The Study of Kennings in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf

Abstract

[Abstract] Beowulf is an anonymous poem written in the Anglo-Saxon period (449-1066 AD), considered nowadays an English literary masterpiece and the most relevant epic poem in existence. It springs from Germanic oral tradition and it includes aspects of the epic. Epic poetry traditionally deals with the adventures of a hero who fights to defend his culture. Some of the formal elements characteristic of this genre are alliteration, the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of nearby words, and kennings, a device typical of Germanic poetry that are, therefore, also present in Anglo-Saxon Literature. The following work is a brief study of the meaning of kennings in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, a good representative of Old English tradition. The study will focus on a semantic classification and analysis of kennings according to their positive or negative meaning and their contribution to the overall effect of the poem.