Oral Art Forms and their Passage into Writing

by Else Mundal, Jonas Wellendorf

Overview

What happens when oral texts are removed from their original medium and written down? This collection examines the complex interrelationship between the oral and the written and the problems of textualisation. Taking their point of departure in the theories of orality and literalisation as well as the preserved texts and their transmission the individual contributors, experts from the fields of Old Norse, Old English, Latin and Homeric studies as well as from later Serbian and Norwegian folklore, set out to explore the commonalities and differences in the process of literalisation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788763505048
Publisher:	Museum Tusculanum Press
Publication date:	01/01/2008
Pages:	247
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Else Mundal is Professor of Old Norse Literature at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Bergen. Jonas Wellendorf is Postdoctoral Researcher in Old Norse Literature at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Bergen.

Table of Contents

Introduction
      Else Mundal

From Tradition to Literature in the Sagas
      Theodore M. Andersson
Orality Harnessed: How to Read Written Sagas from an Oral Culture?
      Gísli Sigurdsson
On the Possibility of an Oral Background for Gísla saga Súrssonar
      Tommy Danielsson
The Oral-Formulaic Theory Revisited
      Minna Skafte Jensen
From Vernacular Interviews to Latin Prose (ca. 600-1200)
      Lars Boje Mortensen
Orality and Literacy in Medieval East Central Europe: Final Prolegomena
      Anna Adamska
Oral and Written Art Forms in Serbian Medieval Literature
      Sonja Petrovic
Ealdgesegena worn: What is the Old English Beowulf Tells Us about Oral Forms
      Graham D. Caie
The Scandinavian Medieval Ballad: From Oral Tradition to Written Texts and Back Again
      Olav Solberg
Apocalypse Now? The Draumkvæde and Visionary Literature
      Jonas Wellendorf
The Eddic Form and Its Contexts: An Oral Art Form Performed in Writing
      Bernt Øyvind Thorvaldsen
What Have We Lost by Writing? Cognitive Archaisms in Skaldic Poetry
      Bergsveinn Birgisson
The Dialogue between Audience and Text: The Variants in Verse Citations in Njáls saga’s Manuscripts
      Gudrún Nordal
Mixing oratio recta and oratio obliqua: A Sign of Literacy or Orality?
      Ljubiša Rajic
Oral or Scribal Variation in Voluspá: A Case Study in Old Norse Poetry
      Else Mundal

Index

Editorial Reviews

This volume is [...] an important collection which will provide the springboard for future comparative work on medieval literatures.- Chris Callow, Early Medieval Europe 18 (4), 2008.

[A] fine critical anthology, one that should stimulate much thought about the protean processes by which oral art forms and literary cultures intersect.- John D. Niles, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, July 2009.

From the Publisher