influences which gave King Alfred his interest in literature, and what means did he take to promote literature among his people? What was the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle? What significance has it had for later generations? Note carefully that while the original literature produced in Wessex was of far less interest than that produced in Northumbria, it is to Wessex monks and scribes that we owe the preservation not only of the Northumbrian poetry but of the earlier poetry produced on the Continent, including" Beowulf." Who continued the great work of translating the Bible, begun by Bede in his lost version of the Gospel of St. John? Give date and title of the poem which is called the "swan-song" of Old English poetry. (Note the meaning of the word "swan-song.") What kinds of words came into our language at this period from Latin and Greek sources? Give examples. Why is it probable that a large literary future was not open to the Anglo-Saxon people without the infusion of some new element? What was this element to be? READING GUIDE.-Students cannot be expected to do much reading in the literature of the Old English period. The teacher should read to the class or have the student read a portion of "Beowulf " in translation. A good translation for the purpose is that by C. G. Child (Houghton, Mifflin), Number 159 in the Riverside Literature series; or that by J. Earle, "The Deeds of Beowulf" (Clarendon Press). “The Battle of Brunanburh," translated by Tennyson, may also be read with profit. All the minor poems mentioned in the text are translated, wholly or partly, in Stopford Brooke's Early English Literature; the reading aloud of a few of these, as for instance "The Wanderer" and "The Lover's Message," will greatly vivify the class's understanding of the spirit of the early literature. Liberal extracts from "Beowulf " are also given in Brooke, so that a separate edition of that poem may, if desired, be dispensed with. Good examples of early English poetry may also be found in Longfellow's "Poets and Poetry of Europe." To give the class some notion of the old Celtic literature, and some conception of what manner of men they were whom the Anglo-Saxons found in England when they first invaded the island, the student may profitably read "The Voyage of Maeldune," by Tennyson, which is founded on an old Celtic romance. Further illustrations of the Celtic spirit may be found in "The Boy's Mabinogion," by Sidney Lanier (Scribner), and in the first volume of Henry Morley's English Writers, where many beautiful Celtic pieces are summarized. The reading of Morley's summary of "The Tale of the Cattle Spoil of Chuailgne," and comparison with the summary of "Beowulf" given in the text, may be made of great interest; The Cattle Spoil is a typical product of an agricultural race in its heroic and semi-mythic period, as Beowulf is a typical product of a seafaring race at a similar stage. To illustrate the Christian literature of the Old English period, the quotations from "The Phoenix" in Brooke's Early English Literature, or from "Judith," translated in Morley's English Writers, Vol. I, pp. 180-188, may be read to the class. TABULAR VIEW OLD ENGLISH PERIOD: FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST HISTORICAL EVENTS 1. PERIOD OF ROMAN OCCUPATION OF BRITAIN. Cæsar's first invasion, 55 B.C. Permanent occupation 2. PERIOD OF ANGLO-SAXON INVASIONS. The Jutes, invited by the Britons to aid them against Pope Gregory sends St. Augustine to England, 597. 4. DANISH INVASIONS: RISE OF WESSEX. Danes begin to raid Northumbria, 789. Political su- 5. END OF ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD. Widsith, Deor's Lament, Beowulf, The Fight at 2. CHRISTIAN LITERATURE. (a) Literature of Northumbria (670 to about 825). (b) Literature of Wessex (880-1066). Alfred translates CHAPTER III MIDDLE-ENGLISH PERIOD: FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO CHAUCER I. THE COMING OF THE NORMANS TO ENGLAND: UNION OF THE TWO PEOPLES Character of the Norman People.-The Normans, or Northmen, were an extraordinary people. A century and a half before their invasion of England, they had appeared off the coast of France; and under their leader, Hrolf the Ganger (the "Walker"), they had pushed up the Seine in their black boats, wasting and burning to the very gates of Paris. The French won peace by giving over to them broad and rich lands in the northwest, known henceforth as Normandy. The Normans were a branch of the same Teutonic race which had sent out the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles to conquer England. But, unlike the other northern peoples, they showed a marvellous power of assimilating the civilization which Rome had spread among the Celts of Western Europe. The Normans married with the French women, adopted French manners and the French tongue. In a little over a century they had grown from a barbarous horde of sea-robbers into the most polished and brilliant people of Europe, whose power was felt in the Mediterranean and the far East. They united in a singular manner impetuous daring and cool practical sense. Without losing anything of their northern bravery in war, they managed to gather up all the southern suppleness and wit, all the southern love of splendor and art. When William advanced to meet King Harold at Senlac, a court minstrel, Taillefer, rode before the invading army, tossing up his sword and catching it like a juggler, while he chanted the Song of Roland-the French epic. Taillefer is a sym bol of the Norman spirit, of its dash, its buoyancy, its brilliancy. The Normans brought with them to England not only the terror of the sword and the strong hand of conquest, but also the vitalizing breath of song, the fresh and youthful spirit of romance. First Effects of the Norman Invasion.-The sternness and energy with which King William and his nobles set about planting their own civilization in the island, brought with it much oppression and hardship. The land was taken from its Saxon owners and distributed among Norman nobles. Over the length and breadth of England rose those strong castles whose gray and massive walls still frown over the pleasant English landscape. The strong and gloomy Tower of London, which was to be the scene of so much tragic history, was built to hold the capital city in terror. Less forbidding than these, but no less suggestive of the foreigner, splendid minsters gradually took the place of the gloomy little Saxon churches. Forest laws of terrible harshness preserved the "tall deer" which the king "loved as his life"; but when a man was found murdered, if it could be proved that he was a Saxon, no further notice was taken of the crime. The Saxon language, or "Englisc," as it had begun to be called in King Alfred's time, was the badge of serfdom; and not only in the court and camp and castle, but also in Parliament and on the justice-bench, French alone was spoken. Persistence of the Native Speech.--If a prophet had arisen to tell the Norman nobility of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, that not French, but English, was destined to be the speech of their descendants, he would have been laughed at. But this incredible thing came to pass, because of the dogged persistency of the Anglo-Saxon nature in clinging to its own. At the Conquest English ceased to be written; with the one exception of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which continued to grow in the sheltered monastery of Peterborough, English literature "dives underground" in 1066, and does not reappear for a century and a half. But though no longer having a literary existence, the old tongue lived on the lips of the subjugated race, from father to son. About 1200 |