Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Jean Ritzke-Rutherford. "Formulaic Microstructure: The Cluster." In The Alliterative Morte Arthure: A Reassessment of the Poem. Ed. Karl H. Goller. Arthurian Studies, 3. London and Totowa: D.S. Brewer and Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 70-82, 167-69.

Posits a six-level schema for traditional structure in OE and ME alliterative poetry, with specific reference to the Alliterative Morte Arthure, consisting of formula, formulaic system, motif, type-scene, theme, and cluster, the last of which she introduces and defines as "a group of words, usually loosely related metrically and semantically, which is regularly employed to express a given essential idea without being restricted to a certain form or sequence, or to a certain number of lines" (p. 73). Claims that this new unit makes possible the direct demonstration of the Morte Arthure's roots in OE and early ME verse, as well as the isolation of formulaic elements based on French vocabulary. Traces the aesthetic quality of late OE and ME poems in part to the manipulation of traditional associations inherent in such clusters. See further the companion piece, Ritzke- Rutherford 1981b.
Area: ME, OE, CP