Editing Storytelling (section)

== Oral traditions ==
{{More citations needed section|date=March 2011}}
{{See also|Oral storytelling}}
[[File:Story Teller by Gaganendranath Tagore.jpg|thumb|Story Teller by [[Gaganendranath Tagore]]]]
Oral traditions of storytelling are found in several civilizations; they predate the printed and online press. Storytelling was used to explain natural phenomena, bards told stories of creation and developed a pantheon of gods and myths. Oral stories passed from one generation to the next and storytellers were regarded as healers, leaders, spiritual guides, teachers, cultural secrets keepers and entertainers. Oral storytelling came in various forms including songs, poetry, chants and dance.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://study.com/academy/lesson/oral-tradition-of-storytelling-definition-history-examples.html|title=Oral Tradition of Storytelling: Definition, History & Examples – Video & Lesson Transcript {{!}} Study.com|website=study.com|language=en|access-date=2017-07-08|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170629085149/http://study.com/academy/lesson/oral-tradition-of-storytelling-definition-history-examples.html|archive-date=2017-06-29}}</ref>

[[Albert Lord|Albert Bates Lord]] examined oral narratives from field transcripts of Yugoslav oral bards collected by [[Milman Parry]] in the 1930s, and the texts of epics such as the [[Odyssey]].<ref>Lord, Albert Bates (2000). The singer of tales, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.</ref> Lord found that a large part of the stories consisted of text which was improvised during the telling process.

Lord identified two types of ''story vocabulary.'' The first he called "formulas": "[[Rosy-fingered Dawn]]", "[[Wine-Dark Sea|the wine-dark sea]]" and other specific [[set phrase]]s had long been known of in [[Homer]] and other oral epics. Lord, however, discovered that across many story traditions, fully 90% of an oral epic is assembled from lines which are repeated verbatim or which use one-for-one word substitutions. In other words, oral stories are built out of set phrases which have been stockpiled from a lifetime of hearing and telling stories.

The other type of story vocabulary is theme, a set sequence of story actions that structure a tale. Just as the teller of tales proceeds line-by-line using formulas, so he proceeds from event-to-event using themes. One near-universal theme is repetition, as evidenced in Western [[folklore]] with the "[[Rule of three (writing)|rule of three]]": Three brothers set out, three attempts are made, three riddles are asked. A theme can be as simple as a specific set sequence describing the arming of a [[hero]], starting with shirt and trousers and ending with headdress and weapons. A theme can be large enough to be a plot component. For example: a hero proposes a journey to a dangerous place / he disguises himself / his disguise fools everybody / except for a common person of little account (a [[crone]], a tavern maid or a woodcutter) / who immediately recognizes him / the commoner becomes the hero's ally, showing unexpected resources of skill or initiative. A theme does not belong to a specific story, but may be found with minor variation in many different stories.

The story was described by [[Reynolds Price]], when he wrote: <blockquote>A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species ''Homo sapiens''&nbsp;– second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day's events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths.<ref>Price, Reynolds (1978). A Palpable God, New York:Atheneum, p.3.</ref></blockquote>In contemporary life, people will seek to fill "story vacuums" with oral and written stories. "In the absence of a narrative, especially in an ambiguous and/or urgent situation, people will seek out and consume plausible stories like water in the desert. It is our innate nature to connect the dots. Once an explanatory narrative is adopted, it's extremely hard to undo," whether or not it is true.<ref name=":3" />

===''Märchen'' and ''Sagen''===
[[File:Schlesisches Märchen.png|thumb|upright|Illustration from ''Silesian Folk Tales'' (The Book of [[Rubezahl]])]]

Folklorists sometimes divide oral tales into two main groups: ''Märchen'' and ''Sagen''.<ref>Storytellingday.net. "[http://www.storytellingday.net/oral-traditions-storytelling-explored.html Oral Traditions In Storytelling ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208125620/http://storytellingday.net/oral-traditions-storytelling-explored.html |date=2013-12-08 }}." Retrieved November 21, 2013.</ref> These are [[German language|German]] terms for which there are no exact [[English language|English]] equivalents, however we have approximations:

''Märchen'', loosely translated as "[[fairy tale]](s)"  or little stories, take place in a kind of separate "once-upon-a-time" world of nowhere-in-particular, at an indeterminate time in the past. They are clearly not intended to be understood as true. The stories are full of clearly defined incidents, and peopled by rather flat characters with little or no interior life. When the supernatural occurs, it is presented matter-of-factly, without surprise. Indeed, there is very little effect, generally; bloodcurdling events may take place, but with little call for emotional response from the listener.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}

''Sagen'', translated as "[[legend]]s", are supposed to have actually happened, very often at a particular time and place, and they draw much of their power from this fact. When the supernatural intrudes (as it often does), it does so in an emotionally fraught manner. Ghost and [[Lovers' Leap]] stories belong in this category, as do many UFO stories and stories of supernatural beings and events.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}

Another important examination of orality in human life is [[Walter J. Ong]]'s ''Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word'' (1982). Ong studies the distinguishing characteristics of oral traditions, how oral and written cultures interact and condition one another, and how they ultimately influence human epistemology.