Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Stanley B. Greenfield. "Syntactic Analysis and Old English Poetry." Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 64:373-78. Rpt. in Old English Literature: Twenty-Two Analytical Essays. ed. Martin Stevens and Jerome Mandel. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968; rev. 1976. pp. 82-86.

Contends and attempts to illustrate that formulas are not simply compositional devices, that the OE poet can manipulate the conventional diction to aesthetic advantage.
Area: OE