Germanic Poetry: Accentual or Syllabic?

Did the Germanic people in Anglo-Saxon England rely more on Accentual or Syllabic poetry?

What was the preferred form of poetry among Germanic people, including the Anglo-Saxons?

Answer:

The Germanic people, including the Anglo-Saxons, favored oral tradition over written transmission of their literature, implying that their poetry was primarily Accentual, focusing on the pattern of stresses in a line, rather than Syllabic.

Germanic peoples, including the Angles and Saxons ancestors of the English people, did not rely on written transmission of their literature and instead favored oral tradition. This means that their poetry was heavily Accentual, rather than Syllabic, in nature.

Accentual verse relies on the pattern of stresses in a line and was most suitable for the type of oral storytelling used by these peoples. The early works of Anglo-Saxon poets like the Song of Hildebrand and the Song of the Nibelungs were part of this tradition. The poetry was primarily meant to memorialize historical events, celebrate heroes, describe the natural world, and express tribal identity.

Hence, the Germanic peoples, including the Anglo-Saxons, used accentual poetry as a fundamental part of their oral tradition.