Anglo Saxon Epic Poetry: An Interview with My High School English Teacher!

I know that Apple founder and previous CEO Steve Jobs does not have much to do with my topic today of Epic Poetry. But I would just like to begin my blog with a short tribute to a man who passed away today who I believed revolutionized the way we transmit knowledge in the digital age. 10 years ago he came up with a product that allowed us to listen and buy music digitally through the invention of iTunes and the iPod, the knowledge of millions of musicians was now at our fingertips where we were desperate buying CDs before. He knew what consumers wanted before they even did: a computer that was simple and consumer friendly, an iPad that was easy to use, a phone that could be used for music and business. He was someone who knew how to analyze the best ways we could digitally transmit knowledge and inspired eventual founders of web portals such as Yahoo and Google to help with the communication of knowledge. To segway to my topic for today of the oral tradition of epic poetry, I'd like to mention how Steve Jobs was able to put the world at the end of their seat every time he announce a new product. Steve Jobs was probably most famous for the way in which he orally presented each new product in what is called his "keynote address." He dresses up in a black turtle neck and jeans, and orally communicates how well products have done and the exciting new announcements of products to come. In this way he used oral knowledge as a way of communication to consumers and as a selling point. This was unique to Apple and its CEO, and I believe one of its most valuable marketing tools. I'd like to relate Apple's form of oral tradition back to 1400 years earlier when the Anglo Saxons were also able to pass down knowledge by communicating their Epic poetry. This blog will explore how exactly they were able to do that.

I decided that I would use a digital form of oral communication as a way to interview an expert on the subject of Anglo Saxon Poetry, I called up my high school senior english teacher. She taught IB (International Baccalaureate) English and included a lot of epic poetry in her curriculum, having the students analyze certain poems and then give what IB calls an Oral Commentary on the poem. The oral commentary was the final assessment for the oral component of the IB course in which a student randomly chooses a poem from a stack at the teacher's house and has 20 minutes to annotate it and plan what to say and then must present their thoughts for 15 min, being recorded by the IB teacher. It is a seemingly frightening experience, but really helps the students learn to orally communicate their ideas on poetry. So I knew she would have a lot of stuff to say on the oral tradition of Epic Poetry in the Anglo Saxon germanic tribes. She did not disappoint!
She explained to me that Old English is not simply a uniform language. It consists of many various dialects, but as far as literature goes, we need to treat it as a language. She told me that we receive our syntax from the Anglo-Saxons. They provide us with our context for and greater ease with use of nouns, the ability to condense grammar and shorten up words, and what is called "law of recessive accent" which is when we place the accent over the first syllable and slur over subsequent syllables.

She explained that the Anglo-Saxon gods' names are the basis for the days of the week: Tuesday from Tiw, the dark god, Wednesday from Woden, the war god, Thursday from Thor, the thunder god, Friday from Frigga, goddess of home.


The connection she made to oral knowledge was really exciting! She told me that the majority of Anglo-Saxon poetry emerges from the oral tradition at the time that was meant for entertaining lords and their families at what was called a "mead-hall." There were poet oral performers called Scops (the poets) and Gleemen (harpists) who sung or recited the poetry. These men were considered to be the only historians of that time. The way she told me we know of the oral nature of Anglo Saxon poetry is through the poetic structure, that is based on accent and alliteration, not rhyme and meter. She said that Epithets were used as a tool for alliteration, this way a God could be called a numerous amount of titles such as "Weard" (guardian) or "Meatod" (measurer) or "Drihten" (lord) or "Frea" (master), and so on. A king could be called a "noble lord" or a "ring-giver" or a "righteous guardian." The anglos saxons also loved to insert what were called "ironic understatements", these were another favorite rhetoric of the Anglo-Saxons in which the affirmative is expressed by the negation of its contrary. For example, I found online that an ironic statement could be: "Not easily did I come through it with my life."


I believe a lot of the manner in which the Anglo Saxon's orally passed down and recorded epic poetry connects to my theme from last post of the importance of fame for Anglo Saxon heroes and legends. I am really happy that my IB english teacher was able to help me learn more about the oral traditions and technique of Anglo Saxon poetry. She was even upset that I hadn't let her known earlier as she would of sent me a copy of an original written down form of epic poetry from the Anglo Saxon period to show the class, but she had just sent it to a museum a few days earlier! I know that I don't have a video of myself entertaining others through orally communicating poetry. But I did want to show a couple of films I made for IB history where I believe my group members and I were able to successfully use eloquence and oral communication as a way to teach my classmates about certain important conflicts during the cold war. I present to you UN NEWS!! Enjoy! (Oh and if you want to skip through some of the boring montage parts most of the entertaining stuff is on set with the anchormen and interviews with outside corespondents, the Fidel Castro bit in the third one is I think our best piece of work).

Here is our first production on the US involvement in the Iran Coup of 1953, entertaining highlights: 0:00-3:50. 7:30-8:15


Here is our second production on the Angolan War of Independence,entertaining highlights: 0:00-1:30, 4:40-5:15


Here is our final production on the events of the Cold War in Latin America, starring Fidel Castro! entertaining highlights: 0:00-4:00, 11:00-12:00