Page "Beowulf" Paragraph 72

However, scholars such as D. K.

Crowne have proposed the idea that the poem was passed down from reciter to reciter under the theory of oral-formulaic composition, which hypothesises that epic poems were ( at least to some extent ) improvised by whoever was reciting them.

In his landmark work, The Singer of Tales, Albert Lord refers to the work of Francis P. Magoun and others, saying “ the documentation is complete, thorough, and accurate.

This exhaustive analysis is in itself sufficient to prove that Beowulf was composed orally .”