Features of an Oral Culture By: Jason Richards Israel Vance Danielle Shelly And Steven Hinwood.

Features of an Oral Culture

By: Jason Richards

Israel Vance

Danielle Shelly

And Steven Hinwood

Oral Literacy, Beowulf, and The Battle of Maldon

• History of Beowulf– Thought to have

been composed, in the form as we know it, as early as the eighth century. The author, and where it was composed originally, is still unknown.

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• History of Beowolf continued– The only manuscript left

was written in the eleventh century though in 1731 a fire destroyed parts of the manuscript while it was in its owner's library (Sir Robert Cotton).

• A project (called the 'electronic beowulf project') is using digital imagery to try to recapture the pieces that are lost.

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Oral Literacy, Beowulf, and The Battle of Maldon

Oral Literacy, Beowulf, and The Battle of Maldon

• History of Beowolf Continued– In 1786, Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin (an archivist

from Denmark), first heard about Beowulf. In 1787, he had a transcript made.

– In 1815, Thorkelin produced the first edition of Beowulf in A Danish Poem in Anglo-Saxon Dialect Concerning Danish Events of the Third and Fourth Centuries. Every subsequent edition has been adapted from this edition.

• Structure of Beowulf– Beowulf is considered a poem. It was a total of

3,000 lines making it the longest known surviving poem.

– The poetry is unrimed and not broken up into stanzas. Most lines end with a pause.

– Being in Old English, the lines are broken in two with two stressed syllables each.

– When the translated version is read the poem is very crude. This is because the poem was meant to be chanted in Old English with a harp.

Oral Literacy, Beowulf, and The Battle of Maldon

Oral Literacy, Beowulf, and The Battle of Maldon

• History of The Battle of Maldon– The real battle took place on August 10, 991

outside in Essex, England.– This battle marks the beginning of a series of raid

on England by the Vikings.– The English at Maldon were defeated by the

Vikings. The English leader, Byrhtnoth, was beheaded by the Vikings and his body was buried in Ely Cathedral.Oral Literacy, Beowulf, and The Battle of Maldon

Oral Literacy, Beowulf, and The Battle of Maldon

• History of Maldon continued– The poem's author is still unknown. Some say it

may have been written by a representative of the Ely Cathedral. It has also been thought that Byrhtnoth's widow who also gave the cathedral a taxtile monument to the battle.

– The poem, like Beowulf, was in Sir Robert Cotton's library were most of the poem was destroyed in the 1731 library fire.

– A transcript was made by Thomas Hearne and was published in 1726.

Oral Literacy, Beowulf, and The Battle of Maldon

• Structure of The Battle of Maldon– The original length of the poem is unknown. 325

lines of the poem survived.– The poem is unrimed. The lines are broken in two

with two stressed syllables each.– Like Beowulf, the translated poem is very rough

and crude becasue it was never meant to be read as a modern work of literature but rather in Old English accompanied by a harp.

The Performance of Text.

• Textual Performance Defined: The presentation of a text in a way so that it will appeal to a specific intended audience.

The Oral Formulaic

• The Oral Formulaic Defined: This is a theoretical set of prescribed structural formulae which make up a kind of “toolbox of the Bard” (Ong 20-6), and is used in oral performances intended to develop mood, build interest and complete meter in metrical works.

The Oral Formulaic – “Mythic Patterns”

• The powerful figure is not present or, for various reasons, is powerless in a situation of danger to his people. 2.Dring the period of his absence, or of his inability or unwillingness to act effectively, things go very badly for those around him, and many of his friends are killed 3.The powerful figure returns or his power is restored, whereupon he puts things to right again. (Lord 140)

Textual Transmission

• Textual Transmission Defined: The way in which Texts were perpetuated.

Ways oral culture may be construed as more or less “primitive”

• Less Primitive– Writing is looked at as a compliment to oral

speech• Out of thousands of languages only 106 have been

committed to writing• 3000 languages today, only 78 have literature• Writing only allows for the speaker to organize and

keep the thought linear

Ways oral culture may be construed as more or less “primitive”

• Less Primitive Continued– Gesture, articulated sound

• Gestures allows audiences to visualize in a different sense what is being said

• Articulating sound allows the audience to hear the speech the way that it was intended

• They can modify what they are saying based on the reaction of the audience

Ways oral culture may be construed as more or less “primitive”

• Less Primitive Continued– Oral cultures have a great deal of wisdom with

out ever have studying• The term study doesn’t exist in an oral culture

• The elders in the culture hold all the wisdom, they have been around long enough to hear and pass down all the stories to the younger generations

• Never have to “look anything up”

Ways oral culture may be construed as more or less “primitive”

• Less Primitive Continued– This oral culture forces them to think in a

completely different way• Their need to recall makes them better at it• They repeat • They use formulas• They use mnemonic patterns

Ways oral culture may be construed as more or less “primitive”

• More Primitive– Writing allows organization

• Locks the ideas in the visual field forever

• Gives a linear approach to stories and speeches

• In an oral culture there is nothing that will help to get thought back

• Oral cultures need to have thoughts that are memorable anything else is lost

Ways oral culture may be construed as more or less “primitive”

• More Primitive Continued– Oral culture can loose thoughts

• With writing we can hold on to thoughts and come back to think of them in more detail later

• With oral cultures the thought needs to be completed at the moment and repeated to be remembered

Ways oral culture may be construed as more or less “primitive”

• More Primitive Continued– Original stories loose their meanings

• Since nothing is written down a story rapidly change

• This may happen with text as well, but usually after generations the story holds a different meaning, it is a much longer process

Ways oral culture may be construed as more or less “primitive”

• More Primitive Continued– These oral cultures cannot study

• They only learn through apprenticeships

• Can only be as intelligent as the information that their brains are capable of holding

• Once writing became available we were allowed to free our minds of the stories to learn other things, such as math and science

Ways oral culture may be construed as more or less “primitive”

• More Primitive Continued– Writing cultures have larger vocabulary

• Being able to write down the meaning of a word allows for more word

• Literate cultures tend to have about a million and a half words

• Oral cultures have about a few thousand

• So what is better??

Bibliography

• A.W. Ward, A.R. Waller, W.P. Trent, J. Erskine, S.P. Sherman, and C. Van Doren, "Beowulf: Scandinavian Traditions; Personality of the Hero; Origin and Antiquity of the Poem; the Religious Element.." Bartleby. 2000. Barleby.com, Inc. 5 Oct 2008 <http://www.bartleby.com/211/0303.html>.

• "Battle of Maldon poem." UK Battlefields Resource Centre. Battlefields Trust. 5 Oct 2008 <http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/viking/battlepageview.asp?pageid=353&parentid=343>.

• Heaney, Seamus. Introduction. Beowulf. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.

• Huntington Fletcher, Robert. "Beowulf: A History of English Literature." About.com:Classic Literature. The New York Times Company. 5 Oct 2008 <http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/rfletcher/bl-rfletcher-history-1-anglo-saxon-beowulf.htm>.

• J. Murray, Stephen. "Battle of Maldon." From Dot to Domesday. 5 Oct 2008 <http://www.dot-domesday.me.uk/maldon.htm>.

Bibliography

• Lord, Albert Bates. Epic Singers and Oral Tradition. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.

• Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy. Great Britan: Routledge, 2003.

• Renoir, Alain. “Oral-Formulaic Rhetoric and the Interpretation of Literary Texts.” Oral Tradition in Literature: Interpretation in Context. Ed John Miles Foley. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986.

• Snell, Melissa. "More About Beowulf." About.com:Medieval History. The New York Times Company. 5 Oct 2008 <http://historymedren.about.com/library/blbeofacts.htm>.

• "The Battle of Maldon." Battblefields Trust London and South East. The Battlefields Trust. 5 Oct 2008 <http://www.btlse.co.uk/node/11>.

• Zirkelbach, Rachel. "Beowulf: The Manuscript." Beowulf: A Look at the Anglo-Saxon Manuscript. 1998. FortuneCity.com Inc. 5 Oct 2008 <http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/eliot/722/Manauth.htm>.