Shelby Stephens
Matt Kelecy
Bethany Schoch
Kyle Bramble
The Bards: Singing of Gods and Heroes
Anglo Saxons are well renowned for
storytelling
More than one thousand years before,
in Homeric Greece, storytellers sang of
Gods and Heroes of their era
Skilled storytellers were called ‘Bards’
Bards were referred to as ‘scops’ by the
Anglo Saxons
Anglo-Saxons found poetry just as
important as fighting, hunting,
farming, or loving
Scops
In the Anglo-Saxon period they were referred
to as ‘scops’ or ‘shaper(s)’
‘Shaper’ came from their ability to shape
“men’s reputation by songs”
Scops
Well valued and respected among tribal
warriors
Warriors who listened to scops did not
believe in a “christian type of heaven”
Immortality meant being remembered after
dying
Anglo Saxon poets sang while playing a lyre or harp
This is an example of the six-stringed musical instrument
used while telling stories or singing poetry
Many poets used improvisation to create
interesting stories to tell
Inspiration came from heroic tales that
descended from people’s common concerns
of the time period: War, disease, or old age
In Beowulf we are told of the King:
…sometimes Hrothgar himself, with the harp
In his lap, stroked its silvery strings
And told wonderful stories, a brave king
Reciting unhappy truths about good
And evil-and sometimes he wove his stories
On the mournful thread of old age, remembering
Buried strength and the battles it had won.
He would weep, the old king.
-lines 2107-2114
This example shows how the king would improvise
while playing the harp and telling stories
Hope in Immortal Verse
Anglo Saxon literature had a large
emphasis on mourning or death
The Seafarer, for example, stresses the
hardships of life and that death is the
end of the spirit
The Seafarer
“ This tale is true, and mine. It tells
How the sea took me, swept me back
And forth in sorrow and fear and pain,
Showed me suffering in a hundred ships,
In a thousand ports, and in me…”
-Lines 1-5
This is an example of the life struggles contained within
Anglo-Saxon literature
Anglo-Saxons
Since they did not believe in an after-life their
poetry focused on reality
Creative poetry held an emphasis on Gods
and Wyrd (fate)
Non-Christian Anglo-Saxons with no
promise of an after-life had poetry as a
defense against death
Only a poem’s fame and its celebration
gave the non-Christian a reason for
living
Anglo-Saxons
Non-Christian Anglo-Saxons focused
on reciting heroic poetry
Christians focused on Christian poetry
Anglo-Saxon scops were gifted with
the ability to preserve fame in memory
with their poetry
Their skill in poetry and creating such a
memorable poetry era could be the
reason they were dignified and
honored members of society
What to remember
Bards are also known as scops
Scops were the entertainment of the era
Scops did not believe in an after-life or
Christian Heaven
What to remember
Inspiration for poetry came from real-life
experience; war, diseases, common issues
They desired their poetry to be well renowned
after their death
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