ABSTRACT
In the northeast of Brazil (and especially in Paraíba) there has been a long tradition of oral poetry about various themes. The most prominent diffusers of such rich oral practice were the “violists,” who accompanied themselves on a viola caipira (country guitar) or rabeca as they travelled among small towns, villages and farms giving performances either alone or accompanied by others (Abreu 1999). However, the oral literature did not happen only because of these important folk artists, who used to improvise their presentation, but also for the reason that common people used to recite several stanzas in many ways, such as stanzas of four, six or seven lines, distichs, riddles in verse and other forms. Their singing was a singular event, in which many verses were ornamented, repeated and transmitted orally. The poets themselves tried to memorize some verses created previously during the improvisation, which resulted, later, in several books that registered hundreds of stanzas created/recreated by the singers. 1 As well as the singers, there were many common people who created verses – whether improvised or not – which were recited, passed on and shared in different spaces, often in modified versions. Oral narratives, especially the so-called folk tales, also had great popular penetration and were collected by researchers from different regions of the country.
