Origins- from Intro of Lit of England

"Except for Deor's Lament, however, what we call the personal lyric--the song prompted by 'natural sorrow, loss, or pain" or by the passion of love--appears late and in scanty amount. The prevailing lyric note in Old English poetry is the elegiac--impersonal thoughts on the mutability of fate and the impermanence of life, melancholy and often undeniably poetic." (10)

Also, it says the lyric drew upon the same style as the epic with alliteration, kennings & epithets. The elegaic are the crystallizing of the 'bardic tradition'.

BTW: kenning=Use of a roundabout phrase for a common thing, eg 'whale's land' for 'sea'. It was very common in Anglo-Saxon verse.

Kenning's rule.

Lyric-rude stanzas [rude stanza=form of lyric], about "woe" ("a sad but not despairing realization of the transitory nature of human existence") [the substance of lyric]. (7)

Epic-the composing in verse of tribal or national legends about a great hero [substance of epic] (7)

Scop-shaper of stories and songs. (7)

Heroic epic's lay-recalls the feat of the hero "was partially lyrical but preponderantly narrative." Then the feast, and at the feast, the re-telling of the lay and this time, "stirring words and rhythm and stimulated imagination will be demanded of the storyteller...rhythmic chant, and, avoiding rhyme and fixed metrical pattern, he tells his story in ELASTIC ALLITERATIVE (myShow all emphasis, because it sounds cool) verse...frequent repetition because his audience isn't gifted with imagination, descriptive touches will not be omitted...for the most part straightforward narrative...on the great warrior and his deed". [This would be the modern day equivalent of 'awesome special effects' especially eschewing anything 'deep' for the flashy.] [lay=form of epic] (7-8)