The epic poem Beowulf is an exciting adventure story about a warrior who kills ferocious monsters. The use of description and poetic language allows the story to come alive and for the reader to visualize the characters, and events. Alliteration, kennings, metaphors, and exaggeration are some of the main things that combine to allow this poem to be experienced like a story rather than like most other poetry.
Throughout Beowulf alliteration is often used. Alliteration is the repetition of the same first letter or sound in a group of words.(Junior Dictionary 19). Old English poetry has no stanzic form and no rhyme except by accident; it consists of lines that run together to form sentences. There is no set number of syllables per line. In Beowulf a normal line contains between eight and twelve syllables. (Jagular1). This helps give this story a more poetic sound. For example, alliteration can be seen in “Nor might the wise warrior set aside his woe.” (Beo
(Beowulf1071). Beowulf is hardly ever referred to by his name. These kennings describe Beowulf to the reader in a more interesting way rather than repeating the name over and over again which could make the story boring. Without it it would be possible to lose interest in the story and learn less about Beowulf. The use of these metaphors and kennings play a very important role in this epic poem.
Metaphors are used extensively throughout the story to allow the reader to visualize the surroundings and looks of certain things. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily means one thing is used of another thing in order to suggest likeness between the two.(Junior Dictionary 409). Metaphors are often used throughout this story in phrases called kennings. A kenning is a descriptive poetical expression used instead of a simple
Alliteration, metaphors, kennings, and exaggerations all help in developing a descriptive and imaginative scene to entertain and tell the
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