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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 also wanted to say that as a Classical singer I always try to incorporate a sense of musicality and drama/emotion in my poetry readings! In Hebrew the word “Shira” (which is my Hebrew name) means both poetry and song, so the two disciplines really do go together! I’ve wondered how the ancient Norse skalds and Anglo-Saxon scops sounded when they recited their poetry– I would love a time machine to take me back to that!! Anyway you have made me very happy, thanks again!!
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 list could go on and on, sometimes with a word of Greek origin added to the group.
Oh yes, I absolutely love the wealth of options English affords us!! Which made the exercise of avoiding Latin/French-derivative words in my Old English-style poem a lesson in word-awareness! I do find the English words of Germanic origins to be hard-core, visceral, elemental– when you narrow your options it is interesting how it turns out!!
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.
Thank you Jim for your kind and perceptive comments! “Subtle, unobtrusive, compelling, effective, reads well”– what more could a poet want in a complement? I am glad that my first experiment with Old English alliterative verse was a success! I definitely want to try another, maybe something to do with an historical/legendary character, like Arthur. I don’t think I’ll beat Malory or Tennyson, though!!! Maybe the difference in idiom will make the stories come alive in a special way, we shall see!!
Theresa, let me suggest historical Alfred the Great and his family, about whom there is a wide array of stories, and a solid grounding in Wessex. Some characters may come with kennings already to hand, for example the daughter about whom there is a historical novel entitled “Peaceweaver.”
Great idea, Margaret, thank you for the suggestion!! I just ordered Alfred the Great: Asser’s Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources by Simon Keynes– I am going read up on Alfred before commencing the writing of another poem in Old English alliterative verse. Stay tuned!
Margaret, as I’ve been thinking, it occurred to me: how about Bede? He would make a different sort of heroic figure, but still interesting I am sure. I just ordered a second book, one by Sister Benedicta Ward entitled The Venerable Bede (Cistercian Studies Series)– she is Reader in the History of Christian Spirituality at Oxford, so not too shabby! Bede, plus Alfred, plus possibly Arthur, would give me plenty of material from which I can craft my next poem in Old English alliterative verse! Thank you so much for getting my mind going!!
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.
Margaret, you couldn’t have put it better: “a non-sanguinary flow of song-blood”– complete with alliteration and a kenning! Thank you so much for your astute observations and comments!
Thanks for hosting us in your great hall, Theresa. You have a marvellous storytelling voice.
Thank you so much, Paul, I am so grateful that I can utilize my background as a Classical singer in rendering my poetry readings! Old English alliterative verse works especially well for reading because sound is built into its very structure!
Very ambitious and very effective: the poem rages like a storm and the words sweep us up in their excitement. I am very impressed by this poem and though I am not tempted by the Anglo-Saxon form myself, I think this could be a model for others to imitate – perhaps a renaissance with the re-discovery of the potentialities inherent in such a form.
James, so glad you liked the poem! I do think there are potentialities in Old English alliterative verse that warrant exploration– the emphasis on alliteration rather than rhyme, the raw nature of the sounds, the feeling of intensity and urgency that the type of subject matter of the period would engender. I definitely want to try my hand at another poem in this form in the future! Thanks for your kind comments!
A remarkable history lesson ….a gem in alliteration like a song.
Thank you Paulette for your kind comment and observation. I posted a reply to you yesterday but I am not sure it posted (each of my browsers seems to show different results) but I did want to see a reply from me. The fact that you correlated the alliteration in Old English alliterative verse to a song is exactly what I was hoping to achieve!! From my research (which I shared further down on this thread with Andrew Benson Brown), the ancient scops were definitely reciting their poetry in a heightened manner vocally, perhaps with some qualities of actual singing: intensity, declaration of text, louder volume than regular recitation. I am so glad that this poem/song connection resonated with you!!
James, so glad you liked the poem! I do think there are potentialities in Old English alliterative verse that warrant exploration– the emphasis on alliteration rather than rhyme, the raw nature of the sounds, the feeling of intensity and urgency that the type of subject matter of the period would engender. I definitely want to try my hand at another poem in this form in the future! Thanks for your kind comments!
I LOVE this.
Been listening to a lecture series about the oral tradition of poetry that was once universal across global cultures, and the lecturer made the observation that the internet has given rise to a ‘second orality’—that we’re closer to the ancient oral traditions now than we have been for several hundred years.
I think this is true, and Theresa’s recording is evidence of the continuing impact of the oral tradition.
The ancient vocabulary here also reminds me of Burch’s pejorative characterization of us as the ‘keystone scops.’ Although he, like all of our enemies, only ever point out our supposed failings and completely ignore all of the unique work on this site, I actually think the characterization is not inaccurate. I myself am something of a ‘scop’ with my promotional videos, and most of the work published here lends itself to entertaining, relatable recitations in a way the crappy stuff in ‘Poetry’ magazine just doesn’t at all.
Thank you for your comment, Andrew, I am glad you loved the poem!!! As my epigraph indicates in its quote from Beowulf, the Old English scop “sang” his poetry– but I am convinced that the line between singing and reading poetry was more indistinct than it might be today. “Old English poetry is not lyrical but narrative and formulaic, suited to recitation or chanting, not to melodic singing.” (Albert B. Lord, Singer of Tales); “The Old English poet, or scop, would have declaimed or chanted the verse, possibly with the accompaniment of a harp, in a kind of heightened speech” (Mitchell and Robinson, A Guide to Old English). Along with that element is the “performance” aspect of the poetry reading– no doubt the scops (and likewise the Nordic skalds) were a feisty and passionate group, who performed the function of storytelling, with repertoire such as Heroic epics (as Beowulf is), genealogies of kings, moral and religious tales, and praise poetry for warriors and lords. As a Classical singer I cannot help but bring intensity and drama into my readings, so I fit right in! You mentioned your being a scop of sorts, and you definitely are!! I just watched your video from Classical Poets Live, “The Sack of Rome: Gravitas– A Ballad of Ancient Dignity”. Your excellent reading is very much rendered with similar subject matter and in the same spirit as that of the poetry of the ancient scops:
https://youtu.be/FLSO4x3vp_Q?si=YhCuZb_ua6OoPy6f
You mentioned “entertaining, relatable recitations”– that is definitely part of what must have made Old English alliterative verse come alive!! Your reading was most definitely entertaining and relatable!!
I was also thinking that poems in Old English alliterative verse could have been rendered in a kind of sing-song, maybe like sprechstimme or sprechgesang, where the idiom is somewhere between speaking and singing, with some amount of sound continuation that is absent in regular speech. Perhaps the differentiation between what the scops/skalds were doing and the development of song as a form (folk, Art or otherwise) were still far apart– so their definition of “singing” might very well have been anything sort of sustained in the voice, with drama and some kind of intonation, with emphasis on the words and story, which would pretty much mean a “recitation” today. How I would love to go back in time and hear voices from history that we can only imagine about!!
Very brave, interesting experiment. Wow! I find it very refreshing. What would be interesting would be to use the formalism on a modern subject with modern vocabulary. I genuinely wonder how that would turn out? One can see how the method produces stirring rhetoric. Very challenging, novel work. I really appreciated reading it! Thanks, L.
Thank you, Louis, I appreciate your kind remarks very much. This poem truly was an experiment, as I had never written anything in Old English alliterative verse before. I would say that I generally do write (formally or in free verse) with modern subjects and modern vocabulary– my book What Was and Is: Formal Poetry and Free Verse is replete with topics such as love and loss, the creative process, neurodiversity (I have Level 1 Autism), historical figures and events, aging, faith, and disillusionment. I have written probably close to 80 sonnets now, I have a book of Sonnets, too. I am also published on this site. Most of my poetry published here was published under the name Theresa Rodriguez but my published name now (for my books) is Theresa Werba. Again, your appreciation means so much to me!!
Also since 2020 all my poetry or other writings (for instance, my articles at Classical Singer Magazine, and here at SCP) are under the name Theresa Werba. But “out there” on the internet you will see both names around. But Theresa Werba is my name now! Just wanted to clarify!
I’m glad to see accentual alliterative verse appear here, the purest English form. You capture the spirit of the Old English epics, too, with their kennings, deep connection to place, and praise of bravery — and you achieve this with great economy, in a remarkably limited space. The entire stanza beginning “speak of strength” is majestic.
Oh Adam, you have blown me away! I am so gratified that you have found this poem to be everything I had hoped it would be.
Theresa, I believe the key word you have used in relation to your poem (and the Ango-Saxon tradition you associate with it) is the word, “chant.” Chanting is sing-song speaking in formal, structured ways particular to the culture from which it originates. Ancient Greek music/lyrics appear to have been expressed in the form of chant as was Old Testament Hebrew poetry, Hawaiian chant (which I enjoyed while living in Hawaii for 17 years) and many other cultural ways of sharing stories, lore, history or other matters in words shaped as either prose or poetry. The familiar Gregorian Chant is a Western version of such a musical setting. It is not clear what the music of Medieval bards sounded like but it was also, no doubt, more of a lyrical chant than lyric melody as we might think of “singing a song.” The Song of Roland, for example, was most certainly performed as a chant rather than as a song.
As you say, your own poem would more easily be chanted than sung.
Here in the West, the art of the chant has been lost, at least in popular culture. Perhaps if some pop singer, like Beyonce or Taylor Swift would put out an album based on chant forms, it could become mainstream, like rap, or like the mini-renaissance of traditional English ballads in the ’60’s (such as “Scarborough Fair” and the Hippie-era interest in Renaissance Fairs, and the like).
Jim, I had been thinking very similarly along the same lines as you are, that the oral traditions of “indigenous” (not necessarily “primitive”) cultures would help connect the dots between the poetry of the scops/skalds and their ancient “performance practice” as it were. I do agree, it might have been more akin to speak-singing, or chanting as we think of it today. In fact, it seems logical to me that “singing” as it developed in Western Civilization came out of ancient chanting practices, as voices discovered what they were capable of physiologically in response to the dramatic/emotional intent of the poem being chanted. Perhaps this way melody also developed in response to emotional states— I am remembering the ancient Greek modes, how each of these scale patterns represented different emotions or ideals: Dorian, courage; Phrygian, passion; Lydian, peaceful; Myxolydian, sorrow. Let us not neglect folk singing traditions, which certainly overlap or parallel the performance practices of the scops and skalds and might retain something of their ancient lineage.
Here is the seminal interpretation of Beowulf in Old English by medievalist Benjamin Bagby— he accompanies himself with harp, and migrates between speech, chant, whisper, yelling, howling, bellowing, and singing. He certainly thinks things could have been mixed up, to keep things interesting to the listeners at the mead hall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WcIK_8f7oQ
Excellent, very emblematic of Anglo Saxon history. I loved how you adapted the alliterative structure. I see lots of thematic elements of AS poetry in there too
Thank you very much Christian for your kind comments, I really did try to capture the spirit of Beowulf in this, my first attempt at Old English alliterative verse!!