Saint Bede the Venerable (673-735),
Northumbrian monk,
"Ecclesiastical History of the English People"
(731)
“De orthographia” (on
spelling)
“De arte metrica” (on the art of versification)
King Alfred the Great of Wessex
translations into Old English
-Bede “History”
-abstracts from the Bible
-Boethius
“Consolation of Philosophy”
historical writing in Old English "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle"
(892 to 1154)
Old English Literature (500-1100)
Historic background:
-Germanic invasion of the Angles, Jutes, Saxons (5th century AD);
-conversion to Christianity by 660 AD;
-Norman-French invasion in 1066
Old English Literature (500-1100)
-Poetry: alliterative, with kennings
-"Beowulf" (c. 700);
-"The Battle of Maldon" (soon after 991);
-Caedmon "Caedmon's Hymn" (600's);
-Cynewulf "The Fates of the Apostles," "Elene“,
“Juliana” (before 940);
-“The Dream of the Rood”
-Prose: - King Alfred the Great of Wessex (800's);
-St. Bede the Venerable "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" (731)
-"Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (from about 892 to
1154).