[Bards] Prose Tales

Mike C. Baker kihebard at hotmail.com
Tue May 1 21:55:27 PDT 2007


> <Aesop's fables are in prose, and he was known as a story-teller>
> Remember that I am looking for period, European evidence.  
> Aesop is neither.

While appreciating Kenneth's discussion which followed, I will argue
that the fables of Aesop, in relatively traceable forms, were a
continuing component of the oral tradition through the centuries.
Fables, parables, and the like were a staple of every story-teller's
stock-in-trade.  However, they were telling stories, not necessarily
writing them down.  When the words were recorded in tangible / lasting
form, they pass out of oral tradition and into literature.  What
RELIABLE evidence is there that the flow did not occur in both
directions?  

Once again it seems that the existence and importance of the
orally-transmitted tale is being questioned because it was not written
down and continually available in written / printed form, while still
being maintained in the mouth-to-ear channel.

> Again, I know of no evidence that pieces from either of those 
> works were "performed" by bards or professional story tellers.   
 
We are therefore again back at a demand that somehow we are expected to
find written evidence of oral performance that will not be completely
acceptable because it is written -- while oral tradition currently
accessible is suspect because it is currently accessible and cannot be
directly proven as "accurate"...

(PLEASE -- not trying to slap any one person down, but certainly finding
yet another re-statement of one reason why research of and performance
of "bardic" material doesn't always get along very well.  I very much
appreciate the work done by Kenneth, to which I am responding only in
part right now.)

Oh, wait, I do have a very specific quibble with another area Kenneth
has presented:  last I checked, Greece is part of Europe -- and the SCA
sphere is Europe *and* "cultures in contact".  Even if one chooses not
to consider Aesop as having a definite and direct connection to the
kingdoms of the Hellenic peoples which we refer to in the modern age as
Greece, the entire Mediterranean basin must assuredly be counted as
having significant and lasting cultural contact.

Adieu, Amra / ttfn - Mike / Pax ... Kihe

Mike C. Baker
SCA: al-Sayyid Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra, F.O.B, OSCA
"Other": Reverend Kihe Blackeagle PULC (the DreamSinger Bard)
Opinions? I'm FULL of 'em
alt. e-mail: KiheBard at hotmail.com  OR MCBaker216 at cs.com
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