You should begin the year with a study of Anglo-Saxon Poetry. The first poems that were written in England were narrative in form. Troubadours would travel all across England telling fantastic stories of magic, knights, damsels in distress, and dragons. These stories were meant to instruct the people, as well as entertain. Because in 1000 A.D. very few people could read, and of course there was no television, people were taught about their Catholic faith, and their ancestors, through art and through the tales of the wandering troubadours. To be a troubadour was indeed an important task.

Narrative poetry can be divided into several different types. They are: 1) the epic, 2) the ballad, 3) the metrical romance, and 4) the metrical tale. We shall begin the year with a study of the epic. According to Aristotle, it is “an imitation of life which is narrative in form and poetic in meter…it has for its subject a single action, whole and complete. The characters celebrated should be of a lofty type.” (Prose and Poetry of England, p.11 (p. 13)).

Please look up the epic in The Harp and Laurel Wreath as well (p. 367). If you have Prose and Poetry of England you could read pp. 1-13 (pp. 3-15) today.

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