[Bards] Prose Tales

[Ken Theriot]

<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.
But let's discuss him.  First we have to know for sure that Aesop even
existed.  This is far from a universally accepted fact.  If he did, he most
certainly was not a professional performer (obviously, since he was a
slave...allegedly:)).

And in order to say the tales were in prose, we have to know which version
you mean.  The true original versions, written down by Demetrius of Phalerum
were lost in antiquity.  The first extant written form of the tales are not
in prose.  Mainly they were in elegiac verse.  They were translated many
times pre-period, and all known versions were in verse.  Even most of the
versions from our period were in verse (the 9th century Diaconus works were
in choliambic tetrameter).  It wasn't until Maximus Planudes' translations
in the 14th century that a prose version appeared, which was written in
Latin....by a monk, not a performer.  Then in the 15th century the tales
appear in prose in English for the first time.  And that book was a BOOK.
There is no evidence that it was intended to be performed.

<The Tain bo Cuailgne is predominately prose with some verse scattered
through it.>
< The Decameron is a Renaissance Italian story of people telling prose
stories to each other.  This is not equivalent to a bard performing in
court, but it is equivalent to a bardic circle.>

First off, I don't agree that this is equivalent to a bardic circle.  It
doesn't say that *bards* were telling these stories.  Nonetheless, both The
Cattle Raid of Cooley and The Decameron have a similar structure in that the
prose portions set the scene and introduce characters.  But whenever the
characters deliver long passages of dialogue, it is in verse. Again, I know
of no evidence that pieces from either of those works were "performed" by
bards or professional story tellers.  Sure the characters in the books did,
but they mainly did so in verse.      

<The idea that the Miller, or the Reeve, could invent a tale in verse
boggles the mind.>

I never suggested that the Miller or the Reeve told THEIR stories in verse.
These characters were travel companions, not bards!  It would be like
sitting beside someone on a plane.  You wouldn't tell him about your job or
family in verse.  But neither would you sing him a song...I hope.  It's the
same thing I mentioned about getting together with buddies at the bar, or
sitting around talking about the day's events.  Of course your average
citizen didn't talk in verse, and I never suggested that.  I'm talking about
the story tellers, poets, bards, etc.  When I think of a bardic circle, I am
thinking of a performing venue a la Caedmon's feast hall in Bede's
Ecclesiastical History.  *Performances* were expected, not BSing about the
guy down the pub.

< The Bible aside (most of which is prose, not verse, and was performed
aloud in churches and courts)>

Did clergymen give sermons in prose?  No doubt.  But that was mainly to
explain what he just read in Latin!  Is a clergyman an bard?  I don't think
so.  Certainly I would hope nobody likens a bardic circle to a catholic
mass.  Additionally, the bible has been translated so many times that we
really don't know for sure if the original texts were written in fixed
forms.  But in a mass (remember, we're talking SCA period in Europe), the
parts of the service are highly structured/formatted.  As I sit here my mind
is shouting "we believe in one god, the father the almighty, creator of
heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen."  What about "Our father
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven."  Heck, I haven't been to church in a decade!
And remember, those prayers/ responses were done in period in Latin, not
"street language."  All in all, I think church is not a good model for
bardic circles.     

Here is my bottom line.  Was there prose in period?  Of course!!  The prose
was written.  Did people talk in prose-like language?  Of course.  Millers
and reeves, and soldiers, and every-day people spoke to each other in
every-day language.  They even did so when relating jokes, and stories about
their cows, and wives, neighbors, etc.  These scenarios I do NOT liken to
our bardic circles.  This is where you may disagree.  If we are to call
ourselves bards, poets, troubadours, jongleurs or seanachies, then our
performances at bardic circles are just that...performances.  Was there
evidence that bards, poets, troubadours, jongleurs, seanachies etc.
performed publicly in verse?  Yes.  And not just the professionals.  The
characters in the Decameron and The Cattle Raid of Cooley declaimed anything
beyond normal conversation in verse.  Also, the Chansons de Geste (verses
all) are explicitly intended to be performed publicly.  I'm just looking for
evidence that actual performances (not bar room chat) by anyone calling
themselves a bard etc. were routinely delivered in prose.  More
specifically, we are looking for this evidence to apply to European
performers in SCA period.   I'm happy to accede if such evidence can be
provided.  

Kenneth