ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE.




CHAPTER I.

A PRELIMINARY VIEW.


Anglo-Saxon literature is the oldest of the vernacular literatures of
modern Europe; and it is a consequence of this that its relations with
Latin literature have been the closest. All the vernacular literatures
have been influenced by the Latin, but of Anglo-Saxon literature alone
can it be said that it has been subjected to no other influence. This
literature was nursed by, and gradually rose out of, Latin culture; and
this is true not only of those portions which were translated or
otherwise borrowed from the Latin, but also in some degree even of the
native elements of poetry and laws. These were not, indeed, derived from
Latin sources, but it was through Latin culture that those habits and
facilities were acquired which made their literary production possible.

In the Anglo-Saxon period there was no other influential literature in
the West except the Latin. Greek literature had long ago retired to the
East. The traces of Greek upon Anglo-Saxon literature are rare and
superficial. Practically the one external influence with which we shall
have to reckon is that of Latin literature, and as the points of contact