Avdo Međedović

Avdo Međedović (or "Avdo Medjedović") (1875 - 1953) was a guslar (singer or oral poet). He was the most versatile and skillful performer of all those encountered by Milman Parry and Albert Lord during their research on the oral epic tradition of Bosnia (then part of Yugoslavia) in the 1930s. At Parry's request Avdo undertook to produce an epic of similar extent to the "Iliad" (15,690 lines), since Parry needed to investigate whether a poet in an oral tradition would be able to maintain a theme over such length. Avdo dictated, over three days and many cups of coffee, a version of the well-known theme "The Wedding of Smailagić Meho" that was 12,323 lines long. On another occasion he sang over several days an epic of 13,331 lines. He claimed to have several others of similar length in his repertoire.

Many years afterwards the "Wedding" was published by Lord with a parallel English translation.

References

*Harvard reference | Surname=Lord | Given=Albert Bates | Authorlink=Albert Lord | Title=The singer of tales | Publisher=Harvard University Press | PublicationPlace=Cambridge, Mass. | Year=1960
*Avdo Međedović, "The wedding of Smailagić Meho" tr. Albert Bates Lord; with a translation of conversations [with Nikola Vujnović] concerning the singer's life and times, by David E. Bynum. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974.
*Harvard reference | Surname=Parry | Given=Milman | Authorlink=Milman Parry | Surname2=Parry | Given2=Adam (editor) | Title=The making of Homeric verse. The collected papers of Milman Parry | Publisher=Clarendon Press | PublicationPlace=Oxford | Year=1971

External links

* [http://www.kingmixers.com/Serbo.html John Curtis Franklin,] "Structural sympathies in Ancient Greek and South-Slavic heroic song": introduction (with photograph of Avdo) and link to full version of paper
* [http://www.nyas.org/publications/sciences/pdf/ts_03_93.pdf Mary Knight, "Homer in Bosnia: field notes"]