THE SEA IN OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE

The sea has been a constant presence in English literature: from Shakespeare to Coleridge and to Conrad, authors have included representations of this complex body of water in a variety of works covering the majority of genres. This should not come as a surprise to any reader, considering England's geographical position and the way this influenced its history and its cultural makeup in general. Following the tradition of archetypal criticism, we chose to trace the representations of the sea back to their origins and focus on the earliest remaining texts from Old English Literature in search of prevalent symbolic values, as well as their connection to Anglo-Saxon ethos.