The Singer of Tales

This is a 40th anniversary reissue of *the* book about the search for the living Homer in then-Yugoslavia organized by Milman Parry and his assistant and successor Albert Lord in the 1930s. Anyone interested in Homer or Balkan traditional epic should know the book. The DVD contains wonderful material that is also available online, so there's no need to replace your older edition.

Albert B. Lord's "Singer of Tales" was published in 1960, as Number 24 of the "Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature," and was picked up in paperback by Atheneum only a few years later (1965). Over the course of four decades, and a variety of reprintings, "The Singer of Tales" has established itself as probably the most widely read book in the monograph series, and the most controversial. It is certainly the best known of its author's books and articles.

"The Singer of Tales" is established as a fundamental work in the study of oral literatures, and literatures which appear to have emerged from oral traditions (Biblical, Old English, African, and others). The book presented to English-language readers studies of oral heroic poetry collected in the Balkans in the twentieth century, analyzed their technique, and compared them in detail to the Homeric poems, and, to a lesser extent, medieval European works with similar traits. Homer's repeated phrases and verses were shown to be explainable as a technical device to assist the rapid composition of poems as they were recited, not a sign of scribal corruption or sloppy editing of independent short songs. The comparisons were not new - French scholars had called attention to the nineteenth-century collections of Balkan heroic songs -- but were presented in a coherent and even attractive package, and included additional material from Lord's own fieldwork.

The heart of the book, however, was the work of Lord's teacher, Milman Parry, who had died in 1935 leaving a seven-page draft of his projected synthesis. Parry's works had not had a great reception from English and American classicists (a major study was then available only in French), but the basic ideas had filtered into classical studies in an unsystematic way. In "A Preface to Paradise Lost" (1942) C. S. Lewis even formulated an "audience-theory" variant of "oral formulaic composition," explaining how it helped listeners as well as the reciter-composers. With Lord's presentation, however, a fairly esoteric theory became a part of the intellectual world of literary scholarship.

A Second Edition of "The Singer of Tales" appeared in 2000. It reprints the existing text unchanged, but includes a useful new introduction, describing the history and reception of the work, with extensive bibliography. It also includes a CD with reproductions of the original audio recordings of the sections of songs quoted in the text; those with the right PC or Mac hardware and software can also access visual material, including a short filmstrip of one of the traditional singers, and other interesting extras. Those not interested in these additions may prefer earlier printings. Harvard University is also making material available on-line; see my review of second edition for some details.

Albert B. Lord's "Singer of Tales" was published in 1960, as Number 24 of the "Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature," and was picked up in paperback by Atheneum only a few years later (1965). It is probably the most widely read book in the monograph series, and the most controversial. It is certainly the best known of its author's books and articles.

Over the course of four decades and a variety of reprintings, "The Singer of Tales" has established itself as a fundamental work in the study of oral literatures, and literatures which appear to have emerged from oral traditions (Biblical, Old English, and others). The book presented to English-language readers studies of oral heroic poetry collected in the Balkans in the twentieth century, analyzed their technique, and compared them in detail to the Homeric poems, and, to a lesser extent, medieval European works with similar traits. Homer's repeated phrases and verses were shown to be explainable as a technical device to assist the rapid composition of poems as they were recited, not a sign of scribal corruption or sloppy editing of independent short songs. The comparisons were not new, but were presented in a coherent and even attractive package, and included additional material from Lord's own fieldwork.

The heart of the book, however, was the work of Lord's teacher, Milman Parry, who had died in 1935 leaving a seven-page draft of his projected synthesis. Parry's works had not a great reception from English and American classicists (a major study was published in French), but the basic ideas had filtered into classical studies in an unsystematic way. In "A Preface to Paradise Lost" (1942) C.S. Lewis even formulated an "audience-theory" variant of "oral formulaic composition," explaining how it helped listeners as well as reciters. With Lord's presentation, however, a fairly esoteric theory became a part of the intellectual world of literary scholarship.

A Second Edition of "The Singer of Tales" appeared in 2000. Serious students of Classical, Medieval, and several other literatures who do not already own a copy, and want (or need) one, will probably buy this edition; it is what is readily available. It reprints Lord's text without change (and rather more clearly than some copies I have seen!), so identifying references in early discussions of the book will not be a problem.

What about those of us who have a copy, or have just read the book several times? Is the Second Edition worth our time and money?

The differences from the first edition and its various reprintings are two.

First, there is an "Introduction to the Second Edition" by Stephen Mitchell and Gregory Nagy, distinguished scholars of Germanic and Greek literature (respectively). It surveys the history of the book, its reception, a variety of responses, and the development of Lord's thoughts on the issues it raises, and concludes with a six-page bibliography (in rather small print). The coverage is pro-Lord (not unexpectedly), but so far as I can see includes the most impressive of his critics. This is useful, and the execution is excellent, but the needs of the student can probably be met by consulting it in a library. Inevitably, as a review of current scholarship, it will be dated more quickly than the rest of the book.

Second, the volume comes with an Audio and Video CD. This contains actual recordings, made in the field by Parry or Lord, of Serbian traditional singers. The audio tracks are accessible on a CD player (or DVD player). For those with an appropriately powerful PC or Mac, it is possible to see the texts and translations as the singer performs. The passages chosen are those given in the text of the book, and are a minute fraction of the audio archive and published transcripts, but they bring the descriptions to life. The sound quality is that of the actual recordings, and has not been "cleaned up" or otherwise enhanced. For those with the right software, it is also possible to see an actual short film of a traditional singer performing, and Bela Bartok's attempts to transcribe some of the music. Assuming that changing technologies (see below) do not make it inaccessible, this should retain its value indefinitely.

(Or until the entire archive, with transcriptions and translations, miraculously shows up on DVD. Meanwhile, a substantial selection of material from the Milman Parry and Albert B. Lord collections, including more Bartok manuscripts and his public letter on the value of the collection, a collection of photographs, and the filmstrip, has been made available online by Harvard University, on a site dedicated to Oral Literature Studies and the Milman Parry Collection; additional material is promised.)

So, if it fits your budget (and the price is quite reasonable, despite my sticker-shock when I remember what I had paid for a copy in 1968), go ahead; just make sure that you are getting the second edition, with CD, not a copy of the first edition.

Note: On the Macintosh side, I have run the CD successfully on an early PowerMac using System 7.5.5, although the "film strip" (which needs a slightly later version of QuickTime) was, predictably, not accessible; completely successfully on a G3 under System 9.2; and again, on a G4 with System 10.2.7 (and later 10.2.8), which needed to open the "Classic" System 9 emulator to display the visual material. The "Classic" mode is supposed to be phased out over time, so problems of obsolence may already be closing in. A report on Windows issues would be useful.

Any student of traditional literary forms needs to read this book, which analyzes in considerable detail the 30 odd years of research done by Lord and Parry into oral epic in Yugoslavia. It is generally more applicable to Homer than to the Bible, but "The Singer of Tales" at least provides a starting point for discussion on aspects of oral tradition and the use of formulas. It can't be ignored!

A great book which changed the way we look at poetry produced by an oral tradition. Based on fieldwork by Milman Parry Lord shows the structure behind the improvisation and applies the theory to Serbo Croation epic tradition, Homer and French medieval poetry.