General Information about Enlighteners in the English literature

Anglo-Saxon Poetry (or Old English Poetry) encompasses verse written during the 600-year Anglo-Saxon period of British history, from the mid-fifth century to the Norman Conquest of 1066. Almost all of the literature of this period was orally transmitted, and almost all poems were intended for oral performance. As a result of this, Anglo-Saxon poetry tends to be highly rhythmical, much like other forms of verse that emerged from oral traditions. However, Anglo-Saxon poetry does not create rhythm through the techniques of meter and rhyme, derived from Latin poetry, that are utilized by most other Western European languages. Instead, Anglo-Saxon poetry creates rhythm through a unique system of alliteration. Syllables are not counted as they are in traditional European meters, but instead the length of the line is determined by a pattern of stressed syllables that begin with the same consonant cluster. The result of this style of poetry is a harsher, more guttural sound and a rhythm that sounds more like a chant than a traditional song.

Old English Poetry Project

Translations of almost 79% of all extant Old English poetry can be found here (that’s 23,662 lines out of about 30,000 extant lines).
There’s more to early English poetry than Beowulf—
and it is just as engaging, vital, and important to the classroom and scholar.

In 2007, dissatisfied with commonly-available volumes of translation (mostly in prose), I set out to bring more of this staggeringly original archive to the attention of teachers of Old English texts, starting with the hagiographic romance of Andreas. The goal was to make high-quality, imaginatively rendered, readable verse translations available for no cost to the general public, all of them designed for instructors looking to extend the texts they can present to their students, in order to flesh out the picture of Old English culture taught in contemporary schools, at whatever level needed.

Since 2015, OENPP has moved beyond strictly narrative poetry, venturing into other genres of early English verse, including a complete translation of the Exeter Book riddles, the poems of contemplation (often called the “Elegies”), and wisdom poetry (like the enigmatic Solomon & Saturn and The Order of the World). I enjoy translating the poetry so much that I don’t anticipate stopping until I have rendered the entire corpus, including the Metres of Boethius (which is now complete), among other rarely translated poems.
In 2017, new work has slowed down, mostly because so much of what remains has already been done at least in first draft. What I’m doing these days will be mostly recorded as blog posts, found by following “News” in the menu under the title bar. Previously these have been just notices of updates. But lately I’ve been writing a lot — gearing up for some articles I need to do — but these bigger, more substantial posts record my thoughts that occur to me as I work through the revisions. They will probably be most involved with translation issues as well as justifying decisions I have made in the translations. There’s a surprising amount of argument involved with those kinds of things. One big job that I’d like to do is analyze and review extant translations of the poetry. There’s a lot out there, and it is of highly uneven quality, regardless of the credentials of the scholar doing the translating.
In 2020, I finally was able to make some admin-level changes (things over my access level) to begin removing the term “Anglo-Saxon” from the site. The racist and imperialist codes implied in the term have been convincingly argued by contemporary scholars, and I see no need that the field needs to be nostalgic or sentimental about retaining the term. Early English historians of all sorts (including me as a literary historian) are in the process of understanding and acknowledging how the idea of the “Anglo-Saxon” race has weaponized these texts and archives, and been used to justify openly white supremacist ideologies at the core of Anglo-American society. It will take more than a simple name change to cleanse of stains of our complicity in oppressive systems, but it’s a start. And that just the name change triggers reactionaries so badly only proves that these negative and destructive lineages are key to the maintenance of white supremacist institutions.
Right now, my priorities are to start revising what’s here — it’s been my experience of writing poetry that that’s where all the exciting stuff happens. There are probably also numerous mistakes and misreadings throughout the site, which need to get combed out. This doesn’t mean abandon the site — rather it means to lend me your eyes and critical acumen. If you see something questionable, let me know in an email or comment, and we can discuss what needs to be done about it. Open-access scholarship is a two-way street — not only do you get free and easy-to-obtain work, but you also get to contribute to how the final product appears in the near future. That’s collaborative scholarship, and exactly why I am uninterested in trying to publish these translations in standard book format (Craig Williamson’s new Complete Old English Poems just released by U Penn Press makes it unlikely that would happen anyways…).
I am not too worried about credibility, though I know there is a veneer of respectability that is imparted to anything published between two covers (mostly due to the peer-review process, but also because of our liability to marketing–if it’s being sold it must be good). However, if you are a scholar of early England and would like to help out the future of this page, please contact me if you’d be interested in crowd-sourcing peer review. If you took on just one poem you were particularly interested in or knowledgable about, and wrote up a few pages’ response that I could use to shape the website that would be amazing. I shouldn’t have to tell you that an open-access website repository of translation has many advantages over traditionally published work, in that it can be altered and shaped by both usage and response, and when new, game-changing readings of these poems come along, the website can accommodate them. 
Two new big projects stretch out before me. One is to begin a homily translation site and work my way through the massive archive of these much-desired texts wherever they might be collected (that site is now underway, go here to access. The second is even crazier, and that is to embed coding in the poems to give access to philology, variants, and criticism. The Blickling Homilies are already underway. The second part will take huge amounts of time and energy, requiring training in the markup languages, a new host for the pages (I’m not sure WordPress can handle what I want to do), and probably grant funding and research assistants to get all the pieces put together.
Full texts of these poems are located here. Follow the links to the individual poems on the navigation bar above.


4. Writing Features of the Poem Beowulf
The beautiful Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf may be called (he foundation-stone of all British poetry. It tells of times long before the Angles and Saxons came to Britain. There is no mention of England in it. The poem was composed around 700 by an unknown author. This was about seventy years after the death of Mohammed and in the same age as the beginning of the great long Dynasty in China. Three hundred years later, about the year

1000, the manuscript, which still survives, was written down by an unknown scribe. The poem presents the legendary' history of the Anglo-Saxons, and its author might have been descended from the original tribes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who invaded Britain from the European continent in the fifth century. Those people spoke the Germanic language in which the poem is written. Beowulf is 3182 lines long, approximately 80 or 90 pages in book length. The narrative itself falls into two halves: the first part takes place in Denmark where, coming lo the aid of King Hrothgar, Beowulf fights the monster Grendel and Grendels mother. The second part is set in Southern Sweden where, after the death of King Hygelac and his son, Heardred, Beowulf has ruled in peace and prosperity for 50 years before being called upon to combat a dragon that has been terrorizing the country after having its treasure hoard looted. Beowulf blends a fairy-tale narrative with considerable historical material. (Swedish and Danish kings really ruled in the VI century).

The manuscript of Beowulf is in the British Museum, in London. It is impossible for a non-specialist to read it in the original, so it has been translated into modern English in the 20th century.
The main heroic text is called Beowulf the name of the hero of the long anonymous poem. It describes events which are part of the periods memory: invasions and battles, some historic, some legendary. The poem is set around the sixth century, but was probably not written down until the eighth century. Beowulf is the first hero in English literature, the man who can win battles and give safety to his people over a long period of time.
The Battle of Maldon is another long poem about battles and heroes. But it is much more factual, describing a real battle rather than telling a fictional story of war. Both The Battle of Maldon and Beowulf are written in rich and powerful language, full of new words, new tones and new rhythms, and with many images of light, colour, and action. Beowulf, which is about 3,000 lines, is a story about a brave young man from southern Sweden. Beowulf goes to help Hrothgar, King of the Danes, who cannot defend himself or his people against a terrible monster called Grendel. One night Beowulf attacks Grendel and pulls off the arm of the monster. Grendel returns to the lake where he lives, but dies there. Beowulf is then attacked by the mother of Grendel and Beowulf follows her to the bottom of the lake and kills her, too.
Fifty years later, Beowulf has to defend his own people against a dragon which breathes fire. Although he kills the dragon, Beowulf himself is injured in the fight and dies. The poem has a sad ending, but the poem is a statement of heroic values and Beowulf dies a hero. Here Wiglaf reminds Beowulf of his greatest days:
Leofa Biowulf, læst eall tela,
swa ðu on geoguðfeore geara gecwæde,
þæt ðu ne alatte be ðe lifigendum
dom gedreosan;
Beloved1 Beowulf, keep well the vow2 that you swore long ago in the days of your youth, not to allow your glory3 to diminish4 as long as you lived.
1dear 2promise 3fame 4get smaller
When Beowulf dies, Wiglaf has to continue the example for the next generation.
The Beowulf story is part myth, part history, but the hero is remembered as the man who can win battles and give safety to his people over a long period of time. Questions of the passing of time through the generations, and of what it means to be a human being.

5. The most important contribution of Alfred the Great to the Old English prose literature.

One of the first books of history was The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle [hronicle record of events]. It was written over a long period of time, and tells the history of England from the beginning of Christian times, around ad 600 to 1154, with details of invasions and battles. Some of it is in poetry, and it is very important for our knowledge of the history and the language of Old English. King Alfred the Great was probably one of the people who helped to put the Chronicle together.
The beginning of the 9th century was a troubled time for England. Danish pirates, called Northmen kept coming from overseas for plunder. Each year their number increased. When Alfred was made king in 871, England's danger was the greatest. Nevertheless, in a great battle fought by Alfred at Maldon in 891, the Northmen were defeated, and Alfred decided to make peace with them. The greater portion of England was given up to the newcomers. The only part of the kingdom left in possession of Alfred was Wessex.
Alfred was a Latin scholar. He is famous not only for having built the first navy, but for trying to enlighten his people. He drew up a code of laws and translated the Church-history of Bede from Latin into Anglo-Saxon, the native language of his people, and a part of the Bible as well. He created the first history of England, the first prose in English literature, the famous "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle".
His reign, from 871 to 899, was a time of great literary production. Alfred ordered many translations of religious and historical texts, and helped to bring the West Saxon dialect into a strong position as the language of literature and history. Alfred, a monk from Winchester in the south of England, was an important translator as well as a writer. His works include Catholic Homilies [homilies = religious talk] (990-2) and hives of the Saints (993-8). He uses real spoken English, and all the features of Old English literature are found in his work. Aelfric is the greatest figure in Old English prose. He brought excellence of style into the language and wide knowledge to all his works.
The literature of the early Middle Ages and the church taught that man was an evil being and his life on earth was a sinful life. As man was subordinated to God he had to prepare himself for the after-life by subduing his passions and disregarding all earthly cares.
The themes of Old English literature are security, both for the individual and society, and in religious faith. This literature gave comfort, or provided reflection. Usually the poems were sung in the hall of a castle, and these songs and poems were passed on from generation to generation before they were written down. Thus, the spoken tradition led to the first tradition of written literature. At the same time, Old English was beginning to develop into a different language, called Middle English, closer to the English we know today.
6.The Influence of the Norman Conquest upon English Language and Literature

The Influence of the Norman Conquest in English Literature

The English had always been a poetic race, and the Norman Conquest enhanced this trait by introducing the Romance Vocabulary, which seeped into the English language and made it more beautiful and apt for poetry. An exclusive aristocratic taste for the forms, tropes and subjects of contemporary French Literature shifted the subjects of writing in English away from its old Germanic insularity towards a broader, shared, Western European pattern. The warrior hero hung up his sword, took up a musical instrument, and began to sing songs of love.
The Trouveres of Northern France influenced War poetry; allegory became a popular subgeneric form and the lyric and the Romance which started being penned brought out the best of the French rhyme and assonance, which became the new mode of expression of poetic ideas. In short, the Norman Conquest replaced the sinister and melancholic psychosphere of English with the clear blue sky of the French counterpart, decked with glamour and vitality of youthful spring.
The Norman Conquests opened England’s doors to Continental Literature, and the Englishmen came in contact with the culture of Bagdad, Spain, and they also became aware of the wisdom of the East, which greatly strengthened the impetus of learning. Learning and Literature were further gained by the coming of great scholars like Lanfranc, who opened the famous monastic school at Bec, and the interconnection between great learning centers like Paris and Oxford.
As a result of the Norman Conquest, Wessex lost its political and cultural importance because of which its dialect of West Saxon, which had established its supremacy in the Anglo-Saxon Age, lost its former stronghold, which led to the flourishing of other Middle English dialects as the writers were now encouraged to write in the dialects of their own region. The newfound political, economic and geographical importance of London and not Winchester as the administrative center of the kingdom also helped to determine the future written and spoken forms of the ‘standard English’ of today. However, with the growing prestige and popularity of French, the native culture and language had to suffer from aristocratic unconcern and neglect. This is noticeable because the alliterative verses of the Anglo-Saxon Age were replaced by the French rhymed verses. However, they revived again later in the mid-fourteenth century.
The Norman Conquest stands for much more than a change of rulers. It altered the socio-cultural life of England and imparted a higher and more sophisticated, and specialized order of civilization. The English language lost its rigid inflections and was enhanced by ornamental vocabulary. The writers of English, at school under the new masters of the land, were able to give fuller expression to their creative impulses. The stage was set for the full blossoming of the genius of Chaucer.

7.Essential Features of the Romance in the Anglo-Norman Period

In the 13th century the first universities in Oxford and Cambridge were founded. So, during the Anglo-Norman period feudal culture was at its height.
By about 1300 English had again become the chief national language but in altered form called Middle English. Middle English included elements of French, Latin, Old English, and local dialects.
Tales in verse and lyrical poems appeared praising the bravery and gallantry of noble knights, their heroic deeds and chivalrous attitude towards ladies. At first they were all in Norman-French. Many of the stories came from old French sources, the language of which was a Roman dialect, and for that reason these works were called "romances". They were brought to England by medieval poets called "trouveres" (finders), who came from France with the Norman conquerors. Later in England such poets were called minstrels and their art of composing romances and ballads and singing them was called the art of minstrelsy.
A number of romances Were based on Celtic legends, especially those about King Arthur and the knights. The heroes of these romances, unlike the characters of church literature, were human beings who loved, hated and suffered. Their worship of fair ladies motivated the plots of the stories.
In the 15th century Sir Thomas Malory (1395? -1471) collected the romances about King Arthur and arranged them in a series of stories in prose, intelligible to any modern reader. The words in Malory's sentences have a beauty of movement, which cannot escape unnoticed. The stories began with the birth of Arthur and how he became the king, then related all the adventures of King Arthur and his noble knights and ended in the death of these knights and of Arthur himself.
The work was published in 1485 by Caxton, the first English printer, at Westminster (London), under the title of "Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of His Noble Knights of the Round Table". The book was more widely known as "Morte d'Arthur" (old French for "Death of Arthur").
This epic in twenty-one books reflects the evolution of feudal society, its ideals, beliefs and tragedies. Malory's romance is the most complete English version of stories about King Arthur.
The Medieval Literature
SUPPLEMENT THE MEDIEVAL ROMANCE
In the medieval period the term "romance" meant a long narrative in verse or prose telling of the adventures of a hero. These stories of adventure usually include knights, ladies in distress, kings, and villains. The material for the medieval romance in English was mainly drawn from the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. This subject matter is sometimes called the "Matter of Britain".
Central to the medieval romance was the code of chivalry, the rules and customs connected with knighthood. Originally chivalry, (from the French word "chevalier", which means "knight" or "horseman") referred to the practice of training knights for the purpose of fighting. The qualities of an ideal courtly knight in the Middle Ages were bravery, honor, courtesy, care of the weak, respect for women, generosity, and fairness to enemies. An important element in the code of chivalry was the ideal of courtly love. This concept required a knight to serve a virtuous noblewoman (often married) and perform brave deeds to prove his devotion while she remained chaste and unattainable.
The code of chivalry and the ideal of courtly love were still in evidence during the Renaissance as well. Knights and courtiers who wrote on courtly themes included the Earl of Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney wrote highly formalized portraits of ideal love.
Medieval romance and its attendant codes of chivalry and courtly love faded in the Age of Reason during the XVIII century, but in the nineteenth century, Romanticism brought back the ideals of chivalry.
Treatment of the romance themes of chivalry and courtly love are still the topics of literature. Historical fiction often attempts to recreate the world of the Middle Ages.

8.Sir Thomas Malory's "Morted' Arthur"