Beowulf is Oral-Formulaic

Early versions of Beowulf were necessarily oral because the scops were unlettered. All versions of this classic poem were built of phrases or “formulas” repeated from generation to generation among scops. These formulas were a common source for all early poetry, from which all poets drew the language used in their extemporaneous poetic creations.

Francis Magoun, in his “Oral-Formulaic Character of Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry,” states: “An oral poem until written down has not and cannot have a fixed text, a concept difficult for lettered persons” (Magoun 84). With each telling of the oral poem there is some variation from the previous telling. Consider from the poem when Hrothgar was honoring Beowulf for his victory over Grendel; the king had his scop, to the background of a harp, chant poetic verses relating the famous Finnsburh Episode:

There was tumult and song, melodious noise,

in front of Healfdene’s battle commander;

the harp was plucked, good verses chanted

when Hrothgar’s scop in his place o...

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...uage in Beowulf is formulas (88-89).

Thus it is seen that early versions of Beowulf were necessarily oral, because of the unletteredness of the scops, and necessarily formulaic because of the scope or immensity of the non-memorized poetic creations.

Works Cited

Collins, Roger and McClure, Judith, editors. Bede: The Ecclesiastical History of the English People; The Greater Chronicle; Bede’s Letter to Egbert. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.

Magoun, Frances P. “Oral-Formulaic Character of Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry.” In TheBeowulf Poet, edited by Donald K. Fry. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968.

Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000