An Outline of English Literature [antikvár]

LONGMAN BACKGROUND BOOKS Longman Background Books is a new series of informative and factual books about aspects of Britain's past and present. In many countries students who are learning a foreign language are required to learn also something of the cultural activities, the attitudes of mind and the ways of life (both past and present) of the people whose language they are learning. This series is therefore an attempt to help the foreign student by describing and examining certain aspects of British life and history. An Outline of English Literature is the first tide to be published in this series -other tides to follow immediately are An Outline History of England, Britain Today and London Today All the books in the series are written within a general vocabulary of 2000 words (taken from A General Service List of English Words), to which the authors have added a limited number of words outside this list where they are connected with the subject and facilitate expression. Old English Literature The Sign of Alfred the Great, K ing of Englandfrom 8y i to 8gg The Old English language, also called Anglo-Saxon, was the earliest form of English. It is difficult to give exact dates for the rise and development of a language, because it does not change suddenly; but perhaps it is true to say that Old English was spoken from about A.D. 600 to about 1100. The greatest Old English poem is Beowulf, which belongs to the seventh century. It is a story of about 3,000 lines, and it is the first English epic. ^ The name of its author is unknown. Beowulf is not about England, but about Hrothgar, King of the Danes, and about a brave young man, Beowulf, from southern Sweden, who goes to help him. Hrothgar is in trouble. His great hall, called Heorot, is visited at night by a terrible creature, Grendel, which lives in a lake and comes to kill and eat Hrothgar's men. One night Beowulf waits secretly for this thing, attacks it, and in a fierce fight pulls its arm off. It manages to reach the lake again, but dies there. Then its mother comes to the hall in search of revenge, and the attacks begin again. Beowulf follows her to the bottom of the lake and kills her there. In later days Beowulf, now king of his people, has to defend his country against a fire-breathing creature. He kills the animal but is badly wounded in the fight, and dies. The poem ends with a sorrowful description of Beowulf s funeral fire. Here are a few lines of it, put into modern letters: '«/lie, the story in poetry of the adventures ol a brave man (or men)