Anglo-Saxon 450-1066
- Heroic Code: Hero's goal is to die being a legend
- Boastful
- doesn't act cultured
- too busy for love
- motive: honor, fame
- barbaric
- Fatalistic:
- agent of God's will
- saw fate as active agent that determines outcome
- doom doesn't mean something bad, just your fate: undoomed means your fate hasn't been decided yet (Beowulf's swimming competition)
- pessimistic outlook
- Nature is often inhospitable-----
- endurance |
- Loneliness |----> Common themes in elegies (Wanderer, Deor, Rood)
- Betrayal -----
- Saw life begin and end in darkness & cold (life-cycle)
- Dichotomy between Pagan & Christian duty to Church and women
- Belief in Fate (Myrd)
- This idea pops up a lot in the poem, while at the same time there are Christian references to God's will
- Accumulated treasures amount to success
- Fame and fortune zealously sought after
- loyalty to one's leader, crucial
- Importance of Pagan, Germanic, and Christian ideals to people whos lives were often hard and uncertain
- Fierce, hardly life of warrior and seamen
- Strength, courage, leadership, abilities appricated
- Boisterous yet elaborately ritualized customs of the mead-hall
- Expected the hero to boast
Anglo-Saxon Ideals/Codes of Conduct
- Good defeats evil
- Wergild --> restitution for murder or expect revenge from victim's relatives
- Boasts must be backed with action
- put your money where your mouth is
- Fate is in control
- Destiny discovered through a series of episodes punctuated by violent incidents interspersed with idyllic descriptions
Elements of Anglo-Saxon Poetry
- Chant-like effect of the four beat line
- Alliteration (Then the grim man in green gathers his strength)
- Caesura -- pause or break in a line of poetry
- "oft to the wanderer weary of exile"
- Kenning - metaphorical phrase used instead of a name
- Battle blade and ring giver
- epithet - description name to characterize something (keen edge sword)
- Hyperbole - exaggeration
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