Anglo-Saxon charms in performance

Because they are so deeply rooted in their performance context, the Old English charms require us to move beyond conventional text-based literary analysis and classification to apply performance-based approaches that allow us to examine the charms on their own terms. Taken collectively, the charms blur distinctions between the oral and the literate, the Christian and the Germanic, the metrical and the non-metrical, the poetic and the practical, even the sensical and non-sensical. In performance, the charm's function as healing remedy becomes all-encompassing, and once-familiar dichotomies quickly break down, revealing insightful intersections between categories that might at first seem mutually exclusive. In many significant ways, awareness of performance contexts allows us to transcend potentially reductive binaries and thus enhance our understanding of these complex texts. What follows is an exploration of several such binaries: living ritual/static text, poetry/science, verbal/nonverbal, "pagan"/Christian. In each case metrical charms will be examined alongside non-metrical analogues to gain a more complete understanding of the tradition as a whole.Issue title "Slavica.

Medieval voices

Among the many significant developments in oral tradition studies in recent years has been a growing awareness that the terms "oral" and "traditional" do not exclude influences of writing. Approaches viewing purely oral and purely literate modes of composition and reception as only the extreme ends of a continuum open up a wider range of works to us that are influenced to varying degrees by oral traditions (see, for example, Bradbury 1998). This broadening of scope allows for meaningful comparisons that transcend conventional boundaries of genre, language, and academic discipline

Introduction and Tabula Gratulatoria

In honor of John's 65th birthday and his recent retirement (though a retirement largely in name only), the current surprise special issue of Oral Tradition celebrates and continues this journey among the world's widely diverse oral traditions through a series of essays contributed entirely by his former and current students. Collectively, the essays that follow explore ancient Greek, Old English, Middle English, Latin, South Slavic, Old Irish, modern Irish, Old Norse, and Hungarian traditions as well as issues related to Biblical Studies, modern media, rhetoric, folk speech, occupational humor, pedagogy, ethnopoetics, and eighteenth-century British literature.Issue title: Festschrift for John Miles Foley

A swarm in July : Beekeeping perspectives on the Old English Wid Ymbe charm

Inscribed in the margins of an eleventh-century manuscript1 of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People and crowded beneath a Latin prayer is a brief bit of advice for beekeepers in the event of a swarm (ymbe), a natural phenomenon in which a substantial portion of an older bee colony migrates en masse with a queen to establish a new colony. The following analysis of this enigmatic text has been inspired largely by three features central to John Miles Foley's vast body of work: interdisciplinarity, collaboration, and comparative research. While the eight lines of alliterative verse that constitute the greater portion of this swarm charm have assured its standing within canonical Old English literature, its insights into traditional apiary practices of Anglo-Saxon England make it equally appropriate subject matter for studies in folklore or even animal science. It is precisely such unlikely intersections that have long served as foci for the transdisciplinary work of John Foley, and it is thus that we now choose it as the subject of analysis for a volume in his honor.2Issue title: Festschrift for John Miles Foley. This article belongs to a special issue of Oral Tradition published in honor of John Miles Foley's 65th birthday and 2011 retirement. The surprise Festschrift, guest-edited by Lori and Scott Garner entirely without his knowledge, celebrates John's tremendous impact on studies in oral tradition through a series of essays contributed by his students from the University of Missouri-Columbia (1979-present) and from NEH Summer Seminars that he has directed (1987-1996). Quotation marks removed to ensure alphabetical order. Title difference as follows; "A Swarm in July" : Beekeeping Perspectives on the Old English Wid Ymbe Char

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Medieval voices (Chinese)

Among the many significant developments in oral tradition studies in recent years has been a growing awareness that the terms "oral" and "traditional" do not exclude influences of writing. Approaches viewing purely oral and purely literate modes of composition and reception as only the extreme ends of a continuum open up a wider range of works to us that are influenced to varying degrees by oral traditions (see, for example, Bradbury 1998). This broadening of scope allows for meaningful comparisons that transcend conventional boundaries of genre, language, and academic discipline

Editor's column (Oral Tradition, 26/2, 2011)

We are thrilled to present Oral Tradition 26.2, a special issue dedicated with deepest admiration to the journal's editor, John Miles Foley, in celebration of his 65th birthday and 2011 retirement. This surprise Festschrift--conceived and planned entirely without his knowledge--celebrates Foley's tremendous impact on studies in oral tradition through a series of essays contributed by his former and current students from the University of Missouri-Columbia (1979-present) and from NEH Summer Seminars that he has directed (1987-1996).Issue title: Festschrift for John Miles Foley