Beowulf: Epic Sound and Effect

Beowulf is a "long poem ... derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation." The story was transmitted orally. In the section about the celebration of Beowulf's defeat of Grendel, Section 13, line 867 (to line 915) describes the process. The man who created these stories was a specialist called a "Scop" [shape-r of words]. We now translate the word "scop" as "bard."

This was made easier by the presence of kennings, oral formulas such as "whale-road," "swan-road," & "gannets bath" Therefore this kind of poetry is called "oral-formulaic."

By the time the story was set down in Old English the oral tradition was dying or dead. The story was last transcribed in the last quarter of the 10th (900s) century, coinciding with the end of the Viking Age.

The verse is alliterative. There are two beats in each half-line, and a strong caesura between the half-lines. Furthermore, there is a great deal of freedom regarding the unaccented syllabes; iambic demands only one unaccented syllable per accented syllable, but in Old English alliterative verse, there can be two or three unaccented syllables between the accented syllabes, which usually alliterate.

In contrast: In verse in modern English (from Shakespeare on) the most common kind of verse is iambic pentameter, as in Hamlet's famous "to be or not to be" soliloquy. It is said that one of the reasons that iambic pentameter is dominant is that it is the most "natural" — that is, it sounds like conversation with a slightly stronger rhythm, especially when it is "blank" (unrhymed) as in Hamlet's soliloquy. On the other hand, the verse of Beowulf is not conversational and it is not supposed to be conversational. It is heightened language, suitable to its epic subject matter of heroic deeds and adventures.

The total effect is a boom-box sound — a very strong rhythm which supports the narrative drive.
Here is a modern, humorous example: "Beocat."

The passage of the approach of Grendel is a good example.