What is Oral Epic?

Oral Instant Epics: Many epic poems were made before the coming of paper and books, and many even before the papyrus rolls. These songs were loudly sang before audiences and in those times almost all great festivals and occasions invariably ended in song recitations. Good poets had loud voices and the geniuses among them made very long songs instantly. They were recorded nowhere but in the memory of those generations, retaining their perfection based on the memory skill of those people. Able persons could then recite thousands of lines verbatim from memory. The fact that all listeners knew the heroic deeds described made understanding and appreciation easy. But the most remarkable thing was the audience before the poet, that made the instant-made oral epics majestic. They inspired one another. The immortal Scandinavian epic Beowulf by an unknown author strictly conforms to all these features. Before coming to England in the Sixth century in a ship from Sweden, it was handed over through generations by sheer oral repetition. Certainly there had been additions, eliminations and editing while those immortal epics passed from minds to minds. As such mass endeavours in assembling poetry vanished, they took the great epic traits with them. No wonder no great epics were created since.