English Song -- the First Thousand Years

Subject: English Song -- the First Thousand Years
From: Amos
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 11:46 AM

From a wonderful site on the history of poetry, the following chronology provides insight into the first 1000 years of English-language poetry and song:

Old English 449-1066

383-407

ROMAN LEGIONS LEAVE BRITAIN

449

ANGLO-SAXONS INVADE BRITAIN

537

BATTLE OF CAMLAN: ARTHUR, A ROMANO-BRITON LEADER, KILLED

596

AUGUSTINE LEAVES ROME AS MISSIONARY TO BRITAIN

658

• Caedmon, an uneducated herdsman, about this date discovers that he can extemporaneously utter poetry at the newly-founded monastery at Strenæshalc (Whitby) and makes verses on creation. He is the first known poet and this the first known poem in English.

673

¶ BIRTHS: the Venerable Bede.

700-800

• Cynewulf writes and signs four Anglo-Saxon poems: Christ II, Elene, The Fates of the Apostles, and Juliana.

700

• About this time runic extracts from The Dream of the Rood are carved on the Ruthwell Cross.

735

• The Venerable Bede's "Death Song"

871

ALFRED, KING OF ENGLAND (-899)

900-999

• Deor, a scop, writes a poem of consolation, probably in this century

937

• The battle of Brunanburh, at which King Athelstan defeated the Scots, is celebrated in a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

943

EDWY (-957)

950-1000

• Period of the making of the four great poetry manuscripts: the Junius MS, the Vercelli Book, the Exeter Book, and the Beowulf MS. The Beowulf can be dated as early as 680.

957

EDGAR (-975)

975

EDWARD THE MARTYR (-978)

978

ETHELRED (-1013)

1000

• The Battle of Maldon, a poem on the fight between the English and the Danes in 991.

1013

SWEGN FORKBEARD (-1014)

1016

EDMUND IRONSIDE (-1016); CNUT (-1035)

1035

HAROLD HAREFOOT (-1040)

1040

HARTHACNUT (-1042)

1042

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR (-1066)

Subject: RE: English Song -- the First Thousand Years
From: John Routledge
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 01:11 PM

Have just dipped into this site. Amazing. Now on my favourites! Thanks Amos. GB

Subject: RE: English Song -- the First Thousand Years
From: treaties1
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 02:10 PM

i love the thread but couldn't get the blue clickys to work, but i will try again another day .thankyou

Subject: RE: English Song -- the First Thousand Years
From: Amos
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 02:49 PM

My apologies -- the internal blue clickies were written "relatively", meaning that they automatically search within Mudcat for pages that are actually external. So they fail. Your best bet is to go over here and then find the points that interest you from that spot.

Regards,

A

Subject: RE: English Song -- the First Thousand Years
From: granny
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 04:17 PM

Great source -- got it bookmarked. Thanks.

Subject: RE: English Song -- the First Thousand Years
From: Hollowfox
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 10:19 AM

Great site - thanks!

Subject: RE: English Song -- the First Thousand Years
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 27 Feb 01 - 02:23 AM

Those 449 and 537 dates are hotly contested. Sources are not straightforward as to dates, and are subect to interpretation, and there have been a variety of interpretations. Camlan seems to have been between about 512 and 543. 449 seems to be about correct for Hengist and Horsa, but there are other interpretations of the data. They weren't the first Saxons to arrive, but the earlier ones were small groups of peaceful settlers who caused no great trouble, so are usually not mentioned.

What I don't understand is how the English writer of Beowulf (who is made to be contemporary with King Arthur, late 5th and early 6th century) managed to set it in Denmark, (with Swedes, Geats, Danes and the recently emerged Franks) long before any Danes seem to have been known in Britain. Druids formerly traded there, but they were long gone by the beginning of the 6th century.