Manly Anniversary Studies in Language and Literature (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Manly Anniversary Studies in Language and Literature The most characteristic trait of Lazamon's poetic style is his remarkable profusion of epic formulas, similar phrases used repeatedly, as a rule in similar circumstances. In a sea voyage "wind stod an willen" (I, 47, 76, etc.), when an army is needed, the king "sende his sonde wide zend pane londe" (I, 19, etc.). There are more than one hundred and twenty-five formulas, each found three or more times, and one or other on an average once in every ten lines. Not derived from Lazamon's French original, they are normal in early epic, as is shown by the frequency of epic formulas in Homer, the Chanson de Roland, the Cantar de mio Cid, and other early poems. But Anglo-Saxon poets, like modern, deliberately avoided them, and cultivated variety and ingenuity of phrasing. In Beowulf one of the two formulas a full line long is merely that which introduces a speech, the commonest in early poetry, and few formulas are frequently or perhaps even consciously used. This avoiding a natural epic usage is a sign of the artificial sophistication of Anglo-Saxon poetry. The simile is a fairly well-marked trait of Lazamon's style. Among the epic formulas, several (found some dozens of times) contain similes, a fighter is compared to a boar or to a lion, and a multitude to the falling of hail. There are very many short insignificant similes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.