CLOSE OF THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD.  After Alfred’s death there is little to record, except the loss of the two supreme objects of his heroic struggle, namely, a national life and a national literature.  It was at once the strength and the weakness of the Saxon that he lived apart as a free man and never joined efforts willingly with any large body of his fellows.  The tribe was his largest idea of nationality, and, with all our admiration, we must confess as we first meet him that he has not enough sense of unity to make a great nation, nor enough culture to produce a great literature.  A few noble political ideals repeated in a score of petty kingdoms, and a few literary ideals copied but never increased,—­that is the summary of his literary history.  For a full century after Alfred literature was practically at a standstill, having produced the best of which it was capable, and England waited for the national impulse and for the culture necessary for a new and greater art.  Both of these came speedily, by way of the sea, in the Norman Conquest.

SUMMARY OF ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD.  Our literature begins with songs and stories of a time when our Teutonic ancestors were living on the borders of the North Sea.  Three tribes of these ancestors, the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, conquered Britain in the latter half of the fifth century, and laid the foundation of the English nation.  The first landing was probably by a tribe of Jutes, under chiefs called by the chronicle Hengist and Horsa.  The date is doubtful; but the year 449 is accepted by most historians.

These old ancestors were hardy warriors and sea rovers, yet were capable of profound and noble emotions.  Their poetry reflects this double nature.  Its subjects were chiefly the sea and the plunging boats, battles, adventure, brave deeds, the glory of warriors, and the love of home.  Accent, alliteration, and an abrupt break in the middle of each line gave their poetry a kind of martial rhythm.  In general the poetry is earnest and somber, and pervaded by fatalism and religious feeling.  A careful reading of the few remaining fragments of Anglo-Saxon literature reveals five striking characteristics:  the love of freedom; responsiveness to nature, especially in her sterner moods; strong religious convictions, and a belief in Wyrd, or Fate; reverence for womanhood; and a devotion to glory as the ruling motive in every warrior’s life.

In our study we have noted:  (1) the great epic or heroic poem Beowulf, and a few fragments of our first poetry, such as “Widsith,” “Deor’s Lament,” and “The Seafarer.” (2) Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon life; the form of our first speech. (3) The Northumbrian school of writers.  Bede, our first historian, belongs to this school; but all his extant works are in Latin.  The two great poets are Caedmon and Cynewulf.  Northumbrian literature flourished between 650 and 850.  In the year 867 Northumbria was conquered by the Danes, who destroyed the monasteries and the libraries containing our earliest literature. (4) The beginnings of English prose writing under Alfred (848-901).  Our most important prose work of this age is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was revised and enlarged by Alfred, and which was continued for more than two centuries.  It is the oldest historical record known to any European nation in its own tongue.