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Bleed, Saxon Blood
“Þær wæs sang || and sweg samod ætgædere,
fore Healfdenes || hildewisan;
gomenwudu || græted, giomaenes spell,
cwæð þonne se scop, || sumeres þegn”
“Then there was song and music together,
before Hrothgar’s battle-leader;
the harp sounded, the joy-wood’s voice,
when the scop sang afterwards.”—Beowulf
Bleed, Saxon blood,__and bare old tales
of winning wars,__westward thrust,
killing Celts, _keeping lands,
eager-storming, _ever-taking,
battle-sweating, _strong-sure Thanes!
Folk-hearts proud, _forging hard,
sweeping through, _sowing deep.
Hearken, hear _the Hallowed Bede:
Tough tribes invade, _to take and steal
when fight-worn _Romans fled away.
First Jutes from Jutland, _jutting out,
becoming Kentish,__keeping shores.
Angles next from _Angeln came,
settling Yorkshire, _setting Angleland.
Saxons in the -sexes: _South, Middle, West, East.
Resting long, _then Lindisfarne.
Norsemen from the North, _Northumbria.
Danes to conquer, _Danelaw ruling.
Britons westward, _Welsh becoming.
Many men mixing, _mingling tongues,
now Anglo-Saxon’s _Englaland.
Speak of strength _and strongholds, tell!
Shields and swords _and spear-raids, tell!
Striving, stretching, _striking, tell!
Slaying, seizing, _steadfast, tell!
Wielding wars, _gore-warriors harvest,
Mead-halls first, _to fields of death;
heroes hew, _and hack, then reap
fully-felled _foe-fighting Brythons.
For fate foretells: _forth from this kin,
such kings, such lands! _What kingdom rules
the world and sea! _Strength and minds,
to make, to mend, _to meld, to build,
and write what words _with wealth of tongue
that gods will give _great gifts to pen.
Blood tells tales,__from tribes to kin,
kinfolk to child, _the ken of the self;
tales live in blood, _the blood holds the past;
blood will teach _what time forgot.
Match blood with words, _wise scop-crafters!
Sing, bleed song-blood’s _Saxon tales!
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Poet’s Note
This poem is written in the style of Old English alliterative verse, sharing roots with Old Norse Skaldic poetry and in use from the 5th century to about the time of the Norman Conquest of 1066. Each line consists of 2 half-stanzas (hemistichs) of two or more stresses (lifts) each and two or more unstressed syllables (dips), with a caesura between the halves. The 3rd lift always alliterates with lift 1 and/or 2 (both may or may not alliterate), and lift 4 never alliterates. All vowels are alliterative at the beginning of a word. There is no rhyming. I employed the use of kennings, a type of metaphor used in Old English and Old Norse verse; compound kennings consist of two words separated by a dash. I avoided the use of Latin or French-derivative words in favor of Old English-derivative words. I offer it in the spirit of Beowulf and Tolkien.
Vocab
Bede: The “Venerable” Bede, who wrote a history of the English people from 55 B.C. To 731 A.D.
scop (pronounced “shop” or “skop”): an Old English poet and storyteller who preserved history through oral tradition, performing at mead halls and royal courts
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Theresa Werba (formerly known to the SCP community as Theresa Rodriguez) is the author of eight books, including What Was and Is: Formal Poetry and Free Verse and Sonnets, collection of sixty-five Shakespearean, Spenserian, and Petrarchan sonnets. Her work appears in numerous journals, websites, and online publications, including the SCP Journal. She has been featured on Classical Poets Live where she discusses musicality and elocution in formal poetry. She is a contributing writer for Classical Singer Magazine. Werba’s background as a Classical singer informs her dramatic poetry readings which are available on Youtube @thesonnetqueen. Her website is www.theresawerba.com.
I hope that readers will listen to my recitation as well as read the poem– I tried to capture the importance and vibrancy of the alliteration in Old English alliterative verse!
Theresa, you certainly captured the musicality of alliteration along with many historical place name references that morphed over time.
Thank you Roy for your kind comment! I do love to relish in the actual “sounds” of poetry– definitely music to my ears!!!
I have read the poem, and listened to your recording of it. You have truly captured the feel of Anglo-Saxon verse, with its four-beat line and heavy caesura.
This is a vivid picture of the peoples and wars and conquests that made Angle-Land, and indeed all of Britain. The English certainly built a great empire. But they could not have done it without the powerful mix of warlike Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Brythons, Romans, and Normans, all of whom have made that most beautiful blossom on the tree of life: the English race.
Thank your Dr. Salemi for your kind comments, your affirmations of my intentions mean the world to me! I was trying to capture the historical period when Old English alliterative verse was being written and passed down– after the mighty Romans and before the mighty Normans (700-1000CE). So I did leave both of those groups out of the history– there actually is a mention of the Romans but not the Normans. I figured that might stir up some controversy! I actually truly do love the Latin/French derivative words in English–we are able to paint such nuances, especially with English writing, because of the huge varieties of vocabulary passed down to us from both Germanic and Romance languages! Thanks again for your comments!
I spend a great deal of time in the classroom pointing out the abundance of synonyms that English has from those three sources you mention. Here’s a sample:
GERMANIC LATIN FRENCH
kingly regal royal
lady matron madame
luck fortune chance
small minimal petite
The lkist could go on and on, sometimes with a word of Greek origin added to the group.
I appreciate the history behind these lines and the way in which the alliteration moves the verse from line to line in what proves to be a subtle, unobtrusive way without becoming too, too much of a distraction.
I can’t comment on its relation to early Anglo-Saxon, pre-Norman poetry, but I can say that it reads well as modern verse that is clearly formal, but in a way that is not only new to me, but also both compelling and effective.
Extremely to the point, Theresa! In a short summary passage of history, you jampack literary characteristics more compactly than in any Old English selections I’ve seen. But I’m sure this was your intent in displaying the methods and thus encouraging a non-sanguinary flow of song-blood. Of course, English as the language we use now is incredibly enriched from an abundance of streams, and speaks to vast numbers of readers with no English blood at all. Your challenge tells us to take another look at the formative period in which our literature emerged. Even then, as you point out, it was a story of “many men mixing, mingling tongues.” The ideals you allude to, (may I say, heroic and hallowed, harping on kinship) remain essential topics for such a wealth of tongue to be wisely employed.