(428 – 1100)
Characteristic: Their customs were different from each other as in savagery, sentiment, rough living and deep feeling, splendid courage and deep melancholy resulting from unanswered riddle of death.
Life: external and internal rich life, brave and fearless fighters, love of pure glory, happy domestic life and virtues were their magnetic attractions.
Principles: they had five principles. Love of personal freedom; nature lover; love of womanhood; struggle for glory. Their literature was full of vivacity due to all these traits.
ANGLO-SAXON POETRY
Most poets of their literature have over-shadowed yet some are left.
1) Waldhere (693-705):
The Fight at Finnesburg: Deals with battle against fearful odds. Complaint of Deor: Disappointment of a lover. Beowulf: Epic, distinctively refers to the historical background.
2) Caedmon (657-681): Religious poet, first English poet known by name; sang in series about the fate of man; from the creation to fall of man and the last Judgment.
3) Cynewulf (757-786): Religious poet
Christ: Metrical narration of leading events of Christ’s ministry upon earth.
ANGLO-SAXON PROSE
1. Unlike poetry, no break in prose of Anglo-Saxon period and Middle English period.
2. Through the transcription of Latin Chronicles into English by the King Alfred the great probably, English prose was established.
3. Two great pioneers: Alfred the Great, the glorious king of Wessex and Aelfric, a priest who wrote sermons in a sort of poetic prose.
4. Great success is religious instructions.
ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY
449, traditional date (from Gildas and Bede) for Germanic invasion by Hengist and Horsa
450-700, composition of Old English poems: Beowulf (epic), Finnsburg (fragmentary, related to Beowulf), Widsith (lyric, account of poet), Deor's Lament (lyric, account of poet), The Wanderer (reflective poem on fate), The Seafarer (reflective, descriptive lyric on sailor's life), The Wife's Complaint, The Husband's Message (love poems), Charms
500-700, Christian culture flourishes in Ireland, activity of Irish missionaries in Scotland, Iceland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy
509, closing of Athenian philosophical schools
524, influential medieval Latin work by Boethius, "Consolation of Philosophy"--would be translated into English by King Alfred, Chaucer, Queen Elizabeth
570-632, Mohammed 590-604, Pope Gregory the Great (Gregorian Calendar, Gregorian music)
597, the missionary Saint Augustine establishes Christianity in southern England
600-700, establishment of powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
633, The Koran
670, Caedmon, Hymns (first English poet known by name)
700, School of Caedmon"; Beowulf composed in present form
731, Ecclesiastical History (Latin) by The Venerable Bede
750- 800, flourishing Christian poetry in Northumbria (preserved in West Saxon); Cynewulf and his school: Crist (narrative), Elene (saint's legend), Juliana (Saint's legend in dialogue form), Fates of the Apostles (saints' legends), Andreus (saint's legend--voyage tale), The Phoenix (myth interpreted as Christian allegory)
787, first Danish invasion
800, Latin "History of the Britons" by Nennius (Welsh)--first mention of Arthur
800-814, Charlemagne's reign in France
850, Danish conquest
871-901, Alfred the Great; translations of Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care, Boethius, Orosius, Bede; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle revised and continued to 892; West Saxon Martyrology; sermons; saints' lives
875-900, probable beginnings of medieval dram in dramatization of liturgy
893, Life of Alfred the Great by Asser
901-1066, Chronicle continued; poetry, sermons, Biblical translations and paraphrases, saints' lives, lyrics
937, Battle of Brunanburh (heroic poem)
950-1000, monastic revival under Dunstan, Aethelwold, and Aelfric
950, Junius MS written, containing Caedmon poems
971, Blickling Homilies
975, St. Ethelwold's Concordia Regularis, directions for acting a trope at Winchester--earliest evidence of dramatic activity in England
979-1016, second period of Danish invasions
991, Battle of Maldon (heroic poem)
1000-1200, transition from English to Norman French. Decline of Anglo-Saxon heroic verse and reduced literary activity in English, with some development of medieval English lyrics, germs of English romances
1000, Anglo-Saxon Gospels; Aelfric's Sermons; Beowulf MS written
1000-1025, The Exeter Book (MS containing Cynewulf poems)
1000-1100, Vercelli Book (Anglo-Saxon MS); probable period of full development of Christmas and Easter cycles of plays in Western Europe
1017-1042, Danish kings
1042-1066, Saxon kings restored
1066, Battle of Hastings, Norman conquest
1066-1154, Norman kings
1079-1142, Abelard (French), ecclesiastical philosopher, lover of Heloise
1086, Domesday Book (English census)
1087-1100, William II--centralization of kingdom
1098-1099, First Crusade
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