"Still hoping you had a good birthday, by the way."
Sorry i forgot to say I had
Nothing to do with you, I'm a bit harassed trying to assmble my sound unit
****** technology

Basically, Homer (or whoever) approached his subject as a ballad-maker
Irish storytellers appeared to follow the same disciplines using the same motifs and commonplaces similar plot structures, concentration on narrative plot rather than description and devices such as incremental repetition
There is also a tendency to assume the listener is familiar with the subject matter rather than having to explain it
I've spent time with older generation storytellers and made a practice of recording the same material more than once - I was always intrigued by the way the narratives hadly ever altered from telling to telling
Jim