Hello my lovely group…
I apologise for my tardiness in getting
something up – but I have been reading all your blogs and enjoying your ideas –
will comment ASAP. Meanwhile, I have been giving question two some considered
thought…
What
are some possible features of residual orality preserved in Voluspa, according
to the criteria Ong (1982) advances?
I’ve been having a bit of a read of Ong’s
book, and from what I can gather; the word “orality” describes thought and its
verbal expression. Primary oral cultures are those with no knowledge of writing
or even the possible use of writing.
According to Walter Ong, the characteristics
or ‘psychodynamics’ of orality can be identified and catogorised. He says that
orality is:
-
Evanescent not permanent
-
Additive rather than
subordinative
-
Aggregative rather than
analytic
-
Close to the human life world
-
Agonistically toned
-
Empathetic and participatory
rather than objectively distanced
-
Is homeostatic
-
Redundant or copious
-
Situational rather than
abstract
-
Traditionalist and conservative
The term “residual orality” describes the
language of an oral society or culture that has been exposed to writing, but which
has not completely incorporated it into everyday widespread use. It is referred
to as “residual” because orality still exists within the language despite the
presence or knowledge of text and therefore its features are still evident. As
for some of his criteria, I have been doing a lot of dictionary work!
The creation poem Voluspa is part of The Poetic Edda – a collection of Old Norse poems
preserving traditions and myths. They were thought to be “minstrel” type poems
– passed on orally from one poet to another. Voluspa or “The Song of The Volva”
retains elements of primary orality - even though at some point it was written
down. In other words, residual orality is evident, according to Ong’s criteria.
The spoken
word is sound – dynamic and powerful yet fleeting. Ong talks about the
evanescence or the non-permanence of sound. I have never actually thought about
this before. According to Ong, unlike sight and other sensations we experience,
“sound only exists when it is going out of existence” (1991 p. 31). You can’t
pause sound like you can moving images, such as when you pause a DVD. When
sound ceases there is only silence. For a society to preserve their oral traditions,
myths, stories, and so on, they had to remember them – and not only did this
affect how they expressed their thoughts but also they WAY they thought - they
had to think in certain ways to assist memory. (I for one can’t remember what I
said 10 minutes ago, let alone appointments or schedules – I have to write
everything down). So oral societies thought (and expressed those thoughts) in
certain patterns. Thoughts had to be patterned for recall because they didn’t
have the written word to rely on. Ong (1991) says that thinking had to be done
in mnemonic patterns, shaped in a certain way to aide memory. Therefore,
thought (and its expression) “had to be in heavily rhythmic balanced patterns,
in repetitions or antitheses, in alliterations and assonances, in epithetic and
other formulary expressions”. (Ong, 1991, p. 34)
As well as
having these obvious “mnemonic” qualities - being rhythmic and structured in
verse, Voluspa reveals itself as a spoken piece in the first verse:
Hear my
words, you holy gods,
great men and humble
sons of Heimdall;
by Odin’s will, I’ll speak the ancient lore,
the oldest of all that
I remember.
The narrator (the Volva or
Prophetess) implores the listener to hear
her as she speaks. She also talks of
her memory – that the story she tells is in her head.
Voluspa is additive rather
than subordinative, in other words, ideas are presented in addition to each
other rather than subject to or reliant on each other.
The sun turns black,
the earth sinks below the sea,
no bright star now
shines from the heavens;
flames leap the
length of the World Tree,
fire strikes against
the very sky.
The ideas are not linked with words such as “whilst” or “as” but instead
stand in their own right, independent of the preceding idea or event.
The language and symbology of Voluspa is close to the human life world.
It uses nature-based imagery. For example:
A river bears
westward through a baneful valley
spears and swords; its name is Fear.
The river IS fear. I imagine for people so reliant on the land and water
and at the mercy of the seasons, these images would have been particularly
pertinent. There is also much mention of trees, the sea, the heavens, stars,
the sun and moon and so on. These are some of the factors most present in
people’s everyday lives – they had to be very aware of the seasons and elements
for their livelihoods. (crops, livestock management etc.). They are tangible
things that the listeners would have been able to relate to. However they
thought that gods presided over everything. This leads into Ong’s criteria of
primary orality being situational rather than abstract. He says “oral cultures tend to
use concepts in situational, operational frames of reference that are minimally
abstract in the sense that they remain close to the living human life world”
(Ong, 1991. p.47).
The gods addressed and spoken of in the poem are very present on the
human plain - not removed or a fanciful idea ‘in the sky’. The events are
taking place amongst common relatable places and situations - trees, valleys
and a spring.
There is an ash tree
– its name is Yggdrasil –
a tall tree watered
from a cloudy well
dew falls from its
boughs down to the valleys;
ever green it stands
beside the Norns’ spring.
According to Ong, “in a primary
oral culture conceptualized knowledge that is not repeated aloud soon vanishes,
(therefore) oral societies must invest great energy in saying over and over
again what has been arduously learned over the ages” (1991, p. 40). This
resulted in a conservative set of mind – where stories and legends were not
altered, added to or experimented with – therefore preserving precious
knowledge (and avoiding a case of Chinese whispers).
Ong also identifies homeostasis (or being homeostatic) as a
characteristic of primary oral culture. Due to the limitations of memory, Ong
presents the notion that a culture will only chose to use memory or information
that is relevant in the present. Orality being immediate in nature, only the
information directly applicable to the current climate is used.
Hear my words, you
holy gods,
great men and humble
sons of Heimdall;
by Odin’s will, I’ll
speak the ancient lore,
the oldest of all that
I remember.
Here the Volva is saying she will speak of “the ancient lore”, which is
the oldest of all that she remembers. In other words, although she
remembers a lot, she is only choosing to speak of that which is relevant to her
story – that which relates to and preserves the creation myth – the telling of
which is the whole point of the poem.
Crikey, I have had a rave… more answers to follow.
Ong, W. J. (1991). Orality and
literacy: The technologizing of the word. New York, NY: Routledge.
.
