Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

W. Edson Richmond. "Some Effects of Scribal and Typographical Error on Oral Tradition." Southern Folklore Quarterly, 15:159-70. Rpt. in The Critics and the Ballad. Ed. MacEdward Leach and Tristram P. Coffin. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. pp. 225-35.

Contending that "the printed page is nearly as much the property of the folk' as is oral tradition and that it differs from the latter only in that to it is attributed more authority than is usually given today to the unsupported word" (159), he illustrates the role of scribal and typographical error in the transmission of oral material, citing the Child ballads and their American variants.
Area: FB, BR, US, CP