Semio-linguistic Characteristics of Power and Status in Anglo-Saxon Epic Poetry of Early Middle Ages

This study explores the cultural specificity of linguistic representation of power in Anglo-Saxon heroic epic poetry. Focusing on the poem “Beowulf,” the author examines the epic heritage as a source of insights into the value orientations and preferences of the ruling community, as well as the methods and means by which it constructs its identity. Various types of signs for identifying and legitimizing the social status of rulers and their entourages are highlighted, including personal introductions, vocatives (emblematic names and address), locational signs (centers of power), attributive signs (objects of particular significance and value to power), somatic signs (physical distinctions, demeanor, and speech that constitute aspects of social identity), and actional signs (indications of actions associated with the role of power holders in early medieval society). The study pays particular attention to the modes of introduction and interpretation of power presentems (emblematic, allegorical, symbolic) within Anglo-Saxon early medieval linguistic culture. It also investigates the peculiarities of the realization of these types of signs in sociocultural communicative practices (acts of “conspicuous consumption”) during public ceremonies that brought the entire community together (gifts, mead feasts during banquets, and treasure burials in funerary rites), serving as a means of self-presentation of power to society and creating an image of the ruling elite at both internal and interregional levels.

heroic epic, semiotics, power, prestige, elite, linguistic presentem, values of post-structural linguistic culture