_____________________________________________________________ Volume 17 October 2002 Number 2 _____________________________________________________________ Editor Editorial Assistants John Miles Foley Michael Barnes Heather Maring Associate Editor John Zemke Slavica Publishers, Inc. For a complete catalog of books from Slavica, with prices and ordering information, write to: Slavica Publishers, Inc. Indiana University 2611 E. 10th St. Bloomington, IN 47408-2603 ISSN: 0883-5365 Each contribution copyright © 2002 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 appears twice per year, in March and October. To enter a subscription, please contact Slavica Publishers at the address given above. All manuscripts, books for review, items for the bibliography updates, and editorial correspondence, as well as subscriptions and related inquiries should be addressed to the editor, John Miles Foley, Center for Studies in Oral Tradition, 21 Parker Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211. Printed in the United States of America. EDITORIAL BOARD Mark C. Amodio Joseph J. Duggan Vassar College Univ. of Cal./Berkeley Old and Middle English French, Spanish, comparative Patricia Arant Alan Dundes Brown University Univ. of Cal./Berkeley Russian Folklore Samuel Armistead Mark W. Edwards University of California/Davis Stanford University Hispanic, comparative Ancient Greek Richard Bauman Ruth Finnegan Indiana University Open University Folklore, Theory African, South Pacific Dan Ben-Amos Thomas Hale University of Pennsylvania Penn. State University Folklore African Mary Ellen Brown Lee Haring Indiana University Brooklyn College, CUNY Folklore, Balladry African Chogjin Joseph Harris Chinese Academy Harvard University of Social Sciences Old Norse Mongolian, Chinese Bridget Connelly Lauri Harvilahti University of Cal./Berkeley University of Helsinki Arabic Russian, Finnish, Altai Robert P. Creed Lauri Honko Univ. of Mass./Amherst Turku University Old English, Comparative Comparative Epic Robert Culley Dell Hymes McGill University University of Virginia Biblical Studies Native American, Linguistics Thomas DuBois Martin Jaffee University of Wisconsin Hebrew Bible Scandinavian Univ. of Washington EDITORIAL BOARD Minna Skafte Jensen Shelly Fenno Quinn Odense University Ohio State University Ancient Greek, Latin Japanese Werner Kelber Burton Raffel Rice University Univ. of Southwestern Biblical Studies Louisiana Translation Françoise Létoublon Université Stendahl Karl Reichl Ancient Greek Universität Bonn Turkic, Old and Middle English Victor Mair University of Pennsylvania John Roberts Chinese Ohio State University African-American Nada Milošević-Djordjević University of Belgrade Joel Sherzer South Slavic University of Texas/Austin Native American, Anthropology Stephen Mitchell Harvard University Dennis Tedlock Scandinavian SUNY/Buffalo Native American Gregory Nagy Harvard University J. Barre Toelken Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Utah State University comparative Folklore, Native American Joseph Falaky Nagy Ronald J. Turner Univ. of Cal./Los Angeles Univ. of Missouri/Columbia Old Irish Storytelling Susan Niditch Andrew Wiget Amherst College University of New Mexico Hebrew Bible Native American Walter J. Ong St. Louis University (Emeritus) Hermeneutics of orality and literacy Contents Editor’s Column...................................................................................... 167 Betsy Bowden Ubiquitous Format? What Ubiquitous Format? Chaucer’s Tale of Melibee as a Proverb Collection ...............................169 Vladimir Guerrero Written on the Wind: An Introduction to Auralture ................................208 Margaret H. Beissinger Rites of Passage and Oral Storytelling in Romanian Epic and the New Testament .............................................236 Oral Tradition and Contemporary Critical Theory. II Mark C. Amodio, Guest Editor Guest Editor’s Column ...........................................................................259 Nancy Mason Bradbury Transforming Experience into Tradition: Two Theories of Proverb Use and Chaucer’s Practice ..........................261 Johnathan Watson The Minim-istic Imagination: Scribal Invention and the Word in the Early English Alliterative Tradition .............................................290 John M. Hill The Social and Dramatic Functions of Oral Recitation and Composition in Beowulf .................................................................310 Michael Joyce No One Tells You This: Secondary Orality and Hypertextuality ............325 Samantha Zacher Cynewulf at the Interface of Literacy and Orality: The Evidence of the Puns in Elene .........................................................346 About the Authors ...................................................................................388 The Aeolian Prize ...................................................................................390 Index to Volume 17 .................................................................................391 Editor’s Column With this issue of Oral Tradition we offer a cornucopia of items: a thematic cluster, eight essays, a prize announcement, and news about an upcoming collection of unusual significance. The first three essays exemplify OT’s commitment to diversity in the field, with Betsy Bowden’s reading of Chaucer’s Tale of Melibee as a proverb collection, Vladimir Guerrero’s investigation of medieval Spanish oral-derived works as what he calls “auralture,” and Margaret Beissinger’s comparison of Romanian epic and the New Testament in terms of oral storytelling techniques. Then, following on his first group of articles sketching linkages between studies in oral tradition and contemporary criticism in OT 17.1, special editor Mark Amodio presents five quite disparate entries on the same theme. Proverb use and Chaucer is again represented in Nancy Mason Bradbury’s theoretically oriented contribution, while Jonathan Watson analyzes the interaction of scribal practice and oral tradition in the medieval alliterative tradition. John Hill’s description of oral recitation and composition in the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf leads to a challenging and nuanced discussion of secondary orality and hypertextuality by Michael Joyce, and finally to Samantha Zacher’s study of Cynewulf as an Old English poet operating at the orality-literacy interface. In characteristic fashion, this issue tackles both theory and real-world complexity, from the ancient and medieval worlds to the present day. Uniquely, we also have the honor to announce the inauguration of The Aeolian Prize, which has been created in order to inspire research and scholarship on the oral traditions of the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily. The Aeolian Prize of $1000 and publication in Oral Tradition will be awarded to the best manuscript received by September 30, 2004 (see the guidelines at the back of this issue). Professional and non-professional scholars and writers from all disciplines are welcome to participate. Finally, with the next number of OT (18.1) we will begin a year-long special issue on the state of the art in our heterogeneous and interdisciplinary field. For these two issues approximately 80 authors from a broad spectrum of individual specialties have contributed thumbnail responses to the following two questions: (1) What does oral tradition mean in your particular discipline? and (2) What are the most exciting developments in your area? Authors were allowed only 500 words and 5-10 citations to answer questions that could have elicited volumes, but the idea is rather to “take the pulse” of the collective field in 2003, the eighteenth year of OT’s history, and thereby to offer to nonspecialists some perspectives that may prove useful at the level of analogy. If the project works, it