Anglo-Saxon Literature Please fill in relevant match from column B for each item in column A. A ( )Alfred the Great ( )Bede the Venerable ( )Caedmon ( )an unknown scribe B The Ecclesiastical History of the English People The Song of Beowulf The Anglo-Saxon chronicle Paraphrase

Beowulf Time, form, language, and the scops Anglo-Saxon legends modified by the locals and Christians Plot Characteristics caesura alliteration meter and accentuation kenning repetition and variation interpolation

From Beowulf He [the singer] sang who knew tales of the early time of man, how the Almighty made the earth, fairest fields enfolded by water, set, triumphant, sun and moon for a light to lighten the land-dwellers, and braided bright the breast of earth with limbs and leaves, made life for all of mortal beings that breathe and move. —Beowulf, Episode I. Genesis

Literary Terms Caesura: A pause in a line of verse dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm rather than by metrics. Alliteration: is the repetition of the same sound or sounds at the beginning of two or more words that are next to or close to each other. Also called “initial rhyme” or “head rhyme’. [example] Foot: containing two or more syllables, with one stressed sound and the rest are light or weak (unstressed). Meter: A particular arrangement of words in poetry, such as iambic pentameter, determined by the kind and number of metrical units in a line. Kenning: is a metaphor usually composed of two words,formula for a special object. E.g. “helmet bearer” for “warrior”, “the world candle” for “the sun”, “the swan road” for “the ocean”. [see more]

Alliteration Types in Old English Verse Type Pattern (Bliss) Pattern (Pope) Modern English examples Type A [trochaic] / X | / X lift, drop, lift, drop Grim and greedy Type B [iambic] X / | X / drop, lift, drop, lift Not friend nor foe Type C [clashing] X / | / X drop, lift, lift, drop Oft Shield Shaking Type Da / | / \ X lift, lift, half-lift, drop Wise word-speaker Type Db / | / X \ lift, lift, drop, half-lift All native joy Type E / \ X | / lift, half-lift, drop, lift Thane-sorrow pain’d Key: /: primary stressed syllable \:secondary stressed syllable X: unstressed syllable |: caesura (division between metric feet)

Example The Original Old English Down off the moorlands' misting fells came | / × × | ○ × | ○ × | / / | Grendel stalking; God's brand was on him. | ○ × | / × | ○ / | / × × | The spoiler meant to snatch away | × ○ | × / | × ○ | × / | from the high hall some of the human race. | × × ○ | ○ / | × × ○ | × / | He came on under the clouds, clearly saw at last | / ○ | × / | × × ○ | ○ ×| / × / | the gold-hall of men, the mead-drinking place | × / × | × ○ | × ○ | × × ○ | nailed with gold plates. That was not the first visit | / × | / ○ | × / | × × / | / × | he had paid to the hall of Hrothgar the Dane: | × ○ | / × | × ○| × ○ | × × / | he never before and never after | / ○| × × / | × ○ |× / × | harder luck nor hall-guards found. | ○ × | / × | ○ × / | (Michael Alexander , Beowulf, Penguin Classics, 1973)2. Prose: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (years 981, 982) The Original Old English

Interpolation Comment inserted in a narrative, often combined with foreshadowing to suggest an later event. In what kind of text do you often find interpolation?

Excerpt I (originally in Episode XI) Beowulf’s fight with Grendel What do you think of the description of the battle?

Excerpt II (originally in Episode XLIII) The burial of Beowulf What can you see from the description of the burial? What is the image of dragon?

Beowulf in Motion Pictures: How’s that?

Tolkien and Beowulf

Heroes Nowadays

Assignments Here is an excerpt from another rendering of Beowulf by Gummere. Please find out the metrical regularities and scan it. Hand in your scanning next week. THEN from the moorland, by misty crags, with God's wrath laden, Grendel came. The monster was minded of mankind now sundry to seize in the stately house. Under welkin he walked, till the wine-palace there, gold-hall of men, he gladly discerned, flashing with fretwork. Not first time, this, that he the home of Hrothgar sought, -- yet ne'er in his life-day, late or early, such hardy heroes, such hall-thanes, found! Please read from 14-22, the Norman Period, and think about any possible features of literature at that time. Prepare for the discussion of Chaucer. Search online or in the library about the influence of Chaucer to the contemporary literature.