The Production of Finnish Epic Poetry -- Fixed Wholes or Creative Compositions?

Abstract

During the verbalization (composition) process the singer can elaborate some details according to his own preferences and purposes. But in order to produce an entire epic song, he has to activate a number of systems simultaneously. He therefore employs material formulaically organized. This means (using the terms of cognitive science) that the memory of the singer works on multilevel representations containing features of surface and meaning structure. Formulas, ideas, and images cohere; certain scenes and contents tend to include certain details, clusters of forms, and so on.1 Oral poetry is innovative and traditional at the same time.--Taken from final paragraph.