Anglo-Saxon Literature Essay

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Anglo-Saxon Literature Since the Roman conquest the English soil has been invaded a number of times by peoples of different ethnic origins. It was not during the Roman rule that English people began to nourish a sense of nationalism. The Anglo-Saxon period, rather, was the time when such practice began. The invasion of the land by the Teutonic tribes as Angles, Saxons and Jutes marks the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon period. These tribes overcame the old settlers, Celts and Britons of the land and the land became as it were the homeland of these restless peoples. It may not be worthwhile to identify an exact date of the beginning of English literature, but the Anglo-Saxon period was the time when the literature of the land began to achieve a common characteristic. This does not essentially mean that there was no literary activity before this period. Every tribe had its own literature but there was no nationally acclaimed one. The Anglo-Saxon period paved way for one such thing. The making of this ‘national’ literature was in no way the result of the toil of a single race or of a single generation. The Angles, the Saxons and the Celts contributed alike to the growth of it. So naturally their habitual characteristics much influenced the literature at the formative stage. The Anglo-Saxons led a pastoral life on the shores of the Baltic and the North Sea. These forefathers of the English race shared an intense restlessness that characterised the Germanic people as a whole. Tillers of land, and hunters by compulsion, they became by force of circumstances fierce sea rovers. They were undaunted in the face of the terrors of sea. These large limbed men were relentless, savage and daring, yet courageous and faithful to one another. Valour and chivalry were prized above all things. Love of action and love of freedom turned these ruthless people given to fighting. A
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