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Oral Heroic Narrative— An Epic Task Imagine that you’re performing with an improvisational theater group. First, you are asked to pretend that you’re an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) that intentionally tries people’s patience. Easy, you think. Next, you must play a butcher who can’t stand the sight of meat. No problem. Then a scholarly-looking man asks you to recite a long narrative poem about the heroic struggles of a legendary figure who uses strength, cunning, and help from the gods to survive perilous trials—and you have to use elevated, solemn language throughout. You're speechless, uncomprehending, until it hits you—the man wants an epic. What Is an Epic? An epic is a long narrative poem that celebrates a hero’s deeds. The earliest epic tales survived for centuries as oral traditions before they were finally written down. They came into existence as spoken words and were retold by poet after poct from one generation to the next. Most orally composed epics date back to preliterate periods—before the cultures that produced them had developed written forms of their languages. Many epics are based in historical fact, so that their public performance by poets (known in different cultures by such names as scops or bards) provided both entertainment and education for the audience. Oral poets had to be master improvisers, able to compose verse in their heads while simultaneously singing or chanting it. These poets didn’t make up their 28 UNIT ONE PART 1: TESTS OF COURAGE stories from scratch, however; they drew on existing songs and legends, which they could embellish or combine with original material. One characteristic feature of oral poetry is the repetition of certain words, phrases, or even lines. Two of the most notable examples of repeated elements are stock epithets and kennings. Stock epithets are adjectives that point out special traits of particular persons or things. In Homer, stock epithets are often compound adjectives, such as the “swift-footed” used to describe Achilles. Kennings are poetic synonyms found in Germanic poems, such as the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. Rather than being an adjective, like an epithet, a kenning is a descriptive phrase or compound word that substitutes for a noun. For example, in Beowulf “the Almighty’s enemy” and “sin-stained demon” are two kennings that are used in place of Grendel’s name. Stock epithets and kennings were building blocks that a poet could recite while turning his attention to the next line or stanza. Epithets had an added advantage—they were designed to fit metrically into specific parts of the lines of verse. In skillful hands, these “formulas” helped to establish tone and reinforce essentials of character and setting. Characteristics of an Epic Epics from different languages and time periods do not always have the same characteristics. Kennings, for example, are not found in Homer’s epics. However, the following characteristics are shared by most epics, whether they were composed orally or in 
