Following the Formula in Beowulf, Örvar-Odds saga, and Tolkien
proposes that
Beowulf
was composed according to a formula. Michael Fox imagines the process that generated the poem and provides a model for reading it, extending this model to investigate formula in a half-line, a fitt, a digression, and a story-pattern or folktale, including the Old-Norse Icelandic Ö
rvar-Odds saga
. Fox also explores how J. R. R. Tolkien used the same formula to write
Sellic Spell
and
The Hobbit
. This investigation uncovers relationships between oral and literate composition, between mechanistic composition and author, and between listening and reading audiences, arguing for a contemporary relevance for
in thinking about the creative process.