Learnings: Old English Literature

An excerpt of the epic poem "The Legend of Beowulf" / 11th cent.

Alfred wanted to be remembered as a good Christian king. He was bothered by his people's ignorance of the Bible, and felt that their poor Latin was to blame. To solve this, he pushed to have Latin classics translated into Old English. This gave rise to the birth of Old English Literature.

Alfred believed strongly in literacy; he wanted all young aristocrats to learn to read and write. This wasn't only for religious purposes; being able to write and understand messages in Old English could have been useful for war and diplomacy. Old English also became a literary language for sagas and epic poems such as Beowulf, pictured here.