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    Anglo Saxon Heroic Poetry

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    sarbojitbiswas
    Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry was composed in the oral tradition and provides insight into the culture of Germanic invaders of Britain. It uses alliterative verse without rhyme and was intended to be recited. One of the earliest surviving poems is Widsith, which narrates the travels of a scop or minstrel. The epic poem Beowulf is significant as the only complete surviving work that depicts both heroic exploits like Beowulf's battles with Grendel and a dragon as well as Germanic society and culture. Later Anglo-Saxon poems like The Battle of Brunanburh and The Battle of Maldon celebrate historical victories in the heroic epic style.

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    Anglo Saxon Heroic Poetry

    Uploaded by

    sarbojitbiswas
    8K views2 pages
    Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry was composed in the oral tradition and provides insight into the culture of Germanic invaders of Britain. It uses alliterative verse without rhyme and was intended to be recited. One of the earliest surviving poems is Widsith, which narrates the travels of a scop or minstrel. The epic poem Beowulf is significant as the only complete surviving work that depicts both heroic exploits like Beowulf's battles with Grendel and a dragon as well as Germanic society and culture. Later Anglo-Saxon poems like The Battle of Brunanburh and The Battle of Maldon celebrate historical victories in the heroic epic style.

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    Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry was composed in the oral tradition and provides insight into the culture of Germanic invaders of Britain. It uses alliterative verse without rhyme and was intended to be recited. One of the earliest surviving poems is Widsith, which narrates the travels of a scop or minstrel. The epic poem Beowulf is significant as the only complete surviving work that depicts both heroic exploits like Beowulf's battles with Grendel and a dragon as well as Germanic society and culture. Later Anglo-Saxon poems like The Battle of Brunanburh and The Battle of Maldon celebrate historical victories in the heroic epic style.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    8K views2 pages

    Anglo Saxon Heroic Poetry

    Uploaded by

    sarbojitbiswas
    Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry was composed in the oral tradition and provides insight into the culture of Germanic invaders of Britain. It uses alliterative verse without rhyme and was intended to be recited. One of the earliest surviving poems is Widsith, which narrates the travels of a scop or minstrel. The epic poem Beowulf is significant as the only complete surviving work that depicts both heroic exploits like Beowulf's battles with Grendel and a dragon as well as Germanic society and culture. Later Anglo-Saxon poems like The Battle of Brunanburh and The Battle of Maldon celebrate historical victories in the heroic epic style.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    S.B.

    Anglo- Saxon Heroic Poetry

    Anglo Saxon Heroic poetry is the nearest one can get to


    the oral pagan literature of the Heroic age of Germania. Of
    surviving Anglo-Saxon literature, Heroic poetry brings
    modern readers most closely into contact with the Germanic
    origins of the invaders of Britain. This is written in Old
    English or Anglo-Saxon. The verse used is usually
    alliterative and stressed, is without any rhyme. Each line
    contains four stressed syllables with a varying number of
    unstressed ones. The stressed alliterative verse of Anglo-
    Saxon poetry is clearly the product of an oral court
    minstrelsy – being intended to be recited by the scop who
    frequented the halls of kings and chiefs and sometimes even
    found service under one master.
    One of the earliest surviving Anglo-Saxon Heroic
    poems, dating somewhere around the 8th Century, is the
    Widsith, an autobiographical record of a scop. Widsith, the
    ‘far wanderer’ narrates his travels through the Germanic
    world and mentions all the rulers he visits. Some of his
    characters figure in other poems, like Beowulf and
    Hrothgar. But it cannot be said to be a true autobiography
    as the span of kings covered, converts his living period to
    over two hundred years.
    Beowulf holds special position in Anglo-Saxon
    literature as it is not only the single complete epic found
    but also nowhere else is the traditional theme presented
    against a background revealing the culture and society of
    the Germanic people. It falls into two main parts, the
    first dealing with the visit of Beowulf to the court of
    King Hrothgar of Denmark to slay the man-eating monster,
    Grendel and is successful in his job. The second part
    starts fifty years later, when Beowulf the king of the
    Geats fights the last battle of his life against a dragon.
    It ends with description of Beowulf’s funeral. On the
    surface, Beowulf is a heroic poem celebrating the exploits
    of a great warrior, one who reflects the ideals of the
    Heroic age. But Beowulf is also a record of marvels, with a
    plenitude of historical elements in it.
    Towards the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, the old
    heroic note re-emerges in two poems dealing with
    contemporary history. The Battle of Brunanburh which
    appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle dated 937 A.D.,
    celebrates the victory of Æthelstan of Wessex and Eadmund
    against the forces of Olaf and Constantine. The poem shows
    strong patriotic sentiment, with the victory being regarded
    S.B.

    as one of the whole nation, with the heroes appearing more


    as champions of their nation.
    The battle of Maldon appears in the Anglo Saxon –
    Chronicle under the date 991 A.D. it deals in the older
    epic manner the battle between the English and the Danes,
    culminating in conquest of the country by Cnut in 1012.
    Both the above-mentioned poems have epic narratives
    supplemented with Homeric grandeur.

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