Anglo Saxon secular literature

 Secular Literature:

1. Heroic
• Epic poems (waldhere, Finnisburh, Beowulf)
• Minstrel poems (Widsith, Deor’s Lament)

2. Elegies
• Secular (The Wanderer, The Sea-Farer, The Ruins.)
• Love Elegies (The husband’s Complaint, The Wife’s Message, Wulf and Edwacer)
3. War Poems (The battle of Maldon, Brununberh)

4. Riddles

Detail:

1.    Heroic

Epic poems:

Epic Poems are long, serious poems that tells the story of a heroic figure.

·        Waldhere:

It is about King Waldhere. 60 lines. It is the story of Waldere (Walter) and Hildegyth who fall in love and steal treasure from the court of Attila, where they were held hostage. Waldere and Hildegyth are sought out by two men, Guthhere, who is the king of the Burgundians, and Hagena. These two men are after the treasure that Waldere and Hildegyth possess. The poem is about the conflict that is about to take place between the two parties. The first portion is a speech given by Hildegyth trying to motivate Waldere for his upcoming fight. The second fragment consists mainly of Waldere challenging and taunting Guthhere, daring Guthhere to strip Waldere‘s armor from his shoulders.

·       Finnisburh:

It is an Anglo Saxon poem composed in England. There are two major heroes in the battle of Finnishburh. Discovered in 1860. It is about the battle of |Finnisburh, also about crossing the passage of a lake. It is a fragmental poem.

·       Beowulf:

Most famous. 3182 lines. Found in 10^th c. written in 7^th or 8^th AD. It is about the ancestors or English race. Honor, wisdom, courage, loyalty of lords and warriors. This epic first time mentions women, Dannish princess in this epic. It is a long narrative poem handles traditional heroic idea. Depicts the culture and society of the heroic age. The heroic idealism, somber and fatalism are the characteristics of Angles Germania.

This epic poem describes the hero Beowulf marching with his fourteen warriors and arrive at the place of Heorot where he finds that he king of Heorot Hrothgar terrified by a monster called Grendel. Beowulf manages to kill Grendel and his monster-mother at his abode beneath a lake. After that he returns to his country and becomes the king there and rules his kingdom for fifty years. He dies of the wounds he got once during the combat fought with a dragon.

Minstrel poems

·       Widsith

Widsith is an Old English poem of 144 lines that appears to date from the 9th century, drawing on earlier oral traditions of Anglo-Saxon tale singing. The only text of the fragment is copied in the Exeter Book, a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the late 10th century containing approximately one sixth of all surviving Old English poetry. Widsith is an autobiographical record, In poem he is praising the king and their qualities such as bravery, kindness, hospitality, wisdom, courage etc.

·       Deor’s Lament:

"Deor" (or "The Lament of Deor") is an Old English poem, from the 10th century AD, preserved in the Exeter Book. The poem consists of the lament of the scop Deor, who lends his name to the poem, which was given no formal title. Modern scholars do not actually believe Deor to be the author of this poem. In the poem, Deor's lord has replaced him. Deor mentions various figures from Germanic mythology and reconciles his own troubles with the troubles these figures faced, ending each section with the refrain "that passed away, so may this." The poem consists of 42 alliterative lines.

2.     Elegies

a.   Secular

·       The Wanderer:

The Wanderer is an Old English poem preserved only in an anthology known as the Exeter Book, a manuscript dating from the late 10th century. It counts 115 lines of alliterative verse. The metre of the poem is of four-stress lines, divided between the second and third stresses by a caesura. Like most Old English poetry, it is written in alliterative metre. The Wanderer conveys the meditations of a solitary exile on his past glories as a warrior in his lord's band of retainers, his present hardships and the values of forbearance and faith in the heavenly Lord.

·       The Sea-Farer

The Seafarer is an Old English poem recorded in the Exeter Book, one of the four surviving manuscripts of Old English poetry. It contains 124 lines and has been commonly referred to as an elegy, a poem that mourns a loss, or has the more general meaning of a simply sorrowful piece of writing. It is told from the point of view of an old seafarer, who is reminiscing and evaluating his life as he has lived it.

·       The Ruins:

It is an interesting Anglo-Saxon poem with an elegiac tone. The theme of the poem is temporary of life. Poet gives the message that onw should look to God.” The Ruin" is an 8th-century Old English poem from the Exeter Book by an unknown author. The Exeter Book is a large book of mostly Christian verse, which contains about one-third of the extant Old English poems. The poem's subject is ancient Roman ruins, built of stone and having hot water, assumed to be the ruins of Aquae Sulis at modern Bath, Somerset, and the powerful fate (Weird or Wyrd) that has reduced to ruins a once-lively community and its sturdy stone buildings.

b.    Love Elegies

·       The husband’s Complaint:

The husband remind the wife of her earlier promises and tells her that he has been driven from her by a feud and bids her join him across the sea.

·       The Wife’s Message

Is considered as belonging to elegiac monologue. It is difficult to follow the precise situation the speaker is describing, but apparently the wife has been separate form her husband the central emotions comes through strongly, the love and longing for the absent husband.

·       Wulf and Edwacer

It is a dramatic monologue, existing only in a fragment of 19 lines in the Exeter book, which for all the obscurity of the situation described, express an intense romantic passion in way quite uncharacteristic of Anglo poetry as it came down to us. Wulf is the woman’s our lawed lover and Edwacer her hated husband, or atleast the man with whom, against her will, she is forced to live.

3.    War Poems:

·       The battle of Maldon

The battle of Maldon is the name given to an Old English poem of uncertain date celebrating the real Battle of  Maldon of 991, at which the English failed to prevent a Viking invasion. Only 325 lines of the poem are extant; both the beginning and the ending are lost. All names of Kings and warriors are mentioned along with geographical features. The poem discusses the defeat.

·       Brununberh

Old English poem of 73 lines included in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle under the year 937. It relates the victory of the Saxon King Athelstan over the allied Norse, Scots, and Strathclyde Briton invaders under the leadershipof Olaf Guthfithson, King of Dublin, The poem is probably a panegyric composed of Athelstan to celebrate his victory. It counts the dead kings and earls on the battlefield and pictures the Nosemen slinking back to Dublin in their ships.

4.   Riddles:

The Exeter book contains early hundred Anglo saxon riddles. Some of which seem to have been translated from original composed in England. The riddles worked as encyclopedia of the era of the Anglo Saxons. The chief advantage of the riddle is that they give the daily life of Anglo saxon England and the folk beliefs of the time.