ANGLO-SAXON POETRY (pag.54)

letteratura inglese

ANGLO-SAXON POETRY (pag.54)

It is divided into Pagan poetry and Christian poetry. Pagan poetry was produced by Scops and handed down orally. It is heroic in spir 656i83g it and sad in tone because it showed the difficult way of living of those people. We have the production of elegies and epics. The most important Anglo-Saxon epic is Beowulf, the first great Anglo-Saxon hero. The Anglo-Saxon epic was full of alliteration and alliterative verse. It was full also of kennings. The most important representatives of Christian poetry are Caedmon and Cynewulf whose poetry was didactic and moralistic.

PROSE (pag.55)

Anglo-Saxon prose developed thanks to King Alfred who ordered to write the Anglo-Saxon chronicle. He was a very learned man and founded a school for nobles and he himself translated "Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum" by Bede and De Consolatione Filosofiae by Boezio. Then we have to remember Aelfric who translated from the Old Testament, as well as Homilies and Lives of the Saints.