The development of the epic formula in medieval Spain

The formula used in medieval epic poetry is a structure in flux. Developments in the spoken language and generic transformations all exert an influence on the formula. The reaction of the formula to those influences is a sign that it maintains its oral nature regardless of the text or genre in which it is found. The poetic formula is still a functional manifestation of the spoken language even when it is adopted into prose. This dissertation shows that changes take place in the formula because the formula is a communicative portion of discourse that represents oral narrative. In this study I follow the formula as it evolves from being the sine qua non of epic poetry to a grounding rhetorical device in prose historiography. The means by which I illustrate this development is by a close morphological examination of the epic formulas in both poetic and prose contexts.; I defend the existence of the epic genre in medieval Spain while examining ‘fragments’ of the epics in the Chronicles. In my second chapter I present a taxonomy of the development of the oral formula from epic poetry through the early Spanish chronicles. In the third chapter I focus directly on the prosification process. While I draw a significant amount of my material from epics such as the Poema de Mio Cid, I find that the formulaic residual in prosified epics, such as the Siete Infantes de Lara, shows distinct points of progress from the prototypical epic formula. By looking at the way the language of the epics was altered in various contexts and seeing the fate of the formula in the chronicles, I come to the conclusion that the formula is inseparably connected to the contemporary everyday language of the epic as well as epic poetry. I explain further that these findings show how formulaic discourse grounds the chronicles in their language of origin and marks scribal techniques.