Our review of the Homeric poems has led us to conclude that their origin and early history was in many respects analogous to that of the English heroic poems; and further, that there is no valid reason for regarding the stories with which they deal as mythical or fictitious, although we cannot, as in the case of the English poems, actually prove that they rest upon a historical basis. We must now endeavour to see what common elements the two series of poems contain in regard to style and spirit. This will enable us to determine whether the term ‘Heroic Age,’ as applied to the two cases in common, can be held to mean anything more than an age of ‘heroes’, whose deeds were celebrated in poetry.

The most cursory glance at the two groups of poems will be sufficient to show that they contain many common features in regard to style. In both we find the constant repetition of the same formulae, e.g. in the introduction of speeches. Thus in the first part of Beowulf eight speeches out of thirteen by the hero himself are introduced by the formula: Beowulf maþelode bearn Ecgþreowes, while three of Hrothgar's seven speeches follow the words: Hroðgar maþelode helm Scyldinga.