The epic laws of folk narrative were a series of principles identified by Axel Olrik for understanding the structure and form of folktales, and have a foundational significance in European folklore studies.[1]
Olrik's formulation of his 'epic laws' was inspired by an idea of Moltke Moe, but whereas Moe sought to derive rules for the historical development of narratives, Olrik's approach focuses on the structure of oral narrative.[2] The principles were articulated in various publications, the first prominent one appearing in Danish in 1908.[3] In the same year, Olrik presented the principles in German at an interdisciplinary congress in Berlin.[4]
Olrik's thought on 'epic laws' was part of a wider project, developed with Kristian Erslev, for understanding oral narrative (which Olrik called sagn in Danish), also including principles for the study of sources and a theory of transmission.[5] Although Olrik drew on non-European material, his focus was explicitly on European folk narrative.
This summary is based on the numbering of the 1908 Danish article, and the English terminology is as far as possible from the 1965 English translation of the 1909 German article.
| Key Danish term | Usual English term | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | overskuelighed | simplicity | The story has few characters or other agents. | |
| 2 | sceniske totalslov | the law of two to a scene | Only two characters act at a time. | |
| 3 | sagnet skematiserer sit stof | schematic storytelling | Dialogue is, for example, repeated verbatim as far as possible. | |
| 4 | sagnets plastik | the use of tableaux scenes | Images are clear; outer behaviour is consistent with inner motivation. | |
| 5 | sagnets logik | logic | The story generally incorporates only elements necessary for the action: plausibility is determined more by the internal logic of the plot than by external reality. | |
| 6 | enkelt begivenhed | unity of plot | The action coalesces around a single event; only that which is necessary to it is included in the story. | |
| 7 | episke handlingsenhed | epic unity | Each development of the story builds clearly towards an event which the listener can foresee right from the beginning. | |
| 8 | handlingens ligeløb | the law of the single strand | Events occur sequentially and in order of causation. Synchronous events are avoided. | |
| 9 | midtpunktsloven | concentration on a leading character | The story is organised around a single central character. | |
| 10 | to hovedpersoner | two main characters | The central character can manifest as a duo (often a man and a woman, often with the woman subservient to the man). | |
| 11 | modsætningsloven | the law of opposition | When two characters are on stage, they are often opposite in character and are in opposition in the story: bad/good, poor/rich. big/small, stupid/wise, young/old. | |
| 12 | modsat karakter | the law of contrast | Secondary characters have characteristics which contrast with the main character. | |
| 13 | tvillingeloven | the law of twins | When two people perform an action jointly, they prove weaker than the character who performs the action alone. | |
| 14 | tretalsloven og gentagelsesloven | the law of 3 and the law of repetition | There is frequent repetition, usually in threes. | |
| 15 | bagvægt | the law of final position | When several similar situations are presented in sequence, the main emphasis is on the final one. | |
| 16 | reglen om forvægt | the law of initial position | The first person listed in a sequence is of the highest status, but we will sympathise most with the person listed last. | |
| 17 | indledningsloven | the law of opening | The story moves from the mundane to the exciting. | |
| 18 | hvileloven | the law of closing | The story does not end abruptly with the climax, but always with some epilogue or closing formula. |