Anglo-Saxon literature (or Old English literature) [E2] [F2] [S2] [I2] represents the literature of the 600-year Anglo-Saxon period of Britain, from the mid-5th century (the conversion to Christianity) to the Norman Conquest of 1066.The following genres are included in Old English literature: epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, riddles, and others. This literature was originally oral and often recited by a bard or scop who used to entertain noblemen in the halls of the kings.
Most of the Anglo-Saxons writers are anonymous apart from Caedmon, Bede, Alfred,and Cynewulf. Anglo-Saxon poetry was formed in a process of collective memorisation, from mouth to mouth , till they reached the time in which the amanuensis fixed it in the written form eliminating all the elements considered anti-Christian by them.
There are about 400 surviving manuscripts from the period. One of the most important works is the poem Beowulf, which has got national epic status in Britain.
There are about 600 manuscripts remaining from the Anglo-Saxon period. It is also one the oldest vernacular languages to be written down. King Alfred the Great (849899)[E3] [F3] [S3] [I3], noted that while very few people were able to read Latin, many coould read Old English. So he proposed that students might be educated in Old English, and only the excellent ones would learn Latin. This is why many of the texts are typical teaching and student-oriented texts.
This page is taken from the Vercelli Book
The four major manuscripts are:
The Junius manuscript, also known as the Caedmon manuscript, which is an illustrated poetic anthology.
The Exeter Book, also an anthology, located in the Exeter Cathedral
The Vercelli Book, a mix of poetry and prose; nobody knows why it is located in Vercelli
The Nowell Codex, a mixture of poetry and prose.It contains the famous epic poem Beowulf.
Not all of the texts are literary ones; some are just a list of names. They contain: sermons and saints' lives (the majority of them), biblical translations; translated Latin works of the early Church Fathers; Anglo-Saxon chronicles and narrative history works; laws, wills and other legal works; practical works on grammar, medicine, geography; lastly, but not least important, poetry.
