Oral Storytelling Traditions of the World

In a society without writing, the storyteller is not a luxury. The storyteller is a kind of living book. The Griot of Mande, the Norse Skald, the Celtic bard, the Homeric rhapsode, the Slavic skomorokh, the Japanese katarai, the Chinese pingshu performer, the Indian kathakaar, the Māori tohunga whakairo, the Polynesian talking chief, the Aboriginal Australian songman, the Native American oral poet, the Appalachian ballad singer — these are not entertainers in the modern sense. They are keepers of genealogies, custodians of treaties, composers of praise, and walking archives of the law.

This section surveys the great oral storytelling traditions of the world. It treats the Griots of West Africa, the Norse Skalds, the Celtic bards, the Irish seanchaithe, the Homeric rhapsodes, the Slavic skomorokhi, the Japanese katarai and kōshaku, the Chinese pingshu performers, the Korean pansori singers, the Indian kathakaar, the Māori tohunga whakairo, the Polynesian talking chiefs, the Aboriginal Australian songlines, the Native American oral tradition, and the Appalachian ballad singers. It covers the role of the storyteller as a memory of the community, the relationship between performance and ritual, the function of the storyteller as historian, the training of the storyteller, and the relationship to the modern literary world.

The Storyteller as Memory of the Community

The Greek poet Hesiod, in the prologue to the Theogony, invoked the Muses as the daughters of Memory. It is a useful phrase. The oral tradition does not merely recall the past; it composes the past into a shape the community can carry forward. Where the written record can be consulted, it can also be lost, burned, or censored. The spoken record is more vulnerable in some ways, and far more durable in others. A people without a written language can still preserve, in the mouths of its trained performers, the names of the great kings, the songs of the great warriors, and the genealogies that prove who owns which field.

The West African Griot, the Norse Skald, and the Celtic bard are, each in their own way, examples of this human institution. The Griot memorises the genealogies of the Mande noble families, the deeds of Sundiata, and the praises of the chief. The Skald memorises the dróttkvætt verse and the kennings that the king can use as a mirror of his own fame. The Celtic bard memorises the genealogies of the clans, the heroic tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the praises of the patron. Each is doing the same essential work: the work of carrying the community in the mouth.

The Relationship between Performance and Ritual

The relationship between oral performance and ritual is intimate. In many cultures the storyteller only recites at certain seasons, in certain postures, and to certain audiences. To tell the wrong story at the wrong time is to break the order of the world. The Midsummer and Samhain nights of the Celtic year were nights at which the door to the otherworld was open, and at which the storyteller was expected to recite certain stories and not others. The Yule feast of the Norse year was a moment at which the Skald was expected to compose and recite. The harvest festivals of the West African village were a moment at which the Griot was expected to recite the genealogies of the lineage.

The performance, in many cases, was itself a kind of ritual. The telling of a heroic tale at a funeral, the singing of a praise-song at a wedding, the recitation of a genealogy at a coming-of-age ceremony, the chanting of a creation story at a planting ritual — each of these is a moment at which the spoken word is the ritual act, and at which the storyteller is the ritual officiant.

The Storyteller as Historian

In a society without writing, the storyteller is the historian. The Irish seanchaithe (plural of seanchai) preserved the genealogies of the clans, the boundaries of the territories, and the deeds of the ancient kings. The Norse Skald preserved the deeds of the Viking kings, the genealogies of the dynasties, and the lausavísur, the occasional verses that recorded the events of the day. The Griot of Mande preserved the Sundiata, the founding epic of the Mande empire, and the genealogies that proved the noble descent of the patron.

The folklorist who works with these traditions is, in effect, working with a kind of living archive. The archive can be revised, embellished, or forgotten. The Skald’s praise of the king can be sharpened or softened as the political winds change. The Griot’s praise of the chief can be expanded or contracted as the chief’s fortune rises or falls. The seanchai’s genealogy can be adjusted, in the long memory of the community, to fit the political realities of the day. The oral tradition is, in this sense, a living and changing record, and the folklorist who reads it is reading not a fixed text but a moving target.

The Training of the Storyteller

The training of the storyteller is, in most traditions, long and rigorous. The Griot of Mande begins training in childhood, learning the genealogies, the jaliya (the art of the griot), and the use of the kora and the ngoni instruments. The training lasts for many years, and the young griot is expected to master hundreds of songs, tales, and genealogies before being recognised as a full griot. The training is, in effect, an apprenticeship, in which the young griot sits at the feet of an older griot and learns the craft.

The Norse Skald was also trained from childhood, learning the dróttkvætt verse form, the kenning system, and the rules of the skaldic art. The training was particularly demanding in its technical aspects: a single kenning could be a small poem in itself, and the dróttkvætt form required a strict alternation of syllables and a careful placement of the alliterative staves. The young skald who could compose a flawless dróttkvætt stanza in the king’s hall, in front of the assembled courtiers, had earned his place.

The Celtic bard was trained in a similar way, in a long apprenticeship to a master bard, learning the dan díreach (the strict syllabic verse) and the dan luaith (the looser syllabic verse) of the Welsh tradition, or the dán grádha (the graded verse) of the Irish tradition. The training lasted for years, and the young bard who could compose and recite at the royal court had reached the highest rank of the bardic order.

The Griots of West Africa

The Griots of West Africa are treated in detail in their own dedicated article. The Mande tradition, centred in Mali, Senegal, Guinea, and The Gambia, has preserved the griot’s role as historian, genealogist, advisor, diplomat, musician, and praise-singer for more than seven centuries. The famous griots of the Sundiata epic — Balla Fasséké, the griot of Sundiata, and Djelimady Tamsir — are still remembered by name. The griot tradition has survived into the modern world, and it is one of the most important living oral traditions in Africa and the African diaspora.

The Norse Skalds

The Norse Skalds are treated in detail in their own dedicated article. The court poets of the Viking and medieval Scandinavian world, the skalds composed in the dróttkvætt and other verse forms, using the kenning system to praise the king and the chief. The great skalds of the sagas — Egill Skallagrímsson, Snorri Sturluson, Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld, Kormákr Ögmundarson — are remembered by name, and the skaldic tradition was preserved in the Skáldskaparmál of the Prose Edda.

The Celtic Bards and the Irish Seanchaithe

The Celtic bards were, in the older Celtic world, members of a recognised professional caste, with their own training, their own laws, and their own privileges. The Welsh bardic order survived into the early modern period, and the Irish seanchaithe (singular seanchai) preserved the older Gaelic tradition well into the nineteenth century. The bardic tradition is treated in the wider Celtic folklore section, and the connection to the Samhain tradition is treated in the seasonal festivals overview.

The Homeric Rhapsodes

The Homeric rhapsodes were the performers of the Iliad and the Odyssey in the ancient Greek world, from the eighth century BCE to the late Hellenistic period. The rhapsodes performed at the great festivals of the Greek year, in particular the Panathenaia in Athens, and they recited the Homeric poems from memory, often with musical accompaniment. The rhapsodic tradition is, in the strict sense, a performance tradition: the poems themselves are the work of a single great poet (or, more likely, of a long line of oral poets), and the rhapsode is the interpreter. The tradition of the rhapsode is the ancestor of the modern literary reading, and it is one of the most important of the older European oral traditions.

The Slavic Skomorokhi

The skomorokhi (singular skomorokh) were the wandering minstrels of the older Russian and Slavic world, from at least the eleventh century to the seventeenth. The skomorokhi performed at markets, at fairs, at weddings, and at the courts of the boyars. They played the gudok, a stringed instrument, and they sang bogoroditnye (songs of the Mother of God), historical songs, satirical songs, and folk plays. The skomorokhi were, in many ways, the Slavic parallel to the West European minstrel and to the West African Griot, and they played a similar role in the preservation of the oral tradition. The skomorokhi were eventually suppressed by the Russian Orthodox Church in the seventeenth century, but their songs survived in the Russian folk tradition.

The Japanese Katarai and Kōshaku

The Japanese oral tradition includes the katarai, the professional reciters of the heike monogatari (the Tale of the Heike) and the hōgen, the satirical speeches. The katarai was particularly important in the medieval period, when the recitation of the Heike was a major public entertainment. The kōshaku, the modern Japanese public speaker or narrator, has roots in the older katarai tradition and in the Western tradition of the public lecture. The Japanese Matsuri calendar, treated in the seasonal festivals section, includes a number of related oral performances.

The Chinese Pingshu Performers

The pingshu (literally, “evaluating books”) is a Chinese oral performance tradition in which a single performer, usually a woman, tells a long historical or fictional story to a seated audience. The pingshu tradition developed in the late Qing dynasty, in the teahouses of Beijing and Tianjin, and it has remained a popular form of entertainment in China, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora. The pingshu performer is, in many ways, the Chinese parallel to the West African Griot and to the Norse Skald, and the form has been adapted, in the modern era, to radio, television, and the podcast.

The Korean Pansori Singers

The pansori is a Korean musical storytelling tradition, in which a single singer, the sorikkun, tells a long tale, accompanied by a gosu, a drummer. The pansori developed in the eighteenth century in the southwestern provinces of Korea, and the classic repertoire includes the Chunhyangga, the Simcheongga, the Jeonggakga, the Sugungga, the Ongojipga, and the Baebaengi kut. The pansori was inscribed on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage in 2008. The pansori tradition is, in many ways, a Korean parallel to the Japanese heike monogatari and to the Chinese pingshu.

The Indian Kathakaar

The Indian kathakaar (also kathakara) is the professional storyteller of the Hindu tradition, who performs in temples, at weddings, at festivals, and at the courts of the kings. The kathakaar tells the stories of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Puranas, and the local folk tradition, often with musical accompaniment and dramatic gesture. The kathakaar tradition has roots in the older Vedic and Buddhist recitation traditions, and it is still alive in the modern Indian folk tradition, particularly in the Asian folk tradition.

The Māori Tohunga Whakairo and the Polynesian Talking Chiefs

The Māori tohunga whakairo is the master carver and oral historian of the wharenui, the great meeting house. The tohunga whakairo memorises the genealogies of the iwi (tribe) and the hapū (sub-tribe), the deeds of the ancestors, and the prayers (karakia) of the people. The tohunga whakairo’s work is, in many ways, parallel to the West African Griot’s work, and it is one of the most important living oral traditions of the Pacific. The Polynesian talking chiefs, the tulāfale of Samoa, the orators of Tonga, and the talking chiefs of the Cook Islands, perform a similar function across the Polynesian world.

The Aboriginal Australian Songlines

The songlines (or Dreaming tracks) of Aboriginal Australia are one of the most elaborate oral traditions in the world. The songlines are the paths across the Australian continent followed by the ancestral beings in the Dreamtime, the creation era. Each songline is a series of songs, stories, dances, and paintings, and a person who knows the songline can navigate across the continent by singing it. The songlines encode the geography, the law, the history, and the moral order of the Aboriginal peoples, and they are one of the great achievements of the human oral tradition.

The Native American Oral Tradition

The Native American oral tradition includes the storytelling traditions of the Iroquois, the Navajo, the Apache, the Lakota, the Ojibwe, the Cherokee, and the many other peoples of North America. The storytellers, often called the keepers of the stories, preserve the creation myths, the migration stories, the trickster tales, and the historical narratives. The trickster figure — Coyote in the West, Raven in the North, Anansi in West Africa, Loki in the Norse world — is a recurring character across these traditions.

The Appalachian Ballad Singers

The Appalachian ballad singers of the southern Appalachians are the inheritors of the older British and Scottish ballad tradition, brought across the Atlantic in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The ballad singers, mostly women, performed at home, at the singings, at the corn-shuckings, and at the weddings. The ballad tradition includes such famous songs as Barbara Allen, The Cruel War, Man of Constant Sorrow, and Pretty Polly. The Appalachian tradition is treated in the wider American folk tradition.

The Storyteller and the Modern Literary World

The oral tradition did not end with the invention of printing. The Griot of Mande still performs at the great celebrations of the modern Mande world. The Norse Skald has been revived, in the modern Heathen movement, as a composer of praise-poems. The Homeric rhapsode is the ancestor of the modern literary reading. The Japanese katarai has its modern descendants in the rakugo, the comic storyteller, and the manzai, the comic duo. The Chinese pingshu has moved to the podcast.

The relationship between the oral tradition and the written word is, in the end, not one of opposition but of complement. The written text can preserve what the spoken word would lose; the spoken word can enliven what the written text would deaden. The great writers of the modern world have known this: James Joyce knew the Homeric tradition, T. S. Eliot knew the Norse Skald’s kenning, Toni Morrison knew the West African Griot’s praise-song, Jorge Luis Borges knew the Irish seanchai’s tale. The oral tradition is, in this sense, the deep river that runs beneath the surface of the modern literary world.