Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Alain Renoir. "The Terror of the Dark Waters: A Note on Virgilian and Beowulfian Techniques." In The Learned and the Lewed: Studies in Chaucer and Medieval Literature. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Harvard English Studies, 5. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 147-60.

In the context of comparing Virgil's account of Avernus in the Aeneid and Hrothgar's description of Grendel's mother's pond in Beowulf (without arguing for influence), he considers the "design for terror" structure of the OE passage and the implications of oral-formulaic composition.
Area: OE, LT, CP