Alliteration in BeowulfThe diction of the Old English poem Beowulf is distinguished primarily by its heavy use of alliteration, or the repetition of the initial sounds of words. In the original manuscript version of the poem, alliteration is employed in almost every line (or two half-lines); in modern translations of the poem this is not the case. Beowulf uses alliteration [italics mine] and stress to achieve the poetic effect that modern English poetry achieves through the use of poetic feet, each with the same number of syllables and the same stress pattern (Wilkie 1271) . In lines 4 and 5 of the poem we find:Oft Scyld Scefing sceapena preatummonegum maegpum meodo-setla ofteahThe repetition of the "s" sound in line 4 and the "m" sound in line 5 illustrates alliteration, and this occurs throughout the poem , providing the listener with an aesthetic sense of rightness or pleasure. In 1958 two linguistic scholars, Lehmann and Tabusa, produced an alphabetical list of every alliterated word in Beowulf. One translator, Kevin Crossley-Holland, in his interpretation of the poem in Literature of the Western World, actually includes considerable alliteration, but less than the original version of the poem (Wilkie 1271). The Old English poet “tied” the two half-lines together through their accented alliteration (Chickering 4). The first half of the line is called the on-verse, followed by the off-verse. Each line of poetry ideally contains four major accents, two on each side of a strong medial caesura, or pause, and a variable number of less stressed or unstressed accents. "At least one of the two accents...... middle of paper ......lishing, 2000.Magoun, Frances P. "Oral-Formulaic Character of Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry." In The Poet of Beowulf, a edited by Donald K. Fry. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Renoir, Alain. “Point of View and the Design of Terror in Beowulf.” Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Stockwell, Robert P. and Donka Minkova. "Prosody" in a Beowulf Handbook, edited by Robert Bjork and John D. Niles of Nebraska Press, 1997. Tharaud, Barry. "Anglo-Saxon Language and Traditions in Beowulf." Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984.