Old English /Anglo-Saxon
period
Years: 449-1066
Content
 Strong belief in fate
 Juxtaposition of church and pagan
worlds
 Admiration of heroic warriors who
prevail in battle
 Express religious faith and give moral
instruction through literature
Style/genres
 Oral tradition of literature
 Poetry dominant genre
 Unique verse form




Caesura
Alliteration
Repetition
4 beat rhythm
Effect:
 Christianity helps literacy to spread
 Introduces Roman alphabet to Britain
 Oral tradition helps unite diverse
peoples and their myths
Historical context:
 Live centered around ancestral tribes
or clans that ruled themselves
 At first the people were warriors from
invading outlying areas; Angles,
Saxons, Jutes, and Danes
 Later they were agricultural
Key Literature/Authors:
 Beowulf
 Bede
Beowulf (epic poetry)
 Long Narrative
 Larger than life hero
 Embodies values of the Anglo/Saxon
society
 Includes elements of myth, legend,
folklore, & history
 Has a serious tone
 Uses more formal, almost grand language
Beowulf (epic poetry)











Alliteration
Irony
Elegy: mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a
funeral song or a lament for the dead.
Epic
Personification
Foreboding or foreshadowing
Heroic code
Symbolism
Gleeman: an old English performer
Scop: an old English poet
Kenning: metaphorical compound noun ex. Body = bone-frame
Beowulf: alliteration
 Alliteration was widely used in the
Germanic epic and in Middle English
poetry before end rhyme gradually
took its place. Here’s an older
translation of the beginning:
Beowulf: alliteration
 Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls. Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,
gave him gifts: a good king he!
Beowulf: cultural characteristics
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Bravery in battle
Bards or poets were used to elevate heroes of the tribes
and were usually as important as the warrior
themselves
Faith in God to intervene positively with fate
Influence of old pagan religion
Warfare was the order of the day
Amassing a fortune in battle
Reverence for womanhood—precursor to chivalry—is
expected
Openhanded hospitality is the order of the day
Truth is highly cherished virtue
Great love for personal freedom
Beowulf: heroic code
 The invading Anglo-Saxon tribes were dominated by
codes and customs which included
 a warrior class that was ruled by a tribal chieftain
 a body of personal retainers, or warriors, bound to the
chieftain by kinship
 the custom of gift-giving
 a personal code of honor which included the concept of
blood vengeance. This code demanded that a warrior
must either kill another person who injured or killed a
kinsman or get compensation money for the injury or
death
 a warrior must defend his lord to the death