The existing remains of Anglo-Saxon literature include compositions in prose and poetry, some of which must be referred to a very early period, one or two perhaps to a time before the Angles and Saxons emigrated to England. The most important Anglo-Saxon poem is the ancient epic of Beowulf, extending to more than 6000 lines. Beowulf is a Scandinavian prince, who slays a monster named Grendel, after encountering supernatural perils, and is at last slain in a contest with a frightful dragon. Its scene appears to be laid entirely in Scandinavia. Its date is uncertain; parts of it may have been brought over at the emigration from Germany, though in its present form it is much later than this. The poetical remains include a number of religious poems, or poems on sacred themes; ecclesiastical narratives, as lives of saints and versified chronicles; psalms and hymns; secular lyrics; allegories, gnomic poems, riddles, &c. The religious class of poems was the largest, and of these Cædmon's (flourished about 660) are the most remarkable. His poems consist of paraphrases of considerable portions of the Bible history, and treat of the creation, the temptation, the fall, the exodus of the Israelites, the story of Daniel, the incarnation, and the harrowing of hell, or release of the ransomed souls by Christ. Other most interesting poems are those ascribed to Cynewulf, the Christ, Elene, and Juliana, the subjects respectively being Christ, the finding of the cross by the Empress Helena, and the life of Juliana. Rhyme was not used in Anglo-Saxon poetry, alliteration being employed instead, as in the older northern poetry generally. The style of the poetry is highly elliptical, and it is full of harsh inversions and obscure metaphors.
Ornament on front (left) is formed by means of plates of thin gold and wire, with bosses of ivory and red glass.
The Anglo-Saxon prose remains consist of translations of portions of the Bible, homilies, philosophical writings, history, biography, laws, leases, charters, popular treatises on science and medicine, grammars, &c. Many of these were translations from the Latin. The Anglo-Saxon versions of the Gospels, next to the Moeso-Gothic, are the earliest scriptural translations in any modern language. The Psalms are said to have been translated by Bishop Aldhelm (died 709), and also under Alfred's direction; and the Gospel of St. John by Bede; but it is not known who were the authors of the extant versions. A translation of the first seven books of the Bible is believed to have been the work of Ælfric, who was Abbot of Ensham and lived about the beginning of the eleventh century. We have also eighty homilies from his pen, several theological treatises, a Latin grammar, &c. King Alfred was a diligent author, besides being a translator of Latin works. We have under his name translations of Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiæ, the Universal History of Orosius, Bede's Ecclesiastical History, the Pastoral Care of Gregory the Great, &c. The most valuable to us of the Anglo-Saxon prose writings is the Saxon Chronicle, as it is called, a collection of annals recording important events in the history of the country, and compiled in different religious houses. Of this Chronicle there are seven MSS. in existence, and the latest text comes down to 1154. A considerable body of laws remains, as well as a large number of charters. The whole of the literature has never yet been printed. For Anglo-Saxon history, see England.—Bibliography: (History) H. M. Chadwick, The Origin of the English Nation (Cambridge); (Language) Sweet, Anglo-Saxon Primer and Reader; (Literature) B. ten Brink, Geschichte der Englischen Litteratur; Stopford A. Brooke, English Literature, from the beginning to the Norman Conquest; Henry Morley, English Writers (vols. i and ii).
Anglo-Saxon Law. Series of laws written in the vernacular, and unique among Teutonic peoples, were issued from the seventh century onwards by Æthelberht, Hlothhere, Eadric, and Withraed, Kings of Kent, by Ine, King of Wessex, by Alfred, Edward the Elder, Athelstan, Edmund, Edgar, Æthelred, and Canute, in
addition to a number of important by-laws and regulations of various kinds, which bear no king's name. We hear, also, of laws issued by other kings which have been lost, and there must have been a considerable body of traditional law which was never committed to writing. What laws are extant, show us a society mainly agricultural, divided by birth into a noble, a free peasant, and a servile class. There was also a dependent class in Kent, intermediate between the freeman and the slave. The strongest social ties were those of the kindred, and the relationship between lord and man.
The laws were issued by the king and his councillors. Cases were decided by the production of oaths which varied in value according to the rank of the swearer, or by the several forms of the ordeal. No distinction was made between civil and criminal law, and even homicide could be atoned for by payment of a sum varying according to the social status of the dead man. The object of the laws was to restrict private vengeance, to prevent and punish theft (primarily of cattle), to stop dishonest trading, to secure the persons and residences of the people, to enforce the mutual obligations of relatives, and masters and men, to provide adequate defence for the kingdom by means of garrisoned boroughs and a well-armed mounted infantry, to protect the helpless, and to safeguard the rights of the Church and its servants.
The early laws present considerable difficulty owing to their antiquity. The laws of Æthelberht are the earliest records in the English language, though, like many of the other laws, they are only preserved in a MS. of the twelfth century. The standard edition is Liebermann's Gesetze der Angelsachsen (Halle, A. S. Max Niemeyer).—Bibliography: Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law; H. M. Chadwick, Studies in Anglo-Saxon Institutions.
Ango´la, a Portuguese territory in Western Africa, south of the Congo, extending from the sea to Rhodesia, and from about lat. 6° S. to lat. 17° S. (area, 484,800 sq. miles; pop. 4,119,000). It is a country of varied features, and its resources, as yet hardly known, are probably very great. The province is rich in malachite, copper, iron, petroleum, and salt; rubber supplies are becoming exhausted. The Coanza (Kwanza) is the largest river. The capital is the seaport of Loanda; other ports are Benguella (or Benguela) and Mossamedes. Three railways now run inland from these places. It exports coffee, hides, gum, rubber, wax, &c.
Angola Pea (Cajānus indicus). See Pigeon Pea.