Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Ritchie Girvan. "The Medieval Poet and His Public." In English Studies Today, vol. 1. Ed. C.L. Wrenn and G. Bullough. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 85-97.

In the course of describing the transmission and audience of medieval works, he divides OE poetry into written and unwritten verse, understanding virtually all of the extant poems as part of the latter category. Describes an earlier oral scop "at home in the mechanics of story-telling in verse" (p. 96) but a Beowulf which "early attained a written form" (p. 97) because of its appeal to the Christian sensibility.
Area: OE, CP