held the throne. His heroism turned back the tide of barbarian invasion. By the treaty of Wedmore, which he forced upon them in 878, the Danes pledged themselves to remain north of Watling Street, the old Roman road running from Dover to Chester. From this time until the Norman conquest, two centuries later, the only literature which remains to us was produced in Wessex. It is almost entirely a literature of prose. The best of it was the work of King Alfred himself, or produced under his immediate encouragement.

What King Alfred Did for Literature. As a child King Alfred had seen Rome, and had lived for a time at the great court of Charles the Bald in France; and the spectacle of these older and richer civilizations had filled him with a desire to give to his rude subjects something of the heritage of the past. When, after a desperate struggle, he had won peace from the Danes, he called about him learned monks from the sheltered monasteries of Ireland and Wales, and made welcome at his court all strangers who could bring him a manuscript or sing to him an old song. It was probably during his reign that the poems of Caedmon and Cynewulf, as well as the older pagan poems, were brought southward out of Northumbria and put in the West-Saxon form in which we now have them. He spurred on his priests and bishops to write. He himself learned a little Latin, in order that he might translate certain books, which he deemed would be most useful and interesting to Englishmen, into the WestSaxon tongue; putting down the sense, he says, "sometimes word for word, sometimes meaning for meaning, as I had learned it from Plegmund, my archbishop, and Asser, my bishop, and Grimbald, my mass-priest, and John, my masspriest." The most important of these pious labors was a rendering of Baeda's Ecclesiastical History, which gave a native English dress to the first great piece of historical writing which had been done in England. Alfred also caused the dry entries of the deaths of kings and the installations of bishops, which the monks were in the habit of making on the Easter rolls, to be expanded into a clear and picturesque narrative, the greatest space, of course, being taken up with the events of his own reign. This, known as the Anglo-Saxon

Chronicle, is the most venerable monument of Old English prose.

Decadence of Anglo-Saxon Literature. Despite all his efforts, King Alfred did not succeed in creating a vital native literature in Wessex. The language was changing, and the literary spirit of the people was almost dead. The sermons or Homilies of the great and devoted Aelfris, however, here and there rise to the rank of literature, by reason of the näive picturesqueness of some religious legend which they treat, or by the fervor of their piety. Aelfric also translated a portion of the Scriptures, adding to the beginning which Bede had made, and carrying one step further the long process by which the great English Bible was brought into being. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, also, which continued to grow in the monasteries of Peterborough, Winchester, and Ely, here and there breaks out into stirring verse. One of these poetic episodes, known as the "Battle of Brunanburh," is entered under the year 937. Another, the "Death of Byrhtnoth," also called the "Battle of Maldon," bears date 991; it is the swan-song of Anglo-Saxon poetry.

Latin and Danish Word-Borrowings.-During the period we have just traversed the English tongue was enriched from two sources, Latin and Danish. The Latin words which came in during the period of Christianization nearly all refer to the church and its functions. They are such words as church itself (originally a Greek word, kyriakon), minster (monasterium), bishop (episcopus), monk (monachus), priest (presbyter), martyr (originally a Greek word, meaning "witness"), devil (diabolus), and a host of others. The Danish contribution was confined chiefly to such geographical endings as by and thorp, meaning "town," preserved in names such as Somersby and Althorp.

End of the Old English Period. So far as literature was concerned, England at the end of the tenth century was in need of new blood. The Danes had brought no literature with them, and the Anglo-Saxon genius was exhausted. In fact, in spite of all its rugged grandeur and fine persistence, this genius was at its best lacking in many elements necessary

to make a great national life. Anglo-Saxon poetry, looked at in the large, betrays a narrowness of theme, and monotony of tone, out of which a great literature could have evolved, if at all, only slowly and with difficulty. Some new graft was needed, to give elasticity, gayety, and range. This need was met when, in 1066, William the Conqueror landed at Hastings with his army of Norman-French knights, and marched to give battle to the forces of Harold, the last of the Saxon kings.

REVIEW OUTLINE.-Who were the earliest known inhabitants of Britain during historic times? How long a period elapsed between the mention of them in Greek history and the time when Cæsar made them known to the Roman world? Sum up the principal facts of the Roman occupation of Britain. Why and when were the Roman forces withdrawn? When did the Anglo-Saxon sea-robbers begin to conquer the Britons, thus left defenceless by Rome, and weakened by her civilization? How long did the struggle endure? How is King Arthur's name connected with it? Bring together as many particulars as you can from this chapter concerning the character of the Celts, and contrast it with what you know of the Anglo-Saxon character. Note the traces which the Celts and the Roman conquerors left in the new language which the Saxon invaders planted in England.

Give some account of the Christianizing of England. Who was Bede? Who was the first Christian poet? Tell his story, and indicate some traces of the pagan spirit in him. What great English poet, centuries later, treated Caedmon's theme, "the beginning of created things"? From what source do we learn the name of the greatest poet of this time? Relate the traditions concerning his life. Which of the writings attributed to him are entirely Christian and which pagan in feeling? What qualities in the "Phoenix" and the "Wanderer suggest the influence of the Celtic spirit? Of what large group of English poems is the latter a forerunner? Can you name three later English poems that belong to this class?

All the literature, both prose and poetry, which we consider in the two first sections of this chapter, was produced in Northumbria. When, and by what new invaders, was the literary supremacy of Northumbria destroyed? Why did Wessex now become the centre of learning and of literary activity? What kind of literature was chiefly produced in Wessex? Tell what you can of the Treaty of Wedmore. What were

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.