Literary Devices In Beowulf

All throughout Beowulf there are many uses of literary devices. Some of them are ones that are never used now days and others are ones that we see every day. Literary devices add so much variety to what you are reading. They are also very helpful for when you have to memorize stories. When Beowulf was written it was only passed from person to person by word, because Beowulf is a 3183 line poem memorizing all of that would have been very hard literary devices in it to make it easier to remember the story. There are many literary devices in the epic poem of Beowulf but the ones that were most evident to me were kennings, alliterations, and personifications, these literary devices add an entire new level of complexity to a poem and pulls the reader in.

Kennings are usually associated with Old Norse, Icelandic, and Anglo Saxon (which is what Beowulf is) poetry. A kenning is a compound expression that normally consists of two words. Some examples of kennings in Beowulf are blood sweat; blood, foamy necked floater; a ship, and raven harvest; a dead body. Each of these mean something simple, they are just given a name that will leave a lasting impression and would help remember a story. Alliteration is the reoccurring sound of the same beginning letter of multiple words that are close to each other. Alliteration was the literary device that I noticed the most in Beowulf. One example of alliteration in Beowulf is on line 715 “Up from his (Grendel) swampland sliding silently…” This example of alliteration has the repetition of the letter s. Another example of alliteration is on line 1900 “…soldiers half, share shining rings, silver and gold.” The S is also the repeated sound in this alliteration. Alliteration will make phrases easy to remember and will just slide right off your