The existing remains of Anglo-Saxon literature include compositions in
prose and poetry, some of which must be referred to a very early period,
one or two perhaps to a time before the Angles and Saxons emigrated to
England. Gildas, the author of a Latin treatise on British history, is
the precursor of the Anglo-Saxon writers, but the earliest author of
real distinction is St. Columbanus, an Irish missionary to western
Europe, who wrote religious treatises and Latin poetry, and died in 615.
Cædmon, a monk of Whitby, was the first Anglo-Saxon writer of eminence
who composed in his native tongue. Encouraged by the Abbess Hilda, he
wrote his _Paraphrase_, in which he discoursed of the Creation and the
Fall, and other Biblical themes. His verse was constructed neither in
measure nor rhyme, but it was differentiated from prose by a kind of
rough poetic alliteration.
The most important Anglo-Saxon poem is that called _Beowulf_, after its
hero, extending to more than six thousand lines. This poem may be
described as the heathen complement to Cædmon’s Christian _Paraphrase_.
Beowulf is a Scandinavian prince, who slays a fiendish cannibal, after
encountering supernatural perils, and is at last slain in a contest with
a frightful dragon. Its scene appears to be laid entirely in
Scandinavia. Its date is uncertain; parts of it may have been brought
over at the emigration from Germany, though in its present form it is
much later than this.
The next great name in the early literature is that of the Venerable
Bede, who was born at Jarrow, and became the great monastic teacher of
Wearmouth, dying in 735. He wrote numerous works in Latin, the chief of
which was his famous _Ecclesiastical History of the Anglo-Saxons_.
Alcuin, a native of northern England and an earnest student and teacher,
became the chief intellectual light in the court of Charlemagne. John
Scotus Erigena wrote, among other things, a work on the _Division of
Nature_, which is regarded as laying the foundation of the scholastic
philosophy. King Alfred (901), great in arms and noble and enlightened
in character, translated into Anglo-Saxon the histories of Bede and
Orosius, and Boethius’s _Consolations of Philosophy_. Other
contributions to literature are likewise attributed to him. Ælfric, the
grammarian, who died in 1006, wrote his eighty _Homilies_ for the use of
the common people.
The well-known _Saxon Chronicle_ is a survey of early English history,
written by various authors. It began soon after the time of Alfred, and
continued to the death of Stephen in 1154. Among its entries in verse is
a spirited poem on the battle of Brunanburh, fought victoriously by
Athelstan against his combined Danish and Celtic foes in 937. Besides
the leading writers above cited, there were others of less importance
who graced the Anglo-Saxon period--a period embracing some five hundred
years from the time of Columbanus to the Norman Conquest.