The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #146992   Message #3405530
Posted By: Owen Woodson
16-Sep-12 - 05:59 AM
Thread Name: Folklore: A. B. Lord Centenary Today
Subject: RE: Folklore: A. B. Lord Centenary Today
Not as such. He collected epics in the Balkans, but you'd be hard pushed nowadays to find many epic singers in East Anglia or the Southern Appalachians.

He did however study Beowulf, which was hardly English language, but which does have some claim to being our only English epic.

Also, the oral-formulaic theory has spilled over into many other areas of oral transmission, not the least of which are the ballads. See for instance Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe; David Buchan, The Ballad and the Folk; and Bill McCarthy, the Ballad Matrix.

But also see The Oral-Formulaic Theory of Balladry - A Rebuttal by Albert B Friedman.

Apologies if any of this is wrong or vague, but epic poetry is not something I've looked into for many years and it's still early morning in the Woodson household.

Just a thought. Millman Parry (Lord's predecessor in oral-formulaic theory) and Lord himself, influenced a number of younger oral epic scholars. But I'm wondering if there's ever been a full discussion of the Parry-Lord thesis, as it's also known. A set of conference papers perhaps.