Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Elisabeth M. Jeffreys and Michael J. Jeffreys. "Imberios and Margarona: The Manuscripts, Sources, and Edition of a Byzantine Verse Romance." Byzantion, 41:122-60.

A discussion of the difficulties of editing Byzantine Greek verse romances, including a section warning against assuming direct influence of one manuscript version on another without possible attribution of shared phraseology to the domain of oral tradition. Comparing the results of their formulaic analysis of Imberios and Margarona (143-48) with those of Baugh on ME romances (1959 and 1967), they postulate for the BG texts a formulaic and memorial tradition of translation rather than composition in performance. Explanation of the profound bearing such a hypothesis has on the readings that an editor establishes.
Area: BG, CP