Liminaalsed perioodid udmurdi rahvakalendris

On the example of the Udmurt material we can see that there are two symmetrical liminal periods in the Udmurt folk calendar. Both their names are etymologically derived from the word associated with liminality, existing somewhere in-between. These periods differ considerably from spring and autumn equinoctial times – there is remarkable connection with water, taboo against making noise, etc. Spring festivity is celebrated by loud ritual singing, horseback riding and swinging. In some places they involve initiation rites – prayers by the boys and girls reaching full maturity. Autumn festivities siz’yl iuon and/or pukro are also accompanied by loud singing and making noise during dancing. Spring and autumn equinoctial times were not expanded into long periods, but were marked with specific festivities. They were the starting points for summer and winter halves of the year. Liminal times, conversely, were long sacred periods with severe restrictions. It is probable that the summer liminal period was originally dedicated to the heaven (upper world) and winter liminal period to the underworld (land of the dead). It was quite usual belief that after the winter vozho period all vozhos went downstream. See also Lintrop, Aado. Liminal Periods in the Udmurt Ritual Year. Mifsud-Chircop, George (ed.). First International Conference of the SIEF Working Group on the Ritual Year: Proceedings: Malta, March 20–24, 2005. Publishers Enterprises Group, 2005, pp. 363–372.

Palakesi obiugri mütoloogiast I

The first part of the research on the folk belief of the Ob Ugrians

Suur tamm ja õde-venda

As my previous article on Balto-Finnic folksongs concerning the motif of the Great Oak (The Great Oak, the Weaving Maidens and the Red Boat, Not to Mention a Lost Brush, Folklore 11) failed to explain the reasons why the tree which swept the clouds cannot be considered the Great World Tree, I will begin by comparing different concepts about large trees. I will not limit the comparison to searching parallels and opposites to the Great Oak only. The motif of the giant tree intersected a wide circle of questions already in my previous article. I will also discuss the mythological couple of brother and sister, the central characters in Estonian runic and regi-songs, not with an intention to unveil their «true mythological nature», but with a hope to point out some important facts on them

Palakesi obiugri mütoloogiast II

Part two of the article about Ob-Ugric mythology

Igavese sinitaeva maal II

On the Land of Eternal Blue SkyAado LintropThe second part of Aado Lintrop’s travelogue from a visit to the conference on ancient Mongolian religion in Mongolia

Kosmogooniline hari ja selestiline kiik

This article explores the potential connections between the well-known Kalevala-metric Estonian, Karelian, and Ingrian folk song type “Searching for the Comb” and the magical aspects of swinging, supernatural entities traversing between earth and sky in swings or cradles, ancient solar symbols and customs tied to the yearly cycle, along with motifs linked to divination. Through an examination of swinging’s significance in more distant cultures, I demonstrate that: (a) ritual swinging could be linked to creation myths, travel between worlds, the struggle against malevolent forces, and rites of fertility magic; (b) mythical swingers can be gods or symbolize them; (c) swinging could convey the transition of gods from the supernatural realm to the earthly plane and vice versa, as well as humanity’s aspiration to draw nearer to the gods; (d) swinging might affect the attainment of various benefits; (e) swinging and associated acts could also symbolically represent the movement of celestial bodies. Examples from Finno-Ugric folklore depict instances where both supernatural beings and humans traverse different realms using swings or cradles, with swinging often intertwined with practices of divination

Suur tamm, kuduvad neiud ja punane paat, kadunud harjast rääkimata

The article focuses on the religious aspect of Finno-Ugric song types Big Oak, Sweeping Brush Lost and Sea in the Farmyard (Ring of Bone), based on neither the methods of textual criticism, editorial analysis nor any solely text-centred approach, since, traditionally, this type of songs or their redaction have never displayed the particular worldview that has been tried to apply to them as folk heritage.In cultures without literary language, every performance transmitting religious or conceptual information is a recurrent creation combining at least two different types of texts of which one is the main carrier of information as far as heritage is concerned, and the other(s) include renditions, comments, attitudes, evaluations. In order to oblige the members of the group to perform heritage over and over it is necessary to establish institutions based on in-group rituals and/or rites. For those familiar with heritage (not necessarily the performer) the total effect of texts and rituals could result in preternatural experience at a critical moment, intensifying in its turn the topicality of heritage in traditional form.If one link of the chain were to be missing for some reason, the others will be effected as well. Since the mythological songs of our ancestors were similar to rune songs in their quite a strong poetic character, other types of texts must have played a more important role for transmitting heritage. With their perishing or alteration the songs lost the touch with actual religion. However, if the ancient mythological songs were less poetic in nature (being therefore the main carriers of heritage) the alteration might have been caused by slight changes in religion and rituals. In both cases the song was not regarded as one of the possible ways of transmitting important information to the group but was values as the poetical self-expression of the singer, which in our cultural region brought along the influx of lyrical elements, the relatively stronger independence of figurative (also formative) motives, the absolutization of alliteration and the widened scope of the use of parallelism, which resulted in the emergence of rune and regi-song as we know them. Their connection with religion was based on a totally different foundation as they were considered as a distant and vague reflection of the past at best. As such, they or parts of them were perfectly good for entertainment or magic influencing (for the latter one can use even incomprehensible texts), but the did not reflect contemporary religious concepts. This is the reason why the comparison of the song types on the basis of textual analysis is not sufficient for understanding the former mythological background of the songs. Only the more thorough comparison of the songs and drawing possible parallels with tradition enables us to reveal the possible reasons for their origin and study their former mythological contents. Thus we can find several traces of conceptions and beliefs connected to the summer equinox in the texts of the song types Big Oak and Sweeping Brush Lost. The four (three) maids a-weaving/ a-scything/ a-sweeping the sea perform as symbols of unearthly creatures who cause the change of seasons, course of time and fate of people. It is impossible to provide mythological counterparts for them, in fact they probably did not exist as such. Regarding the song of the lost sweeping brush, the alteration of the Sun and the maiden, and the celestial weavers of the chain in Sea in the Farmyard, they might be considered as the poetic counterparts of celestial spheres (the Sun, the Moon, the Morning and the Evening Stars). The motif of weaving the belt in many song types is the best symbol for the course of time, life and fate.In chain songs about the oak/ pillar supporting the heaven and the giant tree in the song Big Oak, three archetypal concepts interrelate, a motif that has occurred in beliefs about the world and life-tree all over the world. Such beliefs have been formed by a) concepts about a tree, pillar or mountain (the axis of world) supporting and/ or holding the celestial spheres, which in case of multi-level world-view also serves as a transitory way between different worlds, b) beliefs of a tree which in one or another way causes immortality and death and c) last but not least, myths about gods who cause the night and day and the change of seasons by its nature or actions (including their death and rebirth)

Vana traditsioon, noored esitajad

In my article, I shall deal with the Khanty narratives and song texts published in two volumes (the first and the third) of Ostjakologische Arbeiten. There are also 516 riddles published in the third volume but these will not be covered in the current paper. The 106 longer texts represent 9 different Khanty dialects, 68 of them are narratives, and in general outline their origins are the following: 49 texts were received from Kirill Maremianin, 18 texts from Prokop Pyrysev, 6 texts from P. Chamzarov, 5 texts from A. Olgina, 3 texts from Dimitri Tebitev, and 3 texts from G. Artanzeev. 20 texts were collected from different persons by Steinitz during his expedition in 1935, and one song text originates in Leningrad in 1963. Of the texts, 29 were written down personally by the informants and controlled or corrected by W. Steinitz, all other texts were put down by Steinitz. One story and 18 songs performed by Maremianin were recorded on phonograph records in 1936. Most of the texts have a remarkable mythological background. I personally find it interesting that 85 texts were collected from the students of the University of Northern Peoples in Leningrad. In Estonia, we are accustomed to elderly people being the main informants of folklorists or linguists. In 1936, the oldest student of Steinitz - Dimitri Tebitev - was about 30, Kirill Maremianin was 29, and Prokop Pyrysev only 18 years old. Nevertheless, some of them seemed to know a very specific song and story repertoire. How good experts of folklore and mythology were these young men? What is the position of their stories and songs on the folkloric landscape of Ob-Ugrians? I will try to seek answers to these two questions. It follows from the bear feast song texts that the festival house is situated to the north of the abode of the World Surveyor Man, but to the south of the Kazym River mistress. If we happen to deal here with the repertoire of a specific bear feast, it must have taken place somewhere between the settlement of Belogorie and the estuary of Kazym. If we have a look at the map published in the second volume, we will find that Lokhtotgurt, the native village of the singer, is situated precisely in that region. Stereotypical parallel groups of verses are a common feature of Ob-Ugric folk songs. Often the same formulae are also present in stories. I may confirm that several stereotype formulae in the songs published by Steinitz may be found also in Mansi songs. To sum up, I would like to draw attention to the fact that while the texts of calling songs largely coincide, the descriptions of the abodes of deities are always different. All the calling songs are accurately oriented in relation to the performer’s native village - deities residing in the north come from the north, those residing in the south come from there. The deities display characteristic ways of moving about. There is yet another good example of how good experts of tradition the student informants of Steinitz were - the song Lenin created by D. Tebitev in 1937. As we can see, Lenin is characterized as a supernatural being summoned to a bear feast. The verses with the sharp ear of the alert long-tailed duck, with the sharp ear of the alert fox used in the song are also typical of heroic songs. Of course, there are some innovations in the figurative style of the song, but from our perspective it looks like a quite traditional spirit’s or hero’s song. Even the purpose of the protagonist is similar - to safeguard the Khanty people against misery. Of the narratives, 21 texts are stories about everyday life told by K. Maremianin and P. Chamzarov. Most of the texts, although classified by Steinitz as fairy tales (Märchen), are mythological stories. To the ending of a text called “The semper-stone” Steinitz himself added the following comment: “In this and the following two paragraphs the main heroes of the fairy tale - the son, his mother and his older brother - transform into spirits, establishing themselves in their holy places. This is the usual conclusion of the hero fairy tales (or stories) and hero songs, which are actually reports about the life of the ritually admired progenitor or other spirit.” (Steinitz 1976: 245). It may be confirmed that K. Maremianin, P. Pyrysev, and the other young informants of W. Steinitz were good experts indeed in their homeland’s folklore. Without the collection of Khanty texts published by Steinitz in the two volumes of Ostjakologische Arbeiten, there would have been a remarkable gap in the studies of Ob-Ugrian folklore and mythology

Le poème « Jangal‑maa » et l’épopée mansie

J’étudie dans cet article le poème Jangal‑maa de Mihail Plotnikov, tout en essayant de montrer ses rapports avec les autres poèmes épiques écrits en russe et qui sont devenus plus tard des épopées nationales. Je m’interroge sur les motivations de son auteur. Pour ce faire, je m’arrête sur les détails que j’ai pu trouver sur sa biographie, je présente des informations contradictoires que j’ai pu recueillir et j’essaye de comprendre, sur la base de cet écrit et des autres du même auteur, quels sont les intérêts de Mihail Plotnikov. Une grande partie de l’analyse se concentre sur la question de savoir à quel point l’œuvre rend compte de l’oralité et des croyances mansies et s’il est justifié de la considérer comme une épopée mansie ou comme une œuvre du folklore mansi.In this article, I study Mikhail Plotnikov’s long poem “Yangal-maa”, and attempt to show its relations with other epic poems written in Russian that became later national epics. I reflect on the author’s motivations. Therefore I concentrate on details I found in his biography, present contradictory information and try to unravel it, in order to understand, taking into account his writings, where his interests lie. The analysis concentrates of the relationship of this work with Mansi folklore and beliefs, and whether we are justified in calling these Mansi epics or Mansi folklore.Artiklis vaatlen Mihhail Plotnikovi poeemi „Jangal‑maa”, püüdes näidata, kuidas see suhestub teiste vene keeles kirjutatud poeemidega, millest on hiljem saanud rahvuseeposed ja arutlen selle üle, mis motiveeris autorit sellist teost kirjutama. Selle selgitamiseks peatun pikemalt neil detailidel, mida olen leidnud autori elu kohta, esitan vastuolulisi kirjeldusi ja püüan vaatlusaluse poeemi ja Mihhail Plotnikovi muu loomingu põhjal selgusele jõuda autori erialases töös ja huvides. Suur osa analüüsist keskendub sellele, kuivõrd peegeldab teos mansi folkloori ja usundit ja kas selle mansi eeposeks või rahvaluule alaseks tööks pidamine on õigustatud

Varia

Le numéro 48 de la revue Études finno-ougriennes est particulièrement riche et diversifié. Il couvre en effet pratiquement toutes les aires concernées par la revue : les questions générales de linguistique finno-ougristique et d’autres concernant les peuples finno-ougriens (histoire et droit), les peuples finno-ougriens du Nord avec leurs langues et leurs littératures, Sames d’Umeå, Khantys orientaux, Mansis, les peuples de la Volga (Oudmourtes) ainsi que les relations de ceux-ci avec les Tchouvaches. Il faut noter que pour la première fois nous donnons une place aux Tchouvaches, peuples parlant une langue turcique certes, mais qui partage de très nombreux traits d’histoire et de culture avec les peuples finno-ougriens environnants. La linguistique fennique – estonien et finnois – est bien représentée ainsi que la culture orale carélienne, et finalement le domaine hongrois est présent avec des réflexions sur la mode. Du point de vue disciplinaire également la diversité est assurée : six articles linguistiques, un sur l’histoire, un sur le droit, un sur la littérature, trois sur les traditions populaires (ethnographie et oralités) et un sur la mode. Notons les rubriques terrains – alimentée par des expériences chez les Oudmourtes d’outre-Kama –, chroniques – malheureusement caractérisée par un nombre important de décès dans l’année écoulée – et les traditionnels comptes rendus d’ouvrages intéressants pour la discipline