Francis Peabody Magoun Francis Peabody Magoun , Jr . MC ( 6 January 1895 – 5 June 1979 ) was one of the seminal figures in the study of medieval and English literature in the 20th century , a scholar of subjects as varied as football and ancient Germanic naming practices , and translator of numerous important texts . Though an American , he served in the British Royal Flying Corps ( later Royal Air Force ) as a lieutenant during World War I . Early life and military career . Magoun was born to a prosperous family in New York City . His parents were Francis Peabody Magoun ( 1865 – 1928 ) and Jeanne C . Bartholow ( 1870 – 1957 ) . He received his primary education at the St . Andrew ' s School in Concord , Massachusetts , and at the Noble and Greenough School in Boston . He took his bachelors degree at Harvard in ( 1916 ) , and in February of that year signed on with the American Field Service . From 3 March – August 3 he was a volunteer ambulance driver . After a brief return to the United States , he went to London and enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps ( to become eligible for service in the RAF , he lied and said he was Canadian ; he claimed that he was from a town there where all birth records and other vital statistics had been lost in a fire ) . On 4 July 1917 , he was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to 1 Squadron on 14 November , flying Nieuport biplanes ( later replaced by SE5a biplanes ) against more maneouverable Fokker triplanes . He downed his first enemy aircraft on 28 February 1918 , near Gheluvelt , another on 10 March fifteen miles ( 24 km ) east of Ypres , and a third on 15 March in the vicinity of Dadizeele . His fourth was on 28 March 1918 near Quiery . He was wounded in action while strafing enemy troops on 10 April 1918 , but returned to his squadron in October 1918 , and became an ace on 28 October 1918 , after downing a Fokker D . VII near Anor for his fifth victory . Magoun was awarded the Military Cross ( MC ) in June 1918 : " For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty . When engaged on bombing work he attacked and shot down an enemy machine , with the result that it crashed to earth . He has also engaged massed enemy troops and transport with machine gun fire from low altitudes , throwing the enemy into the utmost confusion and inflicting heavy casualties . His work has been carried out with consistent keenness and tenacity . " ( MC citation , Supplement to the London Gazette , 22 June 1918 ) Scholarly career . Upon his return to the United States , he was appointed instructor in Comparative Literature at Harvard ( 1919 ) ; during this period he completed his Ph . D . in philology at Harvard University with his 1923 dissertation , " The gest of Alexander : Two middle English alliterative fragments , Alexander A and Alexander B , translated from a J2 - recension of the Historia de Preliis . " At Harvard , he was made Instructor of English , and proceeded through the academic ranks thereafter ( Professor of Comparative Literature , 1937 ; Professor of English , 1951 ) . His tweedy figure was familiar on campus ; he was rumored to have no office , and it was said he could only be spoken to while walking . He was distinguished by a longstanding interest in popular antiquities . Along with Alexander Haggerty Krappe , he was the first scholarly translator of the folktales collected by the Brothers Grimm into English . But he was also developing a theoretical and methodological framework for his eclectic interests . David Bynum , in his history of English studies at Harvard , affirms Magoun ' s importance as a link between the pioneering work of George Lyman Kittredge in folklore and ethnomusicology ( as they related to literary history ) and the work of Milman Parry ; Magoun took inspiration from Parry and Lord ' s field observation of the oral poetry of the guslar s of Serbia ( which they had compared to the Homeric poems ) , and extended their methods to the study of Anglo - Saxon poetry . The 1953 article on " Beowulf " , " The Oral - Formulaic Character of Anglo - Saxon Narrative Poetry , " published in " Speculum " , was of particular importance in the view of Albert Lord ( for whom Magoun served as dissertation advisor ; he was also one of Walter Ong ' s teachers ) . Magoun argued that written Anglo - Saxon poetry was essentially a transcription of traditional oral performance , and furthermore , heavily imbued with pre - Christian ideas and values . The position has implications for how Anglo - Saxon poetry should be approached for purposes of literary criticism . His ideas sparked ongoing controversy among medievalists , with some accepting his view , others arguing for a written poetry inspired by traditional idiom and methods ( and a complex layering of Christian and pre - Christian influences ) , and still others insisting that the entire Anglo - Saxon corpus consists of individually authored , written texts with an exclusively Christian matrix of belief . The essay has been anthologized many times . In late middle age , he undertook to learn the Finnish language in order to explore another area of oral tradition , and exercised considerable influence upon Finnish studies ; contemporaries remember the growing library of Finnish texts in his house on Reservoir Street . His 1963 prose translation of the " Kalevala " remains a standard , and he was awarded the Finnish Order of the Lion of Finland in 1964 for his contributions to the study of Finnish culture . He retired from Harvard in 1961 , and he was honored at the close of his career with a well - regarded Festschrift : " Franciplegius ; medieval and linguistic studies in honor of Francis Peabody Magoun , Jr . " , edited by Jess B . Bessinger and Robert Payson Creed . In a legend circulating among medievalists , Magoun is said to have been the model for the character Mr . Magoo . However , there is no evidence that artist Hubley knew the scholar . Family life . Magoun married Margaret Boyden on 30 June 1926 in Winnetka , Illinois . Their children were Francis Peabody Magoun III ( 1927 – 1999 ; m . Faith Gowen ) ; William Cowper Boyden Magoun ( 1928 ; m . Patricia Lavezzorio ) ; Margaret Boyden Magoun ( 1932 ; m . Guido Rothrauff ) ; and Jean Bartholow Magoun ( 1937 ; m . Ward Farnsworth ) . Publications . Books . He is also credited for a few other works :