| OE Manuscripts.
Our knowledge of the OE language comes mainly from manuscripts written in Latin characters. Latin in England was the language of the church and also the language of writing and education. The monks began to use Latin letters to write down English words. British scribes modified the Latin script to suit their needs: they changed the shape of some letters, added new symbols to indicate sounds, for which Latin had no equivalents, attached new sound values to Latin letters.
The first English words to be written down with the help of Latin characters were personal names and place names inserted in Latin texts.
OE manuscripts have been preserved in all the dialects, still most part of them is written in West Saxon. There was flourishing of literature in Wessex in the 9th c. during King Alfred’s reign (849-900). He gathered a group of scholars at his court at Winchester. He translated from Latin books on geography, history and philosophy. Among his translations belonging to the 9th c. such as:
1) “Cura Pastoralis” “Pastoral care” («Забота пастыря») by Pope Gregory the Great (540-604);
2) “Historia mundi adversus paganus” (“Всемирная история») Spanish monk’s Orosius’s World History;
3) “De consolatione philosophiæ” “On the consolidation of philosophy”( «Утешение философии») by Boethius ( Боэций), a Roman philosopher and statesman;
To the 10th c. belong the works of such writers as Ǽlfric and Wulfstan . The first produced a series of homilies, the Lives of the Saints, the Colloquium, a Latin Grammar. He was the first to translate from Latin some parts of the Bible. The second is famous for his Homilies.
The works in the Mercian dialect are represented by the translation of glosses (глоссы) (VIIIc.), hymns, the translation of Psalter (IX c.).
The Nothumbrian dialect is represented by two runic inscriptions (the Ruthwell Cross and the Franks Casket), Cædmon’s Hymn”, “Bede’s Death Song”.
The Kentish dialect is represented by the translation of psalms and juridical documents.
OE poetry is characterized by a specific system of versification: the lines are not rhymed and the number of syllables in a line is free, only the number of stressed syllables is fixed. OE poetry is restricted to three subjects: heroic, religious and lyrical. The dialect of OE poetry is uncertain. Most of the poems are Anglian ( Англский диалект) by origin (Nothumbrian or Mercian) but were rewritten and preserved in 10th c. West Saxon copies. The greatest poem of the time was “Beowulf”(“Беовульф”) by the unknown author, the poems of the monk Cynewulf (Кюневульф) “Elene” (“Елена”), “Andreas” (“Андрей”),”The Seafarer”(«Мореплаватель»). The genre of historical poems is represented by: “The Battle of Maldon”, “The Battle of Brunanburh”. As for religious poems among them “Christ”, “Fate of the Apostles”, “Dream of the Rood”.
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