Increasingly, scholars distinguish between two types of epic. The first, the primary epic, evolves from the mores, legends, or folk tales of a people and is initially developed in an oral tradition of storytelling. Secondary epics are literary. They are written from their inception and designed to appear as whole stories. Under this definition, Beowulf is a primary epic, the best evidence being that it first existed in the oral tradition. Furthermore, Beowulf does employ digressions, long speeches, journeys and quests, various trials or tests of the hero, and even divine intervention, as do classic epics. We might call Beowulf a folk epic, although some scholars prefer an emphasis on its mythological background.
Beowulf, however, differs from the classic epics of ancient Greece, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which were composed some 1,500 years before and set the standard for the epic tradition. It does not open with an invocation to a Muse, and it does not start in medias res (“in the middle of things”), although time is out of joint in the poem, especially in its last third.
Some of the devices employed by the Beowulf poet, such as frequent digressions, may seem tedious to the modern reader. To his audience, however, the list of heroes, villains, and battles were familiar. The stories of great achievements were cherished and intended to honor Beowulf’s own accomplishments. Poems like this appealed to a wide audience and constituted a form of public entertainment. In Beowulf itself, we witness the captivating talents of performing storytellers; an example is the scop who sings of The Finnsburh Episode (1063–1159).
