Performance and Norse poetry : The hydromel of praise and the effluvia of scorn

Whereas one might reasonably expect to gain a great deal from a close examination of the oral-written debate in Old Norse studies in those earlier periods, for the most part this opportunity was seriously compromised by inflexible and unsubtle thinking by advocates of the two opposing sides of the argument. In recent decades, however, a number of those in the field have advocated a view that looks to take the best of the hardened Freeprose - Bookprose positions and forge a synthesis that has no a priori theoretical conclusions but looks only for practical and useful ways to understand the texts that the antiquarianism and narrative sensibility of the medieval Icelanders have bequeathed to us.Note: The Albert Lord and Milman Parry Lecture for 2001