Formulas in Folk Verse and Folk Prose

Abstract

The existence of formulas in traditional songs of various kinds has been long recognized by scholars, and the presence of formulas in traditional tales has increasingly become a subject of discussion too. This prompts the question whether an individual who has a substantial repertoire of both songs and tales would use some of the same formulas in both these two modes. Or would it be the case that, as tales and songs have their own separate norms and rules, their formulas will not involve any significant similarities? To provide an initial response to such questions, this article draws upon verbal art documented in the third quarter of the twentieth century from one remarkable Newfoundlander, whose recorded repertoire included nineteen different tales and more than thirty songs.