Balti state university a. Russo chair of english philology

th
 -11
th
 century) 
After the Romans lived and ruled the life in Briton for 3 centuries the British Isles were 
invaded at the beginning of the 5
th
century (449) by three Germanic tribes: Angles, Saxons and 
Jutes, who used to live in the northern and central parts of Europe. These were wild and fearless 
races, who could never been driven away by the Celts. After the first conquest the natives became 
slaves of the Anglo-Saxons and were forced to adopt many of their customs, traditions, language 
and ways of life. The language of the Celts which had already undergone a serious change under the 
Romans now blended with the Anglo- Saxon language. During this period literature existed mainly 
in the oral form and the authors remained unknown. People created poems, songs and epics 
depicting the aspirations of people, their faith and ways of life. 
The first literary works existed in the form of verse. The verse was the most effective for oral 
delivery and more easily committed to memory. The principle rule of the verse was a long line, 
usually of about nine or ten syllables. The first three of the four stressed syllables were generally 
made alliterative i.e. they began with the same consonant or a vowel was repeated in several words. 
The alliterative relation among the vowels which, added to the four rhythmical accents shows 
that the beating was the primordial element and the alliterations only served to mark them. It is 
worth mentioning that the names did not always meet the rules of alliteration, which was 
characteristic of structure in Anglo – Saxon poetry, and this is one reason why the poets felt it 

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necessary to substitute them for kennings. Kennings were metaphorical compounds – synonyms or 
near synonyms, which drove home a single idea in several different ways. For example: life was “a 
sea-travel”, the world was “moonlight”, the sea was “the swan-track”./1 
One Kenning could produce a great many variations. Once the description of a ship “as a sea-
steed” was accepted; any word meaning „steed” was used to provide a slightly different image.