Thread by @ZachWeiner

Thoughts on Beowulf scholarship from a non-expert:

There are all these theories on why the story loops and digresses so much, e.g. "it has story-rings just like there are rings in the story!"

It seems to me these people have never watched anyone channel-hop on TV?

Or go online for that matter. I bet you could find browser histories that exactly reproduce the structure of Beowulf:

1) Here's some interesting history
2) I'm gonna watch a big fight
3) Oh, and a rematch
4) Here are some classic fights
5) Ooh, a story about an evil leader

etc.

I get that there's this Aristotelian concept of organic unity, but it's not clear to me that it's a thing actual consumers of stories want.

Similarly, people ask why the Beowulf-Grendel fight gets repeated (I believe 4 times!). Like... have you heard of re-runs?

I think there are interesting arguments about the unity of the poem, and I think it's enjoyable to think of the story that way, and even pretty clearly applicable at certain points. But if it's meant for anything like a general audience... general audiences like digression.

That is, how do we know we're not doing the equivalent of looking for organic unity in a season of Law and Order, or whatever?