Anglo-Saxon Poetry Research Articles

Wyrd in Anglo-Saxon prose and poetry

Wyrd in Anglo-Saxon prose and poetry

The Larger Rhetorical Patterns in Anglo-Saxon Poetry.

The Larger Rhetorical Patterns in Anglo-Saxon Poetry.

The Character of Anglo-Saxon Verse

and Braune's Beitrdge,' followed by his section in Paul's Grundriss, and the volume Altgermanische Metrik in 1893, which established his five-type theory to the satisfaction of nearly everyone. Schipper and Luick accepted it;2 Kaluza has been the chief dissentient.3 In the new edition of Paul's Grundriss the chapters on metrics are by Heusler,4 who represents a different school, but the whole subject is little helped. An article by Professor Routh in Modern Philology' attempted to supply an of the Sievers types which their author had omitted,6 but in so doing ran into certain facts which seemed to defy him. The chief value of his study is that he aimed to interpret the types rhythmically; and incidentally it moved Dr. W. W. Greg to print an old essay of his in which he undertook to correct what seemed arbitrary and artificial in the Sievers types.7 But the re-working of the original five only plunges us deeper into complexities and yields us an explanation which is harder to understand than what it explains. It would certainly have puzzled Caedmon. I X (1885), 209-314, 491-545. 2 Englische Metrik (Bonn, 1881-88); Grundriss der englischen Metrik (1895); A History of English Versification (Oxford, 1910); Luick, PBB, XI, 470 ft. In Sievers and in Schipper may be conveniently read a summary of the previous theories: Heusler, as cited below, pp. 116 ff., reviews them-with the agreeable remark: Es versteht sich wohl, dass jeder die Dinge von seinem Standpunkt sieht; nur geht der Eifer des Anwalts manchmal ziemlich weit .....

The Kenning in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse Poetry

The Kenning in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse Poetry

Studies in the Diction of Layamon's Brut

The diction of La3amon is so rich, varied and expressive, and contains so many interesting features, that it is worth while to bestow a rather particular consideration upon it. The enquiry here undertaken is designed to exhibit, on the one hand, the persistence of the old poetical tradition in the use of words and phrases, and, on the other, certain departures from this in the adoption of new words, or the employment of old words or bases in new ways, or in fresh combinations, whether of words in the sentence, or of elements in compounds. If the historical and social events are borne in mind which had taken place between the writing of the latest Anglo-Saxon poetry still preserved, and the composition of the Brut, it will perhaps appear less remarkable that new usages should have sprung up than that so much of the old poetical and literary vocabulary should still survive. Amid all the chances and changes of the century and a half which had elapsed since the Conquest, the work of the Worcestershire poet retains the ancient poetic atmosphere, and embodies the ancient culture of his people. The Brut deserves to be studied with reverence and patience. It is high time that students of English should recognize that here is one of the noblest landmarks in English poetry, which expresses in a masterly manner the genius of our race. It is a rich treasure-house of early poetical English, and of stories and traditions which later poets have made immortal. Yet the young student reads it, for the most part, in mere snippets and brief extracts!

THE CHRONOLOGY OF ANGLO-SAXON POETRY

Journal Article THE CHRONOLOGY OF ANGLO-SAXON POETRY Get access ALDO RICCI ALDO RICCI Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of English Studies, Volume os-V, Issue 19, July 1929, Pages 257–266, https://doi.org/10.1093/res/os-V.19.257 Published: 01 July 1929

The Meter of the Popular Ballad

In the history of English metrics the verse of the popular ballad occupies a strategic position. From it one may look backward toward Anglo-Saxon verse, and forward toward many developments of modern times. This investigation has been conceived in the belief that solution of some problems of ballad metrics not only will be of value in connection with the ballads, but also will open a new line of approach for the study of other verse, both more ancient and more modern. The principles here worked out will be found applicable, I believe, to popular verse in general; it is impossible, however, to cover the whole field, and the present investigation has accordingly been confined to the material in Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, as the best-known, most readily available, and on the whole most authoritative collection. At the same time no effort has been made to scrutinize very carefully the canon. The battle of the ballads is not our battle. Trojan and Tyrian are alike to the metrist. Be a poem Christmas carol, song, border ballad, minstrel ballad, or ballad par excellence, there is no necessary peculiarity of its meter, and the evidence here presented will go to show that as a whole Child's material is indeed reducible to a single metrical norm. The few exceptional cases will be pointed out in their places, but in general examples can be drawn indiscriminately from any of the different types.

The "Five Types in Anglo-Saxon Verse"

ALL investigation of old Germanic rhythm is now necessarily based on Sievers' classical work. His famous scheme of the five types has on the whole stood the test of time, and has proved itself an efficient instrument of classification and analysis. Nevertheless, there is perhaps no student to whom it has not at first sight appeared arbitrary and artificial. The object of the following paragraphs is to inquire whether it is not possible to state the facts of Germanic verse, at least as regards Old English, in a form which will be more helpful in suggesting the logical development of the scheme and the relationship of the various types. The fundaniental fact about Old English verse is that each half-line consists of two strongly stressed syllables (viz. arses) combined with a varying number of groups of one or more lighter syllables (these groups being known as theses). Starting with this fact, and considering for the moment only abstract possibilities, it will be seen that there are eight conceivable schemes for the half-line, which may be arranged as follows (writing for arsis and for thesis):

The Hymns of St. Godric

Of the origin and composition of the Cantus Beati Godrici and of the life of the author we have fortunately a detailed contemporary account written by one Reginald of Coldingham. As Caedmon's hymn stands at the beginning of Anglo-Saxon poetry, so Godric's “hymns” are usually regarded as standing at the beginning of Middle English poetry. In each case the tradition of poetic gift is the same: the authors were supernaturally inspired in visions. With regard to Godric's song to the Virgin, Reginald tells us “Qualiter beata dei genetrix Maria cum beata Maria Magdalene ei visibiliter apparuit et eum canticum cum cantici ipsius melo edocuit .... Est autem canticum illud idiomatis Anglici ritmiceque compositum.... Precepit quidem, ut, quociens dolori vel tedio vel temptationi succumbere formidaret, hoc se cantico solaretur, et ait: ‘Quando sic me invocabis, meum sencies instanter auxilium.’” This means a rimed vernacular song, a sort of formula, by singing or chanting which Godric would receive immediate help in times of pain, weariness, or temptation. It is short and simple—two four-line stanzas. Zupitza's text reads as follows: Sainte Marie uirgine,moder Iesu Cristes Nazarene,onfo, scild, help þin Godric,onfang, bring hehlic wiþ þe in godes ric.Sainte Marie, Cristes bur,maidenes clenhad, moderes flur,dilie mine sinne, rixe in min mod,bring me to winne wiþ self god.

XIX.—Rhythm and Rime Before the Norman Conquest

The orthodox view regarding the introduction of end rime into English verse is succinctly set forth in the following quotations : “ Endrime, being a stranger to the early Germanic languages, its appearance in any of them may commonly be taken as a sign of foreign influence. In general, of course, rime and the stanza were introduced together into English verse, under the influence of Latin hymns and French lyrics.” “ Die alliterierende Langzeile war die einzige in der ags. Poesie bekannte Versart und blieb in derselben bis zu ende der ersten ags. oder altenglischen Sprachperiode in Gebrauch.” “ The transformation of the O. E. alliterative line into rhyme verse did not take place before the Middle English period. It was due to the influence of the rhymed French and Latin verse.” “ Alliterative verse was remodelled on Latin and French verse—or foreign verses were directly imitated.” The implication is that there never existed in Anglo-Saxon any verse of a form different from that of the five-type alliterative verse which prevails in the corpus of extant Anglo-Saxon poetry.

The Historical Side of the old English Poem of ‘Widsith’

Nearly ninety years have passed away since J. J. Cony-beare prepared the first edition of the Old English poem of ‘Widsith,’ or ‘The Traveller's Song,’ for inclusion among his ‘Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry,’ a work published in 1826. ‘Widsith’ is the oldest Germanic poem we have and its imprint excited immediate attention. The student of legend was attracted to it by the close connexion it shows with Germanic saga, and the historian timidly acknowledged the appeal it made to him to honour it as a genuine source of information. The characteristics of the poem have combined to place it in the forefront of that great mass of dubious documents which are found written in sundry western languages and which purport to deal with the story of the legendary heroes of Germanic race from the time of Constantius Chlorus to the middle of the sixth century.

The Banished Wife's Lament

The company of ladies in Anglo-Saxon poetry is not a large one. If Judith, Elene, and other heroines from foreign lands are left out of consideration, their number is small indeed. This is of course due in large measure to the fact that a relatively small amount of poetry based upon Germanic themes has been preserved. If woman plays a minor part in Beowulf, one of the Waldhere fragments gives a hint that the case may have been otherwise in some of the epic material that has perished. It is doubtful if the dramatic intensity of such figures as Brunnhild or Gudrun in the poetic Edda would have been paralleled in the less impassioned West Germanic verse, but it seems likely that the emotions of women would have interested poets who could depict so graphically the feelings of men like the Wanderer or the Seafarer. And there are, as is well known, illustrations of this interest in the woman's point of view in the Anglo-Saxon lyrics. The most conspicuous of these illustrations is the poem generally known as the Banished Wife's Lament.' Here the whole emphasis is thrown upon the element of love. Oppressed by profound grief, the wife briefly reviews her unhappy career, bewails her present desolate situation, and ends with a cry of despair surprisingly modern in its intensity. The piece is an unusually significant one. Its sustained passion, its well-rounded form, and its vivid portrayal of a dramatic situation give it an important place in Anglo-Saxon poetry. Like so much of the minor verse, however, it is far from being easy of comprehension. There is much in the language which offers difficulty, and the larger questions of the interpretation of the whole, and its possible connection with incidents of heroic saga, are not easily disposed of. The lady has succeeded in throwing over her tale something of the obscurity of her gloomy abode in the forest. As to her present unhappy condition there can be no doubt, but her lamentations give no very clear idea of the series of 10r Complaint. Grein-Wfilker, Klage der Frau, Bibliothek der ags. Poesie, Vol. I, pp. 302 ff.

The Transformation of Scriptural Story, Motive, and Conception in Anglo-Saxon Poetry

The Transformation of Scriptural Story, Motive, and Conception in Anglo-Saxon Poetry

Anglo-Saxon Poetry.

Anglo-Saxon Poetry.

On Translating Anglo-Saxon Poetry

What verse to use in translating Anglo-Saxon poetry is a question, which, ever since Anglo-Saxon poetry has been thought worth translating, has been discussed over and over again, but unfortunately with as yet no final conclusion. The tendency, however, both among those who have written upon the subject and those who have tried their hand at translating, is decidedly in favor of a more or less close imitation of the original metre. Professor F. B. Gummere, in an article on “The Translation of Beowulf and the Relations of Ancient and Modern English Verse,” published in the American Journal of Philology, Vol. vii (1886), strongly advocates imitating the A.-S. metre. Professor J. M. Garnett, in a paper read before this Association in 1890, sides with him, recanting a previously held belief in the superiority of blank verse. Of the various translations which imitate the A.-S. metre, the most successful, undoubtedly, is the Beowulf of Dr. John Leslie Hall, which appeared in 1892. Stopford Brooke, in his History of Early English Literature, also declares his belief in imitations of the original metre, though in his translations he does not always carry out his beliefs. He lays down the rule—and a very good rule it is—that translations of poetry “should always endeavour to have the musical movement of poetry, and to obey the laws of the verse they translate.” For translating A.-S. poetry, blank verse, he thinks, is out of the question; “ it fails in the elasticity which a translation of Anglo-Saxon poetry requires, and in itself is too stately, even in its feminine dramatic forms, to represent the cantering movement of Old English verse. Moreover, it is weighted with the sound of Shakspere, Milton, or Tennyson, and this association takes the reader away from the atmosphere of Early English poetry.”

VI.—The Translation of Anglo-Saxon Poetry

It is more than sixty years since Professor Conybeare in his ‘Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry (1826)’ gave us metrical versions of certain specimens of Anglo-Saxon poetry, and such versions have been from time to time increased, until now a very considerable portion of this poetry has been clothed in a modern English dress, either in prose or in verse. The form that the translation should take has varied with the taste of the translator. Thorpe, in his editions of the’ Codex Exoniensis’ (1842) and of ‘Béowulf’ (1855), contented himself with an English prose version by half-lines in parallel columns with the text. Kemble, however, had previously published his prose translation of ‘Béowulf’ (1837) in a separate volume from the text. Wackerbarth published in 1849 the first complete English verse translation of ‘Béowulf,’ using verses of three and four accents, riming irregularly, sometimes stanza-fashion, as in the opening lines:Lo! We have learned in lofty LaysThe Gár-Danes Deeds in antient DaysAnd Ages past away,The Glories of the Theod-Kings,And how the valiant AethelingsBare them in Battle's Day.

Anglo-Saxon Poetry.

Anglo-Saxon Poetry.

Anglo-Saxon Poetry.

Anglo-Saxon Poetry.

The Style of Anglo-Saxon Poetry

The theory of Heinzel. Style and Metre: connected. The Metre. Four accents versus Eight accents. The Alliteration.

XIII. Communication of an inedited Fragment of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, in a Letter from the Rev. J.J. Conybeare, M.A. Anglo Saxon Professor in the University of Oxford, to Henry Ellis, Esq. F.R.S. and S.A.

If the inedited fragment of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, which accompanies this letter, appear to you worthy of being submitted to the Society of Antiquaries it is entirely at your disposal.It occurs towards the conclusion of a Manuscript Volume of Homilies contained in the Bodleian Library, and supposed by Wanley (who notices it in his catalogue affixed to Hicke's Thesaurus, page 15.) to have been written about the time of King Henry the second.