The Anglo-Saxon people were composed of various Germanic tribes that came into the English Islands during the Middle Ages. The people of these tribes originally practised poetry through oral tradition, but when Christianity was introduced, some written work was preserved and survived. The Anglo-Saxon poetry also called Old English poetry, was divided into two: The Christian, and the heroic poetry, which was the source of pre-Christian Germanic myth, history, and custom. During the old times, when written poetry was invented, only churchmen were literate, and most of their time was spent copying manuscripts (Benson, 339). That is the reason as to why most of the existing work on The Old English poetry is based on religious topics. Old English poetry is the earliest of all written Germanic culture, and that’s the earliest history on pagan oral literature of Germanic culture, and the only source of knowledge about many aspects, and values of the Germanic community. However, the Anglo-Saxon poetry had no rules or system that was followed, and therefore every knowledge we have about it is based on the modern analysis.
In this essay, we will deeply talk about Anglo-Saxon literature that talked about its complex culture, which had a stable government, art by comparing some of the old surviving poems. The literary art materials that survived from the ancient time of Anglo-Saxon are of great moral tone, which includes the poems that will be discussed in this article. The two poems that will be compared are Beowulf, and Dream of the Rood of Old English poetry. Both poems tackle themes on paganism and Christianity, and therefore, we will compare how each of them treats Christianity, the audience they communicate to, as well as the kind of insight a person gets when reading them together. All these help in understanding Old English poetry, as well as the beliefs of the Anglo-Saxon society on paganism, and Christianity as well.
Beowulf is the oldest, longest, and most important surviving poem in Old English literature. It was written in England, during the period when the people of Anglo-Saxon had converted from pagans to Christians, which led to the mixing of various elements. Most of these people hold some of their paganism beliefs while they were still trying to adjust to Christianity beliefs. Beowulf is based on these attitude of the Germanic society, where we come across strong themes of paganism such as fate, and fame (Cavill, 15). Yet there are Christian themes with references to God and how powerful He is, trying to explain how, and why these concepts were compatible with the Christian life.
“The Dream of the Rood”, which was a religious poem was written back in the tenth century around 500 A.D from a manuscript that contained a numerous number of other Old English poems. Some of the passages were found written on a stone in Scotland which existed back in the eighth century, and just like most of the ancient literature, the author is anonymous. The poem takes a dream form, where an unnamed man who is the narrator relates to the reader (Chase, 25). The Dream is about a ‘rood’, which is a tree that has been fashioned into a cross that used to crucify Jesus Christ and feels great pain and sorrow at what has become of him which relates to the character in the poem even though this poem is clearly about Christianity, with a clear and closer examination, some elements of the Germanic Heroism, which is a non-Christian culture that was competing with Christianity during the time of authorship.
The concept of the two poems has powerful kings being represented in a set of overlapping beliefs that show their courageous acts. The question is whether the concepts in these two poems portray similar aspects in Christianity and paganism contexts. The two pieces join together contexts of Christianity and paganism in two entirely different ways. In Beowulf, the character is referred as a king along with others, while in The Dream of the Rood, the king is Jesus, since He is directly referred as a king during many occasions in the poem (Chaney, 206). The cross displays an exuberance loyalty of Christ all through the crucifixion process. The settings and time periods of their set play a huge part in the values and norms of both Christianity and paganism. They also determine whether the practices are good or bad and how they guided the Anglo-Saxon society.
The main concept of Beowulf was the values and beliefs of paganism; however, it does not clearly give an understanding on whether the paganism that is being discussed is for the better (Irving, 16). The Dream of the Rood’s main factor is about the crucifixion, which is obviously an element of Christianity shows that the whole poem is based on Christian values and beliefs that were practised by the Germanic community. The two literary poems relate to Christianity since, in Beowulf, deeds of the main character display the Warrior’s code which includes both Pagan and Christian values. The Dream of the Road narrates the dreams of the character who had dreamt about Jesus’ crucifixion, hence portraying values of Christianity by narrating a story about one of the most important beings in the culture of the Christians. The concepts above are clearly observed when reading the two pieces together.
The poems were created on the topic of Christianity and paganism to the people of the Anglo-Saxon, and therefore, the audience of these pieces was mainly the Christians f Germanic society. The poems were composed in the ancient period when the culture was overly unsophisticated, and hence they were not written scripts, and therefore the pieces were passed from generation to generation orally, with most of the audience being illiterate (Chaney, 198). The texts of these poems are found in one or a few manuscripts; however, a small number of copies were made and preserved for future use and passage of Old English literature. Consequently, in the modern world, these scripts are available to the whole world through technology, and therefore anyone can access them.
In conclusion, it is clear that the Anglo-Saxon poetry had a great significance to the people of that period and to us too. It was at first passed through oral tradition until the tenth century when a written manuscript was made. Beowulf and The Dream of the Rood are some of the poems that survived and still exist. Beowulf is the most important piece of the Old English poetry, while ‘The Dream of the Rood The two pieces talk about the culture of Christianity, and paganism, which includes the values, belief, practices and norms of the Germanic society. The poems combine concepts by addressing both Christianity and paganism in a unique way.
Work cited
Benson, Larry D. “The literary character of Anglo-Saxon formulaic poetry.” Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (1966): 334-341.
Cavill, Paul. “Christianity and theology in Beowulf.” The Christian tradition in Anglo-Saxon England: Approaches to current scholarship and teaching 1 (2004): 15.
Chaney, William A. “Paganism to Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England.” Harvard Theological Review 53.3 (1960): 197-217.
Chase, Christopher L. “Christ III,” The Dream of the Rood,” and Early Christian Passion Piety.” Viator 11 (1980): 11-34.
Irving, Edward B. “The nature of Christianity in Beowulf.” Anglo-Saxon England 13 (1984): 7-21.