Reichl Karl. Turkic oral epic poetry: tradition, forms, poetic structure

New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc, 1992. — x; 395 p. The Albert Bates Lord studies in oral tradition; Vol. (7). Garland reference library of the humanities; Vol. (1247).ISBN: 0-8240-7210-3Although a book on Turkic oral epic poetry needs no apology, such a book coming from a medievalist calls at least for an explanation. While still a student in Munich I bought a book with the title Der Sänger erzählt: Wie ein Epos entsteht. It was A.B. Lord's The Singer of Tales, which had only just come out in a German translation. It made fascinating reading and first revealed to me the relevance of living oral epic poetry for the study of medieval epic poetry, in particular of works such as Beowulf or the Chanson de Roland, epics which have come down to us in written form but betray their origin in an oral milieu. The path to Central Asia was opened for me only later when I discovered that the Bavarian State Library possessed a complete set of Radloffs Proben der Volkslitteratur der türkischen Stämme. Radloff's translations, in their charming, antiquated German, introduced me to a world of heroism and passion, romance and adventure, marvel and magic, which has held me spellbound ever since. The parallels to medieval narrative were obvious and seemed worthy of further exploration. It has been a long way since then, and on the way I met fellowtravelers, medievalists like me who had already studied Turkic oral epic poetry from a comparative point of view and on whose work I could build, standing, in the words of Bernard of Chartres, like a dwarf on the shoulders of giants. Although, in the end, I did not write a comparative study ofTurkic oral epic poetry, the medievalist perspective will nevertheless be clear to the reader, in the types of questions asked as well as the general methodological orientation of the book.