Thomas Andrew DuBois

Leea Virtanen

This book presents an overview of Finnish folklore from the nineteenth century to the present. The Nordic country of Finland has been influenced by both east and west and serves as an excellent showcase of European folklore in general. Guided by Finnish Folklore, readers will learn how folklore has been collected and researched in Finland, what regional distinctions exist in the country's traditions, and how traditions have changed in the process of modernization. An extensive anthology section features ancient alliterative poetry, such as formed the basis of the Finnish national epic Kalevala. The book contains translated examples of rhymed folk songs, folktales, legends, and other narratives, proverbs, riddles, jokes, and contemporary genres like children's folklore, urban legends, and anecdotes. Tradition continues to live on in communications from person to person, sometimes travelling thousands of miles and over many national borders in the process. The same item of folklore may acquire new meanings in new contexts. What is the linking thread of tradition? Humour, sexuality, fear, or laughter? Is it our eternal longing for happiness or just the endless need of human beings to pass the time with each other?

Finnish Folklore

Susan Brantly

The Nordic Storyteller: Essays in Honour of Niels Ingwersen consists of a set of nineteen research essays plus an introduction, written by colleagues and admirers of Niels and Faith Ingwersen, leaders in the field of Scandinavian Studies in North America for some four decades. A first section of seven essays, entitled â oeSongs and Tales in Oral Tradition, â presents research in the area of folklore studies, including balladry, saintsâ (TM) lives, incantations, healing, legendry, and personal experience narrative. Articles take up such issues as classification, thematics, cultural and historical change, and the effects of technology on daily life. A closely related second section, â oeFrom Oral Tradition to Literatureâ includes three essays which examine the adaptation of oral tradition to literary forms, focusing on the works of P. Chr. AsbjÃ, rnsen, Esias TegnÃ(c)r, Elias Lönnrot, F. R. Kreutzwald, and the illustrations of Arthur Rackhamâ "all figures important in the rise of folklore as a key interest of Romantic nationalism. A further set of nine essays grouped under the title â oeTales in Literary Formâ examine aspects of the writings of some of the greatest storytellers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including H. C. Andersen, Herman Bang, Henrik Ibsen, JÃ3hann MagnÃ°s Bjarnason, Charles Dickens, Thomas Mann, Isak Dinesen, Martin Andersen NexÃ,, Billy August, Hans Scherfig, Peter HÃ, eg, Klaus Rifbjerg, Leif Panduro, and Kjartan FlÃ, gstad. Articles address topics including autobiography, source criticism, symbolism, personal and national identities, and the representation of political ideals. Together the essays of this volume demonstrate the unflagging salience of narrativeâ "of storytellingâ "in the personal lives and social experiences of Scandinavians and their neighbors, past and present.

Essays in Honour of Niels Ingwersen

Nordic Storyteller

DuBois draws on sets of lyric songs from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland to explore the question of meaning in folklore, especially the role of traditional audiences in appraising and understanding nonnarrative songs.

Lyric, Meaning, and Audience in the Oral Tradition of Northern Europe

Sanctity in the North features English translations of texts from Latin or vernacular Nordic languages, in many cases for the first time. The accompanying essays complement the translations and reflect the contributors' own disciplinary groundings in folklore, philology, medieval, and religious studies.

Thomas Andrew DuBois

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