Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 68 views

    Old English Literature Anglo-Saxon Period 5 - 10 Centuries: TH TH

    Uploaded by

    scarlett o'hara
    This document provides an overview of Old English literature from the 5th-10th centuries. It introduces the Anglo-Saxon period and discusses how stories were originally memorized and passed down orally since the English had no written language at the time. It then summarizes the plot of Beowulf, the oldest surviving epic poem in Old English, describing how the hero Beowulf defeats the monsters Grendel and Grendel's mother to help King Hrothgar. The document notes some key literary elements of Beowulf like alliteration and metaphor.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Old English Literature Anglo-Saxon Period 5 - 10 Centuries: TH TH

    Uploaded by

    scarlett o'hara
    68 views6 pages
    This document provides an overview of Old English literature from the 5th-10th centuries. It introduces the Anglo-Saxon period and discusses how stories were originally memorized and passed down orally since the English had no written language at the time. It then summarizes the plot of Beowulf, the oldest surviving epic poem in Old English, describing how the hero Beowulf defeats the monsters Grendel and Grendel's mother to help King Hrothgar. The document notes some key literary elements of Beowulf like alliteration and metaphor.

    Original Description:

    ---

    Original Title

    1.1

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This document provides an overview of Old English literature from the 5th-10th centuries. It introduces the Anglo-Saxon period and discusses how stories were originally memorized and passed down orally since the English had no written language at the time. It then summarizes the plot of Beowulf, the oldest surviving epic poem in Old English, describing how the hero Beowulf defeats the monsters Grendel and Grendel's mother to help King Hrothgar. The document notes some key literary elements of Beowulf like alliteration and metaphor.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    68 views6 pages

    Old English Literature Anglo-Saxon Period 5 - 10 Centuries: TH TH

    Uploaded by

    scarlett o'hara
    This document provides an overview of Old English literature from the 5th-10th centuries. It introduces the Anglo-Saxon period and discusses how stories were originally memorized and passed down orally since the English had no written language at the time. It then summarizes the plot of Beowulf, the oldest surviving epic poem in Old English, describing how the hero Beowulf defeats the monsters Grendel and Grendel's mother to help King Hrothgar. The document notes some key literary elements of Beowulf like alliteration and metaphor.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 6

    Old English Literature

    Anglo-Saxon Period
    th th
    5 -10 Centuries
    The Plan:
    1.Introduction
    2.Beowulf

    Bibliography: O.V. Tumbina Lectures on English


    Literature 5th-20th centuries, St. Petersburgh. 2003
    1.Introduction
    In the 5th century Angles, Saxons and Jutes came
    from the continent to invade Britain . The
    newcomers were warlike and illiterate. They
    mixed with the native population and united
    into one nation that was called the English.
    The English were the pagans, and they had no
    written language.
    Thus all the stories of ancient people had to be
    memorised. They had only spoken form of the
    Old English language, from which the two related
    languages , English and Scottish, were derived.
    The main theme of the stories was the
    adventures of the brave men . Very often such
    tales were composed in verse, but without
    rhyme. They were called epics.
    The first English epic narrative poem is called
    Beowulf and belongs to the 7th century . The
    author is unknown and the action is not set in
    England. It is a typical pagan story with a monster
    and a hero.
    2.Beowulf
    This epic is about a daring young man, Beowulf
    by name, a hero of the Geats (one of the
    Scandinavian tribes ), who came to Denmark
    in order to help King Hrothgar. The king and
    his men suffered a lot from a terrible monster
    Grendel who came at night and killed some
    of Hrothgars men. Beowulf was brave and
    willing to help. He attacked Grendel and killed
    him. But that was not the end of their
    sufferings, because Grendels mother came to
    the Kings castle to take revenge.
    Being the king he had to defend his people and
    his country against another terrible creature , a
    fire- breathing animal. Although Beowulf killed
    it, the animal hurt him in the fight.
    As a result Beowulf was badly wounded and died.
    His funeral is emotionally described in the
    manuscript which dates from about the 10th
    century. This is a contemporary version made by
    Breeden.
    It is important to mention that sorrowful
    events revealed in Beowulf are much more
    interesting than the happy ones.
    There is no rhyme, but there is rhythm in the
    epic.
    Rhythm is reached by alliteration (when two or
    more words start with the same sound):
    haeleth hiofende hlaford
    wigend weccam wudu-rec.

    Besides alliteration the epic is decorated with


    metaphors (discriptive words):
    the war-men(the soldiers)
    the dear lord (the king).
    Beowulf is rather long, it contains 3000 lines.

    You might also like