Throughout human history many books and fables have came from oral tradition. Oral tradition is defined as “a community's cultural and historical traditions passed down by word of mouth or example from one generation to another without written instruction”.Such oral tradition has been important to many cultures and texts but especially to anglo-saxon England and the anglo-saxon book Beowulf. The reason for the importance is that oral tradition kept the story of Beowulf alive, inspired it's making , affected the people of the time and kept the anglo-saxon literature alive as well. First, Oral tradition kept the story of Beowulf alive. Oral tradition was able to do this by allowing the story of Beowulf to be spread through most of anglo-saxon england. This was done through travelers and storytellers telling of the story which led to many people knowing of Beowulf .Oral tradition also kept Beowulf alive by keeping the story around long enough for it to eventually be written down. This was because the story was told for past generations to future ones and by the story remaining in the minds of many. Oral tradition does wonders for a time like this because many people were unable to read or write and being able to just tell a story made it convenient . Oral tradition is …show more content…
Oral tradition is responsible for the inspiration of Beowulf due to the earlier stories made by oral tradition that Beowulf's character and plot drew inspiration from.Things that Beowulf borrows from other stories are an importance on honor and a warrior's code, it features monsters and a main character who is seemingly unbeatable in Beowulf. Oral tradition also affected it because since their is no original source material the story could be up to interpretation or modified by the teller. Oral tradition greatly affected Beowulf as a whole by keeping it alive and influencing it but Oral tradition also affected the people as well in Anglo-Saxon