ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief survey of humour and its mechanisms in literature surviving from England up to the late eleventh century. This is usually viewed as an unpromising period for anything other than the sombre in view of the overwhelming preponderance of pious or martial material in a society dominated by Christian tradition and heroic sentiment. Nevertheless, this essay demonstrates that appropriate incongruity is a productive mechanism for pinpointing humour even in this material, and that understatement, irony, and a touch of sarcasm are the prevailing humorous devices of the time. This is investigated in relation to the epic poem, Beowulf; the poetic saint’s life, Andreas; the Old English riddles; and the obscure pious poem, The Seasons of Fasting, amongst others.
