Homework Question on Anglo-Saxon and Middle English Literature
- Please read the two texts attached below: Beowulf, and the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales
- http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/webcore/murphy/canterbury/2genpro.pdf
- https://mralbertsclass.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/beowulf-translation-by-seamus-heaney.pdf
- Using these two texts as your guide, please describe some of the MAIN DIFFERENCES between Anglo-Saxon and Middle English Literature.
- The entry must be at least 300 words in length.
- Points will be deducted for entries that are too short or have glaring grammatical errors.
Homework Answer on Anglo-Saxon and Middle English Literature
In the texts, “Beowulf, and the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales”, the author introduces the readers to a much more medieval time that dates as far back than the Anglo-Saxon times. The author creates an impression of old literature with old English to match. The general literature features giants and different people only known to ancient times. Beowulf arrives in the land of the Danes from his home in Geatland as the Scylding coastal guard takes note of him as a mightier nobleman in his big size he has never glanced before.
The Anglo-Saxon people were people who inhabited the Great Britain in the 5th century. Most of them were natives of Germany who had migrated to Great Britain. The German tribes mixed with the indigenous British and adopted their ways of life and the Anglo-Saxon language and culture. The effect of mixing with the Germans is the creation of literature subsets, the creation of a religional government that includes the shires that still survive to date. The study of Anglo-Saxon literature dates as back during the periods of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
The mixing of the German migrants with the indigenous Englishmen of the Great Britain led to the diversification of English literature that is evidenced in various literary works and poetry. The Anglo-Saxon poetry is divided into heroic pre-Christian poetry and the poetry with a Christian influence. Beowulf is a classic example of one of the earliest poetry and one of the earliest surviving Germanic epic poems that is regarded as old English literature. The diversification of Trabadous in the middle ages led to the replacement of the heroic nature of Anglo-Saxon poetry with the theme of courtly love.