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
m