1. Deor\'s Lament - notes from the lecture PDF

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- Old English Literature
- for 1BA students (Teach, TR)
- key facts
- notes from the lecture...

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Deor’s Lament ( example of Anglo-Saxon literature) 1. The genre (definition) : Old English Elegy and the main themes Old English Elegy - a sad poem which usually ends with consolation. The lyrical subject expresses its own sufferings, solitude. The main themes in the Old English elegy are loss, exile and the inevitability of fate. Example: Deor’s Lament The poem is a Deor’s personal expression of sufferings . There is a motif of exile and loss: Deorwas a scope who was replaced at his court by another minstrel and deprived of his lands and his lord’s favour. (loss of shelter) The speaker finds consolation as he looks back upon five instances of suffering inflicted upon Germanic heroes - he is not the only one who has had to face loss and despair. He comes to a conclusion that every evil passes with time and the pain of his rejection will hopefully pass away just like the sorrows of the Germanic legends passed eventually: „That passed away; so may this” (the main motto) – everything is transitory. Not only bad things pass, good ones such as love pass too. 2. Germanic history and legends The historical and legendary heroes from Germanic folklore are represented as figures who also had to surmount obstacles, whose fate was miserable . 3.Medieval culture: courtly culture Scop – an Old English bard or poet; his role was to pass on poetry – history,identity. Scops had many privileges. They role was that a of a historian and preserver of the oral tradition of the Germanic peoples. 4. The 2 types of consolation: Christian and Germanic Germanic (pagan): endurance of the rule of fate, everything will pass, the impermanence of earthly pleasures Christian: the belief that the divine providence is the protector of all, God decides of our fate, takes care of us, he is the one who’ll solve our problems. 5. The syncretism of pagan and Christian elements: In the Deor’s Lament pagan elements are combined with the Christian ones. The Pagan elements are the Germanic legends and the belief that earthly joys are transient therefore one has to accept the difficulties of life, after all the trouble will pass. The Christian element is the concept of „constant Lord” - God who is the protector of all, who decides of human fate and takes care of all.

The Dream of the Rood 1.Genre: religious poem/ religious poetry a poetic genre that contains religious teachings, themes, or references. However in case of The Dream of the Rood some elements of Old English elegy also can be found (the sufferings of Christ and the Rood, the poem ends in consolation: there is a place where there is „joy everlasting”, where the speaker can „abide in glory knowing bliss with saints” Examples: The Christian concept of Good who protects people, who acts as a friend („May the Lord befriend me(…)”) References to the Bible: Christ, his suffering on the cross, the concept of Heaven ( „And bring me where is great gladness and heavenly bliss/ Where the people of God are planted and established for ever/ In joy everlasting”) 2. The narrative technique: dream vision A narrative technique that presents the story in the narrative framework of a dream. Its characteristic elements are the symbols and personification (prosopopeia). Examples: An example of personification is the speaking tree; it can feel the pain, has its own story to tell.. There is symbolism: gold associated with the Germanic tradition of gift-giving and blood associated with Christianity, the suffering of Christ. 3. Prosopopeia and personification A rhetorical device in which a speaker or writer communicates to the audience by speaking as another person or object. Example: the speaker quotes the tree’s words: „Long years ago(…)”. Personification: the tree is attributed the human quality of speaking (quote above) and feeling; it feels the Christ’s pain and suffers. 4. The influence of Germanic heroic poetry: the representation of Christ and crucifixion Christ is potrayed as a kind of a warrior; he is more like Beouwulf, a Germanic epic hero, than the Christ from the Bible. He is impatient to be crucified and sure the he will win. The Rood is the one who suffers more. Other things: The rood was buried with jewels - gift-giving, God’s friends paid for his service, glorification of the rood – a symbolic motif: good Christians will be rewarded. The body of Christ and the rood form a unity, rood suffers more and faces its weakness Alliteration Examples: „gilded with gold”, „fair at the foot”, „that Tree that Token of triumph”, „gilded with gold”, „gazed oon its gleaming” Kenning - metaphor made of compound nouns e.g. „All-Wielder” Variation - literary device which refers to the use of synonyms to denote the same thing in order to avoid repetition. Other functions: creation of a more vivid description and keeping the rhytm. Examples: „All-Wielder”, „The Lord”, „the High King”, „The Lord of Heaven”, „Almighty God”,...