King Horn Literary Elements

The poem is told from the perspective of a first-person subjective point of view. The narrator in this case is most likely a bard or a storyteller at a feast.

The poem is written in a heroic couplet form.

After being abolished from King Ailmar threw King Horn out if the court, he started a long journey on the sea to prove his worth and to find a new meaning in life. The sea in this context is thus used as a metaphor which stands for the King Horn's journey to adulthood and manliness.

We find an alliteration in the lines "King he was biweste/ So longe so hit laste."

We find an irony towards the middle of the poem when King Horn is betrayed by his close friend, Fikenhild. The reason why this betrayal is ironic is because Fikenhild proved himself to be an extremely loyal friend who did everything he could to protect his King. In this instance, however, he was the one who put King Horn's life in grave danger.

The poem is a historic one, the narrator telling the story of a king named Horn.

The action in the poem takes place in the distant past at King Horn's castle and in the castle where he was kept hostage.

The tone used in the poem is a dramatic and violent one, highlighting even more the troubles the main character had to go through.

The protagonists in the poem are King Horn and his close friends who were captured alongside with him and the antagonist is Saracens and the people he ruled over.

The major conflict in the poem is a military one which was the result of two separate kingdoms fighting for dominance.

The poem reaches its climax when King Horn and his friends are released by King Saracens.

Saracens' death is foreshadowed even from the beginning of the poem when King Horn vows to revenge his father's death through whatever means necessary.

Upon hearing Rymenhild got married, King Horn assumes she no longer loves him. This is then proven to be an understatement as Rymenhild tries to take her own life when she is told King Horn died, thus proving her love and loyalty for him.

One of the main allusions in the poem is the idea that there is no such thing as loyalty. This is alluded through constant ways through which King Horn is betrayed by his so called friends over and over again.

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We have a personification in the lines "The dent of myne honde".

We have a hyperbole in the lines "Schup bi the se flode,/ Daies have thu gode."

We have an onomatopoeia in the lines "Ich here foyeles singe/ And that gras him springe."