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=={{Anchor|Old English literature}} Old English literature (c. 450–1066)==
{{Main|Old English literature}}
[[File:Beowulf.firstpage.jpeg|thumb|left|The first page of ''[[Beowulf]]'']]
[[Old English literature]], or Anglo-Saxon literature, encompasses the surviving literature written in [[Old English language|Old English]] in [[Anglo-Saxon England]], in the period after the settlement of the [[Saxon people|Saxons]] and other Germanic tribes in England ([[Jutes]] and the [[Angles]]) c. 450, after the withdrawal of the [[Ancient Romans|Romans]], and "ending soon after the Norman Conquest" in 1066.{{Sfn | Drabble | 1996 | p = 323}} These works include genres such as [[epic poem|epic poetry]], [[hagiography]], [[sermon]]s, [[Bible]] translations, legal works, [[chronicle]]s and riddles.[[[Angus Cameron (academic)|Angus Cameron]] (1983). "Anglo-Saxon literature" in ''[[Dictionary of the Middle Ages]]'', vol. 1, pp. 274–88.] In all there are about 400 surviving [[manuscript]]s from the period.
''[[Widsith]]'', which appears in the [[Exeter Book]] of the late 10th century, gives a list of kings of tribes ordered according to their popularity and impact on history, with [[Attila]] King of the [[Huns]] coming first, followed by [[Ermanaric|Eormanric]] of the [[Ostrogoths]].[{{Cite book|title=Iron Age myth and materiality : an archaeology of Scandinavia, AD 400–1000|last=Lotte.|first=Hedeager|date=2011|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-60602-8|location=Abindon, Oxfordshire; New York|oclc=666403125|chapter=Knowledge Production Reconsidered|pages=177–90}}]{{rp|187}} It may also be the oldest extant work that tells the [[Hlöðskviða|Battle of the Goths and Huns]], which is also told in such later Scandinavian works as [[Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks|''Hervarar's saga'']] and ''[[Gesta Danorum]]''.{{rp|179}} [[Lotte Hedeager]] argues that the work is far older, however, and that it likely dates back to the late 6th or early 7th century, citing the author's knowledge of historical details and accuracy as proof of its authenticity.[{{rp|184–86}} She does note, however, that some authors, such as [[John D. Niles|John Niles]], have argued the work was invented in the 10th century.][{{rp|181–84}}
The ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' is a collection of [[annals]] in [[Old English]], from the 9th century, that [[chronicle]]s the history of the [[Anglo-Saxons]].][Stanley Brian Greenfield, ''A New Critical History of Old English Literature'' (New York: New York University Press, Abels, Richard (2005). ''Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England''. Longman. p. 15. {{ISBN|0-582-04047-7}}.] The poem ''[[The Battle of Maldon (poem)|Battle of Maldon]]'' also deals with history. This is a work of uncertain date, celebrating the [[Battle of Maldon]] of 991, at which the Anglo-Saxons failed to prevent a [[Viking]] invasion.{{Sfn | Drabble | 1996 | p = 369}}
[[Orature|Oral tradition]] was very strong in early [[Anglo-Saxon England|English culture]] and most literary works were written to be performed.[{{Citation | first = Francis P jr | last = Magoun | title = The Oral-Formulaic Character of Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry | journal = Speculum | volume = 28 | issue = 3 | pages = 446–67 | doi=10.2307/2847021| jstor = 2847021 | year = 1953 }}.][{{Citation | last = Fry | first = Donald K jr | year = 1968 | title = The Beowulf Poet: A Collection of Critical Essays | place = Englewood Cliffs | publisher = Prentice-Hall | pages = 83–113}}.] [[Epic poetry|Epic poems]] were very popular, and some, including ''[[Beowulf]]'', have survived to the present day. ''[[Beowulf]]'' is the most famous work in Old English, and has achieved [[national epic]] status in England, despite being set in Scandinavia. The only surviving manuscript is the [[Nowell Codex]], the precise date of which is debated, but most estimates place it close to the year 1000. [[Beowulf]] is the conventional title,{{Sfn | Robinson | 2001 | ps =: 'Like most Old English poems, Beowulf has no title in the unique manuscript in which it survives (British Library, Cotton Vitellius A.xv, which was copied round the year 1000 AD), but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject.'}} and its composition is dated between the 8th{{Sfn | Tolkien | 1958 | p = 127}}[{{Cite book | last = Hieatt | first = A Kent | title = Beowulf and Other Old English Poems | location = New York | publisher = Bantam Books | pages = xi–xiii | year = 1983}}] and the early 11th century.{{Sfn | Kiernan | 1996 | pp = xix–xx, 3–4, 23–34, 60, 62, 90, 162, 171, 258, 257, 277–78, footnote 69}}
Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous: twelve are known by name from medieval sources, but only four of those are known by their vernacular works with any certainty: [[Cædmon]], [[Bede]], [[Alfred the Great]], and [[Cynewulf]]. Cædmon is the earliest English poet whose name is known,{{Sfn | Fulk | Cain | 2003}}{{Pages needed |date=January 2015}} and his only known surviving work ''[[Cædmon's Hymn]]'' probably dates from the late 7th century. The poem is one of the earliest attested examples of Old English and is, with the [[runic]] [[Ruthwell Cross]] and [[Franks Casket]] inscriptions, one of three candidates for the earliest attested example of Old English poetry. It is also one of the earliest recorded examples of sustained poetry in a [[Germanic languages|Germanic language]]. The poem, ''[[The Dream of the Rood]]'', was inscribed upon the [[Ruthwell Cross]].{{Sfn | Fulk | Cain | 2003}}{{Pages needed |date=January 2015}}
Two [[Old English]] poems from the late 10th century are ''[[The Wanderer (Old English poem)|The Wanderer]]'' and ''[[The Seafarer (poem)|The Seafarer]]''. {{Sfn | Drabble | 1996 | p = 1052}} Both have a religious theme, and [[Richard Marsden]] describes ''The Seafarer'' as "an exhortatory and didactic poem, in which the miseries of winter seafaring are used as a metaphor for the challenge faced by the committed Christian […]".[Marsden, Richard (2004). The Cambridge Old English Reader. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. p. 221. {{ISBN|978-0-521-45612-8}}.]
Classical antiquity was not forgotten in Anglo-Saxon England, and several Old English poems are adaptations of [[Late Antiquity|late classical]] philosophical texts. The longest is [[King Alfred]]'s (849–899) 9th-century translation of [[Boethius]]' ''[[Consolation of Philosophy]]''.[Walter John Sedgefield (ed.), ''King Alfred's Old English Version of Boethius: De consolatione philosophiae'', 1968 (1899)]
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