Product/Book Details


English Literature

500.00 400.00

Category: Tag:


This book is written for the convenience of English literature readers. It contains brief history of English literature.  I’m thankful to all those who supported me while compiling the book.

The first works in English, written in Old English, appeared in the early Middle Ages (the oldest surviving text is Cædmon’s Hymn). The oral tradition was very strong in early British culture and most literary works were written to be performed. Epicpoems were thus very popular and many, including Beowulf, have survived to the present day in the rich corpus of Anglo-Saxon literature that closely resemble today’s Norwegian   or,  better  yet,  Icelandic.  Much  Anglo-Saxon  verse  in  the  extant manuscripts is probably a “milder” adaptation of the earlier Viking and German war poems from the continent. When such poetry was brought to England it was still being handed down orally from one generation to another, and the constant presence of  alliterative  verse,  or  consonant  rhyme (today’s  newspaper  headlines  and marketing abundantly use this technique such as in Big is Better) helped the Anglo-Saxon peoples remember it. Such rhyme is a feature of Germanic languages and is opposed to vocalic  or end-rhyme of Romance languages. But the  first written literature dates to the early Christian monasteries founded by St.  Augustine of Canterbury and his disciples and it is reasonable to believe that it was somehow adapted to suit to needs of Christian readers. Even without their crudest lines, Viking war poems still smell of blood feuds and their consonant rhymes sound like the smashing of swords under the gloomy northern sky: there is always a sense of imminent danger in the narratives. Sooner or later, all things must come to an end, as Beowulf eventually dies at the hands of the monsters he spends the tale fighting. The feelings of Beowulf that nothing lasts, that youth and joy will turn to death and sorrow entered Christianity and were to dominate the future landscape of English fiction.

Additional information



Publication Year

Author Name



No. of Pages


There are no reviews yet.


%d bloggers like this: