PSY 230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Heremod, Mead Hall, English Compound
13 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Genre: primary epic- oral in origin and eventually (sometimes) written down, known as transcribing. Time frame of beowulf: 475-575 a. d. (early germanic era- pagan culture) Secondary epic- written in origin (ex: milton"s paradise lost) Battle of northern germany took place on 510 a. d. in the poem, suggesting this was when the poem was told. Period of oral composition: 600-80 a. d. (time of religious and cultural transformation) Poem contains both pagan and christian references. England is becoming more and more christian. What is pagan and what is christian is difficult to determine in poem. Scop: an oral poet who would memorize these poems and go around the countryside reciting poems on various occasions (bard) Wyrd: the anglo-saxon and early germanic term for fate. Pagan faith and christian faith are both present in the poem. Kenning: a particular characteristic of anglo-saxon poetry; a compound noun (more than one noun) working as a metaphor. Ex: whale road (body of salt water)
