Epic poetry
- Recording legends that had been handed down by word of mouth for hundred years.
- The early English poetry belongs to the Anglo-Saxons.
- When these barbarians invaded England, they brought their own literature with them.
- Most of the Anglo-Saxon poetry was myths about the adventures of their own great heroes.
- Until the seventh century, these stories were written down by the priests who were the only educated people at that time.
- The most important poem in this period is a long narrative poem called Beowulf.
- Beowulf is story about the Danes, not the English because the story was taken from the Anglo-Saxon whose homeland was Denmark.