LITERATURE I

Old English poets had a system of poetic

composition which depended heavily on

ALLITERATION (also HEAD RHYME)

The alliterating sounds were called STAVES

Þæt fram hám gefrægn      Higeláces þegn   That from home heard      Hygelac's thane,

gód mid Géatum,      Grendles daéda· a good man of the Geats,      of Grendel's deeds;
The line was composed of two verses or halflines
called HEMISTICH
(also ON-VERSE / OFF-VERSE)

The hemistiches were bound by ALLITERATION

and separated by a gap called CAESURA
 One characteristic of all oral literature is the use

of “FORMULA”, a group of words which is

regularly used under the same metrical conditions

to express a given essential idea

 Another stylistic feature is the device of

VARIATION, which is the use of equivalents

for poetical purposes.

It generally repeats the information of the first

half-line in the second

 Another stylistic feature is the KENNING,

a kind of metaphor (another kind of

variation) formed by compounding two

nouns

Example: the whale’s path : the sea

 HEITI is a one-term substitute for a

noun.

Example: “ash” “wood” : spear

 Another rhetorical device used was

LITOTES, a form of understatement in

which a thing is affirmed by stating the

negative of its opposite