The style of Anglo-Saxon poetry, with particular reference to the poetic vocabulary.

The Anglo-Saxon poetic style is very different from the style of the normal prose writing. It is distinguished from the prose style by its use of a formal alliterative metre, by its repetitive and circumlocutory narrative methods and by a heavy concentration on the nominal rather than on the verbal element. Principally the poetic style is reflected in the vocabulary. In the first place the poet makes use of a special poetic diction not used in prose. In the second place he makes heavy use of a poetic technique of freely forming compound nouns and adjectives. As the vocabulary is such an important factor in the style, and as comparatively little material on this subject is to be found, I have devoted my attention in this thesis almost entirely to a thorough analysis of the peculiarities of the Anglo-Saxon poetic vocabulary. Section I deals mainly with the Anglo-Saxon poetic diction and its use, and with the poetic technique of word compounding. In this section many stylistic features are discussed, but they are treated from the point of view of their effect on the poetic vocabulary. Section II, which is much shorter and stands somewhat in the nature of an appendix to Section I, deals firstly with the effect of the mental outlook of the Anglo-Saxon poet on his style, and secondly with main differences in narrative method between the prose and poetry. The treatment is thus somewhat uneven, but it seemed to me better to analyse thoroughly the relatively undiscussed subject of the vocabulary, while giving a brief general outline of other features which have been treated frequently.