SOURCE: "Ring Composition," in "Beowulf": The Poem and Its Tradition, Harvard University Press, 1983, pp. 152-62.
In the following excerpt, Niles explains how the author of Beowulf used a repeating structural design known as "ring composition" to organize his poem and to draw connections between characters such as Beowulf and Grendel.
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Read the rest of this Criticism with our Beowulf Circa Eighth Century: Critical Essay by John D. Niles Access Pass.
