RE: Beowulf, Gilgamesh

Are you alluding to Augustine's astonishment over Ambrose (or was it
Jerome's) unmoving lips?
Daniel

In any case, I am less certain about your linguistic clues. The sound of
poetry is very important, of course, even to us. And while it might be true
(though I'm not sure of it) that the writers and original audiences of
ancient poems cared even MORE about the sounds, this fact would not require
a sung tradition distinct from or instead of a written one. This is
especially clear in light of how wide was the habitual practice of reading
everything aloud for many of the earliest readers and writers. We have
several clear occasions in Greek and Roman literature at least of men being
depicted as very surprised at the rare sight of someone reading silently --
in certain times and places, it might have been taken as a sign of stupidity
or even of faking, and it was clearly seen as bizarre and unusual. Judging
by Semitic traditions of reading scripture and prayers aloud, even if only
muttering amongst a crowd when none but God can be listening, the practice
might have been common outside of the Graeco-Roman world as well. So sound
can be immediately important in the very same way, whether the tradition is
oral and bardic or written (or even written and bardic).

-Robbie
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Received on Mon Dec 15 14:59:56 2003