Anglo-Saxon oral tradition and 'King Horn'

King Horn, an early Middle English romance from the midlands region of England, was probably composed and sung in Old English before 1066 (Garbaty 36-38). It was written down in roughly 1225, when manuscript culture seemed to replace orality. Despite the shift from oral to written culture and the evolution of the language to Middle English, characteristics of Old English works can be seen throughout King Horn, specifically: a contemplative tone; narration and characterization emphasizing reciprocal self-giving and communal bonds; and spiritual significance in character interaction with nature. My research suggests that King Horn's Anglo-Saxon characteristics are the result of a continuous oral tradition in the midlands region. Midlands composers resisted continental influence during and after the Conquest. For example, the Ancrene Wisse, a manuscript dated in the Middle English period c. 1230, is written in an Old English style. Another Middle English text from the midlands, The Life of St. Wulfstan, depicts an anti-Norman Anglo-Saxon bishop from Worcester who scolded William I after he had taken the throne; and yet another, Havelok the Dane, shows resistance to change because, like King Horn, it contains elements of comitatus, Old English diction, and many other Old English literary themes. The region's tenacious oral tradition shows itself in theme, tone, and diction.; However, King Horn, specifically allows us to discover what J.R.R. Tolkien may have meant when he said something vital was lost in the Norman Conquest. It survives as evidence for the continuation of particular spiritual, natural and communal concepts in Old English, concepts that held the Anglo-Saxon culture together and provided unity among the members of society. Poets and hagiographers in the region continued to pass down essential Christian mythology and culturally-unifying ideals held by Anglo-Saxons into the Middle English period. King Horn is a work deserving more attention from scholars as a uniquely positioned work, rather than a work that serves as a rough, primitive beginning to the romance genre.