Textualising an Oral Epic – Mission Completed

In this article the author briefly examines three cases that represent Lauri Honko’s views on the textualisation of oral epics. Furthermore, these examples offer an insight into the concept of the paradigm, which was a key concept for Lauri Honko in the field of folkloristics and in the study of rel...

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Main Author: Lauri Harvilahti
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Donner Institute 2014-05-01
Series:Approaching Religion
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journal.fi/ar/article/view/67533
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author Lauri Harvilahti
author_facet Lauri Harvilahti
author_sort Lauri Harvilahti
collection DOAJ
description In this article the author briefly examines three cases that represent Lauri Honko’s views on the textualisation of oral epics. Furthermore, these examples offer an insight into the concept of the paradigm, which was a key concept for Lauri Honko in the field of folkloristics and in the study of religion. The three case studies are as follows:1. A literary folk epic based on an oral tradition: the ‘singing scribe’ Elias Lönnrot, who compiled a number of versions of his Kalevala on the basis of Kalevala-metric folk poems.2. An epic based on multimedia documentation/ fieldwork: the Siri Epic, sung by Gopala Naika. He was an erudite singer, who used to perform the epic on ritual occasions or in the work-song context.3. An epic based on an archived oral tradition: the long epic of the Setu female singer Anne Vabarna, who produced a twin epic with the encouragement of the collector Armas Otto Väisänen, who dreamt about writing down such an epic.These three examples all belong to the ‘second life’ category of folklore in the sense that all of them have been produced outside the ‘system of communication’ which maintains an item of folklore in its original setting.
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spelling doaj.art-cdfc669e652e4ddd938c17b3f6fcafe22022-12-22T01:20:38ZengDonner InstituteApproaching Religion1799-31212014-05-014110.30664/ar.67533Textualising an Oral Epic – Mission CompletedLauri Harvilahti0Finnish Literature SocietyIn this article the author briefly examines three cases that represent Lauri Honko’s views on the textualisation of oral epics. Furthermore, these examples offer an insight into the concept of the paradigm, which was a key concept for Lauri Honko in the field of folkloristics and in the study of religion. The three case studies are as follows:1. A literary folk epic based on an oral tradition: the ‘singing scribe’ Elias Lönnrot, who compiled a number of versions of his Kalevala on the basis of Kalevala-metric folk poems.2. An epic based on multimedia documentation/ fieldwork: the Siri Epic, sung by Gopala Naika. He was an erudite singer, who used to perform the epic on ritual occasions or in the work-song context.3. An epic based on an archived oral tradition: the long epic of the Setu female singer Anne Vabarna, who produced a twin epic with the encouragement of the collector Armas Otto Väisänen, who dreamt about writing down such an epic.These three examples all belong to the ‘second life’ category of folklore in the sense that all of them have been produced outside the ‘system of communication’ which maintains an item of folklore in its original setting.https://journal.fi/ar/article/view/67533Honko, Lauri, 1932-2002Folklore, FinnishFinlandEpicsKalevalaOral tradition
spellingShingle Lauri Harvilahti
Textualising an Oral Epic – Mission Completed
Approaching Religion
Honko, Lauri, 1932-2002
Folklore, Finnish
Finland
Epics
Kalevala
Oral tradition
title Textualising an Oral Epic – Mission Completed
title_full Textualising an Oral Epic – Mission Completed
title_fullStr Textualising an Oral Epic – Mission Completed
title_full_unstemmed Textualising an Oral Epic – Mission Completed
title_short Textualising an Oral Epic – Mission Completed
title_sort textualising an oral epic mission completed
topic Honko, Lauri, 1932-2002
Folklore, Finnish
Finland
Epics
Kalevala
Oral tradition
url https://journal.fi/ar/article/view/67533
work_keys_str_mv AT lauriharvilahti textualisinganoralepicmissioncompleted