Anglo-Saxon Literature

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Anglo-Saxon Literature
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The Celts

• Literature began in England with the Celtic
  Druids
• Druids would memorize and recite poems for
  special occasions

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The Anglo-Saxons

• Anglo-Saxon performers known as scops recited
  poems for entertainment

The Anglo-Saxon scop was a professional or
semi-professional tribal poet who celebrated
cultural values by singing epics on occasions of
great ceremony and festivity. - Dr. Kelly
Taylor
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The Anglo-Saxons

• Recitation often accompanied by a harp
• Idea of ominous fate, or wyrd, found throughout
  works
• Contain a mix of Christian and pagan ideas
• Only about 30,000 lines of Anglo-Saxon verse
  still exist

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Poetic Devices

• No end rhyme main thought or idea often runs
  over from line to line
• Lines contain caesuras, or mid-line pauses
• Poems use alliteration - the repetition of
  initial consonant sounds
• Poems contain kennings - compound metaphorical
  phrases that rename concrete nouns (sea road
  ocean)

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Types of Poetry

• Divided into two main categories
• heroic and elegiac

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Heroic Poetry

• Heroic retells the achievements of warriors
  involved in great battles
• Most important heroic Anglo-Saxon work Beowulf

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Beowulf

• Beowulf national epic of England
• Author unknown
• Includes values of warrior society including
  dignity, bravery, and strength in battle

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Elegiac Poetry

• Lyric poem that mourns the loss of someone or of
  the past
• Famous example of Anglo-Saxon elegiac poetry
  The Seafarer

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The Seafarer

• Author unknown
• Speaker sailor reflecting on his life
• Includes values of time period but also evidence
  of changing way of life

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Links

• Reading of The Funeral of Scyld Scefing from
  Beowulf
• http//www.kami.demon.co.uk/gesithas/readings/bss
  _oe.html
• The Beowulf Project
• http//www.beowulf.org/
• Reading of Grendels Approach to Herot
• http//faculty.virginia.edu/OldEnglish/Beowulf.Re
  adings/Grendel.html