Literature of the old English Period (450-1066) is not of much significance today.It is written in an archaic Germanic language (called the Anglo saxon). This old English language is difficult to understand, and few have any significant knowledge of this tongue.Thus Old English Literature is now lost to us for all practical purposes. Anglo-Saxon Literature is classified under the following four heads: (A ) Personal and Elegiac Poems: In this section of the poems the first is Widsith or The Far Wanderer. It consists of nearly 150 lines of verse,in which a traveller recounts the places and illustrious people he had visited. The is glorification of the poet's craft and of the generosity of his royal patrons. In Doer's Lament We have another picture of Saxon scop or singer, not in glad wandering, but in many sorrow. Wanderer is an elegiac poem in which a young man sighs for his dead liege-lord, resulting in the loss of young sailor. (B) War Songs : The Flight at Finnsburh is fragment of some forty-eight lines,describing a surprised night attack on a hall.The fight continued for five days with great slaughter on either side. (C) Riddles: One of most curious and interesting of Anglo-Saxon poems is a collection of Riddle.( D) The Epic Poems:Beowulf is an old English epic poem in tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting 3182 alternative lines. It begins with a prologue, which is not a essential part of the story ,but We review gladly for the sake of the splendid poetical conception and produced Scyld King of spear Danes.It is one of the most important ad most often translated works of English literature. It's composition date is disputed ( C. 700- 1000 AD) .It's writer is unknown. Beowulf is the only epic and heroic poem in our literature which still merits attention. It is earlist surviving epic,but It lacks the unity and coherence of classical epics . Form and style of Anglo-Saxon Poetry : The poetry of the Anglo-Saxon was sung, for they were singing folk and held the scoping Gleeson in high esteem. The material unit is the single line,which regularly consists of four strongly accented syllables, with three alternative unaccented syllables. Apart from the single line,There is in the older alternative poetry a skill in composing long passages), as the sense often flows from one line to another. Rhyme is rarely used ,but There is the prevalence of compound words, for example:- geal-adl( gall-disease), lie-sang( corpse- song),death- reced(tomb) and so on.
