The word Mundlichkeit (Orality) is a major buzz-word in German medieval studies today, and this is attributable in no small measure to the influence, positive and negative, of the oral theory pioneered by Milman Parry and Albert Lord. Initially the theory was received with the glamor of the esoteric, which was quickly replaced with the suspicion of an alien notion clearly stamped NOT INVENTED HERE. Over the years, however, progressive scholars have managed to slip some of the theory in the back door while investigating such things as shifts in media and mentality.Not
