The Bards: Singing of Gods and Heroes

Hope in Immortal Verse

Shelby StephensMatt Kelecy

Bethany SchochKyle Bramble

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’

The Bards: Singing of Gods and Heroes

Bards were referred to as ‘scops’

by the Anglo Saxons

Anglo-Saxons found poetry just as important as fighting, hunting, farming, or loving

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

Scops

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

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

Hope in Immortal Verse

“ 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

The Seafarer

Since they did not believe in an after-

life their poetry focused on reality

Creative poetry held an emphasis on Gods and Wyrd (fate)

Anglo-Saxons

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

Non-Christian Anglo-Saxons

focused on reciting heroic poetry

Christians focused on Christian poetry

Anglo-Saxons

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

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

What to remember