Saint Mark1 a detail from the Lindisfarne Gospels written and illustrated

Apuntes

Saint Mark, a detail from the Lindisfarne Gospels written and illustrated around A.D. 700. These, like much of the writing of that time, were written by monks in Latin. (A Gospel is a holy book.) Chapter One Old English literature 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 ofa 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 kil 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 moth...