Old English poetry is based upon one system of verse construction which was used for all poems. The system consisted of five permutations on a base verse scheme; any one of the five types could be used in any verse. The system is founded upon accent, alliteration, the quantity of vowels, and patterns of syllabic accentuation. The system was inherited and exists in one form or another in all of the older Germanic languages; it is generally called alliterative verse. Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family, spoken by the Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire. ... The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in alliterative verse. ...

It should be borne in mind that poetry of the time was primarily oral, and much has been lost through time since it went unrecorded. The poet, referred to as a Scop, was frequently accompanied by a harp in the process of declamation. SCOP can refer to Structural Classification of Proteins A scop was an Old English poet, the Anglo-Saxon counterpart of the Old Norse skald. ... The harp is a chordophone whose strings are positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. ...

Accent

A line of poetry in Old English consists of two half-lines or verses, distichs, with a pause or caesura in the middle of the line. Each half-line has two accented syllables. The following example from The Battle of Maldon, spoken by the warrior Byrhtwold shows this: The Battle of Maldon took place in 991 near Maldon beside the River Blackwater in Essex, England, during the reign of Ethelred the Unready. ...

 Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað  

Translated Courage must be the greater, heart the bolder, Spirit the greater, the more our strength is diminished.

Alliteration

Alliteration is the principal binding agent of Old English poetry. Two syllables alliterate when they begin with the same sound; all vowels alliterate together, but the consonant clusters st-, sp- and sc- are treated as separate sounds (so st- does not alliterate with s- or sp-). Alliteration is a stylistic devices, or literary technique, in which successive words (more strictly, stressed syllables) begin with the same sound or with the same letter. ...

The first stressed syllable of the off-verse, or second half-line, usually alliterates with one or both of the stressed syllables of the on-verse, or first half-line. The second stressed syllable of the off-verse does not usually alliterate with the others.

Other features common in Old English poetry

Kennings, figurative phrases, often formulaic, describe something in terms of another, e.g. in Beowulf, the sea is called the swan's road. Litotes, a figure of speech which is dramatically understated, is frequently employed, often with ironic intent and effect. This article is about kenning as a poetic notion. ... The first page of Beowulf This article describes Beowulf, the epic poem. ... In rhetoric, litotes is a figure of speech in which the speaker emphasizes the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite. ...

The Old English poetic corpus

The longest, and most important, Old English poem is Beowulf, which survived in a single damaged manuscript. It tells the story of the legendary Geatish hero Beowulf who is the title character. The story is set in Scandinavia, in Sweden and Denmark, and the tale likewise probably is of Scandinavian origin. The story sets the tone for much of the rest of Old English poetry, as the hero knows that he is doomed to die in one last battle, yet marches off to meet his fate. The complex interplay between this Germanic heroic warrior ethos and the new religion of Christianity is a theme that is touched on many times in Old English poetry. The first page of Beowulf This article describes Beowulf, the epic poem. ... A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... Geats (Gautar Old Norse or Götar in Swedish) is the Old English spelling of the name of a Scandinavian people living in Götaland, land of the Geats, currently within the borders of modern Sweden. ... Sir Galahad, a hero of Arthurian legend In many myths and folk tales, a hero is a man or woman (the latter often called a heroine), traditionally the protagonist of a story, legend or saga, commonly possessed of abilities or character far greater than that of a typical person, which... Beowulf is the hero of the Anglo-Saxon poem by his name (see Beowulf). ... Scandinavia, Fennoscandia, and the Kola Peninsula. ... Ethos is a Greek word corresponding roughly to Modern Englishs ethics. ... Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life, teachings, death by crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. ...

In addition to Beowulf, other Old English heroic verse exists in fragments. The tale of the Battle of Maldon likewise tells of the last stand of Byrhtnoth and his band of doomed warriors. Within Beowulf itself, the tale of the Fight at Finnsburg is told as a digression. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle preserves a poem on the Battle of Brunanburh. The Battle of Maldon took place in 991 near Maldon beside the River Blackwater in Essex, England, during the reign of Ethelred the Unready. ... Byrhtnoth (Byrhtnoþ, also spelled Byrhtnoð, Byrihtnoð, Brihtnoþ, Beorhtnoþ, Beorhtnoð, Baeorhtnoð), Anglo-Saxon name, composed of beorht bright and noth courage. Name of the leader of the Anglo-Saxon defence force in the Battle of Maldon in 991. ... The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of (mainly) secondary source documents narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons and their settlement in Britain. ... The Battle of Brunanburh was a West Saxon victory in 937 by the army of king Athelstan and his brother Edmund over the combined armies of Olaf III Guthfrithson, Viking king of Dublin, Constantine, king of Scotland and King Owain of Strathclyde. ...

Related to the heroic tales are the elegies for the fallen and the foredoomed from the Exeter Book. Most closely related to the heroic genre is Widsith, which contains a catalogue of names and places associated with valiant deeds. More consistently gloomy or contemplative in mood are The Ruin, which tells of the decay of a once glorious city of Roman Britain (Britain fell into decline after the Romans departed in the early 5th c.), and The Wanderer, in which an older man talks about an attack that happened in his youth, where his close friends and kin were all killed; memories of the slaughter have remained with him all his life. He questions the wisdom of the impetuous decision to engage a possibly superior fighting force: the wise man engages in warfare to preserve civil society, and must not rush into battle but seek out allies when the odds may be against him. This poet finds little glory in bravery for bravery's sake. Originally used for a type of poetic metre (Elegiac metre), the term elegy is also used for a poem of mourning, from the Greek elegos, a reflection on the death of someone or on a sorrow generally. ... The Exeter Book, also known as the Codex Exoniensis, is a book (or, as some prefer, a codex) of Anglo-Saxon poetry from the 10th century. ... Widsith is an Old English poem of 144 lines. ... The Ruin is an Old English poem from the Exeter Book. ... The Wanderer is an Old English poem from the 10th century, preserved in the Exeter Book. ...

Old English poetry, along with other early Germanic literatures, often seeks to recast the tales of Christianity into the older heroic ethos. The fit was not always perfect, but the very tension between the two visions lends depth to both of them. Chief among these is the Dream of the Rood, which displays the passion of Jesus in a manner that may owe much to the depiction of Odin in the Old Norse Hávamál. Other long poems in this genre include the Andreas, Juliana, and Elene, which depict the lives of various saints. A hagiography of Saint Guthlac is also given a poetic treatment. The corpus also includes poetic paraphrases of Exodus, Book of Daniel, and Book of Judith. The Dream of the Rood is one of the earliest Christian poems in the corpus of Old English poetry and an intriguing example of the genre of dream poetry. ... The neutrality and accuracy of this article are disputed. ... Odin, Icelandic/Old Norse Óðinn, Swedish Oden, Anglo-Saxon and Old Saxon Woden, Old Franconian Wodan, Alemannic Wuodan, German Wotan or Wothan Lombardic Godan. ... Old Norse or Danish tongue is the Germanic language once spoken by the inhabitants of the Nordic countries (for instance during the Viking Age). ... Hávamál (The Words of the High One), (known also as The Sayings of Har, or the High Song of Odin), a work of Old Norse poetry, is a source document for the study of Norse mythology, being a set of rules for wise living (and survival) purportedly written... Juliana is a female name. ... General definition of saint In general, the term Saint refers to someone who is exceptionally virtuous and holy. ... Hagiography is the study of saints. ... Guthlác (683-714) of Crowland, Lincolnshire, England is a saint. ... For other uses of the name, see Exodus (disambiguation) Exodus is the second book of the Torah (the five books of Moses) and also the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and Christian Old Testament. ... The Book of Daniel, written in Hebrew and Aramaic (most of chapters 2-7) and revolving around the Jewish prophet Daniel, is a book of the Tanakh, in the section known as the Ketuvim (Hagiographa), or the Writings in the Christian Old Testament. ... Missing image Judith with the Head of Holophernes, by Christophano Allori, 1613 (Pitti Palace, Florence The Book of Judith is a parable, or perhaps the first historical novel according to Jewish authorities, who do not place it among the writings of the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. ...

In addition to these long poems, there are a number of collections of shorter poems. There are many Old English poetic riddles; these are important also because they shed light on the kennings used in Germanic literatures generally. The curious dialogue between Solomon and Saturn belongs among these as well; the two ancient characters discuss much curious lore, including the runic alphabet. There are also a number of magic charms preserved in the literature, a metaphorical poem about the Phoenix, and Alfred the Great's translation of the Meters by Boëthius. Cædmon's nine-line hymn of creation is the oldest surviving text in English. A riddle is a puzzle, consisting of text with a question to answer. ... This article is about kenning as a poetic notion. ... Solomon and Saturn is one of the more curious works in the corpus of Old English poetry. ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... An alphabet is a complete standardized set of letters—basic written symbols—each of which roughly represents a phoneme of a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it may have been in the past. ... The ancient symbol of the pentagram is often used as a symbol for magic. ... Charms - so Russian poet Daniil Kharms spelled his pseudonym Charm can have the following meanings: In the world of paranormal magic, a charm can mean either: An amulet or talisman, or a spell. ... For similar myths bearing other names, see fire bird (mythology). ... Alfred (849? – 26 October 899) (sometimes spelt Ælfred) was king of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 899. ... Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius (AD 480 - 524 or 525) was a Christian philosopher of the 6th century. ... Cædmon was an Anglo-Saxon herdsman, poet and monk attached to Streonæshalch (Whitby Abbey) during Hild’s abbacy (657 × 681). ...

See also

• List of poems
• Beowulf
• The Meters of Boëthius
• Wulf and Eadwacer
• Exeter Book
• List of national poetries

This is a list of poems that have a page about them in Wikipedia. ... The first page of Beowulf This article describes Beowulf, the epic poem. ... Wulf and Eadwacer is an Old English text. ... The Exeter Book, also known as the Codex Exoniensis, is a book (or, as some prefer, a codex) of Anglo-Saxon poetry from the 10th century. ... This is a list of articles about poetry in a single language or produced by a single nation. ...

External links

• http://soe.csusb.edu/preintern/EngPrep/Englit/oldeng2.html