ABSTRACT
The outstanding feature of Old English (OE), as apparently of Western Germanic literature, is the Epic. The terms Germanic and National have both been given to the earlier epic, or fragments of epics, which treat of Germanic heroes, but neither name is satisfactory. To this period belongs the dramatic story of the death of King Eormenric, the Jörmunrekr of Old Norse, the Ermenrich of Middle High German, and the Hermanaricus or Armanaricus of Latin writers. Meanwhile, while these great happenings were agitating all Western Europe, others were making a deep impression within a more limited area. Such an event was the unsuccessful attempt of a Scandinavian invader, the Hygelac of Beowulf, on the kingdom of the Frankish king Theodoric between 512 and 520. These centuries formed the heroic age of the Germanic tribes, they supplied the material and gave the impetus for a great literary activity, to which the name Romantic Movement has been not unaptly given.
