English Literature

(1100-1485)
3. Elizabethan Literature (1485-1603)
4. The Stuarts and the Puritans (1603-1660)
5.

The Restoration Period (1660-1700)
6. The Augustan Age (1700-1750)
7. The Age of Johnson (1750-1784)
8. Romanticism (1784-1832)
9. The Victorian Age (1837-1901)
10. Modern English Literature (1901-1980s)
11. Contemporary English Literature (1980s-now)

æþelingas ellen fremedon!
Initial lines from the Old English poem
“Beowulf”

half-lines, separated by a pause (caesura);
oft Scyld Scefing

sceaþena þreatum,

2) each half-line consisted of two ‘feet’ (each foot has a stressed syllable (X) and a number on unstressed ones (x)); oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum
x X X x X x X x X x x
3) the two half-lines are joined by alliteration -- the same consonant of the stressed syllable;
oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum
x X X x X x X x X x x
4) a word beginning with a vowel alliterated with any other word beginning the any other vowel.

“the sun” heofon-candel “sky-candle”
heofones ġim “sky’s jewel”

prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,

we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls. Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,
gave him gifts: a good king he!

war advanced, the Viking troop,
Unmoved by water, westward over Pante,
Over

the gleaming water bore their shields.
The seamen brought their linded-shields o land.
There Byrhtnoth and his warriors stood ready
To meet their enemies;

(before 940)

the English People" (731)
“De orthographia” (on spelling)
“De arte metrica”

(on the art of versification)

- Bede “History”
- abstracts from the Bible
Boethius
“Consolation of

Philosophy”

historical writing in Old English
"Anglo-Saxon Chronicle"
(892 to 1154)

Jutes, Saxons (5th century AD);
- conversion to Christianity by 660

AD;
- Norman-French invasion in 1066

700);
- "The Battle of Maldon" (soon after 991);
- Caedmon "Caedmon's

Hymn" (600's);
- Cynewulf "The Fates of the Apostles," "Elene“, “Juliana” (before 940);
- “The Dream of the Rood”
- Prose: - King Alfred the Great of Wessex (800's);
- St. Bede the Venerable "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" (731)
- "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (from about 892 to 1154).