The Anglo-Saxons migrated into England between the fifth and seventh centuries and
dominated there until the Normans invaded in 1066. In that span of time, they created a
body of literature in Old English, a language that sounds more like German to our
modern ears but is the oldest ancestor of contemporary English literature. Most of what
we know about Anglo-Saxon poetry comes from the epic poem “Beowulf.”
Here’s how you can write your own Anglo-Saxon poetry: Although we’re more
accustomed today to poems that rhyme, Anglo-Saxon poetry was instead organized by
alliteration, or the repetition of the initial consonant sound of a word (sounding similar to
this self-same sentence). Each line in Anglo-Saxon poetry has four stressed syllables,
with a strong pause, or caesura, in the middle of each line, leaving two stresses before
the caesura and two stresses after the caesura. The first stressed syllable after the
caesura alliterates with the first or the second or both of the stressed syllables before the
caesura. Here’s an example from “Beowulf,” translated into English, but with the AngloSaxon meter retained in the translation:
and find friendship
in the Father’s embrace
Also, while we’re more used to metaphors and similes as the major figures of speech in
our poetry, the Anglo-Saxons used a different figure of speech known as a kenning. A
kenning substitutes a noun with two other words that, when compounded together,
describe the substituted noun. For instance, “wave-vat” is a kenning for “ocean,” and
“battle-torch” is used in place of “sword” (and more specifically, a sword that has been
sharpened until it shines like a torch).