"English period, it gives evidence of the continuing attraction of the ""warrior tradition"": it is ""clear and convincing testimony to the vitality of the Old English battle-epic tradition; the authentic ring sounds out years after the Beowulf Poet, Caedmon, and Cynewulf have been laid to rest."" Donald Fry compares passages from ""Beowulf"" and ""Brunanburh"" (concerning the boarding of ships) and remarks on the ""similar diction and imagery"". According to Malcolm Godden, the language resembles that of the Old English ""Genesis A"". The poem is not without its detractors: an early critic, Walter J. Sedgefield, in a 1904 study of the"
"Old English literature Old English literature or Anglo-Saxon literature, encompasses literature written in Old English, in Anglo-Saxon England from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066. ""Cædmon's Hymn"", composed in the 7th century, according to Bede, is often considered the oldest extant poem in English, whereas the later poem, The Grave is one of the final poems written in Old English, and presents a transitional text between Old and Middle English. The ""Peterborough Chronicle"" can also be considered a late-period text, continuing into the 12th century. The poem ""Beowulf"", which often begins the traditional canon"
"English poetry This article focuses on poetry from the United Kingdom written in the English language. The article does not cover poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken, including Southern Ireland after December 1922. The earliest surviving English poetry, written in Anglo-Saxon, the direct predecessor of modern English, may have been composed as early as the 7th century. The earliest known English poem is a hymn on the creation; Bede attributes this to Cædmon (fl. 658–680), who was, according to legend, an illiterate herdsman who produced extemporaneous poetry at a monastery at Whitby. This is generally taken"
"presses such as Enitharmon have continued to promote original work from (among others) Dannie Abse, Martyn Crucefix and Jane Duran. English poetry This article focuses on poetry from the United Kingdom written in the English language. The article does not cover poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken, including Southern Ireland after December 1922. The earliest surviving English poetry, written in Anglo-Saxon, the direct predecessor of modern English, may have been composed as early as the 7th century. The earliest known English poem is a hymn on the creation; Bede attributes this to Cædmon (fl. 658–680), who"
"depends on conveying meaning through non-musical grammatical, tonal and rhythmic rules imitating speech. Although, these performances could be included in those of griots. The oldest surviving speculative fiction poem is the ""Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor"", written in ""Hieratic"" and ascribed a date around 2500 B.C.E. Other sources ascribe the earliest written poetry to the ""Epic of Gilgamesh"" written in ""cuneiform""; however, it is most likely that ""The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor"" predates ""Gilgamesh"" by half a millennium. The oldest epic poetry besides the ""Epic of Gilgamesh"" are the Greek epics ""Iliad"" and ""Odyssey"" and the Indian Sanskrit epics"
"works were written to be performed. Epic poems were thus very popular, and some, including ""Beowulf"", have survived to the present day. ""Beowulf"", is the most famous work in Old English and has achieved national epic status in England, despite being set in Scandinavia. Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous: twelve are known by name from Medieval sources, but only four of those are known by their vernacular works with any certainty: Cædmon, Bede, Alfred the Great, and Cynewulf. Cædmon is the earliest English poet whose name is known. Cædmon's only known surviving work is ""Cædmon's Hymn"", which probably dates"
"Cædmon's Hymn Cædmon's ""Hymn"" is a short Old English poem originally composed by Cædmon, an illiterate cow-herder who was able to sing in honour of God the Creator, using words that he had never heard before. It was composed between 658 and 680 and is the oldest recorded Old English poem, being composed within living memory of the Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England. It is also one of the oldest surviving samples of Germanic alliterative verse. The ""Hymn"" is Cædmon's sole surviving composition. It was designed to be sung from memory and was later preserved in written form by others, surviving"
"and mated with the goddess Inanna to ensure fertility and prosperity; it is considered the world's oldest love poem. An example of Egyptian epic poetry is ""The Story of Sinuhe"" (c. 1800 BCE). Other ancient epic poetry includes the Greek epics, the ""Iliad"" and the ""Odyssey""; the Avestan books, the ""Gathic Avesta"" and the ""Yasna""; the Roman national epic, Virgil's ""Aeneid""; and the Indian epics, the ""Ramayana"" and the ""Mahabharata"". Epic poetry, including the ""Odyssey"", the ""Gathas"", and the Indian ""Vedas"", appears to have been composed in poetic form as an aid to memorization and oral transmission, in prehistoric and"
"of the earliest attested examples of written Old English and one of the earliest recorded examples of sustained poetry in a Germanic language. Together with the runic Ruthwell Cross and Franks Casket inscriptions, ""Cædmon's Hymn"" is one of three candidates for the earliest attested example of Old English poetry. There is continuing critical debate about the status of the poem as it is now available to us. While some scholars accept the texts of the Hymn as more or less accurate transmissions of Cædmon's original, others argue that they originated as a back-translation from Bede's Latin, and that there is"
"Odyssey The Odyssey (; ""Odýsseia"", in Classical Attic) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the ""Iliad"", the other work ascribed to Homer. The ""Odyssey"" is fundamental to the modern Western canon; it is the second-oldest extant work of Western literature, while the ""Iliad"" is the oldest. Scholars believe the ""Odyssey"" was composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek coastal region of Anatolia. The poem mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus (known as Ulysses in Roman myths), king of Ithaca,"
"""Odyssey"", also attributed to Homer. Along with the ""Odyssey"", the ""Iliad"" is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the 8th century BC. In the modern vulgate (the standard accepted version), the ""Iliad"" contains 15,693 lines; it is written in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects. According to Michael N. Nagler, the ""Iliad"" is a more complicated epic poem than the ""Odyssey"". () After an invocation to the Muses, the story launches ""in medias res"" towards the end of the Trojan War between the Trojans"
"The Faerie Queene The Faerie Queene is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books I to III were first published in 1590, and then republished in 1596 together with books IV to VI. ""The Faerie Queene"" is notable for its form: it is one of the longest poems in the English language as well as the origin of the verse form known as the Spenserian stanza. On a literal level, the poem follows several knights as a means to examine different virtues, and though the text is primarily an allegorical work, it can be read on several levels of"
"Vercelli Book The Vercelli Book is one of the oldest of the four Old English Poetic Codices (the others being the Junius manuscript, the Exeter Book, and the Nowell Codex). It is an anthology of Old English prose and verse that dates back to the late 10th century. The manuscript is housed in the Capitulary Library of Vercelli, in northern Italy. The Vercelli Book comprises 135 folios, and although the manuscript was probably compiled and written in the late 10th century, not all of the texts found in the manuscript were originally written at that time. The poems ascribed to"
"innovations ""entitle him to be reckoned a genius""; inasmuch as the content of the hymn might strike us as conventional or ""banal"", according to Malone (1961), ""we are led astray by our knowledge of later poetry"". Cædmon's Hymn Cædmon's ""Hymn"" is a short Old English poem originally composed by Cædmon, an illiterate cow-herder who was able to sing in honour of God the Creator, using words that he had never heard before. It was composed between 658 and 680 and is the oldest recorded Old English poem, being composed within living memory of the Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England. It is"
"Dionysiaca The Dionysiaca (, ""Dionysiaká"") is an ancient Greek epic poem and the principal work of Nonnus. It is an epic in 48 books, the longest surviving poem from antiquity at 20,426 lines, composed in Homeric dialect and dactylic hexameters, the main subject of which is the life of Dionysus, his expedition to India, and his triumphant return to the west. The poem is thought to have been written in the late 4th and/or early 5th century. The ""Dionysiaca"" appears to be incomplete, and some scholars believe that a 49th book was being planned when Nonnus stopped work on the"
"his only known surviving work ""Cædmon's Hymn"" probably dates from the late 7th century. The poem is one of the earliest attested examples of Old English and is, with the runic Ruthwell Cross and Franks Casket inscriptions, one of three candidates for the earliest attested example of Old English poetry. It is also one of the earliest recorded examples of sustained poetry in a Germanic language. The poem, ""The Dream of the Rood"", was inscribed upon the Ruthwell Cross. Two Old English poems from the late 10th century are ""The Wanderer"" and ""The Seafarer"". Both have a religious theme, and"
"Dream of the Rood The Dream of the Rood is one of the Christian poems in the corpus of Old English literature and an example of the genre of dream poetry. Like most Old English poetry, it is written in alliterative verse. ""Rood"" is from the Old English word ""rōd"" 'pole', or more specifically 'crucifix'. Preserved in the 10th-century Vercelli Book, the poem may be as old as the 8th-century Ruthwell Cross, and is considered one of the oldest works of Old English literature. The poem is set up with the narrator having a dream. In this dream or vision"
"flames, and Beowulf deals the fatal blow. In his death-speech, Beowulf nominates Wiglaf as his heir, and that of the treasure. ""Beowulf"" is the oldest extant heroic poem in English literature and the first to present a dragon slayer. The legend of the dragonslayer already existed in Norse sagas such as the tale of Sigurd and Fafnir, and the ""Beowulf"" poet incorporates motifs and themes common to dragon-lore in the poem. ""Beowulf"" is the earliest surviving piece of Anglo-Saxon literature to feature a dragon, and it is possible that the poet had access to similar stories from Germanic legend. Secular"
"achieved national epic status in England, despite being set in Scandinavia. The only surviving manuscript is the Nowell Codex, the precise date of which is debated, but most estimates place it close to the year 1000. Beowulf is the conventional title, and its composition is dated between the 8th and the early 11th century. Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous: twelve are known by name from medieval sources, but only four of those are known by their vernacular works with any certainty: Cædmon, Bede, Alfred the Great, and Cynewulf. Cædmon is the earliest English poet whose name is known, and"
"sole surviving composition. The poem forms a prominent landmark and reference point for the study of Old English prosody, for the early influence which Christianity had on the poems and songs of the Anglo-Saxon people after their conversion. Cædmon's ""Hymn"" is the oldest recorded Old English poem, and also one of the oldest surviving samples of Germanic alliterative verse. Within Old English, only the inscriptions upon the Ruthwell Cross (doubtful) or Franks Casket (7th or early 8th century) may be of comparable age. Outside of Old English, there are a few alliterative lines preserved in epigraphy (Horns of Gallehus, Pforzen"
"Epic of Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia that is often regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about Bilgamesh (Sumerian for ""Gilgamesh""), king of Uruk, dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (). These independent stories were later used as source material for a combined epic in Akkadian. The first surviving version of this combined epic, known as the ""Old Babylonian"" version, dates to the 18th century BC and is titled after its ""incipit"", Shūtur eli sharrī (""Surpassing All Other"
"Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) is known as the Father of English literature and is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. He was the first to be buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Chaucer achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his 10 year-old son Lewis. He also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, and diplomat. Among his many works are ""The Book of the Duchess"", ""The House of Fame"", ""The Legend of"
"Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) is known as the Father of English literature and is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. He was the first to be buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Chaucer achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his 10 year-old son Lewis. He also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, and diplomat. Among his many works are ""The Book of the Duchess"", ""The House of Fame"", ""The Legend of"
"other things, the principle of euphony itself, sometimes altogether forgoing rhyme or set rhythm. In today's increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages. Some scholars believe that the art of poetry may predate literacy. Others, however, suggest that poetry did not necessarily predate writing. The oldest surviving epic poem, the ""Epic of Gilgamesh"", comes from the 3rd millenniumBCE in Sumer (in Mesopotamia, now Iraq), and was written in cuneiform script on clay tablets and, later, on papyrus. A tablet dating to c.2000BCE describes an annual rite in which the king symbolically married"
"The ""Anglo-Saxon Chronicle"" is a collection of annals in Old English, from the 9th century, that chronicle is the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The poem ""Battle of Maldon"" also deals with history. This is a work of uncertain date, celebrating the Battle of Maldon of 991, at which the Anglo-Saxons failed to prevent a Viking invasion. Oral tradition was very strong in early English culture and most literary works were written to be performed. Epic poems were very popular, and some, including ""Beowulf"", have survived to the present day. ""Beowulf"" is the most famous work in Old English, and has"
"Beowulf Beowulf (; ) is an Old English epic story consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It may be the oldest surviving long story in Old English and is commonly cited as one of the most important works of Old English literature. The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating pertains to the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025. The author was an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, referred to by scholars as the """"Beowulf"" author"". The story is set in Scandinavia. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar,"
"Cædmon Cædmon (; ""fl. c."" AD 657–684) is the earliest English (Northumbrian) poet whose name is known. An Anglo-Saxon who cared for the animals at the double monastery of Streonæshalch (Whitby Abbey) during the abbacy (657–680) of St. Hilda (614–680), he was originally ignorant of ""the art of song"" but learned to compose one night in the course of a dream, according to the 8th-century historian Bede. He later became a zealous monk and an accomplished and inspirational Christian poet. Cædmon is one of twelve Anglo-Saxon poets identified in medieval sources, and one of only three of these for whom"
"expressed in a language that is imaginative, dignified and sincere. Like the lyric, an ode is of Greek origin. The lyrics can be on various themes. The earliest odes in the English language, using the word in its strict form, were the ""Epithalamium"" and ""Prothalamium"" of Edmund Spenser. In the 17th century, the most important original odes in English are by Abraham Cowley. These were iambic, but had irregular line length patterns and rhyme schemes. Cowley based the principle of his Pindariques on an apparent misunderstanding of Pindar's metrical practice but, nonetheless, others widely imitated his style, with notable success"
"for another Anglo-Norman poem, the ""Lai d'havelok"", which in turn may have influenced ""Havelok the Dane"". ""Havelok"" is the second oldest surviving romance written in English, after King Horn; it is believed to have been composed somewhere between 1280–1310. The romance survives in one imperfect version in the Bodleian Library in Oxford University, as well as some fragments. A copy of the 3,001 line poem is available to view in Grimsby Public Library. A new publication of the late 19th-century translation by Walter Skeat is available as ""The Lay of Havelock the Dane"". ""Havelok"" is often categorized as belonging to"
"hymns and proverbs. In addition to Biblical paraphrases are a number of original religious poems, mostly lyrical (non-narrative). The Exeter Book contains a series of poems entitled ""Christ"", sectioned into ""Christ I"", ""Christ II"" and ""Christ III"". Considered one of the most beautiful of all Old English poems is ""Dream of the Rood"", contained in the Vercelli Book. The presence of a portion of the poem (in Northumbrian dialect) carved in ruins on an 8th century stone cross found in Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, verifies the age of at least this portion of the poem. The Dream of the Rood is a"
"English poems are recorded without authors, and very few names are known with any certainty; the primary three are Cædmon, Aldhelm, and Cynewulf. Cædmon is considered the first Old English poet whose work still survives. According to the account in Bede's ""Historia ecclesiastica"", he was first a herdsman before living as a monk at the abbey of Whitby in Northumbria in the 7th century. Only his first poem, comprising nine-lines, ""Cædmon's Hymn"", remains, in Northumbrian, West-Saxon and Latin versions that appear in 19 surviving manuscripts: Cynewulf has proven to be a difficult figure to identify, but recent research suggests he"
"and journalist Thomas De Quincey (1785–1859). However, at the time, Walter Scott (1771–1832) was the most famous poet. Scott achieved immediate success with his long narrative poem ""The Lay of the Last Minstrel"" in 1805, followed by the full epic poem ""Marmion"" in 1808. Both were set in the distant Scottish past. The early Romantic Poets brought a new emotionalism and introspection, and their emergence is marked by the first romantic manifesto in English literature, the ""Preface"" to ""Lyrical Ballads"" (1798). The poems in ""Lyrical Ballads"" were mostly by Wordsworth, although Coleridge contributed the long ""Rime of the Ancient Mariner""."
"who, throughout the story, do nothing and ""generally serve as backdrops for more heroic action."" Daniel Podgorski has argued that the work is best understood as an examination of inter-generational vengeance-based conflict, or feuding. In this context, the poem operates as an indictment of feuding conflicts as a function of its conspicuous, circuitous, and lengthy depiction of the Geatish-Swedish wars—coming into contrast with the poem's depiction of the protagonist Beowulf as being disassociated from the ongoing feuds in every way. Beowulf Beowulf (; ) is an Old English epic story consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It may be the oldest"