Date of Award
2007
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Murtaugh, Daniel M.
Abstract
Beowulf scholarship has long regarded the bards within the poem's verses as representatives of Anglo-Saxon history. Based on this assumption, critics have drawn conclusions about the Germanic scops of history without considering the possibility that the minstrels bought to life within the poem would likely have been reconstructions of the Anglo-Saxons Germanic past. This study approaches Beowulf's oral poets as idealized poetic devices and examines their effect on the theme of the poem. The Beowulf poet sets the bard apart from the members of his society by granting him a broader perspective. When the bard sings, he uses this perspective to address certain characters within the poem and to determine whether they merited praise or judgment. The Beowulf poet used these songs to facilitate reflection in the characters for whom the bard sang and to point these characters toward the proper moral path.
Extent
71 p.
Recommended Citation
Bardowell, Matthew R., "Through the Eyes ofthe Scop: The Poetic Figure of the Anglo-Saxon Oral Poet in Beowulf" (2007). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009. 1382.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_5/1382
Identifier
FA00000891
Comments
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters