From Beowulf, can you provide two examples each of kennings and alliteration?
Kenning is a poetic phrase using figurative language that refers to a noun. This form of figurative language has been used and associated with Anglo-Saxon poetry. Beowulf is an Old English poem done by an anonymous poet of Anglo-Saxon origin, and thus, it is expected that there is use of Kennings within the poem. Kennings often consist of two words separated by a hyphen and some of the example in Beowulf include;
- Dark death-shadow, this word was used to describe Grendel’s origin. It was used to show that death and Grendel were inseparable.
- Stout-hearted men, this phrase was used to refer to Scyldings, and it means the men were courageous.
- Swan-road, this word is used by Beowulf when he was planning his trip to King Hrothgar’s kingdom, and the word means ocean or sea.
Alliteration is a stylistic device that employs some form of repetition where the phrase is made up of similar sounding words. In Beowulf, some of the examples include;
- “Ride his steed to the strand” this phrase shows use of consonants to produce a similar sound in words. The phrase is used when Beowulf and his companions reach the shores of Hrothgar’s kingdom, where they meet a sentry on his horse.
- “Doing black deeds in the dead of night”, this phrase is used by Beowulf when he makes known his intention to Hrothgar’s sentry at the shores when they arrive in the land of the Danes.
What are examples of alliteration, hyperbole, litotes, kennings, and epithets in Beowulf?
Examples of alliteration, epithets, hyperbole, kennings, and litotes occur throughout the Old English epic poem Beowulf, and often many of these traits appear together. Notice, for instance, how many of these traits appear in the following passage, which describes God’s punishment of Cain for murdering his brother Abel:
. . . For the killing of Abel
The Eternal Lord had exacted a price:
Cain got no good from committing that murder . . . . (107-09; Seamus Heaney translation)
Alliteration, which generally involves the repetition of initial consonant sounds, appears, for instance in the final quoted line, especially in the words “Cain” and “committing” and in the phrase “got no good.” Alliteration is by far the most common strylistic trait of Old English verse.
An epithet, in which a person is identified and defined by some quality or trait, appears in the phrase “Eternal Lord,” which is more precisely descriptive than “God” would have been.
Litotes is defined at dictionary.com as follows:
understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”
Litotes often involves irony, and thus the statement that “Cain got no good from committing that murder” is a perfect example of this stylistic trait. It would be hard to think of a better example of ironic understatement.
A fine example of a kenning, or a complex metaphor, usually linking two nouns, occurs when the poet reports Beowulf’s plan “to sail the swan’s road” in order to help the beleaguered Danes (200). Rather than saying “sail the ocean,” the poet uses the term “swan’s road,” implying that Beowulf’s journal will be easy, graceful, and untroubled.
Hyperbole, or exaggeration for emphasis, is less obviously evident in Beowulf than the other traits already discussed, although perhaps there is a bit of hyperbole when the poet reports that Grendel was able to grab and kill “thirty men” during his initial raid on Heorot and carry their corpses back to his lair (122-25). If the detail is taken literally, then Grendel is both enormously strong and enormously large (a kind of early medieval King Kong). The fact that he is later able to fit himself inside the hall suggests that the poet may be engaging here in a bit of hyperbole, although some other explanation may also account for this phrasing.
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