Research Catalog

Title

Ibonia : epic of Madagascar / translated and introduced by Lee Haring.

Publication

Lewisburg : Bucknell University Press ; London : Associated University Presses, [1994], ©1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Haring, Lee.

Description

169 pages; 24 cm

Summary

• Ibonia: Epic of Madagascar is a discovery: the first English translation of the major work of Malagasy oral literature, recorded in 1877 from an anonymous bard by a Norwegian missionary and translated by Lee Haring, who was called "the pre-eminent American scholar of Malagasy verbal art" by Research in African Literatures. Ibonia is the epic tale of the birth and exploits of a royal hero. His mother, a queen of heroic caliber, is barren until she consults a diviner, who brings about the hero's conception.
• An unusual birth and precocious strength prepare the hero to go in quest of his betrothed, who has been abducted. Such tests of worth as combat with a crocodile, supernatural aid, and a victorious struggle with her abductor prove him a true epic hero worthy of ruling his people. Haring's translation makes this Malagasy epic at last available to the general reader as well as to the scholar, also providing extensive notes and translating six shorter variants of the story.
• . In his introduction Haring situates the epic in the history of Madagascar, emphasizing the colonial encounter. Looming large behind the epic is the historical figure of Andrianampoinimerina, the sovereign who made Imerina a conquest state. The introduction also places Ibonia in the context of other forms of Malagasy folklore, showing the bard's reliance on Merina oratorical style. Haring asserts that the brilliance and eloquence of the epic derive from a unique set of circumstances of performance.

Subject

• Merina (Malagasy people) > Folklore
• Folk literature, Malagasy > Imerina > History and criticism
• Epic literature, Malagasy > Imerina > History and criticism
• Oral tradition > Imerina

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-165) and index.

Contents

Folklore in Madagascar -- Analogues -- The Text -- Is It an Epic? -- Epic and Panegyric -- "What is poetry and if you know what poetry is what is prose" -- Why Ibonia Just Then? -- The Bard -- Interpreting Ibonia -- The Translation -- Great Riches Do Not Fill the Heart -- Her Quest for Conception -- The Locust Becomes a Baby -- The Baby Chooses a Wife and Refuses Names -- Boasts of the Hero -- His Quest for a Birthplace -- A Difficult Naming -- The Adversary -- The Boy Becomes a Man -- His Companions; His Weapons -- Ibonia is Tested -- He Combats Beast and Man -- He Refuses Other Wives -- He Dresses in an Old Man's Skin -- An Old Man Becomes Stone Man's Rival -- Victory: "Dead, I Do not Leave You on Earth; Living, I Give You to No Man" -- Ibonia Prescribes Laws and Bids Farewell -- App. Ibonia (1) -- App. Ibonia (2) -- App. The King of the North and the King of the South -- App. The Childless Couple -- App. Iafolavitra the Adulterer -- App. Soavololonapanga [Tender Fern].

ISBN

0838752845 (alk. paper)

LCCN

94016117

OCLC

• 30359711
• ocm30359711

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries