[Ansteorra] Can someone confirm/deny for me?
Chris Zakes
dontivar at gmail.com
Wed Aug 18 13:50:28 PDT 2010
At 11:15 AM 8/18/2010, you wrote:
>I understand the importance of the oral tradition that we use in the SCA. In
>period that is how it is done, but if rely only on the passing down in oral
>tradition now we stand the chance of losing some of the greatest songs and
>stories in the SCA.
>If they would have known how to write them down, I am sure they would have.
>
>Lord Devin
Well yes and no. *Writing* dates back about 6000 years, so it
certainly existed all through the time period we study. But, as
Master Michael said, some things didn't get written down because
everybody already knew it, so it wasn't considered necessary. And in
some cases, the manuscripts that existed were lost between then and
now. Don't forget that before the printing press was developed in the
mid-1400s, books and suchlike were done by hand or not at all, so you
wouldn't have print runs of thousands of books like you see in the
modern world.
Being a fossil myself, I'm all in favor of preserving our history,
but *in this particular case* the author has specifically requested
that the song not be written down, and I'd be inclined to follow his wishes.
-Tivar Moondragon
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