Vocal Delivery and Ritual Epic Performance in Central Himalayan Pandava Stories
Oral Tradition, 37 (2025):49–74 Paṇḍwāṇī is a term used in some parts of India to refer to the oral rendition of Mahābhārata stories. There are… Read More
Tandaning
Oral Tradition, 37/1 (2023):23–47 The tandaning is one of the song genres of the Wide Bay Mengen living in East Pomio, Papua New Guinea (PNG). Read More
A Pebble Smoothed by Tradition: Lines 607-61 of Beowulf as a Formulaic Set-piece
In this essay Drout and Smith use new “lexomic” methods of computer-assisted statistical analysis to identify a concentration of unusual lexical, metrical, grammatical, and formulaic… Read More
Oral Features of the Qur’ān Detected in Public Recitation
This essay examines textual features of the Qur’ān that may emerge more prominently as a result of listening to it, features that might enhance insight… Read More
The Fairy-Seers of Eastern Serbia: Seeing Fairies—Speaking through Trance
The fairy-seers of Southeastern Europe are generally women who are able to communicate with the invisible world. They claim to see women-like creatures and transmit… Read More
Between the Oral and the Literary: The Case of the Naxi Dongba Texts
This essay considers the orality of ritual texts written in the Naxi dongba script from southwest China. Historically, the inherent orality of these texts has… Read More
Eall-feala Ealde Sæge: Poetic Performance and “The Scop’s Repertoire” in Old English Verse
This essay identifies “The Scop’s Repertoire” as an Old English traditional theme. The theme associates the making of verse with three motifs: copiousness, orality, and… Read More
Temporal Patterning and “Degrees of Orality” in Occitan and French Oral Narrative
Oral Tradition, 36/1 (2023):91-122 Introduction This article explores tense usage and tense-switching in the temporal structuring of Occitan and French oral narratives, drawing on theoretical… Read More
Type-Token Ratio and Entropy as Measures to Characterize a Forgery of Oral-Formulaic Epics
Oral Tradition, 36/1 (2023):37-62 The Queen’s Court and Green Mountain Manuscripts (Rukopisy královédvorský a zelenohorský, together abbreviated “RKZ” in Czech) present an unusually successful case… Read More
Driva Qele / Stealing Earth: Oral Accounts of the Volcanic Eruption of Nabukelevu (Mt. Washington), Kadavu Island (Fiji), ~2,500 Years Ago
By Loredana Lancini, Patrick Nunn, Meli Nanuku, Kaliopate Tavola, Taniela Bolea, Paul Geraghty, Rita Compatangelo-Soussignan Oral Tradition, 36/1 (2023):63-90 Introduction Over the past two decades,… Read More