The Beginning of English Literature Anglo-Saxon Poetry The Beginning of English Literature

The Major Manuscripts The Caedmon Manuscript The Exeter Book “The Seafarer” “The Wanderer” The Vercelli Book The Nowell Codex Beowulf Note that about 400 manuscripts survive that contain Old English text

Major forms of A-S Poetry Heroic Poems Beowulf Elegiac Poems “The Seafarer” “The Wanderer” Riddles Latin Poems Epigraphy Oldest – Carved on the Franks Casket

Examples of A-S Poetry “The Seafarer” – The Exeter Book – Elegiac “The Wanderer” – The Exeter Book – Elegiac “The Seafarer” – The Exeter Book – Elegiac “The Wife’s Lament” – The Exeter Book – Elegiac Beowulf – The Nowell Codex – Heroic Epic Poem

Literary Devices of A-S Poetry Alliteration Kenning Caesura Ubi Sunt

Alliteration Anglo-Saxon Poetry does not rhyme Anglo-Saxon Poetry is alliterative Examples in Old English: “þrymful þunie, | þragum wræce” “fere geond foldan, | folcsalo bærne,” Examples in Modern English: “Head on knee, hand on knee, loyally laying,/ pledging his liege as in days long past.” (37-38)

Kennings Usually a set of two nouns (sometime hyphenated, sometimes a noun and a prepositional phrase) that figuratively represents another noun. Examples: Whale road – the sea Summer’s sentinel – a cuckoo Storm of spears – a battle Feeder of ravens – a warrior Bee wolf – a bear

Caesura A pause in the middle of a line of poetry, usually represented by a several blank spaces. Examples: “And I sailed away with sorrowful heart,” (22). “Thus spake the sage in solitude pondering” (103). “He who shall muse on these moldering ruins, / And deeply ponder this darkling life, / Must brood on old legends” (80-82).

Ubi Sunt Latin for “Where are…?” from the phrase “Ubi sunt ante nos fuerunt?” or “Where are those who went before us?” A motif in which the question “Where are…?” is asked several times. There is an elegiac tone to the questions, and the topic is usually one of mortality.

Ubi Sunt Examples: (The first is a different translation from “The Wanderer” the second is from The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers.) Where is the horse gone? Where the rider? Where the giver of treasure? Where are the seats at the feast? Where are the revels in the hall? [...]How that time has passed away, grown dark under cover of night, as if it had never been. Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountains. Like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the west. Behind the hills, into shadow. How did it come to this?