The Norman Conquest inaugurated a distinctly new epoch in the literary as well as in the political history of England. Anglo-Saxon authors were then as suddenly and as permanently displaced as Anglo-Saxon kings. The literature afterwards read and written by Englishmen was thereby as completely transformed as the sentiments and tastes of English rulers. Clearly reflecting the altered attitude of the leaders of the people, the new styles of writing reveal in a measure the new national character, and betray important conditions determining its growth.
The Christian religion had been imposed on the Saxons by their leaders, working upon the common folk from the chieftains down. At first the alien creed was but superficially accepted. Little by little, however, the new instruction greatly modified men's religious ideas, and Roman definitely replaced Germanic ritual. Likewise, the foreign types of literature introduced at the Conquest first found favour with the monarchs and courtiers, and were deliberately fostered by them, to the disregard of native forms. No effective protest was possible, and English thought for centuries to come was largely fashioned in the manner of the French. Throughout the whole period that here engages our attention, in forms of artistic expression as well as of religious service, the English openly acknowledged a Latin control. (Willem L. Graff; D. Appleton, 1932)
Nevertheless, though there was little independence in letters during this epoch, though it was not distinctively English as we now use the term, it is far from being the dull and barren stretch that so many literary historians would have us believe. If under Anglo- Norman rule compositions in the English vernacular were few and of slight account, this was certainly not occasioned by the people's inertia or distress, as the impression is often improperly given. Much to the contrary, the era was........
