Music perception and the notion of ‘music’ in Old English

This article is concerned with the word units ‘dream’, ‘gleo’, ‘gomen’ used to denote the concept of ‘music’ in Old English and specifics of music perception by Anglo-Saxons. The analysis of the examples allows to conclude that the semantics of these words was syncretic and comprised the notions of ‘happiness’ and ‘joy’ (from being joined at a feast), ‘music’ and ‘performance of epic songs’. According to that, the perception of music was of syncretic nature as well, i.e. the music was not perceived as an individual phenomenon but as a component of epic texts performance, as a part of feast and as a source of joy.