Oral epic poetry is still performed by Turkic singers in Central
Asia. On trips to the region, Karl Reichl collected heroic poems
from the Uzbek, Kazakh, and Karakalpak oral traditions. Through a
close analysis of these Turkic works, he shows that they are
typologically similar to heroic poetry in Old English, Old High
German, and Old French and that they can offer scholars new
insights into the oral background of these medieval texts.
Reichl draws on his research in Central Asia to discuss
questions regarding performance as well as the singers' training,
role in society, and repertoire. He asserts that heroic poetry and
epic are primarily concerned with the interpretation of the past in
song: the courageous deeds of ancestors, the search for tribal and
societal roots, and the definition and transmission of cultural
values. Reichl finds that in these traditions the heroic epic is
part of a generic system that includes historical and eulogistic
poetry as well as heroic lays, a view that has diachronic
implications for medieval poetry.
Singing the Past reminds readers that because much medieval
poetry was composed for oral recitation, both the Turkic and the
medieval heroic poems must always be appreciated as poetry in
performance, as sound listened to, as words spoken or sung.
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