Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Ha[[Omega]]kan Ringbom. Studies in the Narrative Technique of Beowulf and Lawman's Brut. Acta Academiae Aboensis, ser. A (Humaniora), vol. 36, nr. 2. Turku: Åbo Akademi.

Contains sections on formulaic structure in Beowulf (pp. 18-22), on "Lawman's Brut and Formulaic Analysis" (pp. 58-76), on "Themes in Lawman's Brut" (pp. 76-104; on feasts, arrivals, and voyages), and on Lawman's amplification of his source, the Roman de Brut. Decides that the Beowulf-poet is a learned Christian writer who knew the traditional idiom and that Lawman's recurrent phrases are not true formulas. Maintains the possibility of continuity between OE and ME alliterative traditions. Includes a reasonably large bibliography of oral-formulaic research.
Area: OE, ME, CP