English literature the book is designed to acquaint students with the main outlines

6 . Name the main heroes of the poem “Beowulf’.
7. Characterize Beowulf.
8 . Why did Wiglaf put the blame for Beowulf 's death on cowardly earls?

9. 
   What is the merit of the poem?
   
10. 
    Does the poem “Beowulf’ remind you of any Russian or Uzbek epic poems?
    

The Literature of the 7"1- 11th Centuries

Anglo-Saxon Literature. The culture of the early Britons greatly changed under the influence of Christianity, which penetrated into the British Isles in the 3rd centun/. That was the time when many Christians escaped from Roman persecution to Britain and Gaul (France), which were colonies of the Roman Empire at that period.
At the end of the 6 th centuiy the head of the Roman church at that time Pope Gregory decided to spread his influence over England by converting people to Christianity and sent monks to the island. They landed in Kent and built the first church in the town of Canterbury.
Now the Roman civilization poured into the country again, Latin words once more entered the language of the Anglo-Saxons, because the religious works were all written in Latin. The monasteries, where reading and writing were practiced, became the center of learning and education in the country. Poets and writers of that period imitated Latin books about the early Christians, and also made up stories of their own, about saints. The names of only two of those early poets have reached our days. They were Caedmon and Cynewulf.
Caedmon lived in the 7thcentury. He was a shepherd at Whitby,
a famous abbey in Yorkshire. He composed his poetry in his native language, in the Northumbrian dialect of Anglo-Saxon. He composed hymns and a poem “Paraphrase”. This poem retells fragments from the Bible in alliterative verse. Many other monks took part in the work but their names are unknown.
Cynewulf was a monk who lived at the end ofthe 8th century. His name was not forgotten, as he signed his name ih runes in the last line of his works. Two of his poems, “Elene” and “Juliana” are notable because they are the first Anglo-Saxon works to introduce women characters.
Along with religious poetry, folk-lales about worldly affairs were written down at the monasteries and put into verse by poets. Among them there were wedding-songs, songs to be sung at feasts, war-songs, death-songs, and also plowing-songs, and even riddles.
Thus, the spread of Christianity was crucial for the development of Anglo-Saxon culture. The Church brought contact with the distant and ancient Mediterranean world. To the illiterate Germanic tribes it brought the essential skill for advanced culture - writing. Soon Anglo-Saxon monasteries were copying books from Rome and beginning to produce manuscripts The church also served as a force for unity and peace, trying to teach new values to these warrior-kings - compassion and cooperation, instead of arrogance and violence.
Written literature did not exist in the British Isles until about the year 700. It first comes to our att ention in the work of the most famous of the Anglo-Saxon monks, the Venerable Bede.


The Venerable Bede