1. Anglo-Saxon Poetry

2. Beowulf – As Epic Poetry  Who?  Author- unknown. However, the story was spread by Scops, composers/ storytellers/poets, that traveled from court to court to entertain.

3. What is an Epic Poem?  “A long narrative poem on a great and serious subject, related in an elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race.” (Effinger 1).

4. Where?  The traditional epics were shaped by a literary artist from historical and legendary materials which had developed in the oral traditions of his nation during a period of expansion and warfare (EX:Beowulf, The Odyssey, The Iliad). (Effinger 1).

6. When?  Written around 700-1000.  Manuscript almost destroyed by a fire in 1731.  Translated to Modern English in 1837.  Now over 100 translated versions, some in poems and prose. 

8. Rappers and Scops  Scops - composers/storytellers/poets that traveled from court to court to entertain  Recited poems from memory - needed to use some poetic help!

9. Alliteration  The repetition of stressed sounds - aka consonants at the beginning of words. Helps function as rhyme in poetry  Example: “Shild’s strong son”

10. Kenning  Special form of compounding two words to make a metaphorical new word.  Example: banhus = ban + hus = “bone-house” = human body  Example: hronrad = hron + rand = “whale’s road” = sea  Example: rodores candel = sky’s candle = the sun

11. Formulas  Stock phrases which fit into the meter.  Used to help when reciting poems orally.  Gives poems lofty and highly traditional character.  Example: Beowulf, Echrgrow’s son