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This document provides a historical overview of English literature, tracing its development from the earliest inhabitants of Britain through the Celts, Romans, and Anglo-Saxons. It explores the influences of different cultures and languages on the literature of England. The document emphasizes the important roles of various races and their contributions to English national ideas and culture.
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ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 1 of 121 PART I: OLD-ENGLISH / ANGLO-S AXON HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The Races of England. The population of England is composed of various racial elements. Each race has cont...
ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 1 of 121 PART I: OLD-ENGLISH / ANGLO-S AXON HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The Races of England. The population of England is composed of various racial elements. Each race has contributed social customs, traditions, historical facts, or other materials out of which literature is made. As centuries passed, these various elements gradually became mingled together, so that we have at last come to speak of this civilization as English, without remembering how many of the ideas and how much of the culture were imported from sources that were originally foreign. It is in the literature which the ancients have left that we can trace most clearly the fascinating story of the civilization of England. In English literature we not only find recorded the hopes, the aspirations, the ideals, of the various races that have gone to make up the complex English people, but we get also, if we read intelligently, a better estimate of the various contributions that Celts, Saxons, Danes, Normans, and other peoples have made to the national ideals of the English. Just as the English people are composed of various races, so the literature of the country has at various times been written in several different languages. The oldest literature known as English was written in a Germanic language called Anglo-Saxon; later a kind of French called Anglo-Norman was used for literary purposes by the aristocracy, while the older Anglo-Saxon, mixed with many words from Norman French, was used by the lower classes; and throughout the early history of England—indeed, for more than a thousand years—Latin was used for composing serious and dignified literature. The Earliest Inhabitants. The earliest inhabitants of Britain left no written literature or history. From research we learn that they lived during what is known as the Stone Age. These ancient people probably worshiped the sun and said prayers and sang hymns to the sun and the forces of nature; but unfortunately nothing is known of just what language they spoke, what thoughts flashed through their minds as they wandered through the dark woods and dangerous bogs, or what songs they sang and what tales they told as they crouched together around their fires. Cave dwellers lived on the island 250,000 years ago. Invaders from the Iberian peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) overcame their fragile culture about 2000 BC, creating a society sophisticated enough to erect Stonehenge—the circle of huge upright stones called megaliths—on Salisbury Plain. Then a new group appeared, the Celts. Migrating from further east, the Celtic peoples spread throughout Europe before reaching the British Isles around 600 B.C. The Celts built walled farms and hut villages. They used bronze and, later, iron tools and grew crops. Separate Celtic tribes, each with its own king, warred with each other, building wooden and stone fortresses and riding to battle in two-wheeled chariots. Their priests—called druids—conducted sacrifices in forest shrines. For the first eleven hundred years of its recorded history, the island of Britain suffered a series of invasions. The southern part of the island, warmed by the waters of the Gulf Stream, was inviting to outsiders with its mild climate and rich, easily-tilled soil. The long, irregular coastline, broken frequently by bays and rivers, provided safe anchorage for invading fleets, which then followed the rivers to penetrate deep into the island’s interior. Each successive invasion brought bloodshed and sorrow, but each also brought a new people with a new culture. Through conflict and amalgamation these different peoples created a nation. The Celts. 600 BC—55 BC. Later than the Stone Age people, but still several centuries before the birth of Christ, there came to the British Isles a group of tribes speaking various forms of a language known as Celtic. Those who went to Ireland are known as Goidels or Gaels; those who invaded Britain are called Britons or Cymry (kim’ri). These invaders drove the earlier settlers into the back country or mixed with them. The ancient Celts of Britain were in general rude and primitive. They did not live in towns, but in small groups of huts surrounding the strongholds of the chieftains. Their social organization was tribal, each tribe having its own chief, to whom the lower classes were entirely subservient. The tribes were frequently at war with each other, and seldom united except against a common foe. The Celts had many classes of poets, of which the most famous, the bards, sang songs in praise of their chiefs, accompanying themselves on a small harp with five strings. During the Middle Ages Irish and Welsh bards were well known throughout Europe. They told many tales and sang many lays (songs) that afterward served to enrich the great stream of English literature. Though the Celts, like the early Germans and Scandinavians, were in many respects barbarous, their literature was richer in tone and content and more artistic in form. An ancient author tells us that the Celts had two passions—to fight well and to talk cleverly—and their literature shows, not only that they were fierce in battle, but that they cultivated the art of poetry. The wild and reckless bravery and the heroic deeds of ancient Celtic warriors are often described with truly epic grandeur. Their literature also proves that they held women in great respect and had a high sense of personal honor. They were, moreover, aware of the beauties of nature. The charm, or magic, of flower, leaf, fountain, and stream is present in all early Celtic poetry. 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 1 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 2 of 121 In the following passage the richly poetic language with which the ancient Celtic writer decorates his description of a beautiful maiden shows both the charm of Celtic nature poetry and the loving admiration bestowed upon women. The maiden was clothed in a robe of flame-coloured silk, and about her neck was a collar of ruddy gold, on which were precious emeralds and rubies. More yellow was her head than the flower of the broom, and her skin was whiter than the foam of the wave, and fairer were her hands and her fingers than the blossoms of the wood anemone amidst the spray of the meadow fountain. The eye of the trained hawk, the glance of the three-mewed falcon [thrice-molted; that is, full-grown], was not brighter than hers. Her bosom was more snowy than the breast of the white swan, her cheek was redder than the reddest roses. Whoso [whoever] beheld her was filled with her love. Four white trefoils [clover leaves] sprung up wherever she trod. — [From The Mabinogion—a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions. The ancient Celts had also a large body of charming tales about lovely fairy ladies who fell in love with and married mortals, or who lured men away to islands of eternal summer beyond the sea or to beautiful underground palaces surrounded by gardens of never-fading flowers and fruit that was always ripe. The Celts were the first to tell the stories of Saint Brendan’s marvelous voyage, of King Arthur’s passing to Avalon, and of Sir Tristram’s love for the beautiful Isolde, all of which have been repeated in English literature ever since. Many of the ancient Celtic tales were not written down till late in the Middle Ages, but we know that they existed even in ancient times. The Romans. 55 BC—AD 449. Shortly before the birth of Christ there came to Britain still another band of invaders. In 55 BC Rome, already dominating the Mediterranean world, sent the great Roman general Julius Caesar across the English Channel with an army to raid the land and to punish the Britons for helping the European Celts in their struggle with the Romans, and for the next 400 years a large part of Britain was occupied and ruled by the Romans. The account Caesar later wrote of his raids begins the recorded history of Britain. Nearly a hundred years later, in AD 43, the Roman emperor Claudius successfully invaded the island. Despite the rebellion led a few years later by Boadicea, queen of one of the British tribes, the Romans eventually subdued most of Britain, driving the defeated tribes into the highlands of Wales and Scotland. To keep them there, the Romans garrisoned the province of Britannia with three legions, and early in the second century the emperor Hadrian built a wall seventy-three miles long to protect the northern border. The Roman conquerors of Britain established law and order throughout most of the island. They put up great walls to protect the country from the barbarous tribes of the north. They built roads, walled towns, stone forts, and other structures, such as temples and baths. Castra, the Roman word for “camp,” has left traces of its use in numerous modern English names of places, such as Manchester and Lancaster. Roman Britain became a wealthy colony with a population of four million people. Over one hundred towns served as administrative centers. Some of these had large buildings—meeting halls, law courts, temples, amphitheaters, and public baths—as well as elaborate sanitation systems. However, although straight, well-made Roman roads connected the towns, Roman Britain was basically a rural society. The Romans also introduced their language, their social customs, and their religion although few traces of these are found in later times. The Romans ruled Britain for nearly 400 years, but with the decline of Rome after the year AD 300, life in the province became more troubled. Warriors from Ireland, Scotland, and Germany continuously raided the British coast, looking for plunder and taking slaves. About AD 410 the Roman government, under attack by tribes of barbarians crowding down into Italy and Gaul from the north, was forced to withdraw the Roman troops from Britain. Left without their Roman protectors, the Britons, who had lived for so long under Roman rule, were easily defeated by the fierce northern tribes and other barbarians who now invaded their country. After the Roman withdrawal, Some Britons continued to think of themselves as citizens of the empire; they still spoke Latin and tried to keep up the old forms of provincial economic and political life. But soon towns were being abandoned, manufacturing declined, and tribal warfare reappeared. The Celtic language, with words adapted from Latin, became once again the dominant tongue. Weak and divided, Britain stood open to foreign aggression. The Anglo-Saxons. 449-1000. About the middle of the fifth century after Christ (AD 449) there landed in England several tribes who came from Denmark and from the parts of Germany along the coast of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. These Germanic tribes, including the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, were vigorous warriors and skilled seamen, but their low-lying homelands, which had poor soil and were subject to frequent flooding from the North Sea, were inadequate for a growing population. They are usually referred to as Anglo-Saxons. By 450 they had a firm foothold at the mouth of the Thames River, and groups of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were spreading throughout eastern, central, and southern Britain, driving the Celtic inhabitants away and settling their own people on the conquered land. As had happened during the Roman occupation, the defeated Britons fled west into the highlands of Wales. In some areas of the northeast, the Anglo-Saxon peoples may have managed, after conquest, to coexist with the Britons, but in the southeast they evidently expelled the former inhabitants altogether. By the middle of the sixth century most of the southern lowland part of the island was under the control of a people we now call—after the Angles—the English, and from the Angles the island got a new name, “England” (Angleland). 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 2 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 3 of 121 The Anglo-Saxons were tall and fair-haired. They wore shirts of mail called byrnies (bur’niz), sometimes decorated with gold; their helmets were crowned with figures of boars’ heads or other decorations; and they fought with swords and spears or with bows and arrows. Next to war, one of their chief passions was love of freedom. Each chieftain was surrounded by a band of freemen who, though they ate at their lord’s table and were ready to defend him with their lives, were proud of their independence. The freemen owned the land which they occupied, and held on to it jealously. Thus for generation after generation the same Anglo-Saxon family might be found in the same village cultivating the same field. The Anglo-Saxons lived, not in towns built and walled with stone as the Romans had done, but in groups of wooden houses surrounded by a wooden stockade. The Anglo-Saxon words for such communities were tun, ham, or wic. These words have remained in modern English as “town” and “home,” and are preserved in place-names such as Wilton, Buckingham, Norwich, etc. For more than a thousand years most of the population, like their Anglo-Saxon forefathers, continued to live in small settlements. Each Anglo-Saxon community was governed by a court made up of freemen, who administered a rude kind of justice that became the basis of modern English common law. At first the Anglo-Saxon invaders plundered and destroyed; later they settled down and became part of what we call the English people. Living, as they had done, near the seacoast, they had become skillful sailors, and in their long boats, painted with tar to keep out the water, they rowed fearlessly through the northern seas, increasing their speed by setting sails made of skins or coarse cloth. At first most were pirates and were greatly feared by the Britons; but after the Anglo-Saxon conquest most of them settled down and became farmers attached to the soil. The Celtic tribes of Britain, who had become used to letting the Romans do their fighting for them, fell easy victims to the fierce Anglo-Saxon invaders, who had been trained to plunder and war from childhood. The Anglo- Saxons killed the Britons wholesale or drove them back into the mountainous districts of Wales, Devonshire, and Cornwall. They married some of the British women; but they took no trouble to learn the British language, and adopted only a few words from the Celtic tongue or from the Latin language as it was spoken in Britain. The culture of these Germanic settlers, during their first decades in England, seems to be faithfully recorded in the heroic poem Beowulf. This was a tribal society, ruled by warrior kings who led their men into battle. Defeat and capture meant death. Even in peacetime one’s position was never secure. There were always rival warriors within the tribe seeking to take power, and neighboring tribes posed a constant threat. To protect himself and his lands, a king gathered around him a retinue of fighting men called thanes. By oath they pledged to defend him. Defeat in battle for a thane meant death or slavery at the hands of the victors, so battle was fierce and unyielding. The king rewarded faithful service with treasure: rings, gold, and especially weapons. These gifts were a form of honor due to faithful thanes. The wealth given by a king usually came from robbing someone else, however. Bloodshed was common. Any offense to one thane had to be avenged, and his king and fellow thanes had to come to his aid. Hence there were endless feuds both between individuals and between tribes. The royal living quarters were a small cluster of wooden buildings surrounded by a stockade fence. (Castles built of stone did not appear until later.) The main structure was the mead-hall. Mead is a fermented drink made from honey, malt, and yeast. Modern archaeologists have found the remains of one mead-hall that is 30 meters by 15 meters, its walls made of wooden planks over 15 centimeters thick, sunk three meters into the ground. Here the king, thanes, wives, and servants gathered together, and here the warriors slept after the king retired to a smaller outbuilding. While the king and his court feasted, they were entertained by a singing poet called a scop. He composed his poetry on the spot—recounting both past history and present events. The scop was more than an entertainer. Fame and honor mattered greatly to these people, and it was the scop who preserved a record of their achievements for later generations. These relatively primitive warrior bands now spread over much of England and took over some of the old Roman towns and governmental procedures, such as taxing, conscripting men for local armies, and building long defensive walls. The country was divided into a number of small kingdoms. Soon, more ambitious kings began to assert an authority over other rulers, each claiming to be a ruling king, or bretwalda. The first of them, Ethelbert, who ruled from 560 to 616, seems already to have dreamed of a nationwide confederation of tribes that would bring unity and a measure of peace to the land. These efforts at achieving unity and peace found aid in the developing power and influence of the Christian church. Even in Roman days there had been Christian communities in Britain, though the invasion of pagan Germanic tribes nearly destroyed them. St. Patrick began converting Celtic Ireland to Christianity in the 430s. With time the Irish church spread as far as the remote Scottish islands called the Hebrides, where it established the celebrated monastery of Iona in 563. But Anglo-Saxon Britain remained pagan until 597, when St. Augustine, sent from Rome to convert England, established the first archbishopric at Canterbury. During the next forty years missionaries were able, despite setbacks, to convert most of the Anglo-Saxon kings and their people to Christianity. 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 3 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 4 of 121 The spread of Christianity was crucial for the development of Anglo-Saxon culture. The Church brought contact with the distant and ancient Mediterranean world. To the illiterate Germanic tribes it brought the essential skill for advanced culture—writing. Soon Anglo-Saxon monasteries were copying books from Rome and beginning to produce the illuminated manuscripts for which they are so famous. The Church also served as an early force for unity and peace, trying to teach new values to these warrior-kings—compassion and cooperation, instead of arrogance and violence. Anglo-Saxon culture reached a peak during the rule of the Mercian bretwaldas of the eighth century. From this era come most of the 30,000 lines of Anglo-Saxon poetry that have survived, as well as important works in prose such as Bede’s Latin history of England. It is an era in which Anglo-Saxon and Christian cultures combined to form a new synthesis. This is dramatically evident, for instance, in the transfer of the complex, interlaced patterns of ornament, once used to decorate the clothes of pagan warrior-kings, to decorate Bible manuscripts. The Northmen. The achievements of the eighth century in England were finally interrupted by another wave of invaders near the end of the eighth century. The newcomers were Scandinavians, known as Northmen or Vikings. They crossed the North Sea from Denmark and Norway. They were pagan barbarians much like what the Anglo-Saxons had been a few hundred years before. At first only a few boats came seeking to plunder coastal monasteries and towns. These early raids gave way to regular attacks after 835. Then entire armies appeared, with fleets of up to 250 ships commanded by Danish kings. They conquered district after district, and for more than a century they threatened to overrun all England, and only with great effort were they finally forced to make peace. Between 867 and 877 the Vikings invaded and took over most of the northeast and central portions of England. Part or all of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia, Mercia, and Essex were absorbed into the Danelaw, a region where Danish rather than Anglo-Saxon law was in force. (The restless Vikings continued their explorations; one of their leaders, Leif Ericson, probably landed in North America around the year 1000.) The most successful English opponent of the Vikings was Alfred the Great (born 849). He ruled the one surviving Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Wessex, in southern England from the year 871 to 899. To prevent the Vikings from seizing Wessex the way they had the Danelaw, he built what was essentially the first English navy, a fleet of longboats, each manned by sixty oarsmen. To repel unexpected attacks, he constructed fortified towns—burhs (bergs/burgs)—in a grid pattern throughout Wessex, manned by standing garrisons. After a series of setbacks, Alfred decisively defeated the Vikings at Edington in 878, forcing them to retire within the Danelaw. In the uneasy peace that followed, Alfred was able to foster a second great era of Anglo-Saxon literary culture at his court, where along with the scholars he had invited from the continent, he studied and translated Latin works, including Bede’s history of England, into Anglo-Saxon. About 891 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was begun. A year-by-year account of happenings in the kingdom, it remains our greatest single source of information about this historical period. Though most of England was at one time in the hands of the Northmen, they seem to have had little influence upon literature during the Anglo-Saxon period. Nevertheless we know that they brought with them their literary traditions, for hundreds of years later several of the finest romantic tales came, at least in part, from Norse sources. Alfred’s successors were able to contain the Vikings, but essentially the England of the tenth century was divided between Scandinavian peoples in the north and east, and the surviving Anglo-Saxon peoples in the southeast and south. In the eleventh century, Cnut, king of Denmark, conquered most of England and seized the English throne. For the next twenty-five years, Danish kings ruled England. The struggle for control of this divided land was only halted for good by another invasion, the last one, that of the French-Norman, William the Conqueror. The Anglo-Saxons dominated the history of England for 600 years. Over that period, so full of strife and confusion, they nevertheless managed to build some of the foundations for the culture of their land. They provided its language; they began its literature; and they established traditions in law, government, and religion. They were the first English people. OLD-ENGLISH LITERATURE The pagan Anglo-Saxons had a rude alphabet, the Futhorc, made up of signs called runes, but it was not until after the introduction of the Roman alphabet by Christian missionaries that anything properly called literature was written down. Soon after the coming of Christianity to Britain, Christian authors and scribes began to record, to translate, and to compose literature both in Latin and in Anglo-Saxon. They wrote on parchment made of skins. The first Anglo-Saxon, or Old-English, literature was written down in the northern, or Northumbrian, monasteries. During most of the 7th and 8th centuries Christianity and literature flourished in Britain, especially in the north. In 787, new invaders, this time from Scandinavia, began to make raids into England. As they were still pagans they cared nothing for Christianity or learning; and, being attracted by the gold ornaments and other riches in the monasteries, they robbed plundered, especially in Northumbria. They destroyed many valuable libraries, and literature did not appear again until after Alfred the Great became king in 871. 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 4 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 5 of 121 Epic and War Poetry. The longest and best of the Anglo-Saxon pagan poems is Beowulf. There are also a few fragments of other pagan Anglo-Saxon epics, and several complete short poems, written during the eighth or ninth century in England, but reflecting conditions before the Anglo-Saxons came from the Continent. The joy that the Anglo-Saxons took in battle is well illustrated in several poems which were by good luck copied into the manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the earliest English history. The Coming of Christianity. Christianity was first brought to Britain during the Roman occupation, but it was later stamped out as far as possible by the pagan Anglo-Saxons in those parts of the island occupied by them, and for a hundred and fifty years the conquerors remained pagans. When Christian missionaries finally came to Britain, they arrived from two directions—from Ireland (St Patrick, AD 430) and from Rome. In 563 AD the great Irish statesman and preacher Saint Columba, or Columkille, founded the monastery of Iona on a little island off the west coast of Scotland. The Irish, who had been Christians for more than a century, were enthusiastic missionaries. Under the leadership of Columba and his successors they preached the gospel of Christianity throughout most of Scotland and the northern parts of England. In 597 AD another great missionary, Saint Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory, landed in the south of England. Augustine was received by King Ethelbert of Kent and was allowed to preach Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons. He founded a church near the spot where the great cathedral of Canterbury now stands. From this center the new religion spread northward until it met that of the Irish missionaries who had come down from Iona. Christian Literature. One of the most charming stories in English literature is told of Cædmon who lived in one of the northern monasteries and is the earliest English poet whose name has been preserved. Cædmon was a poor, ignorant servant in the monastery of Whitby, on the coast of the North Sea in Northumbria. Until late in life he lived without being able to compose verses. When the monks, according to custom, met together and each in turn sang to the accompaniment of the harp, Cædmon would always rise from the table and leave quietly in shame when he saw his turn coming. One evening when this had happened and he had gone out to attend to the horses, he fell asleep in the stable. In a dream an angel appeared to him and said, “Cædmon, sing some song to me.” “I cannot sing,” answered the poor servant. The angel, however, insisted and told Cædmon to sing “the beginning of created things.” Thus inspired, Cædmon immediately composed a poem nine lines long, of which the records give both the original and a Latin translation. This poem, the oldest piece of verse in the English language, is usually known as Cædmon’s Hymn. Translated out of Anglo-Saxon into modern English, it is as follows: Now shall we praise the Master of heaven, When Cædmon awoke, he not only remembered all that The might of the Maker, the thought of His heart, The deeds of the Father. How He, Lord everlasting, he had sung during his sleep, but immediately added Established of old the source of all wonders. much more on the same subject in verse worthy of God. Creator all-holy, He hung the heavens, He was then taken into the presence of the abbess, the A roof high upreared, o’er the children of men; head of the monastery, who heard his story with wonder The King of mankind then created for mortals The world, the earth spread beneath them, and gave him opportunity to use his divine gift of poetry. He, Lord everlasting, omnipotent God. The tone of Anglo-Saxon literature is generally dignified and rather gloomy. It is seldom humorous except in a grim way. The stories which the poets tell are usually about the tragic loves and hates of ancient heroes and “old, unhappy, far-off things, and battles long ago.” The Christian monks and scholars to whom we owe the earliest English literature were well acquainted with Latin; they spoke the Latin language on formal occasions, their church services were in Latin, and it was natural that they should write in Latin when they had anything serious to record. The greatest of the Latin writers of Anglo- Saxon England was the “Venerable Bede.” Bede (673?—735 AD) spent most of his life in the monastery of Jarrow, in the north of England. He was a great reader, possessed wide learning, and wrote many books, the most important of which is the Church History of the English People, written in Latin and afterward translated into Anglo-Saxon. Alfred the Great (ruled 871—899 AD), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, (891-1154) which The Battle of Maldon, a 325-line poem in Old affectionately called “England’s darling” was began before the time of Alfred the Great as a English, incomplete at the beginning and the end, one of the greatest kings of English kings. He was series of rough notes jotted down by the monks probably written c. 1000, dealing with the battle a great general, lawmaker and patron of of various monasteries, is the oldest English fought in 991 at Maldon in Essex against Danish literature. He labored long and earnestly to history in the native tongue. Sometime during the raiders. The Danes are drawn up on the shore of restore order and to encourage education after his ninth century the notes in various monasteries the river Pant (Blackwater), opposed by country had been laid waste by Scandinavian were gathered together, and an effort was made Byrhtnoth (c. 926—91), ealdorman of Essex invaders. When Alfred came to the throne of his at writing a continuous history. This work has since 956, who rejects the demand for tribute by kingdom, Wessex, illiteracy was so widespread been attributed to Alfred the Great. The the Danes. In the fight Byrhtnoth is killed and the that few priests could understand the church Chronicle was kept up until the year 1154, nearly English are defeated because of Byrhtnoth’s service. To improve the situation, he invited a century after the Norman Conquest. The Anglo- over-confidence and desire for heroics. The scholars to his court; he urged the importance of Saxon Chronicle and Bede’s Church History of second half of the poem, concerned with the elementary education; and he translated or the English People are the chief sources of our loyalty of the followers of Byrhtnoth to their dead caused to be translated various instructive Latin knowledge of the earliest English history. leader, is a powerful statement of loyalty and works for his people to be able to read them. determination to avenge his death. 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 5 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 6 of 121 WORKSHEET: Anglo-Saxon Period (450-1066) Background 1 1) Outline the six main stages of occupation of the British Isles giving dates and names. DATE EVENT / INVADER 1 2000 BC Invaders from Iberia 2 3 AD 43 4 5 AD 860 6 AD 1066 Normans from France; William the Conqueror 2) Put the following terms into perspective: Bretwalda: Thane: Britannia: Danelaw: 3) What important literary, historical, and religious texts survive from around AD 800-1000? 4) Put the following terms into perspective: Ethelbert: St Augustine: The Venerable Bede: Alfred the Great: 5) Summarize the effects of Christianity on Anglo-Saxon culture. 6) Summarize what you know of Anglo-Saxon culture; way of life, organization of government, community, settlement, values, etc. 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 6 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 7 of 121 EPIC POETRY Many of the world’s great literatures begin with the appearance of a long verse narrative describing the adventures and achievements of a hero from the distant past—an epic poem. These records of heroic deeds served warrior cultures by boosting tribal pride and by helping to teach later generations a code of values. An epic is a long narrative poem written in a noble, dignified style and telling of heroic exploits performed by great heroes. It differs from other narrative poems in that it has greater dignity and scope, and presents more lifelike characters; that is, an epic deals with great national events and with characters who are interesting aside from the story. In the Iliad, for example, Achilles is as important as the story of the fall of Troy. In a romance, in contrast to the epic, our interest is concentrated on the story, the reader being satisfied if the heroes fight well and the ladies are beautiful. You can usually tell an epic from other narrative poems by asking this question: “Does the story deal with important events in legend or history and are the characters interesting aside from the things they do?” READING AN EPIC POEM Beowulf is the epic of the Anglo-Saxons. It tells how a great national hero, Beowulf, slew monsters in defense of his fellow men and lived a life of honesty and nobility till he fell a victim to the rage of a fire-breathing dragon. It may be difficult for readers today to project themselves completely into the thoughts and feelings of an Anglo-Saxon audience. Still, by understanding why the Beowulf poet wrote certain speeches, actions, and scenes in certain ways, we can understand a great deal about the poet’s world. Following are some guidelines. Understanding the nature of the epic hero. The heroic actions described—dangerous journeys, battles with monsters, and so on—may be familiar to us; however, concepts of heroes differ from culture to culture. As we read Beowulf, we should look for clues that tell what this hero is like. Winning always matters, but the epic focus is more on how the hero fights. We must read to learn what weapons and strategies Beowulf uses and how he responds to unforeseen challenges. We will soon notice that the hero, like everything else in the poem, is larger-than-life. Appreciating the pageantry. Ceremony plays an important part in Anglo-Saxon life. After Beowulf has killed the monster Grendel, for example, King Hrothgar delivers a speech and formally presents the hero with gifts, which the poet carefully lists. The speech and the rewards define what the poet considers the most important values in life: honor, loyalty, perseverance, and good sense. Understanding the purpose and nature of dialogue. Characters in epics rarely make casual conversation. Instead, they communicate through formal speeches, boasting of their own accomplishments, challenging hostile rivals, advising each other about how to act, and philosophizing about human destiny. As part of this formal style, characters use elaborate forms of address with each other. Thus, Beowulf addresses King Hrothgar in this way: “Prince of the Danes, protector of Scyldings, / Lord of nations, and leader of men, / I beg one favor....” Comparing and contrasting parallelisms. The poem begins with the story of the King Scyld, who does not play any part in what follows. Anglo-Saxon audiences understood, however, that Scyld is mentioned because his story will parallel, or be similar to, the story of Beowulf. You will find not only parallel events, but parallel characteristics, like heroism and leadership, as well. The comparison of people and events from different times is meant to add to the stature of the hero, by seeing him as part of a long heroic tradition. Characters further this comparison by frequently recalling their own and each other’s family histories. Looking for symbolic descriptions. The Beowulf poet does not spend much time in describing the appearance of people and places, but when he does describe something, it is for a purpose. He dwells upon the beauty of Hrothgar’s mead-hall because it represents certain goals: order, security, human closeness. Similarly, the details of the forest lair where Grendel’s mother hides suggest the dangers she represents. Much description occurs in the form of epithets— descriptive phrases that may be repeated over and over. Frequently, several epithets are used in the same sentence, as in the speech quoted above. Examining the sentence structure. To suggest the effect of the original, the translator uses long, involved sentences. These poetic sentences should be read as would prose ones, looking for the subject and the verb, recognizing also that many phrases are simply repetitions of what has just been said, added for greater emphasis. THE BEOWULF-POET Beowulf is the first masterpiece in English literature. But who wrote it and when? For what audience was it written and for what purpose? These are questions for which there will probably never be conclusive answers. Even a close study of the poem, along with a more general consideration of the culture it comes from, still leaves questions. Although written in England, Beowulf describes the adventures of a hero who came from the southern part of what is now Sweden, to aid a people living in what is now Denmark. The poem contains scarcely a reference to England. However, it does name a known historical figure, a Swedish king, Hygelac, who died in battle in 521. It must be that the stories Beowulf tells were a part of a culture that some Germanic tribe brought with them when they invaded and then settled in England, perhaps after Hygelac’s death. 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 7 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 8 of 121 Around 725, according to the best modern estimates, someone took the folk epic of Beowulf as it had been orally transmitted by the Germanic tribes, and wrote it down in Anglo-Saxon. The Beowulf-poet has an absolute knowledge of the customs, the traditions, and the values of Anglo-Saxon society. But he is far more learned than the earlier scops, since he also knows something about the Old Testament (the story of Cain and Abel). He may also have known something of Latin literature, since his poem seems to echo some passages from Virgil’s Aeneid. The Beowulf-poet’s relationship to Christianity has often been questioned. The poem certainly does come from a Christianized culture. Yet, oddly, the poem never names either the pagan gods or Jesus. At Beowulf’s death his most faithful follower simply says, “... long he shall lie / In the kindly care of the Lord of all.” But is this a reference to the Christian Lord, or to the Northern god Odin? The Old English scholar J. R. R. Tolkien argues that the Beowulf-poet was writing an intentionally archaic poem—that he knew about Christianity, and consequently would no longer name the heathen gods, but that because he was writing about the past he did not introduce any clear references to Christianity, even though his belief helps to shape the way he thinks about life and death. By simply examining what the Beowulf-poet wrote, it is possible to reach some conclusions. First, he is a writer in love with words and language. The poetry of Beowulf is densely packed, vigorous, full of sound. Further, the story it tells touches the receptive reader at the deepest levels. While the tales he narrates deal with heroic adventures somewhat similar to those in fairy tales, with monsters and fire-breathing dragons, the Beowulf-poet is ultimately interested in the problems that trouble us most: the nature of success, true friendship, the final value to be found in life and in death. This poet has distinct, serious, and persuasive conclusions about these topics, which grow out of a story as richly suggestive as some of the greatest myths. THE CHANGING ENGLISH LANGUAGE I The English language has developed and continues to evolve as the people who speak it have been affected by social conditions, political events, and contacts with other cultures. This section explores the nature of the changes that the language has undergone, and the events and forces that have brought about those changes. The first inhabitants of the British Isles whose language we know about were the Celts. Beginning in 55 BC, the Roman general Julius Caesar led a series of unsuccessful attacks on the British Celts. About a hundred years later, in AD 43, when Claudius was emperor, Romans began settling in Britain. For the next 400 years, Britain was part of the Roman Empire, and camps of the Latin-speaking Roman legions were spread throughout the countryside. Their influence can still be seen in the names of such English towns as Lancaster, Manchester, and Worcester, the suffixes -caster, -chester, and -cester being derived from castrum, the Latin word for “camp.” Early in the fifth century, when the Roman Empire began to disintegrate, the Romans were forced to withdraw their troops from Britain. Left without the defenses of the Roman legions, the Celts were soon attacked by Germanic tribes from across the North Sea—Jutes, Angles, and Saxons. The invaders drove some of the Celts to Brittany across the sea and many others into what are now Wales and Cornwall. The Celtic language survives today as Welsh, the language of Wales; Irish, the Celtic language of Ireland; Scots Gaelic, the ancient tongue of the Highlands; and Breton, the Celtic language still spoken in Brittany in France. The invading tribes of Germanic people spoke dialects of the language now called Old English or Anglo- Saxon. The largest group, the Angles, settled the lands from the Thames River to the north of England. It is from this group that the names England (Angleland) and English (Anglisc) are derived, although most of the literature written in the dialect of this northern area has been lost. The Saxons, who lived south of the Thames, spoke the variety of Old English in which most of the surviving documents of the period are written. In Kent were the Jutes; only a very few texts in the Kentish dialect have been preserved. In 597, Augustine and other missionaries arrived from Rome, bringing Christianity and initiating the introduction of Latin words into Old English. The largest number of such words were those related to the new religion; among them were altar, candle, hymn, organ, pope, priest, and temple, which today differ only slightly from their Old English forms. Contact with the Roman church also led to the adoption of words describing clothing (eg. sock, cap), foods (beet, pear), plants and trees (pine, lily), and words related to education (school, Latin, verse, meter), as well as many others. Beginning in the eighth century, Old English was further modified by contact with the Scandinavian languages. The inhabitants of the Scandinavian peninsula and Denmark, once close neighbors of the early Anglo- Saxons and similar to them both in blood and in language, began a series of raids on England that culminated in the eleventh century when Cnut, king of Denmark, conquered all of England and seized the English throne. For the next twenty-five years, Danish kings ruled England. 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 8 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 9 of 121 During the nearly three hundred years of Scandinavian attacks, a considerable number of Scandinavians also settled peacefully in England, especially in the northern and eastern sections. Evidence of the extent of such settlement survives in place names. A map today shows more than six hundred names such as (Grimsby, Rugby, and Derby, formed from the Danish word byr, meaning “farm” or “town.” There are also names like Thistlethwaite and Braithwaite from thveit, meaning “isolated piece of land.” Since Old English and the language of the invaders were quite similar, there was a ready intermingling of forms of speech. In some cases, when the languages had different words to describe the same thing, the English word survived. In other cases, such Scandinavian words as egg and systir (sister) replaced their Old English equivalents. The Scandinavian pronouns they, their, and them were substituted for the Old English equivalents hie, hiera, and him. Occasionally, Old English words that had fallen into disuse were revived because of Scandinavian parallels. Our difficulty in reading Old English is in that it was quite different in grammatical structure from the English of today. Modern English depends heavily upon the arrangement of words in a sentence to give meaning; it relies only slightly on word meanings to indicate number, gender, and case (e.g., whether a noun is the object of a verb or its subject). For example, when we read: (1) “The king greeted the foreigner.” (2) “The foreigner greeted the king.” we know that in the first sentence, king is the subject of the verb greeted, and in the second sentence, king is the object of the verb, even though there is no change in the spelling of king as the function of the word changes. In Old English, “the king,” when used as the grammatical subject (as in sentence 1) would be written as se cyning; as the object (as in sentence 2), it would be þæm cyninge. Old English was what linguists call a highly inflected language, which means that the meaning of a sentence depended on changes in the spelling of words. Old English verbs were of two types: “strong” and “weak.” in strong verbs, the vowels changed in the principal part, as they do in modern sing, sang, sung; weak verbs indicated change of time by adding d or t, as do the majority of verbs today (look-looked-looked). Although modern English still makes use of inflections, there are far fewer inflected forms than there were in Anglo-Saxon times. Apart from grammatical differences, some of the strangeness that Old English presents to a modern reader is due to differences in spelling and vocabulary. Old English used two characters, þ (thorn) and ð (edh), to represent the sound “th.” so that wiþ is the modern word “with,” and ða is the equivalent of “then.” The sound “sh” was represented in Old English by sc, and the sound of “k” was represented by c. Words like scip, bæð, nacod, and þæt, which look strange to us, were most likely pronounced in Anglo-Saxon times almost as we pronounce them today: “ship,” “bath,” “naked,” and “that.” CHARACTERISTICS OF ANGLO-SAXON PROSODY The Anglo-Saxons brought to England a Germanic heroic society. The mainstay of the heroic code was kinship. People lived in small communities knit together by blood ties and survival depended on the fighting ability, courage, and loyalty of each member of the community. Thus, honour and courage were the two qualities most respected. Blood vengeance was a sacred duty and the only way of ending a blood feud was by paying wergild. Generosity was another most important aspect of the heroic code. Kings and chieftains were expected to reward their people—especially their thanes—with rich gifts. Main themes were battles, might, honour, courage, loyalty and, with the advent of Christianity, glory of God and His servants; but even in non-secular works religious themes and characters are infused with heroic traits— e.g., Christ represented as a strong and brave warrior hero as in The Dream of the Rood. The Anglo-Saxons blended Christian values with pagan concepts, an amalgamation evident in the literature. ▪ No lyric poetry; nothing of romantic love; elegiac verse depicting the pain and sorrow of the world ▪ Dignified and elevated metaphor-rich language ▪ Synecdoche, metonymy, common figures of speech—part represents the whole (e.g., arm for warrior) SYNECDOCHY: the eye sought the enemy; the arm struck him dead / METONYMY: the wood wove through the wave ▪ No end-rhyme, instead, alliterative verse and syllabic stress ▪ Kenning; two-word compounds (e.g., life-house for body) ▪ Variation; extensive use of epithets, parallel and appositive expressions for musicality in oral composition ▪ An attempt to formalize and elevate speech; not straightforward but indirect expression; favourite mode irony ▪ Litotes; ironic understatement (“They cared not for battle,” says the composer speaking of the cowardly deserters from the battlefield of Maldon) ▪ Ubi sunt (“Where are they now?”)—the nostalgic query often in the form of irony as a mode of perception ▪ The overall effect of this dignified speech of the epic was awe-inspiring but very different from everyday speech. [Compiled & adapted from: English Writers, Revised Edn, Cross et al, Ginn & Company; England in Literature, Comp. J.E. Miller et al; Norton Anthology of English Literature, 7th edn., Ed. Abrams and Greenblatt] 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 9 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 10 of 121 HIGHLIGHTS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES The 8th century in England leaves many literary monuments in addition to Bede’s Historia and Beowulf. Although precise dating is difficult, most of the Old English meditative poems were also composed at this time. Many of them are specifically Christian, being paraphrases of biblical narrative and lives of saints. Other poems, such as the “Wanderer” and the “Seafarer,” are, however, curiously pagan in tone, even though some sections are overtly Christian. This considerable body of lyrics, narratives, and riddles differs little from the giant Beowulf on points of style. All Old English poems are written in much the same system of rhythm with much the same patterns of alliteration and in much the same poetic diction. The shorter poems are also similar to Beowulf in their characteristic mixing of pagan and Christian motifs. HIGHLIGHTS: HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA GENTIS ANGLORUM: Bede’s most BEOWULF: an Old English poem of 3182 lines, surviving in a 10th- famous work, completed in 731. It is a Latin History of the century manuscript. It tells of two major events in the life of the English people, in five books, from the invasion of Julius Geatish hero Beowulf: the first when, in his youth, he fights and Caesar, beginning with a description of Britain and ending with kills first Grendel, a monster who has been attacking Heorot, the an account of the state of the country in 731. The author draws hall of the Danish king Hrothgar. Then Grendel’s mother who on Pliny and other Latin authors. It was translated into Old comes the next night to avenge her son. The second, 50 years English in the around 890, in the course of the program of later, when Beowulf, who has for a long time been king of the translations Alfred the Great started. Geats, fights a dragon who has attacked his people, in a combat CÆDMON’S HYMN: one of the oldest of English poems; celebrates in which both Beowulf and the dragon are mortally wounded. the beginnings of created things, found in Bede’s History. The historical period of the poem’s events can be dated in the 6th THE EXETER BOOK: one of the most important manuscripts cent, from a reference to Beowulf’s king Hygelac by the containing Old English poetry, copied about 940 and given by historian Gregory of Tours; but much of the material of the poem Bishop Leofric to Exeter Cathedral, where it still remains. It is legendary and paralleled in other Germanic historical- contains many of the shorter poems, such as The Wanderer, The mythological literature in Norse, Old English, and German. The Seafarer, Deor, Widsith, The Ruin, The Wife’s Lament, The poem is generally dated in the 8th century, when England was Husband’s Message, and Wulf and Eadwacer, grouped together changing over from paganism to Christianity. This date is taken as ‘The Exeter Book Elegies’, as well as a famous collection of to account for the strong thread of Christian commentary which Riddles and longer religious poems, such as Guthlac, The runs through the poem. Beowulf, the most important poem in Old Phoenix, and Cynewulf’s Juliana. English and the first major poem in a European native language, is remarkable for its sustained grandeur of tone and for the THE VERCELLI BOOK: an old English manuscript, made in England brilliance of its style. before the year 1000. It contains prose sermons and about 3500 THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE, is one of the most important lines of Old English poetry; its best known contents are the poems The Dream of the Rood and Andreas, and two of the four documents from the middle ages. It was originally compiled on signed poems of Cynewulf: Elene and The Fates of the Apostles. the orders of King Alfred the Great in approximately AD 890, and subsequently maintained and added to by generations of THE DREAM OF THE ROOD: an old English poem of 156 lines and anonymous scribes until the middle of the 12th century. The three parts found in the Vercelli Book. It is the story of the original language was Anglo-Saxon (Old English), but later Crucifixion, told from the point of view of the Cross, as it is entries were probably made in an early form of Middle English. seen by the poem’s narrator in a vision. Like Cædmon’s Hymn, This document serves as the ultimate timeline of British history this poem is characterized by its blending of pagan heroic values from its beginnings up to the end of the reign of King Stephen in with Christian ones. The Germanic heroic tradition which the 1154. The Chronicle certainly does not present us with a Anglo-Saxons brought with them to England celebrated complete history of those times and is probably not 100% courage, mastery, and aggressive action. The Christian outlook accurate, either, but that doesn’t diminish its enormous value in which the Anglo-Saxons in due course adopted stressed virtues helping us to arrive at a clearer picture of what actually happened like loving-kindness and self-sacrifice. The poet of The Dream in Britain over a thousand years ago. The entire Chronicle runs of the Rood discovered in the central event of Christian history to almost 100,000 words. an opportunity for using his people’s native poetic tradition to UBI SUNT: derived from the opening words of a type of Medieval encompass and naturalize the alien ideals of the new faith. Thus, this poem is one striking product of a people’s struggle to Latin poem (‘Where are they?’), taken up in Old English poems reconcile the competing values of their ethnic literary tradition such as Beowulf and The Wanderer and in many Middle English and their new-found truth. Notice the depiction of the Cross as lyrics (especially the one beginning ‘Where beth they, beforen covered alternately with riches and blood, traditionally two of us weren’.). Many later medieval French poems use the theme. the most vivid realities of the Anglo-Saxons’ existence. Finest RUNE: a letter or character of the earliest surviving Germanic script, of religious poems in Old English, it describes the experience of used in inscriptions on wood, metal or stone by the Anglo- the cross; its humiliation as an instrument of punishment, its Saxons and Scandinavians. The earliest runic alphabet dates humility, its pride; Christ’s progress from Hell to Heaven as from the 3rd century AD, and is formed by modifying the letters hope replaces torment. of the Greek and Roman alphabets. Magical and mysterious THE BATTLE OF MALDON: A 325-line poem, incomplete at the powers were associated with runes from the Anglo-Saxon beginning and at the end, probably written AD.1000. It period, perhaps because of their employment in riddles, as in the celebrates an event of year 991, when a large party of Rune Poem, a 94-line piece illustrating the runes of the Anglo- Scandinavian raiders met the English defense on the mouth of Saxon Runic alphabet, the Futhorc. Runes came to be used for Blackwater River, near Maldon in Essex. It was composed in purposes of magic, which continued for a long time; and since Beowulf-like heroic English verse. The English lost the battle they were found hard to decipher, the name “rune” has become because of over-confidence and desire for heroics. a synonym for “a mysterious secret.” The adjective “runic” has come to mean “ancient” as well as “hard to understand.” 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 10 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 11 of 121 BEOWULF Beowulf was written in England about AD 700, and is the oldest of the Germanic epics, or poems telling of great deeds of ancient heroes belonging to the Germanic peoples. It is full of the interest of ancient times when men lived rudely but nobly, and when heroes who feared no man trembled before imaginary creatures such as demons and dragons. Beowulf is a little more than three thousand lines long. We know nothing of the poet who wrote Beowulf except that he was an Anglo-Saxon, a Christian, and a man of genius. He wrote in a noble, dignified style, and he was fond of emphasizing courtly manners and high moral standards. Beowulf is written in the most common Anglo-Saxon verse form, which is alliterative; that is, the music of the poetry depends, not upon rhymes at the end of the lines, but upon similar sounds at the beginnings of words (alliteration) and upon a complicated arrangement of accented and unaccented syllables. The style of Anglo-Saxon poetry as illustrated in Beowulf is abrupt; we are apt to be confused by the frequent use of a pronoun where we should expect a noun. One of the most striking traits of the Anglo-Saxon poetical style is the use of “kennings,” a kind of metaphor common both in Germanic and in Celtic poetry. Thus, earl’s raiment is used for “armor,” whale’s road for “sea,” peace-weaver for “wife,” and ring-giver for “chieftain.” ALLITERATION: A rhetorical device which consists in beginning two or more words near together with the same or similar sounds. It may also be defined as initial rhyme. It is a characteristic feature of Anglo-Saxon poetry. “Sonorous metal making martial sounds” METAPHOR: In rhetoric, a figure of speech in which, for the purpose of emphasizing a particular quality, one thing is said to be something else which is well known for that quality. “The eye of heaven shone brightly in the midst of the fluffy clouds. (eye of heaven: sun) KENNING: The compound-word metaphors used in Anglo-Saxon verse. “The water-crosser glided over the swan-road.” (The ship moved over the water) Beowulf is based on ancient traditions brought by the Anglo-Saxons from their home on the Continent. It consists of at least three separate stories, each telling an exploit of the hero Beowulf. The tale of Beowulf’s adventures begins with the legendary Scyld (Shild), founder of the Danish royal line. Sailing alone over the sea, the child Scyld mysteriously comes to the Danish people. As a young man he leads them through a series of battles in which they capture the mead-halls of surrounding tribes, defeating them and forcing them to pay tribute to the Danes. Thus Scyld establishes a pattern for success as a ruler. At his death the Danes return him to his mysterious source, setting his body, amid a heap of the treasures he has won, adrift at sea. In the following lines the poet traces the subsequent line of Danish kings, descended from Scyld: first his son Beowulf (not the hero of this poem, but a warrior of more ancient times); then his grandson Healfdene (hã’alf den á). In time one of Healfdene’s four children, Hrothgar, takes command of the kingdom. Following the young Scyld’s earlier example, he begins by gathering about him a band of warriors. The poet continues to tell how Hrothgar, the king of a Danish tribe called the Scyldings (shil’dingz), built a palace, or “folk-hall,” called Heorot, between the seashore and the border of a dark and marshy forest believed to be inhabited by wicked spirits and demonic creatures. We must think of Heorot as a large, four-sided wooden building having a roof with high gables like horns. Not long after Hrothgar and his court had occupied the new palace, there came one night a gigantic monster called Grendel, a descendant of Cain, the first murderer. Larger than human size was this “demon of death,” “grim and greedy,” and no sword could injure him. One after another, Grendel carried off or ate thirty of Hrothgar’s thanes, or warriors. The monster returned again and again until the hall was abandoned by the court, and for twelve years stood empty and silent. Meanwhile the story of Grendel’s doings was told abroad by traveling poets, or scops, and singers (gleemen) until it was heard by Beowulf, a young noble at the court of Hygelac, king of the Geats, who probably lived in southern Sweden, across the water from Hrothgar’s kingdom. Beowulf determined to rid Heorot of the man-eating monster. Accompanied by fourteen picked warriors he crossed the sea, a day’s journey, to Denmark. 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 11 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 12 of 121 The Coming of Beowulf The Geats lived in southwestern Sweden. Hygelac, their king, is historical figure. He was famous for his unusual height, (“Even when he was twelve years old, no horse could carry him,” claims an 8th-century source). He died in battle while raiding the European mainland in 521. Beowulf, as Hygelac’s thane, owes the king obedience. But hearing of Grendel’s attacks on the neighboring Danes, he decides to go to their rescue, sailing from the valley of the Göta river in Sweden to the Danish island of Zealand, where Hrothgar has erected his mead-hall, Heorot. On arriving he was met by a courteous coast guard and conducted to Hrothgar’s court. Here he was graciously received by the king, and he and his companions were refreshed with pleasant drinks and entertained with songs. In introducing himself to Hrothgar, Beowulf spoke frankly of his own great deeds, whereupon Hunferth, the king’s official spokesman, or orator, attempted to humble the pride of the young hero. But Beowulf got the better of him in argument and proceeded with the business on which he had come. He offered to meet Grendel single-handed. The Coming of Grendel After the festivities, in which Hrothgar’s queen, Wealhtheow, took part, the king and his followers left the hall while Beowulf and his men remained to guard the place against possible attacks by the fiendish monster. One of the most famous passages in the poem tells of Grendel’s attack on Hrothgar’s meadhall and Beowulf’s victory, in which Beowulf tears off Grendel’s arm although the monster manages to escape. Even in the modern translation it is a thrilling piece of epic narration. Literature contains many stories about haunted houses made uninhabitable by demons or witches, but finally cleansed of their foul occupants by a hero who watched at night and met the monsters single-handed; none is told more impressively than this. Next morning, when Beowulf’s exploit was known, people came from far and wide to see Grendel’s track and the bubbling water red with blood, where he had sunk to his home beneath the marshy wilderness. One man composed a song praising Beowulf and sang it on the spot. He also sang a lay about characters in the story of Siegfried, another famous Germanic hero. After Hrothgar had congratulated Beowulf and thanked God for the victory, the warriors held a feast to celebrate the event. During the feast Hrothgar bestowed upon Beowulf a gold-adorned helmet and eight horses with decorated bridles, and upon each of Beowulf’s followers an old and valuable sword. The king’s official poet then recited a lay telling part of an ancient tale of feud and battle in which Hrothgar’s people were involved. The Coming of Grendel’s mother The following night Grendel’s mother, a terrible water demon, visited the hall in order to avenge her son’s defeat. She came during Beowulf’s temporary absence; but, finding the place occupied by other defenders, fled, carrying with her Grendel’s arm and one of Hrothgar’s most valued thanes. When Beowulf hastily returned, Hrothgar told him of this new misfortune and added that Grendel’s mother lived at the bottom of a gloomy, haunted pool not far from the meadhall. Beowulf replied that he would dare to attack the demon, even in her terrible watery home. The next morning, accompanied by Hrothgar and a band of chosen fighting men, he sought out the pool, on the edge of which they found the head of the warrior who had been carried off by Grendel’s mother. Then Beowulf put on his armor and took in his hand a famous sword called Hrunting the Thruster, lent him by Hunferth. Before diving beneath the water he requested Hrothgar to dispose of his possessions in case he did not return. Beowulf visits Grendel’s lair under the water and following a fight beneath the waves, Beowulf emerges the victor. Having returned to Hrothgar’s hall, Beowulf told about his encounter, displayed his trophies, and was praised by Hrothgar. Again we have a description of a feast, with its ceremony and dignified speeches. Next morning Beowulf and his companions took their leave and, loaded with treasures, returned home in their “foamy-necked ship, most like to a bird.” On his arrival Beowulf recounted his adventures and presented his gifts to the young king Hygelac and his queen Hygd. Again the poet lays great stress on the importance of etiquette. The Dragon When at last Hygelac fell in battle, Beowulf acted for a time as guardian of the kingdom. Finally he himself became king of the Geats and ruled wisely for fifty years. In his land living in a cave under an earth mound near the sea was a fire dragon 50 feet long guarding a treasure. When Beowulf was an old man, the dragon became angry because part of its treasure had been stolen, and with its breath it burned houses and villages far and wide. In spite of his age Beowulf put on his armor, and with twelve companions went to the mouth of the dragon’s cave. Here he bade farewell to his followers in a long and affectionate speech, closing with the assurance that he would do his duty, leaving Fate, or Wyrd, the ruler of men, to determine the outcome. He then approached the mouth of the cave and fought bravely against the dragon, but was wounded fatally. After the monster was slain by the only one of Beowulf’s retainers who did not flee, Beowulf, mortally wounded, commanded his follower to bring forth the treasure that he might look upon it, ordered his tomb to be built on the headland called the “Whale’s Ness,” and bade farewell to life. And “his soul went forth from his body to find eternal peace in the world beyond.” 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 12 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 13 of 121 The Nature of Grendel: Grendel ‘s In Old Norse literature, monsters of his They are articulate and usually angry, nature is, of course, diabolical from a type make their appearance chiefly as in contrast to the silent zombies of Christian point of view: he is a member of draugr, or animated corpses. They are Haiti. A draugr is supernaturally the race of Cain, from whom all ordinary folk who have been buried strong and invulnerable (being already misshapen and unnatural beings were upright in cairns (rock-pile; a pile of dead) and will often have a mother spawned, such as ogres and elves. He is a stones serving as a memorial, tomb, or called a ketta, or “she-cat,” who is creature dwelling in the outer darkness, a landmark), according to Norse custom, even more monstrous than he. giant, a cannibal. When he crawls off to but if they harbor a grievance after death Grendel, then, appears to be a blend of die, he is said to join the rout of devils in they will refuse to stay put and will roam the draugr figure and a devilish Hell. However, he also appears to have about at night wreaking aimless monster from the world of Christian roots in Scandinavian folklore. vengeance. folklore. The Poetry of Beowulf To celebrate Beowulf’s victory over Grendel, one of Hrothgar’s thanes steps forward, A minstrel mindful of saga and lay. He wove his words in a winsome pattern, Hymning the burden of Beowulf’s feat, Clothing the story in skillful verse. This is the way the Anglo-Saxon minstrel, or scop, composed poetry—spontaneously, in oral form, before an audience. The audience usually knew the story already and, as the poet says, the scop’s art was to “clothe” it in “skillful verse,” shaping the words and the details of the story to fit the occasion. The Beowulf-poet could read and write, but he worked in the traditions of this older oral poetry, as did the writers of the other Anglo-Saxon poetry that survives. The scops were able to stand in front of a crowd and compose poetry for hours at a time. First, they knew intimately a body of stories they had heard from earlier scops—the history and legends of their tribe. Probably they knew long passages of these earlier tellings by memory. Second, they used a form of verse that is simple, direct, and relatively flexible, admirably fitted to oral composition. Printed below are a few lines from Beowulf that serve to illustrate how Anglo-Saxon verse works. The symbols þ (thorn) and ð, called edh (eth), stand for the “th” sound. Each line, as you can see, breaks in the middle. This pause is called a caesura. Thus each line of verse divides into two half-lines, the basic building-blocks of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Each half-line contains two stressed syllables and any number of unstressed syllables; thus there are four strong beats to each line. Note the absence of rhyming. In Anglo-Saxon poetry a different type of repetition is used—the repetition of initial sounds called alliteration. Normally, alliterating consonants appear in the stressed syllables, one or two in the first half-line, and one in the second. Vowels in this scheme can also alliterate. (Any vowel was considered as alliterating with any other.) Fyrst forð ġewāāt flota wæs on ÿðum Time forth went; floater was on waves, bāt under beorge. Beornas ġearwe boat under cliff. Warriors eager on stefn stigon.— strēamas wundon, on prow climbed; streams eddied, sund wið sande; sea against sand Another device that helped the scop to compose on the spot was what Anglo-Saxons called a word-hoard, a great store of words to choose from. Their language was rich in synonyms: beorn, freca, and wiga all mean “warrior,” but with different connotations, derived from their original meanings as terms for “bear,” “wolf,” and “lighter.” In addition, the scops had developed a special vocabulary for poetry over the centuries, words and phrases that fit neatly together. Alternate forms were available to fit a particular context. For example, if the scop began a line with a stressed syllable starting with an “h” sound, he could say “on the sea” by the phrase, on hranrãde (“on the whale-road”); whereas if he began with an “s” sound, he could use on seglrade (“on the sail- road”). Most of the compound words used in Beowulf, like “shield-bearer,” are easily understood. But sometimes a more far-fetched descriptive comparison appears, for instance, in the phrase “candle of heaven” used to describe the sun. This is a kenning, two or more words that name something by a metaphor. There are many of them in Anglo-Saxon poetry: whale-road for “ocean,” peace-weaver for “woman,” light of battle for “sword.” 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 13 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 14 of 121 WORKSHEET: Anglo-Saxon Period (450-1066) Background 2 1) Put the following terms into perspective: Caesura: Alliteration: Kenning: Scop: 2) Put the following terms into perspective: Brittany: Wergild: Wyrd: Runes: 3) What is an epic poem? What is its subject matter? What does it focus on? What are the qualities of the epic hero? What can you say about the style of speech? 4) What is the origin of Beowulf? When was it put down on paper? Who is the poet? Although the poem is about a pre-Christian pagan world, why is there no mention of pagan gods in the poem? 5) Paraphrase/explain the following lines from Beowulf and point out the literary devices employed such as metaphor, alliteration, etc: The funeral wake of King Scyld: [wake: funeral watch; ceremony] On the ruler’s breast lay a royal treasure As the ship put out on the unknown deep. With no less adornment they dressed him round [adornment: decoration] [round: all over] Or gift of treasure, than once they gave Who launched him first on the lonely sea [launched: started off] While still but a child. A golden standard [standard: flag] They raised above him, high over head, [ALLITERATION: him/high/head] Let the wave take him on trackless whale-roads. [KENNING: whale-road for sea] Mournful their mood and heavy their hearts; [Mournful: sorrowful] Nor wise man nor warrior knows for a truth Unto what haven that cargo came.... [haven: safe place] [Scyld, King of the Danes, was brought to them mysteriously as a baby in a boat; through his prowess he became a hero & their king. They laid King Scyld into the ship which would take him to his final voyage into the unknown seas...] 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 14 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 15 of 121 THE ART OF TRANSLATION Translating Beowulf At first glance, most modern readers of English would think that a passage from Beowulf, like that below, is in a foreign language. A closer look, however, suggests something a little different. In the first line is the word lond, in the second wulf; in the third strēam. A little guesswork will suggest modern English equivalents for these words. The lines below from the Newcomer edition (Norton, lines 1357-1372) are translated by Charles Kennedy. Four other translations of this same passage are given on the following page. Notice how all these translations differ. THE ORIGINAL: THE TRANSLATION: 1 …Hīe dўgel lond Wild and lonely the land they live in, 2 warigeað, wulf-hleoþu, windige næssas, Windswept ridges and wolf-retreats, [ridges:cliffs] [retreat: cave] 3 frēcne fen-gelād, ðǽr fyrgen-strēam Dread tracts of fen where the falling torrent [dread tracts: gloomy areas] 4 under næassa genipu niþer gewīteð, Downward dips into gloom and shadow [fen: swamp] [torrent: waterfall] 5 flōd under foldan. Nis þæt feor heonon Under the dusk of the darkening cliff. [dusk: shadow] 6 mīl-gemearces, þæt se mere stan[d]eð Not far in miles lies the lonely mere [mere: pool; lake] 7 ofer þǽm hongiað hrinde bearwas, Where trees firm-rooted and hung with frost [hung: covered] 8 wudu wyrtum fæst wæter oferhelmað. Overshroud the wave with shadowing gloom. [Overshroud: cover] [wave: pool] 9 Þǽr mæg nihta gehwǽm nīð-wundor sēon, And there a portent appears each night, [portent: omen, sign] 10 fỹr on flōde. Nō þæs frōd leofað A flame in the water; no man so wise [no man: There is no man 11 gumena bearna þæt þone grund wite. Who knows the bound of its bottomless depth. [bound: limits] 12 Ðēah þe hǽð-stapa hundum geswenced, The heather-stepper, the horned stag, [stag: male deer] 13 heorot hornum trum holt-wudu sēce, The antlered hart hard driven by hounds, [*] [hart: deer] [hard driven: chased] 14 feorran geflỹmed, ǽr hē feorh seleð, Invading that forest in flight from afar [hounds: dogs] [afar: far away] 15 aldor on ōfre, ǽr hē in wille, Will turn at bay and die on the brink [at bay: cornered] [brink: edge] 16 hafelan [hỹdan] Nis þæt hēoru stōw! Ere ever he’ll plunge in that haunted pool. [ere: before; rather than] 17 ’Tis an eerie spot! [plunge: dive] [eerie: scary] * [Note the 3 appositives on lines 12-13, which refer to the same object, the deer: heather-stepper; horned stag; antlered hart] [The original Anglo-Saxon verse is comprised of 86 words whereas the translation utilizes 118 words to provide identical sense.] The analysis below makes reference to some of the various translations of this same excerpt found in the assignment on the following page and may prove useful in guiding you in your assignment. In line 12 of the Anglo-Saxon, the poet uses the kenning hæð-stapa to describe a male deer. Both Spaeth and Kennedy choose a very literal, only slightly modernized version of the original words: “heather-stepper.” Crossley- Holland uses a slightly different form: “moor-stalker” These odd phrases can puzzle some readers, so to make it easier Pearson stretches the kenning out until it becomes a whole image: “The hart heath-roaming...” Now its meaning may be clearer, but the translation doesn’t sound very much like the original. Raffel avoids the difficulty, and the poetic force, of the kenning altogether—in his version it becomes just “A deer.” At the beginning of line 10 in the Anglo-Saxon is the phrase fўr on flōde, part of a description of the frightful lake where Grendel and his mother live. The word on can be translated in various ways, and so, depending upon whose translation you turn to, the fire is “beneath” (Spaeth), “in” (Kennedy), or “on” (Pearson & Crossley- Holland) the water. Again Raffel ingeniously turns to a different solution: “At night that lake/Burns like a torch.” As the irregular line lengths suggest, all these translators try not only to convey the ideas, but also the quality of the poetry in Beowulf. While you may not be able to understand the third line of the Anglo-Saxon here, it is easy enough to notice the alliteration created by the repeated initial “ƒ” sound, as well as the caesura, the gap in the middle of the line that indicates a pause. Now the question is, can the translators somehow imitate these sounds and rhythms in a form the modern reader can understand? Kennedy and Spaeth in their translations tried with a good degree of success to recreate both the effect of the original words and to stay close to the order and the literal meaning; there is alliteration in both but not as pronounced as in the original text because for alliteration to work the repeated initial consonants must be at the beginning of a stressed syllable; those in unstressed syllables do not count. Spaeth employs a different solution, intertwining the repetition of the “m” and “s” sounds: “Ledges of mist, where mountain torrents...” Every good translation makes a statement of some kind about the text it translates. For example, when Raffel uses a plain word like “deer” he emphasizes fact and action; when Kennedy and Pearson both use “hart” it suggests a more elevated and remote world. Spaeth’s “to die on the brink ere he brave the plunge” is certainly different from Raffel’s “prefers to die... refuses to save its life”; the former echoes an older tradition of poetic speech, while the latter sounds quite modern. 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 15 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 16 of 121 Beowulf Translations [NORTON 7TH , lines 1357-1372] ASSIGNMENT: Compare the four different translated versions of the same text from Beowulf and fill in the chart at the bottom of the page. Use a statistical approach (e.g. in each extract count the number of kennings, the number of heavily alliterated lines, etc.). Finally say which translation you enjoyed the most and for what reason; which you found the most successful and for what reason. You may want to check your notes on the characteristics of Anglo-Saxon verse. ( A ) translated by J. Duncan SPAETH (1921) ( B ) translated by Burton RAFFEL (1963) Lonely and waste is the land they inhabit, They live in secret places, windy Wolf-cliffs wild and windy headlands, Cliffs, wolf-dens where water pours Ledges of mist, where mountain torrents From the rocks, then runs underground, where mist Downward plunge to dark abysses, Steams like black clouds, and the groves of trees And flow unseen. Not far from here Growing out over their lake are all covered O’er the moorland in miles, a mere expands. With frozen spray, and wind down snakelike Spray-frosted trees o’erspread it, and hang Roots that reach as far as the water O’er the water with roots fast wedged in the rocks. And help keep it dark. At night that lake There nightly is seen, beneath the flood, Burns like a torch. No one knows its bottom, A marvelous light. There lives not the man No wisdom reaches such depths. A deer, Has fathomed the depth of the dismal mere. Hunted through the woods by packs of hounds, Though the heather-stepper, the strong-horned stag, A stag with great horns, though driven through the forest Seek this cover, forspent with the chase, From faraway places, prefers to die Tracked by the hounds, he will turn at bay, On those shores, refuses to save its life To die on the brink ere he brave the plunge, In that water. It isn’t far, nor is it Hide his head in the haunted pool. A pleasant spot! ( C ) translated by Lucien Dean PEARSON (1965) ( D ) translated by Kevin CROSSLEY-HOLLAND (1968) The demons hold a secret land, a wolf-slope,... These two live Windy nesses and a ghastly fen-path in a little-known country, wolf-slopes, windswept headlands, Where the mountain-stream flows down to flood perilous paths across the boggy moors, where a mountain stream below the ground and underneath dark headland plunges under the mist-covered cliffs, Mists. The mere stands not far hence, mile measured; rushes through a fissure. It is not far from here, groves hang over it rime-coated; wood if measured in miles, that the lake stands Firm-rooted overscreens the waters. There shadowed by trees stiff with hoar-frost. A noxious marvel shows by night, A wood, firmly-rooted, frowns over the water. A fire on the flood. No living son There, night after night, a fearful wonder may be seen— of men is wise enough to know its bottom. Though fire on the water; no man alive The hart heath-roaming, strong in antlers, rake is so wise as to know the nature of its depths. The wood far-harried by the hounds, he yields Although the moor-stalker, the stag with strong horns, His spirit on the shore and will not plunge when harried by hounds will make for the wood, To save his head. That is no pleasant place! pursued from afar, he will succumb to the hounds on the brink, rather than plunge in and save his head. That is not a pleasant place. Fill in the chart by placing letter of translation in appropriate box: 1 THE EASIEST TO UNDERSTAND 2 THE MOST DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND 3 MOST ELEVATED/DIGNIFIED LANGUAGE AND STYLE 4 MOST PROSE-LIKE IN FORM 5 MOST PROSE-LIKE IN LANGUAGE & STYLE 6 MOST POETIC & MUSICAL 7 USE OF ARCHAIC LANGUAGE 8 USE OF MODERN NARRATION/STORY-TELLING STYLE 9 FREQUENT USE OF KENNING 10 LEAST USE OF KENNING 11 FREQUENT USE OF ALLITERATION 12 LEAST USE OF ALLITERATION 13 ECONOMY OF LANGUAGE 14 MOST INFLATED LANGUAGE 1-OCT-2020 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY 16 ELIT 101 STUDENT COPY PAGE 17 of 121 Anglo-Saxon / Old-English Selections BEDE (ca. 673-735) CÆDMON’S HYMN—From An Ecclesiastical History of the English People—[NORTON 7th edn. p.24] The Venerable Bede became a novice at the age of seven and spent the rest of his life in monasteries. Although he may never have traveled beyond the boundaries of his native district of Northumbria, he achieved an international reputation as one of the greatest scholars of his age. Writing in Latin, Bede produced many theological works as well as books on science and rhetoric, but his most popular and enduring work is the Ecclesiastical History of the English People (completed 731). The History tells about the Anglo-Saxon conquest and the changing conditions, the ups and downs, of the small kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England. Bede’s main theme, however, is the spread of Christianity and the growth of the English church. The History is also a moral work and a hagiography—stories of saints and miracles meant to testify to the grace and glory of God. The story we reprint preserves what is probably the earliest surviving Old English poem (composed sometime between 658-680) and the only biographical information about any Old English poet. Bede tells how Cædmon, an illiterate cowherd employed by the monastery of Whitby, miraculously received the gift of song, entered the monastery, and became the founder of a school of Christian poetry. Cædmon was clearly an oral-formulaic poet, one who created his work by combining and varying formulas—units of verse developed in a tradition transmitted by one generation of singers to another. Although Bede tells us that Cædmon had never learned the art of song, we may suspect that he concealed his skill from his fellow workmen and from the monks because he was ashamed of knowing “vain and idle” songs, the kind Bede says Cædmon never composed. Cædmon’s inspiration and the true miracle, then, was to apply the meter and language of such songs, presumably including pagan heroic verse, to Christian themes. Although most Old English poetry was written by lettered poets, they continued to use the oral-formulaic style. The Hymn is, therefore, a good short example of the way Old English verse, with its traditional poetic diction and formulaic expressions, is constructed. Eight of the poem’s eighteen half-lines contain epithets describing various aspects of God: He is Weard (Guardian), Meotod (Measurer), Wuldor-Fæder (Glory-Father), Drihten (Lord), Scyppend (Creator), and Frea (Master). God is heofonrices Weard or mancynnes Weard (heaven’s or mankind’s Guardian), depending on the alliteration required. This formulaic style provides a richness of texture and meaning difficult to convey in translation. THE STORY OF CÆDMON eternal Lord, afterwards made— Heavenly grace had especially singled out a certain one of the for men earth, Master almighty. brothers in the monastery ruled by this abbess [Hilda (614-680)] for This is the general sense but not the exact order of the words that he used to compose devout and religious songs. Whatever he learned he sang in his sleep; for it is impossible to make a literal translation of holy Scripture with the aid of interpreters, he quickly turned into of poetry into another language without losing some of the beauty the sweetest and most moving poetry in his own language, that is to and dignity. When he woke up, he remembered everything that he say English. It often happened that his songs kindled a contempt for had sung in his sleep, and to this he soon added, in the same poetic this world and a longing for the life of Heaven in the hearts of many measure, more verses praising God. men. Indeed, after him others among the English people tried to The next morning he went to the reeve [superintendent of the farms compose religious poetry, but no one could equal him because he belonging to the monastery], who was his foreman, and told him about was not taught the art of song by men or by human agency but the gift he had received. He was taken to the abbess and ordered to received this gift through heavenly grace. Therefore, he was never tell his dream and to recite his song to an audience of the most able to compose any vain and idle songs but only such as dealt with learned men so that they might judge what the nature of that vision religion and were proper for his religious tongue to utter. As a matter was and where it came from. It was evident to all of them that he had of fact, he had lived in the secular estate until he was well advanced been granted the heavenly grace of God. Then they expounded some in age without learning any songs. Therefore, at feasts, when it was bit of sacred story or teaching to him, and instructed him to turn it decided to have a good time by taking turns singing, whenever he into poetry if he could. He agreed and went away. And when he came would see the harp getting close to his place, he got up in the middle back the next morning, he gave back what had been commissioned of the meal and went home. [Oral poetry was performed to the to him in the finest verse. accompaniment of a harp; here the harp is being passed from person to Therefore, the abbess, who cherished the grace of God in this man, person, each being expected to perform in turn.] instructed him to give up secular life and to take monastic vows. And Once when he left the feast like this, he went to the cattle shed, when she and all those subject to her had received him into the which he had been assigned the duty of guarding that night. And community of brothers, she gave orders that he be taught the whole after he had stretched himself out and gone to sleep, he dreamed that sequence of sacred history. He remembered everything that he was someone was standing at his side and greeted him, calling out his able to learn by listening, and turning it over in his mind like a clean name. “Cædmon,” he said, “sing me something.” beast that chews the cud [In Mosaic law “clean” animals, are those that And he replied, “I don’t know how to sing; that is why I left the may be eaten; those that both chew the cud and have a cloven hoof ], he feast to come here—because I cannot sing.” converted it into sweetest song, which sounded so delightful that he “All the same,” said the one who was speaking to him, “you have made his teachers, in their turn, his listeners. He sang about the to sing for me.” creation of the world and the origin of the human race and all the “What must I sing?” he said. history of Genesis; about the exodus of Israel out of Egypt and And he said, “Sing about the Creation.” entrance into the promised land; and about many other stories of At this, Cædmon immediately began to sing verses in praise of sacred Scripture, about the Lord’s incarnation, and his passion [The God the Creator, which he had never heard before and of which the suffering of Christ on the Cross and during his trial leading up to the sense is this: Crucifixion], resurrection, and ascension into Heaven; about the Now we must praise heaven-kingdom’s Guardian, advent of the Holy Spirit and the teachings of the apostles. He also the Measurer’s might and his mind-plans, made many songs about the terror of the coming judgment and the the work of the Glory-Father, when he of wonders of every one, horror of the punishments of hel