The Metrical Grammar of Beowulf [Paperback]

This book argues that the Old English epic Beowulf is shaped by the poetic language which the poet inherited.This book argues that the formal art of the Old English epic Beowulf is shaped and determined by the poetic language which the poet inherited from the oral, traditional culture of Anglo-Saxon England.This book argues that the formal art of the Old English epic Beowulf is shaped and determined by the poetic language which the poet inherited from the oral, traditional culture of Anglo-Saxon England.This book argues that the formal art of the Old English epic Beowulf is shaped and determined by the poetic language that the poet inherited from the traditional, oral culture of Anglo-Saxon England. The patterns of meter and alliteration exhibited in the poem were not imposed by the poet on his language, but were part of the language that he spoke, the rules of which constituted his metrical grammar. Professor Kendall investigates the constraints of syntax, meter and alliteration that govern the formal art of Beowulf. He shows how the half-lines of the poem, which are the basic units of composition, are marked by the metrical grammar for placement in the verse clause; he also establishes conditions for the presence or absence of alliteration, which enable him to say whether in any given instance the alliterative device is a mandatory function of the rules of the metrical grammar or an option exercised by the poet.Preface; List of abbreviations; List of changes from Klaeber's text; 1. The Beowulf-poet and his metrical grammar; 2. The alliterative and metrical principles of Beowulf: Kuhn's 'laws' and the transformational rule; 3. The three kinds of half-lines: extra-metrical alliteration and type A3; 4. Displacement; 5. Stressed proclitic adjectives: X-positions and the insertion rule; 6. Problems with the identification of clause-non-initial half-lines: the proclitic onset; 7. Half-lines with internal clause divisions: the transformational rule (revised); 8. The alc^