Shelby Stephens
Matt Kelecy
Bethany Schoch
Kyle Bramble
The Bards: Singing of Gods and Heroes
Anglo Saxons are well renowned for
storytelling
More than one thousand years before,
in Homeric Greece, storytellers sang of
Gods and Heroes of their era
Skilled storytellers were called ‘Bards’
Bards were referred to as ‘scops’ by the
Anglo Saxons
Anglo-Saxons found poetry just as
important as fighting, hunting,
farming, or loving
Scops
In the Anglo-Saxon period they were referred
to as ‘scops’ or ‘shaper(s)’
‘Shaper’ came from their ability to shape
“men’s reputation by songs”
Scops
Well valued and respected among tribal
warriors
Warriors who listened to scops did not
believe in a “christian type of heaven”
Immortality meant being remembered after
dying
 Anglo Saxon poets sang while playing a lyre or harp
This is an example of the six-stringed musical instrument
used while telling stories or singing poetry
Many poets used improvisation to create
interesting stories to tell
Inspiration came from heroic tales that
descended from people’s common concerns
of the time period: War, disease, or old age
 In Beowulf we are told of the King:
…sometimes Hrothgar himself, with the harp
In his lap, stroked its silvery strings
And told wonderful stories, a brave king
Reciting unhappy truths about good
And evil-and sometimes he wove his stories
On the mournful thread of old age, remembering
Buried strength and the battles it had won.
He would weep, the old king.
-lines 2107-2114
This example shows how the king would improvise
while playing the harp and telling stories
Hope in Immortal Verse
Anglo Saxon literature had a large
emphasis on mourning or death
The Seafarer, for example, stresses the
hardships of life and that death is the
end of the spirit
The Seafarer
“ This tale is true, and mine. It tells
How the sea took me, swept me back
And forth in sorrow and fear and pain,
Showed me suffering in a hundred ships,
In a thousand ports, and in me…”
-Lines 1-5
This is an example of the life struggles contained within
Anglo-Saxon literature
Anglo-Saxons

Since they did not believe in an after-life their
poetry focused on reality
Creative poetry held an emphasis on Gods
and Wyrd (fate)
Non-Christian Anglo-Saxons with no
promise of an after-life had poetry as a
defense against death
Only a poem’s fame and its celebration
gave the non-Christian a reason for
living
Anglo-Saxons

Non-Christian Anglo-Saxons focused
on reciting heroic poetry
Christians focused on Christian poetry
Anglo-Saxon scops were gifted with
the ability to preserve fame in memory
with their poetry
Their skill in poetry and creating such a
memorable poetry era could be the
reason they were dignified and
honored members of society
What to remember

Bards are also known as scops
Scops were the entertainment of the era
Scops did not believe in an after-life or
Christian Heaven
What to remember

Inspiration for poetry came from real-life
experience; war, diseases, common issues
They desired their poetry to be well renowned
after their death