Question Two

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.

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