Dwight Conquergood, in Literature in Perform-ance (Apr. 1981), Dept. of Speech Commu- nication, university of ~rizona, Tucson, Ariz. 85721.
Nowadays, the "strong, silent type" is often considered the ideal hero. Not so in England during the Dark Ages, writes Conquergood, a North- western University professor of English. There, boasting of courageous deeds was not only commonplace; it bound warriors to lives of heroic sacrifice.
Modern critics (including J.R.R. Tolkien) have dismissed...