Folklore
Verbal Art
One
night, the stories went visiting. In the old days, stories did not always stay
in books. Before Guttenberg invented printed books, and the scribers copied the
stories in dark caves with a candle fire with a goose feather and ink, there
were people who could not read. These stories were not written. They were told
verbally. Sometimes stories come from the hidden places of folklore, mythology,
and legends.
It
was an ancient tradition. When one night, the stories went visiting. After all
the work was done in the harvest season, people knocked at the door. As usual,
they did not give a name. They were dressed in masks and costumes. They gave a
rhyme, or a song, or a small act right there, at the doorsteps at the porch’s
light.
The
old stories survived, they were carried door to door, month to mouth, through
the dark of the evening. The elderly of the families took the stories inside
and continued to sing folklore songs and ancient stories to youngsters at the
table. The legends passed from one generation to another verbally and survived
centuries a part.
An
anthropology, “folklore as verbal art” term refers to the oral, literary forms,
a tradition such as myth, legends, proverbs, riddles, and folk songs. They are
transmitted by word of mouth, distinct from material or customary folklore.
William Bascom, a prominent American folklorist, proposed that in
anthropological usage as folklore can defined as “verbal art.” This term was
invented to distinguish the literary aspect from folklore form of cultural
expressions like folk costumes, dances, or ritual.
The
Judeo-Christian Bible reveals its oral traditional roots as well as medieval
European manuscripts that are penned by performing scribes. Even the geometric
vases from ancient Greece mirror Homer’s oral style. One night, the stories
went visiting. From newborn lullabies to ancient ceremonies at the funeral, we
are surrounded by folklore verbal art. Tomshinsky@2026
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