A
BRIEF HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
by Dillan Kibar Dzikrika, Priska Amalia, and Erma Velanda
1. Old English
Period (the earliest time—1066)
Social background of english
literature in old period is affected on
the making of England, the invasion of Roman Empire in 4th AD,
and the attacks of Danish Vikings.
Example of the literature: Beowulf ,
the earliest literature, the national epic of the Anglo-Saxon, one of the
striking features—the use of alliteration
Epic is a long narrative poem in
elevated style presenting characters of high position in a series of adventures
which form an organic whole. The earliest epic: Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey,
and In alliterative verse, certain accented words in a line begin with the
same consonant sound.
Beowulf refers back to an
age of monster slayings in Scandinavia, but it interprets them as struggles
between good and evil, between humanity and the destructive force which undo
human order. Grendel, the first monster of the poem, is seen as ‘Godes andasca’,
the enemy of God. Other old english literature is The Battle of Maldon and
the Elegie, and The Biblical Poems and The Dream of the Rood.
