Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

William A. Quinn and Audley S. Hall. Jongleur: A Modified Theory of Oral Improvisation and Its Effects on the Performance and Transmission of Middle English Romance. Washington, DC: University Press of America.

As an explanation of the conventional, repetitive quality of ME romances, they offer not the formulaic theory of Parry and Lord but "an alternative system based primarily on the jongleur's recurrent use of certain pre-determined rhyme words" (p. 6). Includes specific application to King Horn and Havelok the Dane, with extensive appendices (pp. 131-423) illustrating the generative system of end-rhymes which they consider the basis of oral improvisation and transmission.
Area: ME, CP