Anglo Saxon Literature

1
Anglo Saxon Literature
2
Anglo Saxon Society

• Culture of warriors
• Strong kinship led by strong chiefs (Comitatus
  Code), allowing for group protection
• Farmers, craftsmen, metal workers
• Local governments
• At the end of the period, Christianity began to
  replace paganism
• Monasteries brought learning and literacy and
  preserved words of oral traditionwrote in the
  vernacular
• English gained respect as a written langauge
• Women
• Had their rights sharply curtailed after 1066
• Inherited and held property
• Controlled property even after marriage
• The man had to offer a woman a substantial gift
  which the woman had complete control over

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Anglo Saxon Religion

• Dark, fatalistic religion, had much in common
  with Norse mythology
• Woden, God of Death, Poetry, and Magic helped
  humans communicate with spirits
• Thunor, God of Thunder and Lightning sign was
  hammer and possibly a twisted cross
• Dragons, usually protector of treasure both
  personification of Death the Devourer and as
  the Guardian of the Grave Mound, in which
  warriors ashes and treasures lay
• Religion more concerned with earthly virtues of
  bravery, loyalty, generosity, and friendship than
  mysticism
• No hope of afterlife

4
Scop

• The scop or storyteller was a notable figure in
  Viking Age Britain, whether he was a traveler or
  a lord's personal retainer.
• His job in modern terms was that of a PR.
  person, after dinner speaker, and cheer leader.
• For the general public, his task was to entertain
  and he did this by reciting poems, singing,
  telling well known stories of characters that
  everyone had heard of.
• He wasn't there to give a history lesson, even
  though his tales all had rings of truth to them.
• He would make up on the spot (seemingly) poems
  and odes to members of his audience, to flatter
  the girls and ridicule the men to their peers
  amusement.
• These were probably formulaic, and he was able to
  tinker with his regular format to suit.
• Not inferior to warriorspoetry was as important
  as fighting, hunting, farming or loving

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Wergerld

• The ties of kinship meant that the relatives of a
  murdered person were obliged to exact vengeance
  for his or her death.
• This vengeance led to bloody and deadly feuds.
• As a way out of the deadly and futile custom, the
  system of wergelds was instituted.
• The wergeld set a monetary value on each persons
  life according to his or her wealth and social
  status.

6
Anglo-Saxon Poetry

• There are a number of qualities found in
  Anglo-Saxon poetry
• Heroic behavior is praised
• Almost no romantic love
• An overall effect to formalize and elevate
  language, often through the use of literary
  devices.
• Synecdochea part used to express the whole or
  vice versa. Ex. 50 sails50 boats
• Metonymy--the naming of a person, institution, or
  human characteristic by some object or attribute
  with which is closely associated. Ex Crown,
  Majesty Ruler
• Kenning-- a compound of two words in place of
  another. Ex whale-roadsea, loaf-giver king,
  life-house body 
• Litotesironic understatement an emphatic
  expression through an ironic understatement. Ex.
  hes no beauty.
• A very common theme is ubi sunt (where have
  they gone?). This was a rough, hard time of
  life. The average age for men was 45, for women
  36. It was not totally unusual to lose ones
  entire family to war, famine, or some other
  calamity.

7
Kenning

• During the Anglo-Saxon era, the figurative use of
  language was a common characteristic in many
  literary works.
• Kennings can be defined as two word Anglo-Saxon
  metaphors, used to symbolically identify
  creatures, objects, and phenomena, as a type of
  expressive imagery, which avoids naming the
  subject directly.
• Kennings express important and valuable words in
  the Anglo-Saxon culture that may have more than
  one name.
• The use of a kenning stresses a words
  importance and defines its meaning.
• Kennings can also be used to avoid excessive
  repetition of names and to create an elaborate
  set of images in the readers mind.

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Kenning Examples

• Earth-fort
• Kenning for cave
• Ring-giver
• Kenning for king or lord
• Breast-cage
• Kenning for chest
• Helmet bearer
• Kenning for warrior
• Dwelling place
• Home or residence
• Oar steed
• ship
• Storm of swords
• battle
• Mail-shirt
• War-shirt chain-linked article of upper-body
  armor