What is the oldest piece of English literature?
22557#0
Old English literature or Anglo-Saxon literature, encompasses literature written in Old English, in Anglo-Saxon England from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066. "Cædmon's Hymn", composed in the 7th century, according to Bede, is often considered the oldest extant poem in English, whereas the later poem, The Grave is one of the final poems written in Old English, and presents a transitional text between Old and Middle English. The "Peterborough Chronicle" can also be considered a late-period text, continuing into the 12th century.
Old English literature
22667#7
Anglo-Saxon literacy developed after Christianisation in the late 7th century. The oldest surviving text of Old English literature is "Cædmon's Hymn", composed between 658 and 680. There is a limited corpus of runic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries, but the oldest coherent runic texts (notably the Franks Casket) date to the 8th century. The Old English Latin alphabet was introduced around the 9th century.
With the unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (outside the Danelaw) by Alfred the Great in the later 9th century, the language of government and literature became standardised around the West Saxon dialect (Early West Saxon). Alfred advocated education in English alongside Latin, and had many works translated into the English language; some of them, such as Pope Gregory I's treatise "Pastoral Care", appear to have been translated by Alfred himself. In Old English, typical of the development of literature, poetry arose before prose, but King Alfred the Great (871 to 901) chiefly inspired the growth of prose.
Old English
22557#1
The poem "Beowulf", which often begins the traditional canon of English literature, is the most famous work of Old English literature. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" has also proven significant for historical study, preserving a chronology of early English history.
Old English literature
26995815#4
"Beowulf" is the oldest extant heroic poem in English literature and the first to present a dragon slayer. The legend of the dragonslayer already existed in Norse sagas such as the tale of Sigurd and Fafnir, and the "Beowulf" poet incorporates motifs and themes common to dragon-lore in the poem. "Beowulf" is the earliest surviving piece of Anglo-Saxon literature to feature a dragon, and it is possible that the poet had access to similar stories from Germanic legend. Secular Germanic literature and the literature of Christian hagiography featured dragons and dragon fights. Although the dragons of hagiography were less fierce than the dragon in "Beowulf", similarities exist in the stories such as presenting the journey to the dragon's lair, cowering spectators, and the sending of messages relaying the outcome of the fight.
The dragon (Beowulf)
618571#2
One of the oldest known pieces of British literature is a poem called "Y Gododdin", written in Old Welsh, having previously been passed down via the oral traditions of the Brythonic speaking Britons. This poem celebrates the bravery of the soldiers from what was later referred to by the Britons as "Yr Hen Ogledd" – The Old North; a reference to the fact that this land was lost in battle to an invading force at Catraeth (modern day Catterick).
Votadini
608135#6
The oldest known poetry was written by a West-Flemish monk in a convent in Rochester, England around 1100: "hebban olla vogala nestas bagunnan hinase hic enda thu wat unbidan we nu" ("All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for"). According to professor Luc de Grauwe the text could equally well be Old English, more specifically Old Kentish, though there is no consensus on this hypothesis. At that time, Old (West) Dutch and Old English were very similar.
Dutch-language literature
3415925#15
As for prose, the oldest pieces of Dutch prose now in existence are charters of towns in Flanders and Zeeland, dated 1249, 1251 and 1254. Beatrice of Nazareth (1200–1268) was the first known prose writer in the Dutch language, the author of the notable treatise known as the "Seven Ways of Holy Love". From the other Dutch mystics whose writings have reached us, the Brussels friar Jan van Ruusbroec (better known in English as the Blessed John of Ruysbroeck, 1293/4–1381), the "father of Dutch prose" stands out. A prose translation of the Old Testament was made about 1300, and there exists a "Life of Jesus" of around the same date.
Medieval Dutch literature
5815689#4
The oldest books of miscellaneous literature are the "Lebor na hUidre", or "Book of the Dun Cow", transcribed about 1100, and the "Book of Leinster", which dates from about fifty years later. These books are great miscellaneous literary collections. After them come many valuable vellums. The date at which these manuscripts were penned is no criterion of the date at which their contents were first written, for many of them contain literature which, from the ancient forms of words and other indications, must have been committed to writing at least as early as the 7th century. We cannot carry these pieces further back with firm certainty using linguistic methods, but it is evident from their contents that many of them must have been orally transmitted for centuries before they were committed to writing. It must also be noted that a 17th-century manuscript may sometimes give a more correct version of a 7th-century piece than a vellum many centuries older.
Early Irish literature
5815689#34
No other vernacular poetry in Europe has gone through so long, so unbroken, and so interesting a period of development as the Irish. The oldest poems are ascribed to the early Milesians and may be the most ancient pieces of vernacular literature. None of the early poems rhymed. Little distinguishes them from prose, except a strong tendency, as in the Germanic languages, toward alliteration, and a leaning toward disyllables. They are also so ancient as to be unintelligible without heavy glosses. It is a tremendous claim to make for the Celt that he "taught Europe to rhyme", yet it has often been made for him, and not by himself, but by such men as Zeuss, the father of Celtic learning, Constantine Nigra, and others. Certain it is that by the time of the Irish mission to the continent, as early as the 7th century, we find the Irish had brought the art of rhyming verses to a high pitch of perfection, that is, centuries before most of the vernacular literatures of Europe knew anything at all about it. Nor are their rhymes only such as we are accustomed to in English, French, or German poetry, for they delighted not only in full rhymes, like these nations, but also in assonances, like the Spaniards, and they often thought more of a middle rhyme than of an end rhyme. The following Latin verses, written no doubt after his native models by Aengus Mac Tipraite some time prior to the year 704, will give the reader an idea of the middle or interlinear rhyming which the Irish have practiced from the earliest times down to the present day:
Early Irish literature
2757988#11
During the later decades of the fourteenth century English started to come back into official use. The Pleading in English Act 1362 sought to replace French with English for all pleas in courts. The Mercers' Petition to Parliament of 1386 is the oldest piece of parliamentary English; the earliest English wills at the London Court of Probate date from 1387; the earliest English returns of the ordinances, usages, holdings of the gilds are from 1389 and come from London, Norwich and King's Lynn. John Trevisa, writing in 1385, noted that: "...in all the grammar schools of England children are dropping French and construing and learning in English...Also gentlemen have now largely stopped teaching their children French".
English nationalism
22557#59
The oldest collections of church sermons is the "Blickling homilies", found in a 10th-century manuscript.
Old English literature