Formula technique of Faroese ballads

Abstract

The Faroese “Nibelung cycle” includes three ballads, viz. Regin Smith, Brinhild, and Högni. Prior to being recorded, the ballads had existed in oral tradition. The latter presupposes a certain technique to preserve and re-create texts (“composition in performance” — A. B. Lord). The technique is based on the use of formulas, characterized by textual variability and stability of meaning, as well as ‘usefulness,’ within certain metrical conditions. Besides the formulas, repetitions are common to oral poetry in general and typical to the Faroese ballad tradition. Varying in length, from one line to five stanzas, they can be either contact or distant. The latter category includes repetitions normally connected with the repeated motifs. The contact repetitions, similar to formulas from the point of view of usefulness, provide the skipari with time to organize the singing without interrupting it. The contact repetitions are based on the threefold principle: a fragment cannot be repeated more than three times. This principle, in turn, ensures the fixation of the text in the oral tradition. The distant repetitions are usually correlated with the repetitions in the plot. There is no impenetrable boundary between the repetitions and formulas.