Rereading Beowulf

In this work Edward Irving accepts "Beowulf" as a most distinguished descendant of a long and skillful oral tradition. Only by understanding how rich and powerful meaning can be conveyed in an oral-derived style, he asserts, can one truly understand this poem. Very good 'revision' of the author's interpretation of the poem; again including very insightful close readings; includes important observations of the gap between what modern readers may expect of a story and what sorts of things a 'oral-formulaic' poem like "Beowulf" desires to express, and what it is capable of expressing.