_____________________________________________________________ Volume 5 January 1990 Number 1 _____________________________________________________________ Editor Editorial Assistants John Miles Foley Gregory Bouman Sarah J. Feeny Managing Editor Richard Glejzer Lee Edgar Tyler Kendy Hess Whitney Strait 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) 1990 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 Ronald J. Turner Brown University Univ. of Missouri/Columbia Music Storytelling J. Barre Toelken Ruth Webber Utah State University University of Chicago Folklore, Native American (Emerita) Spanish, comparative Leo Treitler Michael Zwettler SUNY/Stony Brook Ohio State University Music Arabic Contents Editor’s Column.......................................................................................... 1 John D. Smith Worlds Apart: Orality, Literacy, and the Rajasthani Folk-Mahābhārata................................................ 3 Marie Nelson King Solomon’s Magic: The Power of a Written Text ......................20 Keith Dickson A Typology of Mediation in Homer ..................................................37 Early Scholarship on Oral Traditions ......................................................72 Wilhelm Radloff Preface to The Dialect of the Kara-Kirgiz ................................73 Edgard Richard Sienaert Marcel Jousse: The Oral Style and the Anthropology of Gesture ......................................................91 Matija Murko The Singers and their Epic Songs ...........................................107 Symposium (Annalee Rejhon) ................................................................131 Book Reviews.......................................................................................... 149 About the Authors ...................................................................................157 Editor’s Column This issue of Oral Tradition marks the beginning of our fi fth year of publication, and it thus seems appropriate to thank the individuals who have fostered our growth since the inaugural issue of 1986. I am especially grateful to a series of administrators who in one way or another saw value in this fi eld and assisted in the establishment of the journal and the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition at the University of Missouri-Columbia: Melvin George, Theodore Tarkow, Milton Glick, Gerald Brouder, Lois DeFleur, and Larry Clark. We are also indebted to the English department, particularly the former and present Chairs, Timothy Materer and Ellie Ragland-Sullivan. At the “other end” of the process, Charles Gribble, president of Slavica Publishers, has followed through on his fi rm’s commitment to launch and maintain the journal, even as we moved from typescript to disk to desktop publishing. And mediating between authors and publisher has been a host of talented editorial assistants, headed by Ed Tyler. In future issues of the journal we plan a variety of contents, with approximately every third number devoted to a special area or topic. Upcoming special issues include Ruth Finnegan’s and Margaret Orbell’s collection on the oral traditions of Oceania (5, ii-iii); a group of essays on Yugoslavia, edited by John Miletich; and a third number on Native American traditions, under the joint supervision of Barre Toelken and Larry Evers. For every such highly focused collection we plan two miscellanies or “potpourri” issues, with emphasis on the variety of oral traditions—modem, medieval, and ancient. We see the documentation (if this not too “un-oral” a term) of that heterogeneity as our primary mission; indeed it is our hope that an increased awareness of the richness and complexity of oral traditions worldwide will help all specialists to a greater understanding of their own particular corners of that world. Toward such an end this issue presents a wide variety of scholarship on oral traditions from various places and eras. John D. Smith opens the discussion with an article on the folk-Mahābhārata, the Rajasthani popular—and oral traditional—version of the great Sanskrit epic; Smith’s observations and analysis stem from his considerable experience carrying on fi eldwork in the Indian state of Rajasthan, and offer another perspective on the interface between orality and literacy. In the next essay, on the Old English written text “Solomon and Saturn I,” Marie Nelson scrutinizes what amounts to a “fi ctional representation of an oral performance” which was probably written by its author in