men’ both phrasally and as a compound noun (nára ̄s ́ám
̇
sa, ‘praise-song’) or
adjective.^110
It is a reasonable supposition that narrative poems about past warriors
were an Indo-European institution, going back at least to Level 2 (MIE). But
on what scale? Can we posit an Indo-European epic genre, that is, a tradition
of narratives extending over hundreds or thousands of lines? Such traditions
exist in early Greece, in classical India, in early medieval England and
Germany (if we may take the Hildebrand fragment as evidence), and among
the South Slavs and Albanians. On the other hand, in large parts of the Indo-
European territories there is no sign of them. It is quite conceivable that they
evolved independently in different lands from small beginnings. Once heroic
narrative existed at all, there was nothing to stop poets expanding it to any
length that their audiences would bear. However, if we ever reach Chapter 12
we shall see that different epic traditions –– particularly the Greek and the
Indian, but not only these –– show numerous parallel features that are most
naturally explained as common heritage and that would seem to presuppose
an archetypal tradition of narrative in an ample style, requiring some
hundreds of lines at least for the relation of a coherent story.
PersonationOne of these typical ‘epic’ features is the inclusion of speeches exchanged
by characters in the action. I referred earlier to a genre of literature in which
only the characters’ speeches or songs are in verse, with a prose narrative
constructed around them. There is another genre in which they stand alone,
or with a short introduction. The background events are taken as known, and
the poet’s aim is to see them through the eyes and hearts of those involved. It
might be, for example, the lament of someone condemned to tragic suffering.
Such compositions are typically songs in strophic form.
It is often an exchange between two people that marks a dramatic high
point in the story, and dialogue songs are found widely. There may be a
regular alternation of voices in alternate stanzas, or a longer series of stanzas
may be given to one or both. The tone and content of each stanza make it
clear enough who is speaking in each case, and it is not necessary to specify
this in the text (though in manuscripts, for example of the Eddic poems,
the information tends to be interpolated in prose). We are familiar with the
convention in ballads, and we might designate this as ‘ballad style’, except that
its applicability is wider than that term would suggest. A number of the Vedic
(^110) It is listed among poetic genres at AV 15. 6. 4; S ́B 11. 5. 6. 8. Cf. Dumézil (1943), 70–98;
Schmitt (1967), 29 f., 96–101; Durante (1976), 50–3.
68 1. Poet and Poesy