A Key to Old Poems - Publish Date: 11/5/1990 - Dimensions: 6 x 9
- Page Count: 230 pages - Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-271-00482-2 This
book examines the fundamental principles whereby the tradition
of Indo-European oral-formulaic composition provides a context
for the critical interpretation of certain kinds of English and
German Medieval poetry. Renoir's purpose is to apply the rapidly
increasing amount of original and far-reaching research in oral-
formulaic theory and tradition to the critical interpretation of
poetry. He concentrates on works of recognized literary merit,
such as Beowulf and the Hildebrandslied, primarily because the
book is aimed at English speakers—and the examination of major
poems drawn from early English and immediately related cultures
is more relevant to this audience—and because a preponderance of
the masterpieces of oral-formulaic composition that have
survived are in the West-Germanic tradition. In contrast to many
oral-formulaic investigations, this study is primarily concerned
with