English Literature

Beowulf as an Oral Epic Beowulf is an oral epic circulated from mouth to mouth in an oral tradition and later written down by trained clerics. Though Beowulf was recorded in Old English, it can easily be assumed that its roots are to be found in the mostly oral traditions of the ancient Germanic tribes that roamed and settled much of Western Europe . However, Beowulf has formulaic characters, words, ideas and other stylistic features for which we can term Beowulf as an Oral Epic. One of the most important characteristics of Oral Epic is that its author is unknown . Because of its circulation from mouth to mouth, it becomes very difficult to find out the actual author or authors. In Beowulf, we see that the author is unknown. Whether one or more authors were involved in the production of this epic is hard to determine. The very first word of this epic indicates that it is an oral epic. The epic opens with the word ' attend' which is normally used by speaker when h...

The Old English Beowulf holds a unique place as the oldest epic narrative in any modern European tongue. Although Beowulf is primal, nothing is primitive about it. It is above all a work of artifice; though if we accept C. S. Lewis�s classification of �epics of growth� and �epic of art�, Beowulf is obviously an epic of growth. Modern scholars like Milman Parry and A. B. Lord, working on the origins of epic poetry have come to the conclusion that like other great epics of the ancient civilizations, Beowulf was also an oral epic, written down by trained clerics. Like other oral epics, Beowulf has a formulaic character, using words, ideas and other stylistic features. The same formulaic character can be found in the epics of Homer. But Beowulf has other important epic qualities. The Iliad is also a striking example of the unity, which is essential to epic. Aristotle, who insisted on the principle of unity in epic, pointed to the Iliad as a perfect example of a poem, in which everything ...