Transcript Slide 1

Anglo-Saxon Literature
Anglo-Saxon Literature
Anglo-Saxons created their oral
literature using certain
conventions. Let’s examine those
characteristics for ourselves.
The first characteristic that the
reader can recognize is the four
major beats per line.
Example
“I war with the
wind; with the waves
I wrestle.”
Notice: The four
major beats are
“war” and “wind”;
“waves” and
“wrestle”
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Characteristic
The second characteristic of their
poetry is called a “caesura.” A caesura is
simply a pause in the middle of the line.
This offered a musical break.
Example
Can you locate the caesura in the
following line?
“I war with the wind; with the waves I
wrestle.”
The caesura comes between the
words “wind” and “with”.
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Characteristic
A third characteristic is the use of
alliteration.
Today, alliteration is the repetition of
the same beginning consonant sound.
Anglo-Saxon alliteration was the
repetition of any sound whether
consonant or vowel.
Anglo-Saxon Alliteration
In the first half of a line, two words
alliterate; in the second half, one word
alliterates with the two from the first
half.
Sometimes only one word alliterates
with one word in the second half.
Example
“Grim and greedy, the
gruesome monster came.”
Notice: the two “g” words in
the first half alliterate with
the one “g” word in the
second half.
“Now Grendel came, from
his crags of mist”
Notice: the word “came” in
the first half alliterates with
the word “crags” in the
second half.
More Examples
“The gold-hall of heroes, the gaily
adorned.”
Notice: the “o” sounds follows the same
pattern as the consonant sounds.
Two “o” sounds in the first half and one “o”
sound in the second half.
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Characteristic
The 4th characteristic is the use of
kennings.
A kenning is usually a hyphenated
compound word formed of two nouns.
In later Anglo-Saxon forms, two
adjectives were used.
In the original language, no hyphen
or space was used between these
words.
Uses of Kennings
Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon languages
were very limited.
The scops, or bards, coined kennings
in order to offer more choices of
language.
Once a kenning was created, the
poets used them over and over.
Examples
Earliest form:
“skycandle”, “battledew”
Later form: “sky-candle”
and “battle-dew”
“Sky-candle” was the sun,
and “battle-dew” was blood.
Adjective form: “foamynecked plunger” for ship
Prepositional form: “giver
of rings” for kings/lords
Anglo-Saxon Riddle
“I heard of a wonder, of words moth-eaten:
That is a strange thing, I thought, weird
That a man’s song be swallowed by a worm,
His binded sentences, his bedside stand-by
Rustled in the night—and the robber-guest
Not one whit the wiser for the words he
had mumbled.”
Notice: “robber-guest”
Notice: “o”, “w”, “t”, “s”, “r”, and
“w”.
Answer: on next slide
What’s Next?
Find at least five riddles from one of
the following websites, and try your
hand at answering them. Remember the
answers and the number of the riddle.
http://www.dnaco.net/~sirbill/Riddle
s.htm.
http://technozen.com/exeter/index.ht
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