LITERATURE 



297 



ENGLISH LITERATURE Continued 





When our forefathers rnme to England in 

 :th :m.I Sixth Centuries, they brought 

 with them no \\ritten language; but the love <>i 

 MIDI;. Bards and gleemen accompanied them 

 ami they sang the tales .f the Northland. li ' 

 oldest of the old. <>ld songs which has been pre- 

 MTV,,I f,,r us i. "The Far-traveler." "Beowulf " 

 is their epic song. When the heathen invader- 



after two long centuries of struggle had become 

 possessed of the land they, in their turn 

 under the softening influence of Christianity. 

 Monasteries were built and in these safe hi 



re had a beginning. The glory of this 

 beginning belongs to Northumbria in the Seventh 

 Century. For nearly two centuries this was the 



learning. 



