Literary analyses of Beowulf
One can find several kennings, typical Anglo-Saxon compound metaphors, such as
"From captive of hell", "Shepherd-of-evils", "Hardy-in-fight", "The bone-frame",
"Keen-souled" etc. In addition to kennings there are also many ordinary metaphors
like "The accursed" and "The outlaw", these two referring to Grendel.
For the sake of emphasis, parallelism has been brought to play. The repetition
of the same idea is a constantly used stylistic device. For example "No keenest blade,
no farest of falchions", "That here was the last of life, an end of his days on earth",
"Swallowed him piecemeal: swiftly thus the lifeless corse was clean devoured" have
more or less the same meaning in both parts of the phrase.
Another interesting characteristic of Anglo-Saxon literature is the rarity of
similes. There are altogether only five similes in the entire epic and one of them -
"Streamed from his eyes fearful flashes, like flame to see" can be found in the
extract.
annaabi.ee 
