Translated by Peter McMurray Introduction In his seminal text, “Studije o krajinskoj epici” (‘Studies on Epic Song of the Krajina’), [1] Alois Schmaus points out the importance of tales or stories (priče) in Bosniak epic in order to show that the tale is in fact… Read more
Oral poetry sounds. In other words, it is also aural poetry. This claim serves as the foundation of this essay, and while it may not seem particularly revolutionary, such a notion has considerable potential not only to bring studies of oral poetry into fruitful dialogue with other emerging fields of… Read more
Croatian Renaissance literature has long been considered a cultural pinnacle as relevant in the context of its own time as it was in the subsequent centuries. Comprising a range of diverse authors and original works, it reflected an awareness of both contemporary Western sources and local folklore heritage. The former… Read more
The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, University of Iceland More than fifty years after the publication of The Singer of Tales the book and the ideas therein still serve as a fresh wind in the textually-oriented field of Old Norse Studies where very few have taken up the issue… Read more
University of California, Santa Barbara For researchers who conduct ethnographic fieldwork on oral traditions, one of the most exciting aspects of The Singer of Tales is Albert Lord’s accounts of experimentation in the field, the various ways in which he and Milman Parry interrogated living traditions by comparing performances, setting… Read more
When Albert Lord published his ground-breaking study of South Slavic oral epic poetry in 1960, he entitled his book The Singer of Tales: the singer of tales, not the narrator of tales. With this title Lord acknowledged the fact that the South Slavic pjevač is literally a singer, who accompanies… Read more
This essay aims primarily to point out some new directions in research on Albanian epic song. [1] Starting from archival materials and the issues they raise for further investigation in the field, it will focus in particular on certain structural elements of the songs related… Read more
1. Introduction Homeric poetry is an intensely visual art, as numerous studies have shown. [1] This intense visuality is a feature that Homeric poetry shares with many other oral narrative traditions. [2] The affinity of oral narrative for optically rich… Read more
A young groom-to-be, along with a celebratory band of Romani (Gypsy) musicians and a throng of wedding guests, arrives after a lengthy journey at the faraway residence of his soon-to-be bride, eager to take her home, where she will become his wife and join his family. The bride’s father, however,… Read more
The formulaic phrases referring to Troy in the Iliad have not received enough attention until now: Milman Parry emphasized the epithets for heroes, but was not as confident in regard to epithets for objects and places.* In his first dissertation, he actually considered some generic… Read more
