Much of the notable Anglo-Saxon Prose or Old English prose was created during the reign of king Alfred the Great, the glorious king of Wessex, who translated a number of Latin Chronicles in English. Alfred was a courageous leader and a deeply religious scholar. He was the force and intelligence behind the establishment of English law. He was so remarkable, in fact, that he came to be called Alfred the Great—the only British monarch in history to be so honoured. Alfred instituted a program to translate significant learning and literature from Latin into Old English. One of the most important of these translations was that of the Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History of English People.” One literary figure Bede describes is Caedmon—the earliest known poet to compose in Old English.
King Alfred also encouraged Anglo-Saxon prose writers to compose new works in Old English. The first great prose work written in Old English was the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, a recode of historical events compiled by a number of writers over a period of more than three centuries. Writers also composed homilies, biographies of saints, and other works that helped establish Old English as a versatile literary language. Among the most important of these writers was Aelfric, a Benediction monk who wrote sermons in a sort of poetic prose. His most important works include the Catholic Homilies and Lives of Saints.
As we know that literature of any country in any period is the reflection of the life lived by the people of that country in that particular period; hence we find this in the Anglo Saxon period as well. The Angles and Saxons combined in themselves opposing traits of character—savagery and sentiment, rough living and deep feeling, splendid courage and deep melancholy resulting from thinking about the unanswered problems of death. Thus, they lived a rich external as well as internal life, and it is especially the later, which is the basis of their rich literature. To these brave and fearless fighters, love of untarnished glory, and happy domestic life and virtues, made great appeal. They followed in their life five great principles:
All these principles were reflected in their literature called Old English Prose of Anglo-Saxon Prose. They were full of emotions and aspirations, and loved music and songs. Thus, we read in Beowulf:
Music and song where the heroes sat—
The glee—wood rang, a song uprose
When Hrothgar’s scop gave the hall good cheer.
[Hrothgar (Old English: Hrōðgār)]
The Anglo-Saxon language is only a branch of the great Aryan or Indo-European family of languages. It has the same root words for father and mother, for God and man, for the common needs and the common relations of life, as we find in Sanskrit, Iranian, Greek and Latin. And it is this old vigorous Anglo-Saxon language which forms the basis of Modern English.
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Old English or Anglo-Saxon poetry
The Anglo Saxon or Old English Period (Timeline & Major Events)
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