The given paper presents a detailed linguocultural and poetological analysisof the nouns denoting “sky” in the Old English epic poem Beowulf. The paper
studies semantic characteristics of the Old English nouns denoting “sky”, namely heofon, rodor, wolcen, swegl. The meanings of these nouns are defined and specified, their etymology and such peculiarities of Old English poetry as alliteration and synonymy being taken into consideration. Despite Christian influence that resulted in replacing old pagan concepts by new ones, some Old Germanic space concepts, that of the “sky” among them, survived in the poem Beowulf. To discover those, one can compare Old English poetry with Old Norse literature that preserved ancient concepts best of all.
Key words: contextual analysis, linguoculturology, historical semasiology, Old English poetry, poem Beowulf, synonyms, nouns denoting “sky”.
Reference to article:
Polyakova E. A. Linguocultural and poetological analysis of the nouns denoting “sky” in the Old English poem Beowulf // Ivanovo State University Bulletin. Series «The Humanities». 2019. No.1. P. 42-46.