Complete Issue
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
_____________________________________________________________ Volume 4 October 1989 Number 3 _____________________________________________________________ Editor Editorial Assistants John Miles Foley Gregory Bouman Sarah J. Feeny Managing Editor Richard Glejzer Lee Edgar Tyler Nancy Hadfield Kendy Hess Book Review Editor Adam Brooke Davis Slavica Publishers, Inc. Slavica Publishers, Inc. For a complete catalog of books from Slavica, with prices and ordering information, write to: Slavica Publishers, Inc. P.O. Box 14388 Columbus, Ohio 43214 ISSN: 0883-5365 Each contribution copyright (c) 1989 by its author. All rights reserved. The editor and the publisher assume no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion by the authors. Oral Tradition seeks to provide a comparative and interdisciplinary focus for studies in oral literature and related fields by publishing research and scholarship on the creation, transmission, and interpretation of all forms of oral traditional expression. As well as essays treating certifiably oral traditions, OT presents investigations of the relationships between oral and written traditions, as well as brief accounts of important fieldwork, a Symposium section (in which scholars may reply at some length to prior essays), review articles, occasional transcriptions and translations of oral texts, a digest of work in progress, and a regular column for notices of conferences and other matters of interest. In addition, occasional issues will include an ongoing annotated bibliography of relevant research and the annual Albert Lord and Milman Parry Lectures on Oral Tradition. OT welcomes contributions on all oral literatures, on all literatures directly influenced by oral traditions, and on non-literary oral traditions. Submissions must follow the list-of reference format (style sheet available on request) and must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope for return or for mailing of proofs; all quotations of primary materials must be made in the original language(s) with following English translations. Authors should submit two copies of all manuscripts. Most contributions will be reviewed by at least one specialist reader and one member of the editorial board before a final decision is reached. Review essays, announcements, and contributions to the Symposium section will be evaluated by the editor in consultation with the board. Oral Tradition will appear three times per year, in January, May, and October. Annual subscription charges are $20 for individuals and $35 for libraries and other institutions. All manuscripts, books for review, items for the annual bibliography, and editorial correspondence should be directed to the editor, John Miles Foley, Center for Studies in Oral Tradition, 301 Read Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211. Printed in the United States of America. EDITORIAL BOARD Patricia Arant Joseph J. Duggan Brown University Univ. of Cal./Berkeley Russian French, Spanish, comparative Samuel Armistead Alan Dundes University of California/Davis Univ. of Cal./Berkeley Hispanic, comparative Folklore Ilhan Bașgöz Mark W. Edwards Indiana University Stanford University Turkish Ancient Greek Franz H. Bäuml Ruth Finnegan Univ. of Cal./Los Angeles Open University Middle High German African, South Pacific Roderick Beaton Donald K. Fry King’s College, London Poynter Institute Modern Greek Old English Dan Ben-Amos Joseph Harris University of Pennsylvania Harvard University Folklore Old Norse Daniel Biebuyck Melissa Heckler University of Delaware New York Storytelling Center African Storytelling Issa J. Boullata Elizabeth Jeffreys McGill University University of Sydney Arabic Byzantine Greek David E. Bynum Michael Jeffreys Cleveland State University University of Sydney East European, comparative Byzantine Greek Robert P. Creed Minna Skafte Jensen Univ. of Mass./Amherst University of Copenhagen Old English, comparative Ancient Greek, Latin Robert Culley Werner Kelber McGill University Rice University Biblical Studies Biblical Studies EDITORIAL BOARD Robert Kellogg Felix J. Oinas University of Virginia Indiana University Old Germanic, comparative Finnish, Russian Eleanor Long Isidore Okpewho Univ. of Cal./Los Angeles University of Ibadan Folk Ballad African, Ancient Greek Albert B. Lord Walter J. Ong Harvard University (Emeritus) St. Louis University (Emeritus) Slavic, comparative Hermeneutics of orality and literacy Victor Mair Jeff Opland University of Pennsylvania Vassar College Chinese African, Old English John S. Miletich Svetozar Petrović Las Vegas, Nevada University of Novi Sad Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, Serbo-Croatian, Critical theory comparative Burton Raffel D. Gary Miller Univ. of Southwestern University of Florida Louisiana Linguistics, Ancient Greek Translation Alain Renoir Nada Milošević-Djordjević Univ. of Cal./Berkeley University of Belgrade (Emeritus) Serbo-Croatian Old Germanic, Old French, comparative Bruce A. Rosenberg Michael Nagler Brown University Univ. of Cal./Berkeley Folk narrative, Medieval Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, literature comparative Geoffrey R. Russom Gregory Nagy Brown University Harvard University Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Old English, Old Norse, comparative Old Irish Joseph Falaky Nagy Deborah Tannen Univ. of Cal./Los Angeles Old Irish Georgetown University Linguistics, Discourse theory Jacob Neusner Dennis Tedlock Brown University Hebrew, Biblical StudiesFelix SUNY/Buffalo Native American EDITORIAL BOARD Jeff Todd Titon Ruth Webber Brown University University of Chicago Music (Emerita) Spanish, comparative J. Barre Toelken Utah State University D.K. Wilgus Folklore, Native American Univ. of Cal./Los Angeles (Emeritus) Folk Ballad Leo Treitler SUNY/Stony Brook Michael Zwettler Music Ohio State University Arabic Ronald J. Turner Univ. of Missouri/Columbia Storytelling Contents Editor’s Column...................................................................................... 271 Wayne Kraft Improvisation in Hungarian Ethnic Dancing: An Analog to Oral Verse Composition ...............273 Michael D. Cherniss “Beowulf Was Not There”: Compositional Aspects of Beowulf, Lines 1299b-1301 ..............316 Charles Segal Song, Ritual, and Commemoration in Early Greek Poetry and Tragedy........................ 330 Karl Reichl Formulaic Diction in Kazakh Epic Poetry .........360 William C. Scott Oral Verse-Making in Homer’s Odyssey (The Milman Parry Lectures for 1989) ..............382 Book Reviews ........................................................................................ 413 About the Authors .................................................................................. 423 Index to Volume 4 .................................................................................. 425 Editor’s Column With this issue of Oral Tradition we reach a benchmark of sorts: the end of the journal’s fi rst four years of publication and the end of the sixth year since its inception as a scholarly enterprise. Over those four volumes and twelve issues we have tried to bring before a diverse readership an equally diverse collection of essays on the world’s oral traditions and their impact on literary and other written traditions. A signifi cant percentage of OT’s pages have thus been devoted to miscellaneous topics, with forays into such areas as Australian, central Asian, ancient, medieval, and modem Greek, Biblical, Old and Middle English, Old Irish, Middle High German, Chinese, Arabic, Hispanic, African, Italian, Persian, Old French, Welsh, Asian Indian, Serbo-Croatian, Rumanian, and modem American traditions. Some of these essays have consisted of surveys of research and scholarship; others have been analytical articles that concentrated on a single work or subject within the broader framework. Oral Tradition has also mounted several special issues—a tribute to Walter J. Ong in 1987, a collection on Hispanic balladry in 1988, and, most recently, the double issue on Arabic in 1989—and annotated bibliographies of recent research and scholarship in the fi eld. As we look ahead to the next decade, OT will endeavor to maintain a similar array of contents, making every effort to act as a forum for interdisciplinary work on oral tradition. Most immediately, 1990 will see an issue devoted to Oceania, edited by Ruth Finnegan and Margaret Orbell, and other special collections will follow in future years on Yugoslav and Native American traditions. Another bibliographical supplement will appear in volume 6 (1991), while the next few issues will contain essays on the Indian folk-Mahābhārata, Old Norse sagas, Serbo-Croatian epic, Homeric poetry, and Old English narrative, as well as commentaries on and translations of works by Marcel Jousse, Matija Murko, and V. V. Radlov that signifi cantly infl uenced the evolution of studies in oral tradition. At longer range we are contemplating special issues on African-American traditions as well as annual Milman Parry lectures to be delivered by Werner Kelber, Ursula Schaefer, and Richard Bauman. The present issue represents the kind of heterogeneity we hope to continue to encourage: two of the articles concern living traditions (Hungarian folk dance and central Asian epic) on which their authors have done extensive fi eldwork, while the others treat oral-derived texts best 272 GUEST EDITOR’S COLUMN understood, it is argued, from the double perspective of orality and textuality. Wayne Kraft opens the conversation with a comparative reinterpretation of folk dancing as a traditional idiom, adducing the discoveries made and theories