Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

J. Barre Toelken. "An Oral Canon for the Child Ballads: Construction and Application." Journal of the Folklore Institute, 4:75-101.

Establishes the canon of unambiguously oral Child ballads (135, or 44% of the entire corpus) on one or more of three criteria: (1) the existence of two or more reputable English-language variants collected outside England from oral tradition, (2) the existence of two or more demonstrably traditional tunes connected with a given ballad, and (3) the existence of reputable versions in England if they manifest variation and are collected from oral tradition. Proceeds to study motif-units (called "textual formulas") as traditional groupings of ideas in oral tradition and points to the need for more emphasis on the poetic qualities of the ballads.
Area: FB, BR, CP