Contents
Dedication 5
Acknowledgement 10
Preface by Albert Bates Lord 11
Introduction (John Miles Foley) 15
Essays
Franz H. Bauml
"The Theory of Oral-Formulaic Composition and the Written Medieval Text" 29
Daniel P. Biebuyck
"Names in Nyanga Society and in Nyanga Tales 47
John W. Butcher
"Formulaic Invention in the Genealogies of the Old English Genesis A" 73
David E. Bynum
"Of Stick and Stones and Hapax Legomena Themata" 93
Martin Camargo
"Oral Traditional Structure in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"
Robert P. Creed
"Beowulf on the Brink: Information Theory as Key to the Origins of the Poem" 139
Ruth H. Firestone
"On the Similarity of Biterolf und Dietleib and Dietrich und Wenezlan" 161
John Miles Foley
"Reading the Oral Traditional Text: Aesthetics of Creation and Response" 185
Donald K. Fry
"The Cliff of Death in Old English Poetry" 213
Edward R. Haymes
"'ez wart ein buoch funden': Oral and Written in Middle High German Heroic Epic" 235
Constance B. Hieatt
"On Envelope Patterns (Ancient Greek and -Relatively- Modern) and Nonce Formulas" 245
Edward B. Irving Jr.
"What to Do with Old Kings" 259
Elaine Lawless
"Tradition and Poetics: The Folk Sermons of Women Preachers" 269
Albert Bates Lord
"The Nature of Oral Poetry" 313
D. Gary Miller
Towards a New Model of Formulaic Compostion" 351
Stephen A. Mitchell
"The Sagaman and Oral Literature: The Icelandic Traditions of Hjorleifr inn kvensami and Geirmundr heljarskinn" 395
Michale N. Nagler
"On Almost Killing Your Friends: Some Thoughts on Violence in Early Cultures" 425
Joseph Falaky Nagy
"The Sign of the Outlaw: Multiformity in Fenian Narrative" 465
Alexandra Hennessey Olsen
"Literary Artistry and the Oral-Formulaic Tradition: The Case of Gower's Appolinus of Tyre 493
Ward Parks
"Orality and Poetics: Synchrony, Diachrony, and the Axes of Narrative Transmission" 511
Alain Renoir
"Repetition, Oral-Formulaic Style, and Affective Impact in Mediaeval Poetry: A Tentative Illustration" 533
Joseph A. Russo
"Oral Style as Performance Style in Homer's Odyssey: Should We Read Homer Differently after Parry?" 549
Geoffrey R. Russom
"Verse Translations and the Question of Literacy in Beowulf
Ruth H. Webber
"Ballad Openings in the Eropean Balad" 581