A question for my more knowledgeable friends

[eveglass]

Consider a bard from a culture with an oral tradition (medieval, Norse, Celtic, whatever). How much material, either measured in lines or duration, do you think this person would have known?

Just curious.

Comments

It's like asking how many songs do you know!

[ryss-rhiannon.livejournal.com]

I would logicaly guess all of it for what ever reigion he/she were learning from. If it were a traveling bard (eg) then I would guess a few choice tales or songs from each location visited.

But that's just a guess I doubt there can be a number placed on the wealth in the human brain.

sorry if I'm babbling, but you bring up such GOOD questions...

[nearlyvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

GREAT question.

I don't know if it helps as a benchmark, but I know of a wonderful ceremony by the members of the Delaware Nation, where their history-keepers annually recite the Walum Olum - their spiritual and tribal history going back to creation. It takes at least a day, possibly two, with participants trading off. I understand there's some question of it's authenitcity, but for recitation of a culture's oral history, it's the only one I know. Most of the teaching-of-the-young-ones is framed in stories, like Aesop's fables. So maybe the quantity of material that person would know would be the equivalent of a substantial book of Aesop's fables, plus two days? Can an Aesop be a unit of measurement?

Going another direction, someone at Pennsic (?Garraed) talked about the bardic colleges and Brehon law, and it sounded like the different levels matched 1, 4 and 10 years of schooling. So how much material can be covered in one unit of CEU credit, times two semesters times a full time schedule?

Innnnnnnnteresting to think about.

[sileas-1.livejournal.com]

When I studied bardic poetry in university we were taught that some of the "file" (bards) would be able to recite poetry of well over a hundred four line stanzas. There were several types of poetry forms and the celtic bards were very meticulous about form and function. In addition, the better poets would have known and/or constructed hundreds of poems. There is a book currently in print that can provide much more information on the celtic poetry tradition (most of the ones I studied from are no longer in print). Anyway the book is by Patrick K. Ford and is entitled "The Celtic Poets: Songs and Tales from early Ireland and Wales".
There are university degrees offered at Harvard University and St. Francis Xavier University in Celtic Studies and bardic poetry makes up a large portion of the courses. Hope this helps