A History of English Literature

Britain has, he explains, Theodore and Hadrian. Aldhelm wrote sermons in verse, and a treatise in verse for a convent of nuns, o ...

the account of the final acts of Bede, a professional writer. This shows that compos- ing came before writing: Bede composed and ...

Then the Lord of mankind, the everlasting Shepherd, Ordained in the midst as a dwelling place The almighty Lord – the earth for ...

Then I saw, marching toward me, Mankind’s brave King; He came to climb upon me. I dared not break or bend aside Against God’s wi ...

devotion’, affecting the emotions and moving the audience from confusion towards faith. It boldly adapts the Gospel accounts to ...

hero ic terms, as The Dream of the Roodhad,but without reconceiving heroism. Here is the opening ofAndreasin the translation of ...

made known to the laity through the liturgical programme of prayers and readings at Mass through the cycle of the Christian year ...

Alfred Bede and Ælfric were monks from boyhood, Cædmon was a farmhand. The life of Alfredcasts an interesting light on literacy ...

Peterborough until 1154. It used to be regarded as the most important work written in English before the Norman Conquest, a palm ...

Alfred’s educational programme for the laity did not succeed at first but bore fruit later in the Wessex of his grandson Edgar, ...

who lived between them in southern Sweden, the Geats. The name Beowulf is not recorded in history, but the political and dynasti ...

when the men are asleep. He devours thirty of Hrothgar’s thanes. Beowulf hears of the persecution of the Danes and comes to kill ...

The heroic way of life – magnificent, hospitable and courageous – depends upon military success. It can descend into the world o ...

lament for the transitoriness of life’s glory, expressed in ‘The Wanderer’ and ‘The Ruin’ in the image of a ruined hall. All thr ...

battlefield topography, tactics and the names of local men who took part, names recorded in Essex charters. We hear of words spo ...

bishopric and the capital of Wessex and of England: work in metal and gems, book production, manuscript illumination, embroidery ...

Contents The new writing 36 Handwriting and printing 36 The impact of French 37 Scribal practice 37 Dialect and language change ...

As printing and Protestantism established themselves, the manuscripts in which vernacularwriting survived, outdated and possibly ...

Dialect and language change Even when English had attained full literary parity with French in the reign of Richard II (r.1372–9 ...

The resulting confusion encouraged a loss of inflection. Element-order became the indicator of syntax and of sense: subject–verb ...