I really like Beowulf. Language and structure aside, since I'm not qualified to comment on those, I really like the treament of time in Beowulf. It is at once much more unstructured and more mellifluous. There are flashbacks and flash forwards. Story elements are supplied as they become relevant. Unlike the feeling of a modern novels, which seems to me have a more clearly defined timeline, Beowulf flows seamlessly from the past to the future and back to the present. The key is that it is convincing as a structural paradigm rather than as a novel (no pun intended) temporal technique.

That and how can you resist things named hrunting. *Grunt*. HRUNTING!