Old English Poetry

One thing I've been up to this summer is taking a class in Old English literature. So far, I've been learning the basics of the language, grammar, pronunciation, sentence structure, and so on. The textbook we've been using is Peter S. Baker's Introduction to Old English, the majority of which is available online here. I'm enjoying the class immensely, especially the translation exercises which I've completed with help of grammar cheat-sheets, and the glossary at the back of the book. While it's unlikely I'll master the finer points of Anglo-Saxon grammar, I am excited by this week's lesson focusing on the elements of Old English Poetry. I've jotted down some points I've found particularly interesting. Readers should be aware I'm no expert. All of the following are taken from Baker's book:

-Some words are found exclusively in Old English poetry and do not appear in prose writings of the period. They include mearh, the word for horse. And awa, the word for always. I wonder if there's any modern English words that seem to pop up a lot more often in poetry than prose?

-There's also dozens of words for warrior, many of which are compound words combining two concepts. The word "rinc" means warrior, and its compounds include beadorinc (battle-warrior), gumrinc (man warrior), hilderinc (war-warrior), and hererinc (army-warrior). Many of these terms seem redundant but there's actually a quite clever reason for forming compounds:

-Anglo-Saxon poetry is written in alliterative verse. Poems are generally composed of half-lines that employ alliteration rather than rhyme or rhythm such as iambic pentameter found in modern poetry today. So, if a poet wanted to describe a warrior but the other stressed words in the line began with a different sound, he might simply combine two words together to communicate the meaning of the word while retaining the alliteration. I like the idea that sound drives the composition of poetic lines. This constraint seems to force innovation.

-Old English poetry is also full of kennings, or miniature riddles that combine two notions to form a new conept. These include bancofa (bone-chamber, which Baker interprets as "the body"), the famous hronrad (whale-road from Beowulf), and wordhord (word-hord, which Baker suggests refers to one's capacity for speech). Some poets utilize kennings in modern English, and this is an idea I would definitely like to play around with a bit more.

-There's a great deal of variation in Old English poetry, wherein the poet might describe the same thing two or three different ways. This is something you do see a lot in modern poetry and I think it has a beautiful, musical effect. Here is Baker's example, translated, from The Seafarer: "My feet were / Oppressed by cold, bound with frost, / with cold fetters, where cares sighed, / heat around my heart."

-Old English poetry is very formulaic as well. The example that Baker uses and that is certainly reminiscent of texts like Lord of the Rings is: "Hrothgar, helmet of the Scyldings spoke, Unferth, the son of Ecglaf, spoke" etc. Some argue that these formulas are evidence that certain texts were composed orally, which would make them easier to remember. I think that such formulas also speak perhaps to the poet's awareness that they work within tradition. As Baker notes, despite these formulaic lines or concepts, the Anglo-Saxon poets achieved a great deal of ingenuity and inventiveness. Indeed much modern literature follows generic guidelines, which might be considered a type of formula, but this does not take away from the unique accomplishments of each individual text.

-One of the most difficult things to get used to about OE poetry is that a lot of lines leave out grammatical elements such as prepositions and pronouns. It can be a bit difficult trying to fill in the blanks when translating texts, but it also makes for a great variety of interpretations. Old English poetry seems to give the reader a greater role in interpreting the text.