Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
Beowulf scholarship has long regarded the bards within the poem's verses as
representatives of Anglo-Saxon history. Based on this assumption, critics have drawn
conclusions about the Germanic scops of history without considering the possibility that
the minstrels bought to life within the poem would likely have been reconstructions of the
Anglo-Saxons Germanic past. This study approaches Beowulf's oral poets as idealized
poetic devices and examines their effect on the theme of the poem. The Beowulf poet sets
the bard apart from the members of his society by granting him a broader perspective.
When the bard sings, he uses this perspective to address certain characters within the
poem and to determine whether they merited praise or judgment. The Beowulf poet used
these songs to facilitate reflection in the characters for whom the bard sang and to point
these characters toward the proper moral path.
representatives of Anglo-Saxon history. Based on this assumption, critics have drawn
conclusions about the Germanic scops of history without considering the possibility that
the minstrels bought to life within the poem would likely have been reconstructions of the
Anglo-Saxons Germanic past. This study approaches Beowulf's oral poets as idealized
poetic devices and examines their effect on the theme of the poem. The Beowulf poet sets
the bard apart from the members of his society by granting him a broader perspective.
When the bard sings, he uses this perspective to address certain characters within the
poem and to determine whether they merited praise or judgment. The Beowulf poet used
these songs to facilitate reflection in the characters for whom the bard sang and to point
these characters toward the proper moral path.
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