Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Donald Ward. "On the Poets and Poetry of the Indo-Europeans." Journal of Indo-European Studies, 1:127-44.

Cites evidence that "there was a well-established tradition of composing and performing songs of ridicule in... Vedic, Greek, Roman, Irish, and Germanic [society]" and that "this task was entrusted to a group of professional singer-poets" (139). Shows further that these songs and their singers were considered magical and posits an IE tradition from which all derive.
Area: IE, SK, AG, LT, OI, GM, CP