A glance at the poem “Beowulf” could lead one to conclude that the work is prose. However, a quick assessment indicates that the work was created in adherence to Germanic alliterative verse. Under this verse, reconstructed lines have four major stressors and two sections where the third stressor is the most essential. In most cases, the first half of a line in the nineteen-line poem extract has two alliterating syllables (Pascual, 2021). The evidence that verbs were weakly stressed is the appearance of the final stress that is typically filled with a verb. These characteristics indicate that intonations in old English sentences resemble intonations in modern English. For example, the fourth line in Beowulf is an example of alliteration that characterized old English poetry.
Lines 1-19 relate to the consequential arrival of a baby on the Danish coast named Scyld. This child becomes king of the Danes when he grows up. Several aspects of this poem such as grammar, verb inflection, the presence of past tense in verbs, anomalous verbs, and weak verbs stand out (Pascual, 2021). There was no standardized spelling in old English which meant that different people had various spellings of the same words. For the most part, the continental system drawn from the Latin alphabet guided how words were spelled. Unlike modern English, there were no silent letters in old English.
Verbs are generally classified into weak and strong verbs primarily based on their preterit production. In old English, as is the case with the poem, there is an addition of the suffixes such as æ as in æþelingas in weak verbs (Pascual, 2021). However, like in modern English, Old English also utilized active verb inflections. Old English is generally a derivative of the Proto-Germanic tongue characterized by anomalous verbs where words such as “was” is spelled as “wæs” (Pascual, 2021). This association with the Proto-Germanic tongue is largely absent in modern English as it is utilized only in the spelling of some archaic words such as wassail whose original meaning was “be healthy.”
Beowulf utilizes stock phrases that fill the needs of a metrical line or half line. These stock phrases are called formulas and were basic tools for oral poets during old English times. Some experts do not however agree with the assessment that the existence of a formula means that a poem has oral origins (Pascual, 2021). Extensively using formulas gives a poem a lofty and traditional character. Examples of half-line formulas in the poem include phrases on lines eleven and thirteen, “gomban gyldan” and “geong in geardum” respectively. Beowulf also makes extensive use of compounding. In old English, compounding means the combining of two words to make one. For example, the word “Gardena” in the first line is a combination of two words that can be translated into “Spear-Danes.” Finally, kennings and variations are used later on in the poem.
The nineteen-line extract from the poem Beowulf indicates adherence to the Germanic alliterative verse. This was to be expected as old English was a derivative of the Proto-Germanic language. Other key features of old English observed in the poem include the use of stock phrases (compounds) and formulas. In the extract provided, there is no use of kennings and variations. Instead, kennings and variations are used later on. The use of additional suffixes for the weak verbs is also noted in the old English version of the poem. The language used in the text reflects a mixture of Anglo-Saxon and Germanic languages spoken by Scandinavians. As a prelude to modern English, some of the aspects of the language used in the poem are found in modern English. Thus, despite some differences, old English is more similar to modern English.
Reference
Pascual, R. J. (2021). Beowulf 501b and the authority of Old English Poetical Manuscripts. Neophilologus, 105(3), 425–436. Web.