Inclinate aurem

Growing awareness that the domination of writing and the printed book has been merely a phase in Western cultural history, a "Gutenberg hiatus" that is now coming to an end, has prompted increased scholarly interest in the oral cultures and subcultures that persisted alongside or within he literate/literary mainstream. This collection of studies by scholars from the University of Southern Denmark and distinguished guests from Europe and North America comprises six essays dealing directly with oral aspects of the verbal culture of classical and medieval Europe, from Homeric tradition, through Old English and Old Norse poetry, to late-medieval religious texts, together with two essays examining living oral traditions from more recent periods, Inuit storytelling and Turkic epics.