Francis James Child compiler and editor of English and Scottish PopularBallads established the scholarly study of folk ballads in the Englishspeaking world. His... » 

Francis James Child compiler and editor of English and Scottish PopularBallads established the scholarly study of folk ballads in the Englishspeaking world. His successors at Harvard University notably George LymanKittredge Milman Parry and Albert B. Lord discovered new ways of relatingideas about sung narrative to the study of epic poetry and what has come to becalled oral literature. In this volume 16 scholars from Europe and theUnited States offer original essays in the spirit of these pioneers. The topicsof their studies include wellknown Child ballads in their British andAmerican forms aspects of the oral literatures of France IrelandScandinavia medieval England ancient Greece and modern Egypt and recentliterary ballads and popular songs. Many of the essays evince a concern withthe theoretical underpinnings of the study of folklore and literature oralityand literacy and as a whole the volume reestablishes the European ballad inthe wider context of oral literature. Among the contributors are Albert B.Lord Bengt R. Jonsson Gregory Nagy David Buchan Vesteinn Olason and KarlReichl. «