Anglo-Saxons, Beowulf, and Old English
The Anglo-Saxons: 449 - 1066
449 AD: Germanic
mercenaries arrived
from the Northern
coasts of Europe to
attack the Britons
– Angles, Saxons, Jutes
– By 500 AD, many
invaders had settled.
• Archaeology has
revealed much of the
Anglo-Saxons, through
cemeteries
– Most famous: Sutton
Hoo in Sulfolk
• 30-foot oak ship buried
there
Mingling of Celtic and Christian Beliefs
• Mythology of Celts
influenced British/Irish
writers to this day
• Sir Thomas Malory, wrote
Le Morte d’Arthur based
on Celtic legends
• Yeats used Celtic myths in
poetry and plays
• Julius Caesar invaded in
55 BC, bringing Christian
beliefs
• By 409, Rome had to
focus on trouble at home,
leaving Britain ripe for
invasion
• Country disjointed,
various leaders till King
Alfred the Great led the
Anglo-Saxons against the
Viking Danes, who
attacked 8th/9th centuries
Social Mores
• Warfare order of day
• Law/order responsibility of leader
• Fame/success, survival, gained only through loyalty to
leader (especially during war)
• Women given rights to own property, throughout
marriage. They were given gifts of money and land
from their prospective husbands and they, not their
family or husband, had control over this possession.
Religion Continued
• Irish/Continental (European) missionaries had
large role to play in re-emergence of Christianity
• Still, Anglo-Saxon religion remained
– Dark, fatalistic religion from Germany
– Had much in common with Norse/Scandinavian
mythology
– 2 Important gods: Wodin (from Odin)
• Helped humans communicate with spirits
• Thunor (from Thor, god of thunder/lightening); sign hammer
and swastika
• Dragon: personified death and guardian of grave mound
Beowulf Summary
• Written sometime between 700-750 in Old
English
• Short = 3200 lines (Homer’s epics = 15,000)
• Only manuscript in British Museum in London
from year 1000; rescued from the burning
monastery that Henry VIII ordered demolished
• Characters:
– Beowulf: Geat, son of Edgetho and nephew of
Higlad, king of the Geats
Beowulf Summary Cont.
• Grendel: man-eating monster who lives at
bottom or foul mere (mountain lake)
• Herot: golden guest hall built by King
Hrothgar, the Danish ruler. Decorated with
antlers of stags; name means “hart (stag) hall”
• Hrothgar: king of the Danes, builder of Herot.
Had once befriended Beowulf’s father.
• Wiglaf: Geat warrior, one of Beowulf’s select
band & only one to help in final fight
Beowulf Vital Elements
• The Boast: There were no newspapers, radios,
TV’s in those days. Beowulf had to “sell
himself” to get things done. Must list
accomplishments. Even when Unferth
challenges him, Beowulf doesn’t back down.
• Epic Poetry: lengthy narrative poem,
concerning subject of heroic deeds and events
significant to subject or nation. Beowulf
considered Medieval Epic (500-1500)
Beowulf Vital Elements
• Alliteration: repetition of first consonant sound in a
phrase. “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers”. Can also take form of assonance
(repetition of vowel). “And stepping softly with her
air of blooded ruin about the glade in a frail agony
of grace she trailed her rags throgh dust and ashes”
–Cormac McCarthy
• Caesura: an audible pause that breaks up a line of
verse (not necessarily with punctuation)
• Hyperbole: exaggeration. Where statements are
exaggerated
Beowulf Vital Elements Cont.
• Kenning: a special metaphor made of
compound words. Gas guzzler, head-hunter.
Earliest: sky-candle (sun), battle-dew (blood),
whale-road (sea). Later/more elaborate: foamythroated sea stallion (ship). Often used as
prepositional phrase (wolf of hounds) or
possessives (the sword’s tree)
Beowulf Vital Elements Cont.
• Served three purposes:
»Norse/Anglo-Saxon language did not
have a large vocabulary. Poets created
alliterative words by combining existing
words
»B/C poetry was oral, ready-made
phrases were very handy for bards,
making poetry easier to remember
»Increasing complex structure would
satisfy Anglo-Saxon people’s taste for
elaboration
Beowulf Vital Elements Cont.
• Stock epithets: a descriptive word/phrase that
becomes a stock phrase. That is, it stands in for
the person it’s describing. Exs: the Lord of
Life, the Ruler of Heaven
Background to Section We’re Reading
• Epic opens with a tribute to the ancestry of King
Hrothgar
• The first, Shield Sheafson, is fatherless
(Beowulf too was left fatherless at young age)
• Familial lineage is central in culture
• Heroic code delineated in opening lines:
» Greatness measured by number of clans conquered
» Strength leads to treasure (captured pay money)
» Sheafson passes the wealth on to his warriors (hero
measured by passing out sums of wealth (Hrothgar erects
mead hall for his men)
Background to Section We’re Reading
Hrothgar & Beowulf’s Father’s History:
• Beowulf’s father killed leader of fellow tribe,
Wulfing…Hrothgar sent treasure to mend
feud…Beowulf’s father pledged loyalty to
Hrothgar
– Explains weirgild “death price”. Only way to keep vengeance
from spiraling out indefinately
– Beowulf is not just offering services out of kindness: it’s his way
of repaying his father’s debt to Hrothgar
Questions/ Activities
• Describe what happens to Grendel when he raids
Herot and encounters Beowulf
• What prevents Beowulf’s men from helping
Beowulf in his battle with Grendel?
• Why is it significant that Grendel hunts at night?
• Why is it important to Beowulf and to his image as
an epic hero that he face Grendel without a
weapon? What symbolism do you see in the
uselessness of human-made weapons against
Grendel?
Questions/ Activities
• Create list of kennings for yourself
• Begin writing your own boast
• Look at lines 250-285, 407, 426 for examples
of boasting
• Look at lines 297-343 to locate:
• Alliteration
• Kennings
– Hyphenated compounds
– Prepositional phrases
– Possessives