Old English

Old English

      Considering the Old English or Archaic English as the Anglo-Saxon English, then we will have that from the mixture of Roman Latin, the Germanic and Celtic languages, after the Roman and Germanic invasions, was born the first version of the English language, the Anglo-Saxon English. Born mainly of the union of Germanic Angles and Saxons languages, the Old English has never been written down, but was oral, transmitted generation after generation. The rhymes (alliteration), used in poetry, had strongly marked rhythm; the poems were first heroic narrative verses, and later on, dramatic verses or of somewhat lyrical nature. There were a small group of dramatic poems. (PRIESTLEY, 1963)

Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, verse has three characteristics:

a) Each line has four main beats but may have any number of syllables.
b) Some of the four beats alliterate, that is, begin with the same sound, at least one in each half of the line (the third beat always alliterates with the first, or second, or both).
c) The verse is not rhymed.

Swinging the four-accented lines is admirable suited for narrative poetry to be recited aloud. Several poets, later on, were influenced by the Old English rhythms, like Coleridge, Edna St. Vincent Millay and T. S. Eliot for example. (PRIESTLEY, 1963)
The Old English has been influenced by several languages (Norman French…) in other periods of English History and Literature, what increased the later development of the language. The example of this process was the simplification of several words or verbs like “had”. Some of the irregular forms of the present English, such as the plural en in oxen and children, are survivals from Old English. During Anglo-Saxon period, there had been few contributions from other languages, only by the Danish (Danes), that supplied many words, especially sea terms and place names; we also owe them the tendency to put a strong accent on the first syllable and slur over the vowels in following syllables, “the law of recessive accent.” The second foreign influence, the Latin (Christianity in England) introduced many church terms. The larger adoption of Latin words came during later periods. In these early centuries the gradual substitution of the Latin alphabet for the Germanic runes was the most significant change. (PRIESTLEY, 1963)