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.

A kenning is a literary device that is not commonly used today.

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

tongue.
Another example of a literary device in Beowulf if personification. Personification is giving human qualities to nonhuman objects. There are many examples of personification in Beowulf. One example is on line 1435 “the life leaked out” this is talking about when Beowulf shot an arrow into a snake before diving into the lake where Grendel’s mother lived. Personification gives a story or poem character. It makes it special and adds interest.
When stories used to be passed down by word of mouth they had to have a long lasting impression and had to be easy to remember. Literary devices are away that helped make this possible. Literary devices such as kennings, alliteration, and personification add interest to stories and make them memorable. Without literary devices writing’s would be routine and dull and would be hard to memorize and retell them to other people. Beowulf is a great example of how literary devices can create a complex and interesting story that is easy to remember and retell to other people.