Interestingly, AFAIK, when it was told the Finnish epic, the Kalevala, was not even memorized. Well, parts of it at least. Rune singers were improvising some/mo

Interestingly, AFAIK, when it was told the Finnish epic, the Kalevala, was not even memorized. Well, parts of it at least. Rune singers were improvising some/most of it as they were singing the story. And they were improvising lines that had to respect the meter. And it's poetry, so it had to use alliteration. They could memorize thousands of lines of poetry, and improvise it on the go, all while singing to a melody. I think that's pretty badass, quite frankly.