Old+English+Time+period

Old English Authors of the period: Caedmon - Earliest poet known of the period. Bede - “The father of English History” English monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Sain Peter at Monkwearmouth Alfred the Grea t - King of Wessex from 871 to 899. Defended the kingdom from a Viking attack. Cynewulf - F amous for his religious compositions, and is regarded as one of the pre-eminent figures of Christian Old English poetry Many anonymous- Many of the authors in the Old English period were unknown.

Major Works of the period: Beowulf- Most famous epic poem in the Old English time period. Finnesburg Fragment- A fragment of a poem explaing the battles in Beowulf Cædmon's Hymn- nine-line alliterative vernacular praise poem in honor of God which he supposedly learned to sing in his initial dream. The Fates of the Apostles- Shortest of Cynewulf’s known canon at 122 lines long. It is a brief martyrology of the Twelve Apostles written in the standardalliterative verse. Juliana- Single lined poem written by Cynewulf Time Period Characteristics: Buildings were simple, had small towns located in the center of agriculture. Usually near a river or other water source. The art of the period was made of ivory, stone or metal. The old English language came from Germanic language. Heres the old English letters // a æ b c d ð e f g h i l m n o p r s t þ u w x y // with only rare occurrences of //j//, //k//, //q//, //v//, and //z//. If someone was caught stealing or convicted of a crime, they would chop the hands off of the criminal. If you killed a person from this time, you have to pay a certain type of money, depending on the social class of the victim. There’s around 400 manuscripts from this time period. The most famous work known from the old English period is Beowulf.

Analysis of Beowulf: Title: Beowulf Author: Unknown Style: Epic Poem Devices:  Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory Allusion. The fear of the sea and danger. The mead hall named Heorot translates to “hart” which is a male deer. Deer are majestic animals that are prey to many other animals and humans. This suggests that the evil Grendel will attack the men of Beowulf’s army repeatedly. The swords in the story fail many times. This shows the problems of battle and that Beowulf is too powerful for artificial advantages. References to Religion and Mythology. Point of View: 3rd person, Narrator sees and knows everything, skips from place to place to explain the story and to and from different characters. Meaning: This epic poem was for people to read and enjoy. It was a tale to pass down from generation to generation.