English Literature

CHAPTER II. THE ANGLO-SAXON OR OLD-ENGLISH

PERIOD (450-1050)

of Britain; and since then it has been in general use among En-
glish writers. In recent years the name has gained a wider sig-
nificance, until it is now used to denote a spirit rather than a
nation, the brave, vigorous, enlarging spirit that characterizes
the English-speaking races everywhere, and that has already
put a broad belt of English law and English liberty around
the whole world.

THE LIFE.If the literature of a people springs directly out
of its life, then the stern, barbarous life of our Saxon forefa-
thers would seem, at first glance, to promise little of good lit-
erature. Outwardly their life was a constant hardship, a per-
petual struggle against savage nature and savage men. Be-
hind them were gloomy forests inhabited by wild beasts and
still wilder men, and peopled in their imagination with drag-
ons and evil shapes. In front of them, thundering at the very
dikes for entrance, was the treacherous North Sea, with its
fogs and storms and ice, but with that indefinable call of the
deep that all men hear who live long beneath its influence.
Here they lived, a big, blond, powerful race, and hunted and
fought and sailed, and drank and feasted when their labor
was done. Almost the first thing we notice about these big,
fearless, childish men is that they love the sea; and because
they love it they hear and answer its call

...No delight has he in the world,

Nor in aught save the roll of the billows;

but always a longing,

A yearning uneasiness,

hastens him on to the sea.^22

As might be expected, this love of the ocean finds expres-
sion in all their poetry. InBeowulf alone there are fifteen

"the common sun whereat our modern writers haveall kindled their little
torches".

(^22) From Iddings’ version ofThe Seafarer.