Albert Bates Lord here offers an unparalleled overview of the nature of oral-traditional epic songs and the practices of the singers who composed them. Shaped b

This book focuses on the performance of oral epics and explores the significance of performance features for the interpretation of epic poetry. The leading ques

Discusses the oral tradition as a theory of literary composition and its applications to Homeric and medieval epic.

Edited by Mary Louise Lord after the author's death, The Singer Resumes the Tale focuses on the performance of stories and poems within settings that range from