Beowulf (; in Old English or ) is the conventional title of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.

Anglo-Saxon poets typically used alliterative verse, a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal structuring device to unify lines of poetry, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme, a tool which is used rather infrequently.

With one notable exception ( Rhyming Poem ), Anglo-Saxon poetry depends on alliterative verse for its structure and any rhyme included is merely ornamental.

Just as rhyme was seen in some Anglo-Saxon poems ( e. g. The Rhyming Poem, and, to some degree, The Proverbs of Alfred ), the use of alliterative verse continued into Middle English.

Examples of Tolkien's alliterative verses include those written by him for the Rohirrim, a culture in The Lord of the Rings that borrowed many aspects from Anglo-Saxon culture.

The four poems, like a substantial portion of Anglo-Saxon poetry, are sculpted in alliterative verse.

The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue ( 1947 ; first UK edition, 1948 ) is a long poem in six parts by W. H. Auden, written mostly in a modern version of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse.

The collection shows signs of transition in verse form from the earlier Anglo-Saxon alliterative form to the new Norman rhyme form, for rhyme occasionally occurs in the poetry.

Rhyme is otherwise virtually unknown among Anglo-Saxon literature, which used alliterative verse instead.

To the study of English Ettmüller contributed by an alliterative translation of Beowulf ( 1840 ), an Anglo-Saxon chrestomathy entitled Engla and Seaxna scopas and boceras ( 1850 ), and a well-known Lexicon Anglo-Saxonicum ( 1851 ), in which the explanations and comments are given in Latin, but the words unfortunately are arranged according to their etymological affinity, and the letters according to phonetic relations.

The Vercelli Book comprises 135 folios which contain a group of twenty-three homilies, six works in Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse: Andreas, Address of the Soul to the Body, Falseness of Men, Dream of the Rood, two poems by Cynewulf, Elene and The Fates of the Apostles, and a prose Life of Guthlac.

The celebration of deeds of ancient Danish and Swedish heroes, the poem beginning with a tribute to the royal line of Danish kings, but written in the dominant literary dialect of Anglo-Saxon England, for a number of scholars points to the 11th century reign of Canute, the Danish king whose empire included all of these areas, and whose primary place of residence was in England, as the most likely time of the poem's creation, the poem being written as a celebration of the king's heroic royal ancestors, perhaps intended as a form of artistic flattery by one of his English courtiers.

" Cuthwulf's relationship with Ceawlin is unknown, but the alliteration common to Anglo-Saxon royal families suggests Cuthwulf may be part of the West Saxon royal line.

Then, three weeks later, William of Normandy defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings, in Sussex, and in December he accepted the submission of Edgar the Ætheling, last in the line of Anglo-Saxon kings, at Berkhamsted.

It follows a part of the line of the Roman route, Iter III in the Antonine Itinerary, which later took the Anglo-Saxon name Watling Street.

Little is known of his life or reign, but he was regarded as the founder of a line from which later Anglo-Saxon kings in this part of northern England and southern Scotland claimed descent.

Edward's grandchild Edith of Scotland, also called Matilda, married King Henry I of England, continuing the Anglo-Saxon line into the post-Conquest English monarchy.

This image of Christ as a “ heroic lord ” or “ heroic warrior ” is seen frequently in Anglo-Saxon ( as well as further Germanic ) literature, and follows in line with the theme of understanding Christianity through pre-Christian Germanic tradition.

The " Ashton " part probably derives from the Anglo-Saxon meaning " settlement by ash trees ", the origin of the " under-Lyne " element is less clear: it could derive from the British lemo meaning elm, or may refer to Ashton being " under the line " of the Pennines.

If there was it would have been smaller and far less elaborate in design than the one that stood there afterwards, keeping in line with Anglo-Saxon architectural tradition.

Post-Beaumont, Margaret Gelling associated the name with the landscape in which the town is situated, believing that-hall comes from Anglo-Saxon healh, meaning a nook or hollow, thus rendering the name as " Cogg's nook " ( with Cogg as a proper name ), corresponding to Coggeshall's sunken position in the 150-foot contour line.

If so, then Wulf and Eadwacer is not typical, because most Old English loyalty crises occur within the family group … It is … true that romantic or sexual love was not the literary commonplace before the twelfth century it has been since ; other loves took precedence … The situation in Wulf and Eadwacer is far more typically Anglo-Saxon than as usually interpreted, if the speaker is understood to be the mother of the person she addresses as Wulf, as well as of the ‘ whelp ’ of line 16.

Harthacnut left no sons, however, and since his mother, Emma, had been married to Æthelred the Unready ( and borne him sons ) before his death and Cnut's accession, the throne passed back to the original Anglo-Saxon line in the form of her son ( Harthacnut's half-brother ) Edward the Confessor.

But the southern Anglo-Saxon school rather stands apart from the general line of development of the western medieval miniature.

Geoffrey's historiography was ruled by an aim of proving a primordial line of British kingship that entirely bypassed the Anglo-Saxon kings.

Banburyshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire were on the Front line of the Viking / Anglo-Saxon conflict of that time.

King Alfred ( r. 871-899 ) held the Vikings back to a line running diagonally across the middle of England, above which they settled in the Danelaw, and were gradually integrated into what was now a unified Anglo-Saxon kingdom.

This observation is of interest not only to students of Homeric poetry but to students of Anglo-Saxon poetry as well.

In Coriolanus the agnomen of Marcius is used deliberately and pointedly, but the Homeric epithets and the Anglo-Saxon kennings are used casually and recall to the hearer `` a familiar story or situation or a useful or pleasant quality of the referent ''.

The closest scrutiny is owed to the Anglo-Saxon kennings and the Homeric epithets ; ;

A few years later, Ann Watts published a book in which she argued against the imperfect application of traditional, Homeric, oral-formulaic theory to Anglo-Saxon poetry.

Although not mentioned by Asser or by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Alfred probably also paid the Vikings cash to leave, much as the Mercians were to do in the following year.

But, clearly, the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and probably Alfred himself regarded 897 as marking an important development in the naval power of Wessex.

After his death a monastery ( Lanwethinoc, the church of Wethinoc an earlier holy man ) was established here which was of great importance until the town was raided by the Vikings in 981 ( the Vikings laid waste " Petroces stow " ( probably Padstow ) according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ).

There is a distinction between an unrounded retroflex approximant and a rounded variety that probably could have been found in Anglo-Saxon and even to this day in some dialects of English, where the orthographic key is r for the unrounded version and usually wr for the rounded version ( these dialects will make a differentiation between right and write ).

In Old English, the word wicing appears first in the Anglo-Saxon poem, " Widsith ", which probably dates from the 9th century.

According to the historian David Bates, this probably means that little happened of note, and that because William was on the continent, there was nothing for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to record.

An Timeline of the Anglo-Saxon invasion and takeover of Britain | Anglo-Saxon helmet found at Sutton Hoo, probably belonging to Raedwald of East Anglia circa 625.

Northumbria played an important role in the formation of Insular art, a unique style combining Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Pictish, Byzantine and other elements, producing works such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, St Cuthbert Gospel, the Ruthwell Cross and Bewcastle Cross, and later the Book of Kells, which was probably created at Iona.

The version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which contains the most detailed account, records that Edward was murdered, probably at or near the mound on which the ruins of Corfe Castle now stand, in the evening of 18 March 978, while visiting Ælfthryth and Æthelred.

Assuming Odo commissioned the tapestry, it was probably designed and constructed in England by Anglo-Saxon artists ( Odo's main power base being by then in Kent ); the Latin text contains hints of Anglo-Saxon ; other embroideries originate from England at this time ; and the vegetable dyes can be found in cloth traditionally woven there.

The Battle of Mons Badonicus ( English Mount Badon or Badon Hill, Welsh Mynydd Baddon ) was a battle between a force of Britons and an Anglo-Saxon army, probably sometime between 490 and 517 AD.

There were also various sceptres, swords, coronets, rings and an Anglo-Saxon comb, Some of the pieces were probably reclaimed burial regalia, including those stripped from the rich shrine of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey by Henry VIII.

The name Charing probably comes from the Anglo-Saxon word cerring, a bend, as it stands on the outside of a 90-degree bend in the River Thames ( see Charing in Kent ).

Cerdic ( from the early British name represented by modern Welsh Caradog ) was probably the first King of Anglo-Saxon Wessex from 519 to 534, cited by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as the founder of the kingdom of Wessex and ancestor of all its subsequent kings.

However, the earliest source for Cerdic, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, was put together in the late ninth century ; though it probably does record the extant tradition of the founding of Wessex, the intervening four hundred years mean that the account cannot be assumed to be accurate.

The place-name probably derives from the Anglo-Saxon Wifeleslēah: " Wifel's woodland clearing ".

The name Chorley comes from two Anglo-Saxon words, Ceorl and ley, probably meaning " the peasants ' clearing ".

Some of these castles were deliberately built on top of important local buildings, such as the burhs or halls of local nobles, and might be constructed so as to imitate aspects of the previous buildings – such as the gatehouse at Rougemont Castle in Exeter, which closely resembled the previous Anglo-Saxon burh tower – this was probably done to demonstrate to the local population that they now answered to their new Norman rulers.

Wilfrid is also mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, but as the Chronicle was probably a 9th-century compilation, the material on Wilfrid may ultimately have derived either from Stephen's Vita or from Bede.

In the name Orwell, Or-comes from an ancient river-name — probably pre-Celtic ; but-well probably indicates an Anglo-Saxon naming.