RMNNewsletter 5 Dec 2012

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December 2012

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Edited by

Frog

Helen F. Leslie and Joseph S. Hopkins

Published by

Folklore Studies / Dept. of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art StudiesUniversity of Helsinki, Helsinki

ISSN/ISSN-L: 1799-4497

www.helsinki.fi/folkloristiikka/English/RMN/


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CONTENTSEditors Note.................................................................................................................................... 5

COMMENTS AND COMMUNICATIONS

Entering the Chimeraland of Indo-European Reconstruction .......................................................... 6

Emily Lyle

The Talk of the Tits: Some Notes on the Death of Sigurr Ffnisbani inNorna-Gests ttr....... 10Fjodor Uspenskij

Kuningamng[King Game]: An Echo of a Prehistoric Ritual of Power in Estonia................... 15Kristo Siig

On the Case of VambarljPart I: Comments on Formulaicity in thesagnakvi........................................................... 22Part II: Register and Mode from Skaldic Verse tosagnakvi............................................. 49

Frog

Goddesses Unknown I: Njrun and the Sister-Wife of Njrr ...................................................... 39Joseph S. Hopkins

Crossing the Bridge: Liminality, Group Identity and Continuity .................................................. 44Jill Bradley

Events

ReportOld Norse Mythology in the Digital Age ........................................................................ 62Luke John Murphy

ReportTranscultural Contacts in the Circum-Baltic Area: 2ndMeeting of the AustmarrNetwork .......................................................................................................................................... 65

Mart Kuldkepp

ReportVAF III: Identity and Identification and the Viking Age in Finland(with Special Emphasis on the land Islands) ............................................................................... 68

Sirpa Aalto

AnnouncementAlliterativa Causa.............................................................................................. 71Jonathan Roper

ReportRegister: Intersections of Language, Context and Communication ................................ 72

Ilkka Leskel

AnnouncementRegister II: Emergence, Change and Obsolescence .......................................... 74Ulla Savolainen

ReportThe 6thNordic-Celtic-Baltic Folklore Symposium: Supernatural Places.................... 75Kait Lubja

ReportLegends are Alive: Review of the 2012 Belief Narrative Network Symposium ............ 77

Zoja Karanovi and Borislava Erakovi

AnnouncementHistorical Infrastructure of the Baltic Sea: Means, Reasons and

Consequences: 3rd

Meeting of the Austmarr Network ................................................................... 81Maths Bertell
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Projects

Interpreting Eddic Poetry Project and the Eddic Network ............................................................. 82Carolyne Larrington

Oral Poetry, Mythic Knowledge, and Vernacular Imagination: Interfaces of IndividualExpression and Collective Traditions in Pre-modern Northeast Europe ....................................... 82

Lotte Tarkka, Frog, Karina Lukin and Eila Stepanova

Miscellanea

Gunnlths Taleby Svava Jakobsdttir ......................................................................................... 85

Triin Laidoner

PEOPLE

Research Reports

Joonas AholaThe Saga Outlaw and Conceptions of the Past ...................................................................... 87

Courtney Burrelllfarand the Early-Icelandic Settlers .................................................................................... 87

FrogContextualizing Creativity in an Archival Corpus: The Case of Kalevala-MeterMythology .............................................................................................................................. 88When Thunder Is Not Thunder: Changing Intersections of Narrative and ConceptualModels .................................................................................................................................... 89

Karolina KouvolaWarriorhood and Supernatural Beings ................................................................................... 90

William LambThe Signs of Storytelling: Register Markers in Gaelic Traditional Narrative ....................... 91

Tuomas M.S. LehtonenAlliteration in Finnish Lutheran Hymns and Oral Kalevalaic Poetics: Religious,Cultural and Linguistic Shift during the Reformation ........................................................... 92

Ilkka LeskelNetworking, Capital Accumulation and Investment in the Periphery: Trade and CulturalContact in the Pre-Reformation Baltic Sea Region ................................................................ 93

Jon MackleyWayland: Smith of the Gods .................................................................................................. 93

Eila StepanovaI Would Sue the Gods, but I Cannot: The Creativity of Karelian Lamenters.................... 94The Register of Karelian Laments ......................................................................................... 95

Essay Collections

Frog, Anna-Leena Siikala and Eila StepanovaMythic Discourses: Studies in Uralic Traditions ................................................................... 96
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PhD Projects

Joonas AholaThe Saga Outlaw: Polysemy of a Category of Marginality in the Sagas of the Icelanders . 100

PLACES

Folklore Studies at the University of Helsinki: A Current View ................................................. 103Pertti Anttonen

JOURNALS

Slovne: International Journal of Slavic Studies......................................................................... 106Fjodor Uspenskij

CALLS FOR PAPERS

Limited Sources, Boundless Possibilities: Textual Scholarship and the Challenges of Oraland Written Texts ......................................................................................................................... 107

Register II, An International Colloquium on Meaning and Human Expression: Emergence,Change and Obsolescence ............................................................................................................ 108

RMN Newsletterwelcomes its readership to support its function andvalue as an informational resource by submitting reports,announcements and other current information of interest to the RMN.We also encourage our readership to engage in the discourse spacethat we have constructed here, and promote an awareness that

participation will buttress, maintain and shape this emergent venue.

For further information on guidelines for submission, please visithttp://www.helsinki.fi/folkloristiikka/English/RMN/contributors.htmPlease submit contributions to RMN Newsletter electronically in

*.doc, *.docx or *.rtf formats to:Frog

University of [email protected]
http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329584http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329584http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329586http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329586http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329586http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329588http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329588http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329588http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329590http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329590http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329590http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329590http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329590http://www.helsinki.fi/folkloristiikka/English/RMN/contributors.htmmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.helsinki.fi/folkloristiikka/English/RMN/contributors.htmhttp://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329590http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329588http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329586http://c/Users/Frog/Documents/Papers/RMN%20NEWSLETTER/Submissions/5%20Dec%202012/RMN5%20DEC%202012v3.docx%23_Toc343329584


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Editors Note

It has now been two years since the pilot issue ofRMN Newsletter was launched in response to theneed for a medium of contact and communicationfor members of the Retrospective Methods

Network (RMN). In that time, this new journal hasbeen gaining momentum and its circulation isincreasing almost exponentially. Scholars aroundthe world appreciate RMN Newsletters strategyand goal of constructing an emergent discoursespace in which you present reports andannouncements of your own current activities,where information about events, projects andinstitutions is made available, and where you mayengage in vital cross-disciplinary dialogue throughdiscussion-oriented articles that address currentresearch in diverse areas. The vitality of this

discourse space is attested by the number ofengagements between articles in the present andprevious issues, and the productive discussion thathas been generated between them.

The RMN itself has had a fruitful and excitingyear. The RMN is an open network which caninclude anyone who wishes to share in its focus. Itis united by an interest in the problems,approaches, strategies and limitations related toconsidering some aspect of culture in one periodthrough evidence from another, later period. Suchcomparisons range from investigating historical

relationships to the utility of analogical parallels,and from comparisons across centuries todeveloping working models for the moreimmediate traditions behind limited sources.Important international meetings, workshops andseminars were held by different branches of theRMN, including a meeting of Old Norse scholarsin Aarhus, a seminar of the Austmarr Network inHelsinki and a meeting of the Old NorseFolklorists Network in Tartu only a few weeksago. Preliminary plans for a larger meeting of theRMN are presently underway as are publicationsconcentrated on these topics. This has truly provena bountiful and productive year.

RMN Newslettersvitality as a discourse spacehas also been seein in ongoing discussions in shortarticles and the success of our first special issue,

Approaching Methodology(May 2012). A call forpapers for our special issue Limited Sources,Boundless Possibilitieswill be found below. RMNNewsletterhas been realized through your supportand contributions as an interactive readership. Welook forward to your ongoing participation in these

stimulating discussions. FrogUniversity of Helsinki


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Entering the Chimeraland of Indo-European ReconstructionEmily Lyle, University of Edinburgh

I had the pleasure recently of attending theOld Norse Folklorists Network workshop heldin Tartu where Reconstruction was one ofthe topics under discussion.2 I was a bitstartled on that occasion to see on thePowerPoint presentation unfolding behindStephen Mitchell as he talked the wordchimera placed opposite the concept ofreconstruction in, I think, the Indo-Europeancontext. Now, if the word is taken in itscommon sense of a baseless fantasy, thiswould mean goodbye to the result of a gooddeal of recent scholarly effort. It seemed toimply that it is impossible that it is right,instead of saying that it is possible that it is

wrong. The latter statement is the one thatallows space for scholarly debate and I cannotthink that Professor Mitchell would wish toremove himself from this arena. Perhaps

more precisely one could say that attempteddeep reconstructions in the past have provenchimerical. This is not the same as sayingthat all present and future attempts aredoomed to fail. Instead, we can envisage the

possibility of laying a more secure foundationand considering what can be raised on it.

However, the idea of the chimera is toogood to let go. It suggests, for one thing, thatwe may wish to suspend disbelief for a whileas we make our approach. And instead oftreating the chimera as an insubstantialfantasy, I shall take it in its other sense of acomplex creature. The proposed foundationis also complex and we cannot grasp its nature

if we try to reduce it to what is familiaralready, as, for example, a one-headed animalwould be. We have to suspend disbelief longenough to incorporate parts of a complex

COMMENTS AND COMMUNICATIONS

Photo 1. Pebble mosaic in the Rhodes archaeological museum. Photo by TobyJ, 11 August 2010.1


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whole in our thinking, and I shall treat thetopic of reconstruction under three heads, asone might call them in delivering a sermon,and, continuing the chimera metaphor, I shalltake these to be: a) the lion head, b) the goathead, and c) the serpent head. The image ofthis tricephalous creature that I have in mindis a pebble mosaic at Rhodes which representsthe chimera being attacked by Bellerophonmounted on Pegasus (Photo 1).

All of the points made in this discussionrest on a proposed relationship betweenmythic structure and a social order that hashad no complete existence in Indo-Europeanhistorical times but is postulated as having

been present when the Indo-European gods

first emerged in prehistory. For the lion head,I shall consider the triad of the functions asproposed by Georges Dumzil in the 1930s to1950s and show how a more recent re-statement in other terms gives the functionaltriad a different and more secure base. For thegoat head, I note that there may be other triads

besides the functional one and that amisidentification by Dumzil of one specifictriad as functional has prevented explorationof another triad which is seen as both

functional and as playing a key role in atheogony. For the serpent head, I shallcomplement the birth of the gods with a

parallel scheme of human descent.I would like to invite scholars in the Old

Norse and associated fields to take a look atthe creature currently dwelling inChimeraland, which seems to have been

proving elusive. The determined hunter cantrack it down and, armed of course with acamera rather than a weapon in this

enlightened age, can take a snap-shot of it andexamine its features at leisure.

The Lion HeadThe situation reDumzils theory of the threefunctions can be put in a nutshell. In the1930s and 1940s, he proposed that there werethree Indo-European functions of the sacred,

physical force, and prosperity and fertility,and that these could be apprehended at thesocial level as priests, warriors andcultivators. Margaret Clunies Ross wasamong those who pointed out that socialgroups of this kind would not have been

present at the appropriate period and firmlyrejected Dumzils position as regards societyon these grounds, saying:

The principal weakness of Dumzils ideathat all Indo-European societies shared an

hierarchically-ordered, tripartite socialstructure with specialised institutions ofpriesthood, law-giving, warrior andagricultural pursuits, which had its reflex ina tripartite mythic ideology common to allthe early Indo-European speakingcommunities, is that at the time when theancestors of these historical peoples werestill living in the Indo-European homelandand in some contact with one another, it ishighly improbable that they would havebeen hierarchically-ordered, stratified

societies. (Clunies Ross 1994 I: 16n.4)Dumzil had, however, reconsidered his

position by about 1950 (as he dates hisrevision in a later account of his work Dumzil 1968: 15), and now argued that theconcepts existed qua concepts and did notneed to be tied down to social groups (cf.Littleton 1982: 267275; Dubuisson 1991:123140). His final formulation of atrifunctional ideology existing only on the

level of the ideal was vague in a way thatmade it all too easy to claim that the formulaapplied to a whole range of phenomena. Itwas, one might say, more modern and could

be worked with by scholars without theirneeding to get to grips with what might have

been valid in a prehistoric society.Into this scenario stepped the Irish scholar

Kim McCone, who proposed that the threefunctions were those not of occupationalgroups but of life-stage groups such as are

found in an age-grade society, that is to saythat the three functions of the sacred, physicalforce and prosperity and fertility could beapprehended at the social level as old men,young men and mature men (McCone 1986;1987; 1990). His theory has not, so far as I amaware, had much impact in the Old Norsefield, but I am happy to acknowledge that itwas Hilda Ellis Davidson who drew myattention to it. McCones fullest study (1987)

presented a good deal of linguistic evidence

and, in the Germanic context, he commentedon the well-known group of young menforming aMnnerbund. He also saw the need


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to consider the workings of an age-gradesociety in practice (cf. Bernardi 1985) andturned to East Africa for information.Following McCones example, I explored thestructures of age-grade societies moreextensively and drew on East African materialfor a study that showed the triad arisingnaturally in a system of generationalternations that had the old and the young (1stand 2nd functions) in one alternation and themature (3rdfunction) in the other (Lyle 1997).One result of the theoretical shift fromoccupational groups to life stages is, ofcourse, that no objection can now be raised onthe grounds that the structuring elementscould not have been available in an

unstratified society. Age grading could havebeen present.The lion head, then, makes the claim: We

can show that Indo-European tripartition isfeasible on a very old basis.

The Goat HeadThe goat head speaks up and says:

I can see that youve shown that thetripartition traced by Dumzil rests on asolider foundation than he knew himself,and that the new theory that it is derivedfrom the divisions of an age-gradesociety in the remote past offers someendorsement of Dumzils findings. Sowe can say that Dumzil was probablyright after all, in spite of the scepticismwith which his tripartite idea has beenreceived in some quarters. But wheredoes this leave us? Does it make anydifference? Why has the concept not

had a greater ability to resolve problemsabout the pantheon? I would say myselfthat it is because Dumzil was wrong aswell as right. And my contribution tothis chimerical composition is to saythat, when Dumzil had his insight aboutfunctional tripartition, the example hiscase rested on for Scandinavia,consisting of Odin, Thor and Freyr(Dumzil 1994: 81, 232; Tschan 1959:207208), was a false one, and that we

can only develop concepts of the OldNorse pantheon fruitfully if we put it toone side and consider instead the set that

appears to be a true instance of thetrifunctional triad: that of Odin, V andVili.

Odin and his brothers, V and Vili, belong tothe oldest stratum of beings born from a

mother, but this briefly told Old Norsetheogony is almost lost in the proliferation ofinteresting story materials, some of whichdeal with male pseudo-procreation, as CluniesRoss calls it (1994 I: 59, 144186), and it hastaken the intervention of the comparativeapproach to highlight its importance (Bek-Pedersen 2006: 331332). The Indo-Europeanmyth concerning the three old gods treats astage in the evolution of the cosmos (Lyle2007), and so is something that it is quite

reasonable to apply to the Old Norse firstgods.

The story is briefly told in Ynglinga sagachapter 3, which is quoted and discussed byKaren Bek-Pedersen. Odins two brothers laywith his wife while he was absent from hiskingdom. This is a probable instance of amyth of the intercourse of a goddess withthree gods, one of whom is an authorityfigure. The outcome is a wonderful birth andthat is the point of the story. That outcome islacking in the Old Norse context, but we canstill identify the four characters. There is onegoddess, Frigg. There is her husband, Odin,who is king. He is, however, an old-god king,and would in due course have yielded his

place to the young king who is normally theresult of this multiple mating. If the Old

Norse story is an instance of the Indo-European motif, it has been skewed in such away as to leave Odin in charge. The old-god

husband has been identified as the 2

nd

-function figure to do with war, while thelovers are 1st- and 3rd-function figures. OfFriggs lovers, V can be connected with thesacred (1st function) and Vili with desire andhence fertility (3rd function) on linguisticgrounds (Bek-Pedersen 2006: 332; cf. deVries 1970 II: 280, 517; Simek 1996: 355,362).

Although the Old Norse multiple-fathersstory does not result in a son, there are major

gods in the next generation who might, in asense, be the missing young king, and Bek-Pedersen has speculatively suggested Baldr


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for this role since he is the son of Odin andFrigg, although she is fully aware, of course,that the story does not run to its presumedconclusion.

The Serpent Head

Yesss, hissed the serpent head (in trueHobbit fashion), it is a possssibility thatthere is a trifunctional set of old gods with atruncated birth story attached to them, butdoesssnt the ssstructure of the pantheon thenhave to involve dessscent as well as an age-grade-related triad?

Indeed it does. Age grading does not existin isolation and we can expect structuralelements of kinship to be present also. If we

consider descent in the multiple-fathers storyand have the three brothers at the temporalcentre of the scheme, we can see the kinshipstructure as involving both the generation

before them, which contained the female fromwhom they were born, and the generationafter them. This gives a shallow lineage ofthree generations, and such a system occurs inScandinavia (Vestergaard 1988). A study oflineage at the Indo-European level has

proposed the existence of household units

consisting of lineages of two or threegenerations (Huld 1997). There are alsoindications in the Celtic context andelsewhere that a key Indo-European kinshipgroup consisted of four generations (Charles-Edwards 1993: 55, 187, 213214, 471472;Lyle 2006; 2012). In any case, whether thereare three or four generations, the pantheon, aswell as reflecting age grading, can beexplored as a parallel to the human institutionof a shallow lineage.

Concluding RemarksCan it be as simple as thisss? asked theserpent head. Is it sssimply a matter ofdefining a sssocial ssstructure in thegenerative prehistoric period that matches theindications in our mythology, and then going

back to illuminate the myths from this freshstandpoint?

Perhaps it isnt going to be so verysimple, said the goat head. Remember thatthe theogony may begin with a female. Thatis going to raise status questions that could be

bitterly debated.

And an age-grade system like this rests onthe concept of alternate generations, said thelion head, and, although that is commonenough and shows how deeply into the pastthe system goes, it does have implications forroyal succession that cannot be totally

paralleled in the East African context.The heads fell into a reflective silence, and

so let us leave them, until they are stirred bythe quiet footsteps of an intrepid exploreradvancing upon them with a camera, intent atall costs on securing an image of this intricatecreature and bringing it back home fromChimeraland.

Notes1. This image appears on Wikipedia, s.v. chimera,

and is reproduced from Wikimedia Commonswhere it is in the public domain, available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bellerophon_killing_Chimaera_mosaic_from_Rhodes.JPG (lastaccessed 13thNovember 2012).

2. The workshop was held on 1st3rdDecember 2011. Iwould like to express my warm thanks to theorganisers, Daniel Svborg and Karen Bek-Pedersen, for the invitation to attend, and to theSwedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and theDepartment of Scandinavian Studies at theUniversity of Tartu, for generously supporting the

event.

Works CitedBek-Pedersen, Karen. 2006. Interpretations of

Ynglingasaga and the Mabinogi: Some NorseCeltic Correspondences. In Old Norse Religion in

Long-Term Perspectives: Origins, Changes andInteractions. Ed. Anders Andrn, Kristina Jennbert& Catharina Raudvere. Vgar till Midgrd8.Lund:

Nordic Academic Press. Pp. 331335.Bernardi, Bernardo. 1985. Age Class Systems: Social

Institutions and Polities Based on Age. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Charles-Edwards, T.M. 1993. Early Irish and WelshKinship. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Clunies Ross, Margaret. 1994. Prolonged Echoes: OldNorse Myths in Medieval Northern Society III.Odense: Odense University Press.

Dubuisson, Daniel. 1991. Contributions unepistmologie dumzilienne: Lidologie. Revuede lhistoire des religions208: 123140.

Dumzil, Georges. 1968. Mythe et Epope I:Lidologie des trois fonctions dans les popes despeuples indo-europens. Paris: Gallimard.

Dumzil, Georges. 1994. Le Roman des jumeaux etautres essais. Ed. Jol H. Grisward. Paris:

Gallimard.Huld, Martin. 1997. Lineage. In Encyclopedia of

Indo-European Culture. Ed. J.P. Mallory & D.Q.
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Adams. London / Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. P.354.

Littleton, C. Scott. 1982. The New ComparativeMythology: An Anthropological Assessment of theWork of Georges Dumzil. 3rdedn. Berkeley / LosAngeles / London: University of California Press.

Lyle, Emily. 1997. Age Grades, Age Classes and

Alternate Succession: A Restatement of the Basis atthe Societal Level of Indo-European SymbolicPartition. Emania16: 6371.

Lyle, Emily. 2006. The Importance of the Prehistoryof Indo-European Structures for Indo-EuropeanStudies. Journal of Indo-European Studies 34:99110.

Lyle, Emily. 2007. Narrative Form and the Structureof Myth. Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore 33: 5970. Available at:http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol33/lyle.pdf

Lyle, Emily. 2012 (forthcoming). Stepping Stonesthrough Time. Oral Tradition27(1).

McCone, Kim. 1986. Werewolves, Cyclopes, Dibergsand Fianna: Juvenile Delinquency in Early Ireland.Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies12: 122.

McCone, Kim. 1987. Hund, Wolf und Krieger bei denIndogermanen. In Studien zum indogermanischenWortschatz. Ed. W. Meid. Innsbrucker Beitrge zrSprachwissenschaft 52. Innsbruck: Institut fr

Sprachwissenschaft der Universitt Innsbruck. Pp.101154.

McCone, Kim. 1990. Pagan Past and ChristianPresent in Early Irish Literature. Maynooth: AnSagart.

Simek, Rudolf. 1996. Dictionary of NorthernMythology. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.

Tschan, Francis J. (trans.). 1959. Adam of Bremen,History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen.New York: Columbia University Press.

Vestergaard, Torben A. 1988. The System of Kinshipin Early Norwegian Law. Mediaeval Scandinavia12: 160193.

de Vries, Jan. 1970. Altgermanische Religions-geschichteIII. 3rdedn. Berlin: de Gruyter.

The Talk of the Tits: Some Notes on the Death of Sigurr Ffnisbani in Norna-Gests ttr

Fjodor Uspenskij, Institute of Slavic Studies (Moscow), Russian Academy of Science, and HigherSchool of Economics

The famous Norna-Gests ttr, preserved inFlateyjarbk, was especially popular amongresearchers of Scandinavian antiquities.1Thiscould be partly explained by the fact that thistext, recorded at the end of the 14th century,contained many direct references to a morearchaic cultural layer. In the ttr, one findswhole blocks of retellings and citations from

poetry found in the Poetic Edda andinformative remarks referring to it, as well asrather intriguing mention of the fact that eddicverse could be orally performed at the court of

a king.Among other parts of the Eddapresent inNorna-Gests ttr, there is a song calledGurnarbrg hin fornu [The Old Perfidyof Gurn]. It is precisely this song, inaddition to the song of Gunnars battle, thatGestr performs, playing the harp, before King

lfr Tryggvason. Mention of the cycle ofplots connected with Gurn and SigurrFfnisbani [Slayer of Ffnir] or the DragonSlayer is not limited, of course, by the titles ofthe heroic songs. Indeed, Norna-Gestr is

presented as a man who has lived severalcenturies and who has served many kings. Hehad been among Sigurrs troops at the very

beginning of his career, which is why lfrTryggvason, the last ruler whom he meets,asks in detail about ancient times, addressing

Norna-Gestr as a contemporary and eye-

witness of those events.One of the passages of this story is ratherclose to the text completing the Brot afSigurarkviu in the Poetic Edda, wheredifferent versions of Sigurrs death aredescribed:

Poetic Edda FlateyjarbkHr er sagt essi qvio fr daua Sigurar,

oc vcr hr sv til, sem eir drpi hann ti.Enn sumir segia sv, at eir drpi hann inni reccio sinni sofanda. Enn verscir mennsegia sv, at eir drpi hann ti scgi. Oc

Konungr mllti. huat uard Sigurdi at bana.

Gestr suarar. su er flestra manna sgnn atGuthormr Giukason legdi hann suerde jgegnum sofanda j sng Gudrunar. enyuerskir menn segia Sigurd drepinn hafa
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There is no word-for-word correspondencebetween these two extracts. Nevertheless,they are so close to each other that theirtextological connection is beyond question.This is related to interesting questions aboutmanuscript transmission of these narrativetraditions. It is possible that the author of

Norna-Gests ttr worked with some

recorded text that was, at least in this part,close to the prose fragment we find in CodexRegius. The elucidation of the level andnature of this connection is not the goal of thisstudy. Instead, I would like to draw attentionto the lack of correspondence in one of theextracts of these two texts that seems moreinformative than some directly similar cases.

In the prose passage of the Poetic Edda,Gurnarkvia hin forna [The Old Lay ofGudrn] is indicated as a source of the

information that Sigurr was killed when hewas going with Gjkis sons to the thing. (Thesong named Gurnarkvia hin forna in theCodex Regius manuscript is consistentlycalled GurnarkviaII[The Second Lay ofGurn] in all modern studies and editions ofthe Poetic Edda.) In the corresponding placeof Norna-Gests ttr, igur [chickadees,blue tits or some type of small twittering

birds] are named as a respectable source ofthis information:

en igdurnar sgdu sua at Sigurdr ok Giukasynir hofd(u) ridit til ings nokkurs ok adrpi eir hann

But small birds said that Sigurr and thesons of Gjki had ridden to a Thing and theyslew him then

This of course seems mysterious to themodern reader.

Where on earth could those tits haveappeared from that are equal in their

testimonies to the Germans and to mostmen?When the original texts are analyzed, a

clue to this mystery may appear before us.This is the wording with the name Gurn: Gurnar qvio inni forno. In the manuscript,this reads:

igvrvnarqvio inni forno

This word combination looks graphicallyrather similar to the text with the word

designating these birdsthe name of the birdsbeing igurnar(singular iga). Following thisobservation, the most probable explanationwould appear to be that the divergence

between thePoetic Eddaand theNorna-Geststtrare, in this case, due to a mistake madeduring the adaptation process, during readingin the rewriting:

...oc sv segir Gurnar qvio inni forno,at Sigurr oc Gica synir... ...en igdurnarsgdu sua at Sigurdr ok Giuka synir...

In other words, in both texts the same sourcewas implied but its name in the younger

sv segir Gurnar qvio inni forno, atSigurr oc Gica synir hefi til ings riit, er hann var drepinn. Enn at segia allireinnig, at eir svico hann tryg oc vgo athnom liggianda oc bnom. (Neckel 1936:196.)

uerit uti a skogi. en igdurnar sgdu sua atSigurdr ok Giuka synir hofd(u) ridit til ingsnokkurs ok a drpi eir hann. en at eralsagt ar eir uogu at honum liggianda atvurum ok suiku hann j trygd. (GubrandurVigfsson & Unger I 18601868: 355.)

Here it is told in this poem about the deathof Sigurr and the story goes here that theyslew him out of doors, but some say thatthey slew him in the house, on his bed whilehe was sleeping. But German men say thatthey killed him out of doors in the forest;and so it is told in the old Gurn lay, thatSigurr and Gjki's sons had ridden to thecouncil-place, and that he was slain there.But in this they are all agreed, that theydeceived him in his trust of them, and fell

upon him when he was lying down andunprepared.

The king said: How was Sigurr slain? Gestranswered: Most men say that GuthormrGjkason ran a sword through him when hewas sleeping in Gurns bed. The Germanmen say that Sigurr was slain out in thewoods. But small birds (tits?) said that Sigurrand the sons of Gjki had ridden to a Thingand they slew him then. But one thing is saidby all, that they ventured on him when he waslying down and unprotected, and betrayed himduring a truce.


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source was misrepresented, thus, Gurnturned into tits (igvrvnar igurnar).

These speculations seem all the morenatural because of the fact that mistakes ofthis kind are recorded from time to time inalmost all manuscript traditions of the MiddleAges. Nevertheless, this proposition must beapproached very cautiously. The graphictransformations involving the formation of anew word appropriately integrated into thecontext at the level of grammar is rather anefficient phenomenon, but it occurs muchmore rarely than one might expect. Mostoften, it occurs if the word from the originaltext is not quite clear or unknown to thecompiler/rewriter of the new text: usually, it

concerns unknown names, the designations ofexotic things of reality, and words thatindicate well-known things and phenomenathat are themselves nevertheless rarities. It isin these cases where the universal mechanismof adaptation usually works, turning theunknown into the known, the strange into thefamiliar. The action of this mechanism isundoubtedly limited by neither the manuscriptsphere, nor by the medieval epoch.

However, in our example, we deal with

quite a different situation. Apparently, no oneamong those who made Norna-Gests ttrhad available the form of the material inwhich it is available to us in the Poetic Edda.

Nevertheless, the name Gurn and the plotaura connected with the name could not have

been unknown. Even if, at some stage in thecreation of the existing image of thememorial, tits would have appeared bychance in the place of this name, then theerror would have hardly remained in the text

without special supporting explanations.Moreover, it is not likely that other parts ofthe sentence would be grammaticallyappropriate to this new word usage withoutspecial reasons. In other words, the graphicsimilarity between igvrvnarand igurnarwould be insufficient in themselves for thesubstitution of one by the other to result in aformally correct phrase. This would insteadmake the extract quite senseless.

One may suppose that here thetransformation is not graphic (or at least notexclusively graphic), based on a lack ofunderstanding, but quite the opposite based

on the skillful manipulation of the heroic-poetic stories. In other words, the reference toevidence of the tits regarding Sigurrsdeath in Norna-Gests narration is not made

purely by chance, and is instead informed byeddic tradition. The matter is that tits or someother small twittering birds designated by theword igaplay an important role in the storiesabout Sigurr,2 where it is told about themurder of the dragon Ffnir and Ffnirs

brother Reginn (who was also Sigurrsfoster-father). As we recall, this is the turning

point in the fate of the epic hero, the momentdetermining, in addition to everything else,many of the things that are to happen to himlater. A prophetic role is given to the tits in

this short passage.According to Ffnisml, having tastedblood from the heart of the dragon killed byhim, Sigurr began to understand thelanguage of birds (fuglsrdd) and heard whattits were saying. The many-voiced dialogue ofthe tits told Sigurr what he had to doimmediately and what he had to do in thefuture. They said that he had to eat the heartof Ffnir, kill Ffnirs brother Reginn andacquire their gold. Having done all this,

Sigurr heard again what the tits were sayingthey told him to seek King Gjkis daughterand the hero follows their advice. Thus, itappears that it is the tits who know

beforehand what will happen to Sigurr: bothhis nearest and distant future are before longreflected in their dialogues. This, in fact,would seem to be the reason why it is morethan natural to let the tits tell the story of oneof the versions of Sigurrs death.

The part of Ffnisml under discussion is

not presented in Norna-Gests ttr. Thissmall mention of the tits once more suggeststhat the composer of the ttr knew someform of thePoetic Eddamuch better than can

be judged from his direct eddic citations. As amatter of fact, he acts as a competentcompiler of Edda, and as is practicallyinevitable in this kind of compilation, he,more or less, faces the task of criticism of thetext, i.e. of the selection and, sometimes,interpretation of the evidence he had at hisdisposal. This process should be considered inlight of the relationship of the adapted text toa manuscript exemplar more generally: the


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copying process appears to have been moreparaphrastic than a verbatim transcription, asis also found in variation between texts ofSnorri Sturlusons so-called Prose Edda and

prose texts of thePoetic Edda, as well as evenin the manuscript tradition of Snorris Prose

Edda itself (exhibited in the Upsaliensusmanuscript and Fr Fenris lfi attached to

Litla sklda).3 If this is a generally accurateperspective on the compilation process, thencriticism of the text rather than rigoroussubscription to exemplars would be naturaland possibly even expected of the compiler.

It can be considered fairly certain that thetits did not appear as a result of a randomtransformation of the title of Gurnarkvia.

The theme of causality is therefore admittedin these speculations. Indeed, as has beensaid, other sources named in the two prosefragments as the listed versions of Sigurrsdeath are rather close to each other. Could themention of stories told by the tits appear inthose texts independently? Here, one shouldrecall what the older of the two extracts inquestion presents. This is the prose conclusionof Brot titled Fr daua Sigurar [On theDeath of Sigurr]. The prose insertions in the

eddic poems are the peculiar territory ofstory-telling, compilation, and commentariesto the poetic text they accompany. In thiscase, there appears to be an error in thecommentary in the statement:

Oc sv segir Gurnar qvio inni forno, atSigurr oc Gica synir hefi til ings riit, er hann var drepinn

And so it is told in the old Gurn lay, thatSigurr and Gjki's sons had ridden to the

council-place/Thing, and that he was slainthere

In the form that Gurnarkvia hinn fornu(Gr. IIhereafter) is known, there is no suchtale about the murder on the way to theThing.4 It seems probable that thisdisagreement in the corpus of thePoetic Eddawas not first noted only by the philologists oreditors of the present era, but could have beenobserved centuries earlier.

If the composer of Norna-Gests ttr,being aware of the fact that the passage of themurder on the way to the Thing was absentfrom Gr. II, came across an opposed idea in

the manuscript, it is quite probable that hewould not only correct this inexactitude, butwould think over its nature. The authority ofthe exemplar text did not allow any arbitrarychange or mechanical elimination of this factfrom the story. The excellent command ofthe language of all the topics allowed himthe supposition that the reference to theGurnarkvia appeared as the consequenceof an error in understanding or rewriting amention of tits. In other words, the lastcommentator somehow returned to that

preceding comment which seemed to himmost valid.5 He eliminated the incorrectreference, noticeable to his eyes, andapparently supposed that he was dealing with

a distortion that had appeared in themanuscript he was analyzing due to theevident similarity of two alternative lettercombinationsigvrvnarand igurnar.6

Correctionssometimes hypercorrectbythe hands of scholars such as the onediscussed here are rather universal fordifferent manuscript traditions, if we speak ofthe Middle Ages. Most often they appear inthe course of a gradual mastering of theforeign source of another culture, be it a Bible

text or a novel about Alexander the Great. Inthe present case, we are apparently faced withsome early attempts of incorporatedcomments of the scribe on his own vernacularepic tradition (i.e. not abstracted exclusivelyfrom the written material). The commentswere, in their way, very typical of theIcelanders: the thorough attention to thecreation of a predecessor is finely combinedwith a spirit of competition with him, andthere still existed a rather well-prepared

audience to judge the products of such acompetition.

Acknowledgements: The results of the project Easternand Western Europe in the Middle Ages and Early

Modern Period: Historical and CulturalCommonalities, Regional Peculiarities and the

Dynamics of Interaction, carried out within theframework of The Basic Research Program of theNational Research University Higher School ofEconomics (Moscow) in 2012, are presented in thiswork.

Notes1. On Norna-Gests ttr, see in particular: Hollander

1916; Harris & Hill 1989; Wrth 1993; Imhoff


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2006; McDonald 2011; cf. also Kaplan 2004; Rowe2004.

2. Cf. Finnur Jnsson 1897: 201202; Detter & Heinzel1903 II: 418419; von Hofsten 1957: 8485; vonSee et al. 2006: 468.

3. The variation in the text as a whole was recentlydiscussed by Heimir Plsson (the variation between

the U manuscript of Eddaand other traditions) andby Frog (the relationship of Snorra Edda and theprose texts Fr gi and Fr Loka in the PoeticEdda). See Heimir Plsson 2010; Frog 2011: 1215.

4. For the discussion, see Zupitza 1873: 448; Klbing1874: 351352; Detter & Heinzel 1903 II: 491, 493,446447; Boer 1922: 238, 270; Gering 19271931II: 293.

5. Frog noted in his dissertation a similar revision inHeireks saga related to a change in the culturalreferent providing a model for the brother-slaying(by the thrown natural object as a Baldr-slaying

image to a sword equivalent toMimingr / Mistilteinn / sword of Mimingus). Cf.Frog 2010: 273277, 291, 296.

6. By doing so, he, perhaps, kept in mind thataccording to Vlsunga saga [The Saga ofVolsungs] Sigurr gave Gurn some of Fafnirsheart to eat and after this she was much grimmerand wiser than before (Sigurr gaf Gurnu at etaaf Ffnis hjarta, ok san var hn miklu grimmarien r ok vitrar) (Ranisch 1908: 46). Moreover, inthe prose fragment at the very beginning ofGrnarkviaI [The First Lay of Gudrn] it isstated that Gurn had eaten of Fafnir's heart, andthat she understood the speech of birds (at er sgnmanna, at Gurn hefi etit af Ffnis hjarta ok hon

skili v fugls rdd), just as Sigurr did (Neckel1936: 197). Cf. Finnur Jnsson 1917: 17, 26; vonSee et al. 2006: 467.

Works CitedBoer, R.C. (ed.). 1922. Die Edda mit historisch-

kritischem CommentarIII. Haarlem.Detter, F., & R. Heinzel (ed.). 1903. Smundar Edda

III. Leipzig.Finnur Jnsson 1897. Anmlan av H. Gering, Glossar

zu den Liedern der Edda. 2. Auflage. ANF 14:195204.Finnur Jnsson 1917. Sigurarsaga og de prosaiske

Stykker i Codex Regius. Aarbger for nordiskOldkyndighed og Historie7 [III. Rkke]: 1636.

Frog 2010.Baldr and Lemminkinen: Approaching theEvolution of Mythological Narrative through theActivating Power of Expression: A Case Study inGermanic and Finno-Karelian Cultural Contactand Exchange. Doctoral thesis, UCL Eprints.London: University College London.. Available at:http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/19428/

Frog. 2011. Snorri Sturluson qua Fulcrum:Perspectives on the Cultural Activity of Myth,Mythological Poetry and Narrative in MedievalIceland. Mirator 12: 129. Available at:http://www.glossa.fi/mirator/pdf/i-2011/Snorriquafulcrum.pdf

Gering, H. 19271931.Kommentar zu den Liedern der

EddaIII. Halle (a. Saale).Gubrandur Vigfsson & C.R. Unger (eds.). 1860

1868.FlateyjarbkIIII. Christiania.Harris, J., & T.D. Hill. 1989. Gestrs Prime Sign:

Source and Signification in Norna-Gests ttr. InArkiv fr Nordisk Filologi104: 103122.

von Hofsten, N. 1957.Eddadikternas Djur och Vxtar.Skrifter utgivna av kungl. Gustav AdolfsAkademien 30. Uppsala.

Heimir Plsson. 2010. Tertium vero datur: A Study ofthe Text of DG 11 4to. Pre-print manuscriptavailable at: http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?searchId=1&pid=diva2:322558

Hollander, L.M. 1916. Notes on the Nornageststtr. In Scandinavian Studies3: 105111.

Imhoff, H. 2006. Dialogue, Exchange and thePresentation of the Past in Nornagests ttr. InQuaestio Insularis: Selected Proceedings of theCambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse andCeltic7: 7288.

Kaplan, M. 2004. The Past as Guest: Mortal Men,Kingss Men, and Fourgestir in Flateyjarbk. InGripla15: 91120.

Klbing, E. 1874. Zu GurnarkviaII. Germania19/17. Wien.

McDonald, S. 2011. Pagan Past and Christian FutureinNorna-Gests ttrandBrar saga Snfellsss.In Postcards from the Edge:European Peripheriesin the Middle Ages: Proceedings of the Institute for

Medieval Studies (Leeds) Postgraduate Symposium2009. Ed. Liz Mylod & Zsuzsanna Reed Papp.Bulletin of International Medieval Research 1516for 20092010. [Leeds]: Institute for MedievalStudies, University of Leeds. Pp. 164178.

Neckel, G. (ed.). 1936. Edda: Die Lieder des CodexRegius nebst verwandten Denkmlern, Bd. 1: Text.3rdedn. Germanische Bibliothek 9. Heidelberg.

Ranisch, W. 1908.Die Vlsungasaga. 2ndedn. Berlin.Rowe, E.A. 2004. orsteins ttr uxafts,Helga ttr

rissonar, and the Conversion ttir.Scandinavian Studies76: 459474.

von See, K., B. La Farge, W. Gerhold, E. Picard & K.Schulz. 2006.Kommentar zu den Liedern der EddaVI: Heldenlieder. Heidelberg.

Wrth, S. 1993. Nornagests ttr. In MedievalScandinavia: An Encyclopaedia. Ed. P. Pulsiano.

New York / London. Cols. 435436.Zupitza, J. 1873. Zur lteren Edda. Zeitschrift fe

deutsche Philologie4: 445451.
http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/19428/http://www.glossa.fi/mirator/pdf/i-2011/Snorriquafulcrum.pdfhttp://www.glossa.fi/mirator/pdf/i-2011/Snorriquafulcrum.pdfhttp://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?searchId=1&pid=diva2:322558http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?searchId=1&pid=diva2:322558http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?searchId=1&pid=diva2:322558http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?searchId=1&pid=diva2:322558http://www.glossa.fi/mirator/pdf/i-2011/Snorriquafulcrum.pdfhttp://www.glossa.fi/mirator/pdf/i-2011/Snorriquafulcrum.pdfhttp://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/19428/


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Kuningamng[King Game]: An Echo of a Prehistoric Ritual of Power inEstonia

Kristo Siig, University of Tartu

Claims that the runic song tradition of the

Balto-Finnic peoples has its roots far inprehistory1 have been common in Estonianand Finnish folklore research. However, it hasonly been possible to argue that its trochaicmetre must, according to linguistic evidence,originate from a period corresponding to theProto-Finnic language (Korhonen 1994).Some scholars have also proposed different

broad historical substrata within the archivedfolklore based on analysis of stylisticelements and motifs and comparative research

(e.g. Kuusi 1963; see also Kuusi 1994a).In the case of certain song genres, types ormotifs, scholars have remained even lessspecific, giving only such superficial datingsas very old or originating in ancient times.In this paper, I would like to demonstrate thatin some cases we can use historicalknowledge to project some elements of 19 thcentury folklore into a much more specifictemporal and cultural environment. In ordernot to have to present the entire textual corpus

analyzed, I will refer to a seminar paper that Ihave written on this subject, where therelevant information can be accessed on-line(Siig 2012).

IntroductionThe point of departure for this research wasthe hypothesis formulated by Aado Lintrop(2006) that the tradition of runic songs inEstonia was transferred from one generationto another during natural performancesituations, but that during large-scaledemographic and social turmoil (e.g. theLivonian War and the Great Northern War)

parts of the tradition probably disappeareddue to the absence of normal performancesituations. Thus, the 13thcentury crusades andthe replacement of the prehistoric socialsystem with a new, foreign elite of mainlyGerman origin might also have had a greatimpact on the tradition, especially concerning

situations connected to power and publicaffairs. While, for example, wedding ritualscontinued to be held and managed to preservesome of their earlier traits, public ceremonies

and rituals connected to power and the elite

(whatever these might have been) soon wentout of use when the local language and thebearers of the runic song tradition wereexpelled from the sphere of power.

It is not known with any certainty howcentral the position held by the runic songtradition may have been in the ancient publicsphere. However, it appears the form of therunic song of the Finnic peoples was anadvanced mnemotechnic device that providedthe primary tool for stable and ritualized

communication, a kind of a prehistoric code,as Matti Kuusi puts it (Kuusi 1994b: 41). Inprehistoric times, and also in the MiddleAges, every notable event in the life of anindividual or of a community needed to beritually played out (Gurjewitsch 1989: 206207). Given the role of runic song as a

primary tool in stable ritualizedcommunication, the runic song can bereasonably hypothesized to have played animportant role in rituals associated with

notable events in the lives of individuals,although these uses only survived in ritualactivities which were not displaced, obviatedor superseded in radical changes to socialstructures, such as wedding rituals.

This reasoning led me to pose thefollowing questions. Let us say that, with thehelp of archaeology and history, it were

possible to reconstruct some hypotheticalperformance situations or public rituals thatwent out of use or were forgotten during thetransition from prehistoric to medievalsociety, i.e. as an effect of the replacement ofthe local elite by a new German elite startingfrom the 13th century. Would it then be

possible to find some folklore texts from the19th century in the archives which make noreal sense in their own time, but couldactually be remnants of an older tradition? Ifso, would it then be possible to connect theseto hypothetically reconstructed performance

situations?An older Estonian song game calledKuningamng[King Game] was selected totest this possibility. Older song games are a


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group of Estonian folk games which combinefolksong, dance and drama. They arecharacterized by a song in runic form,featuring alliteration, parallelism and the four-footed trochaic metre. Most of these songs areconcerned with an ageless agrarian milieu andseem to be of common Balto-Finnic originrather than later loans from Western Europe.Many scholars have proposed that thesegames have their origins in pagan rituals(especially fertility rites) and were formed inlate prehistory (11th13th century) or in theEarly Middle Ages,2although this seems to bemore of an intelligent guess than based onthorough analysis. (Cf. Mirov 1996.)

This paper presents the hypothesis that the

King Game, documented by Estonianfolklorists in the 19th and 20th centuries, hasits roots in a Late Iron Age or medieval ritualor ceremony used to welcome a kingtravelling around his domain in order tocollect taxes and exercise judicial power.

It should be noted that the presentapproach to this folklore text is clearly whollyhistorical. Consequently, what the gamemeant to people in the time when it waswritten down is not of interest to this

investigation, although the final section willaddress aspects of historical continuity of use.Nevertheless, focus will be on what kind ofhistorical data can be extracted from thistraditional text. The term text is used herein a broader meaning than just a transcriptionor even a verbal entity, but rather is used toencapsulate both the verbal part of the game(the song) and the dramatic part of the game(performative activities). Although theinterest of this article is historical, folklore

texts will not be treated or compared in thesame manner as medieval manuscripts inorder to find an Ur-text. This wouldoversimplify the nature of cultural processes

by not taking into account contextual andfunctional issues (for a new approach tocultural historical continuity see Frog 2012).Permanent and significant change in folkloretexts (or in other types of cultural tradition)does not occur so much due to errors in thetransmission of verbal units, but rather as aconsequence of changes in the generalcultural sphere (Frog 2012: 4447).Therefore, it seems that the most stable

elements of a text can be found on a levelhigher than a single verse. These elementscarry an independent meaning and form akind of a deep structure of the text. This deepstructure is approached as an analyticalconstruct, but the construct should correlatewith a mental text or a scenario existing in themind of the performer,3 which is used to

produce the individual performances. Thepresent study is based on the hypothesis thatthis deep structure is much more constantthrough time than individual verses andtherefore it is more reasonable to discussgenetic historical relations between deepstructures (at least in cases where there has

been a large span of time).

A Structural AnalysisThe point of departure for this research wasan analysis of all the variants of the KingGame in the Estonian Folklore Archives.4The corpus is comprised of 123 variantsrecorded across the time period from the

beginning of the 19thcentury until 1959. Thegeographical distribution of variants coversmost of Estonia, but the greatest number ofvariants (40) originated from the western

islands of Estonia (mainly Saaremaa) and thedistribution density was lowest in SoutheastEstonia (only one variant from Setomaa).

The text of the King Game was dividedinto elements in order to analyze the relationof individual parts to the whole. This made it

possible to construct a model of the textsdeep structure that could then be used indiachronic research. Statistical analysisshowed the most common and fundamentaltraits. What then became evident as the deep

structure can be described as follows.In the beginning, players of the game are in

a circle or in a row, walking or sitting. Theplayer called the King is separated from theother players, most frequently located in thecentre of the circle. The game (as in mostolder song games) begins with anintroductory song from the players thatinvolves most of the verbal part of the game.At first, there is a vocative address to theKing, followed by a reproach that he hascome at the wrong time, since the currenteconomic situation is worse than the year

before or than at any other earlier time. This is


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described in sharp contrast to beer flowing inrivers and wine from springs the year before:there is nothing left now, in the poor time ofspring. The players also complain that theKing is now taking the last of their

possessions and assets, mostly described interms of jewellery. Both statistically andstructurally, this seems to be the mostcrystallized and coherent verbal part of thegame.

The game then continues with the Kingtaking away possessions from the players as

pledges. This part also features some singing,but it is much less coherent and morevariable. Lastly, the players turn to the Kingand request the return of their possessions. In

the associated song, they often explain theorigin of their jewellery by stating that theseare personal items of emotional significance.At the same time, the players expressreluctance to give the King domestic animalsin exchange. In the action of the game, the

pledges are returned when players performtasks given by the King.

The King in the game is particularlyinteresting. Being opposed to the players or, itcould also be said, to the people, his role is

characterized by being a guest whose visit isinevitable (the problem expressed by thepeople is not concerned with why he came,but why he came at this inconvenient time).He also has a right to a share of thecommunitys wealth if they are unable totreat him appropriately with a feast, he willtake material possessions instead. This role isnot just a descriptive element of decoration orsetting; it is an essential part of the structureof the game. The role of the King does not

correspond to any notion of a king in themodern era which could have influenced thecreation of such a role and hence also thegame. This invites the possibility that the roledeveloped under social models current in anearlier period.

Only a handful of kings have ruled orclaimed rule over Estonia: Magnus, (a verynominal) King of Livonia from 1570 to 1577,Danish kings in North Estonia from 1219 to1347 and on the island of Saaremaa from1559 to 1645, Polish kings in South Estoniafrom 1562 to 1625, and finally Swedish kingsin the period from 1561 to 1710. However,

there is no recognisable folklore about Danishkings and the traditions about Swedish kingsare concentrated in legends about trees

planted by them and hillocks beneath whichthey are supposed to be buried (Pldme1940). The kings figuring in folktales arequite typical as they are characters ofinternational story types. None of these kings

present a reasonable or viable models for theKing of the game and the motif of tribute to avisiting king that provides the structuralcenter around which the game is organized.

Unless we want to claim that the role of theKing and the game under discussion originatefrom random fantasizing or from out of the

blue, it is necessary to investigate for a

different, evidently older historicalenvironment.

I tinerant KingsAt this stage, it is practical to turn to back inhistory and approach the issue from theopposite direction. It has been shown bylinguists that the word kuningas [king] isone of the oldest loanwords of Germanicorigin in the Balto-Finnic languages and wasthus probably borrowed in the 1stmillennium

BC (Ariste 1956: 16). At that time, itsmeaning differed greatly from contemporaryuse instead of a monarch of a centralizedstate, it rather meant a chieftain or a leader, a

petty king at most (Ligi 1995: 215).Due to the absence of literary sources,

which came hand in hand with the formationof states, the exact nature of prehistoric orIron Age kingship in Northern Europegenerally and in Estonia in particular remainsunclear. Some general traits can nonetheless

be outlined. It seems that one of the keyelements was that the domain of a king didnot have a single fixed centre or capital;instead the king moved around his land,whereas his subjects had the obligation to hosthim (Gurjewitsch 1989: 262263). In a way,this is a universal phenomenon characteristicto societies with a particular social order(chiefdom or early state) and means ofcommunication, but it is most clearly attestedin Early Medieval Europe (Bernhardt 1993:4584). In historical literature, this method ofgoverning is sometimes referred to asitinerant kingship, although it is not


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exclusive to kings, but could be practiced bywhoever controlled a larger territory (seeBernhardt 1993: 4584).

On the one hand, the presence of the kingensured the safety of his subjects and it was amatter of honour to host him. He was also thehighest authority for administering legaldisputes. On the other hand, travelling wasimportant to the king himself to maintain

political alliances. With the absence ofofficials and a state apparatus, the only

possibility to maintain power over a largerarea was to constantly move around that area.This system was also used to levy taxes. Inthe course of time, manors belonging to theking were erected at stopping points on the

kings journey to make collecting taxes easier.This eventually led to the formation ofadministrative centres and gradually to acentralized state. (Gurjewitsch 1989: 262263.)

Such a system is known for example fromKievan Rus under the name poljude( 2001). According toByzantine writers, the Great Prince left Kievin early winter and travelled through all thelands of the Slavic tribes that held allegiance

to him. In the spring, when ice on the Dniepermelted, he returned to Kiev and shipped allthe furs and other goods collected towardsByzantium. ( 2001: 183.) Asimilar practice (called gstning or veizla,referring to a common feast at which taxeswere yielded) is also evident from Old Norsesources, although not so explicitly described(see Gurjewitsch 1989: 262263). In Sweden,the duty of peasants to house their landlords(known as gstningsrtt) was in effect until

the reign of King Magnus Laduls (reign12401290) (Odn 1961).

In his 16th century chronicle, BalthasarRussow describes how Estonian peasantsfrom one administrative unit of land called awackehosted their lord with a feast every yearafter harvest. Taxes were also yielded duringthe lords visit (Russow 1967 [1584]: ch. 49).This institution seems very similar to theitinerant kingship known from earlier periods,

but the scale is much smaller and it takesplace on a lower level. The visiting lord is nota king at the top of the social hierarchy, but alocal-level nobleman or vassal. Although this

is not itinerant kingship in the sense of aking as the pinnacle of the hierarchy of thesocial order, it is a similar practice exercisedon a smaller regional level in a time whenitinerant kingship had already gone out of

practice at the highest level of social andpolitical authority. It should also be noted thatthis is the latest description of this institution

hosting was gradually abandoned and in itsplace a tax yielded in natural goods wasintroduced. Archaeologist Valter Lang hasargued that this system traces back at least toLate Iron Age Estonia (11th13th centuries)where it likely centred around a localchieftain residing in a hill-fort (Lang 2006).Similar systems are also known from Latvia,

Northwest Russia and Karelia (Lang 2006:157158). According to Lang (2006: 132),hosting the tax-collector with a feast is one ofthe defining elements of this prehistoric

political system. Paying tribute to the visitingking at a ritual feast (veizla) was also centralto Scandinavian kingship or even to Germanickingship in general (see Sundqvist 2002: 206;Gurjewitsch 1989: 262263). Sources onthese early periods are limited, especiallyconcerning the East Baltic. Nevertheless, it is

highly probable that, at least in the end ofprehistory and the beginning of the MiddleAges (11th14thcenturies), some institution ofitinerant kingship was current as an institutionmaintaining social and political authority interritories of what is now Estonia.

This short introduction should be sufficientto indicate that this kind of a culturalenvironment parallels the role of the King inthe King Game of Estonian folkloresurprisingly well. In both cases, from the

viewpoint of a local population, the king isnot someone residing in some faraway castle,

but a regular guest who has to be hosted andwho takes away a share of the wealth of the

population (taxes). This correspondence is tooprofound and exceptional to be explainedonly by mere coincidence. It is hardly

plausible that such a role of the King wouldbe created and sustained by players of thegame in the 19th century in whose time theconcept of kings was very different. Rather itseems that this ancient concept which was

presumably current in the 11th13thcenturieshas somehow been preserved in the structure


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of a 19th20thcentury game. As a supportingargument, it should also be noted that othersong games of the same structure and type asthe King Game are thought to haveoriginated from the end of prehistory as well(see above).

There is one more element in the gamewhich is of interest. The taking of pledges(Estonian pandid) seems to be the mostintrigue-creating part of the game (see further

below). It seems that this has been anessential part of the structure of the wholegame from the beginning, and it isthematically strongly connected to theintroductive song. It is noteworthy that kihl,the ancient word for pledge in Estonian, is

often considered the etymological foundationof the ancient land division kihelkond,meaning that giving pledges to the leader heldthe territory together (Lang 1996: 153). It isentirely possible that the pledges given in thegame once represented pledges that wereindeed given to the king in the course of thishypothetical ritual.

However, it is not sufficient to stop here,only showing that there is a striking parallel

between a historical phenomenon and a folk

game. A text (in this case a game) is not athing in itself, and it cannot be transmittedacross generations without people or without

performances. This leads to the problem ofthe social situations in which this gameemerged.

The song part of the game presents little inthe way of narrative and instead constructsmore of a dramatic situation. It is thereforehardly plausible that this verbal part of thegame could have earlier been a narrative song.

Instead, I propose that the song part is areflection of social realities current in anearlier period, a dramatic situationcorresponding to the circumstances describedin the verbal part. In this case, the gamewould reflect a ceremony which was held towelcome the arrival of the itinerant king. Itshould be kept in mind that earlier scholarshave also seen the origin of older song gamesin calendrical rituals (see above). We do nothave historical sources to prove or disprovethat there were special welcoming rituals witha fixed poetic structure performed along thekings route. However, these were periodical

events important in the life of the communityand most probably required a proper or evensolemn introduction. Also, it is known fromOld Norse sources that the hosting of the kingin any given location was closely tied to localcalendrical rituals and there were formalizedrituals involved which had to be followed

precisely to guarantee the well-being of thesociety (Sundqvist 2002: 204211, 366369).Moreover, insofar as all notable events in thelife of an individual or society were marked

by special ceremonies at that time(Gurjewitsch 1989: 206207), it is reasonableto postulate that these events were alsomarked by special ceremonies, while thesignificance of these events in the affirmation

and assertion of social and political authorityincrease the likelihood that the ceremonieswere highly formalized and structured.

Due to limitations of space, it is notpossible to discuss here the most probableperiod of time for the existence of an itinerantking system in cultural areas now identified asEstonia. Nevertheless, the Late Iron Age (i.e.the 11th13th centuries) would be the most

probable. Social and political developmentwithin the native society had reached its

highest level in prehistory during this time(Kriiska & Tvauri 2002: 185ff.). However,the Early Middle Ages (i.e. 13th14thcenturies) are also possible as we do not havean abundance of written sources about this

period either, and in many places the localelite probably maintained its position and oldcustoms for some time. These persisting oldtraditions could also be seen in the wacke-institution attested in the 16th century(presented above). Whatever the case, there

can be little doubt that a form of itinerantkingship had currency in parts of Estonia atleast by the Early Middle Ages if not earlier,and that whatever the precise form of itinerantkingship, it was almost certainly associatedwith formalized and structured ceremoniessurrounding the reception of the itinerant king

by his hosting subjects.

Changing and Continuing FolkloreIt is also important to follow the laterdevelopment of the alleged ritual and showwhat motives people may have had tocontinue performing and reusing this text, and


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to continue doing so in a way that still allowsits roots far in prehistory to be discernible. Ifit were a ritual, it must have been performedin non-ritual contexts as well, in order for atransition towards a game to take place. Forexample, it is possible that it originates fromchildren mimicing adults behaviour or usingthe ritual song to form their own game. Thisis a conduct common for childrens lore(Vissel 2004: 36). Whatever the non-ritualcontext was, the ritual use became obsoleteand the original meaning of the text fadeduntil eventually the text became exclusive toits form as a game.

Even if we consider that this ritualmaintained its original function in remote

areas of Estonia until the 15

th

century,

5

it stillleaves us a 450-year gap with two devastatingwars between the social realities in political

practice and the first archived descriptions ofthe King Game. This raises questionsconcerning its persistence throughout thistime, especially if it had been separated froman original social and political context so thatit no longer reflected any well-known realitiesin contemporary society. It also raises thequestion of why people playing it continued

calling the main role king and not baron oremperor, which, though figuring in poeticparallel constructions, are statistically quiterare and are not notably connected to the

poetic structure of the song (e.g. they are notalliterated with other words, which is verymuch the case with the word king) (Siig2012: 19).

Associations with the Swedish kingfiguring in Estonian folklore might have hadan effect on the persistence of the name

king, but kings figuring in folktales mayhave as well, and last, but not least, theChurch calendar and ecclesiastical literaturemay also have played a role in this process.For example, in one description, it is said thatit was the game of the Three Kings and itwas played on the Church holiday ThreeKings Day (Wiedemann 1876: 7, 1). Inanother variant, the king is addressed as theking of Babylon, which is most probablysomething inspired from the Old Testament(cf. Faherty n.d.). However, theseidiosyncratic connections have not altered thestructure of the game. The structure as such

was probably held firmly together by the ideaof taking and giving pledges, which createdtension and allowed something universallyrelevant good possibilities for socialization

between young men and women. In manydescriptions, tasks for redeeming the pledgesinvolve kissing or other courtship activities,thus they were used to show ones sympathytowards a member of the opposite sex in acoded and regulated way.

From the 19thcentury, sources are alreadyavailable for tracking the folklore process, butit is quite clear that by then the game wasalready fading away, only surviving in remoteareas. For example, the game was recordedmost from the western islands (see above)

which were far from major centres andimportant objects of ethnographic study in thefirst half of the 20thcentury. The last recordedvariants also originate from this area (Siig2012: 12, 43). The same process is evident inthe case of other older game songs in Estonia,which were also forgotten in the process ofthe modernization of society and a new waveof cultural influence from towns (Rtel1980). Records from the end of the 19 thcentury already describe it as an old-fashioned

game, which was not in use anymore. Most ofthe informants have been old people and thisis especially the case with the latest variantsdocumented in the 1950s. Thus, what canactually be seen is more of a static picture. Insome late cases, the song part makes no senseat all and the game part prevails. It isinteresting, however, that the game part,involving giving and taking pledges, persistseven after the song is lost and takes on theform of simple pledge-games, which have

been recorded in the Estonian FolkloreArchives in a much greater quantity than theKing Game itself. On the one hand, thisindicates the influence of new traditions andmotivations (the song part becomingirrelevant), and on the other hand, the vitalityof the pledge-giving (or the action part) showsits centrality to the game. Evidently, theaction must have been the glue that held thestructure together and gave sense to theelements so that institutions from distantcenturies can be linked to it today through thearchival sources.


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Notes1. In Estonian history, the end of prehistory and the

beginning of the Middle Ages is marked by militarycampaigns by German and Danish crusaders intothe territory of modern Estonia. Traditionally inhistoriography, these events are seen as the AncientStruggle for Freedom (Muistne vabadusvitlus),which took place between 12081227 and whichwas followed by the replacement of the native elitewith a new Dano-German (mainly German) elite. Ina broader regional perspective, these events were

part of the Livonian Crusades (11981290) or theeven wider Baltic Crusades that lasted from the 12 thcentury until the 15th century and encompassedPomerania, Prussia, Lithuania and Livonia. Theterms used for historical periods in this article will

be based on this chronology of Estonian history.2. In Estonian history, the Early Middle Ages signify

the 13th and 14th centuries. The Middle Ages as awhole start from 1227 and end with the outbreak ofthe Livonian War in 1558.

3. I am referring here to works done on the cognitiveresearch of variability in oral tradition, where oneof the main claims has been that instead ofmemorizing everything word-for-word there is amental structure in the mind of the performer whichis used to reproduce the text for individual

performances. (See Honko 1996; Pyysiinen 2000.)4. Sample texts can be found in Tedre 1999:

http://www.folklore.ee/laulud/erla/e55.htm#L4765.There are more historical sources starting from the

15th century, and judging from these, most of the

old local political structures had by then beenreplaced by newer models associated with theGerman elite.

Works CitedAriste, Paul. 1956. Lnemere keelte kujunemine ja

vanem arenemisjrk. In Eesti rahva etnilisestajaloost. Ed. H. Moora. Tallinn: Eesti RiiklikKirjastus. Pp. 540.

Bernhardt, J.W. 1993. Itinerant Kingship and RoyalMonasteries in Early Medieval Germany, c. 9361075. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life andThought (Series VI) 21. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press. Also available at:http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511562372

, .. (ed.). 2001. . In . -

: 2- . Scientific editor ... : -. Vol. II, p. 183.

Faherty, Robert L. The Ketuvim. In EncyclopediaBritannica. Available at:http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/64496/biblical-literature/73325/Daniel?anchor=ref597857

Gurjewitsch, Aron. 1989. Das Weltbild desmittelalterlichen Menschen. Mnchen: Beck.

Frog. 2012. The Parallax Approach: SituatingTraditions in Long-Term Perspective. In

Approaching Methodology. Ed. Frog & Pauliina

Latvala. RMN Newsletter 4. Helsinki: University ofHelsinki. Pp. 4059. Available at:http://www.helsinki.fi/folkloristiikka/English/RMN/RMNNewsletter_4_MAY_2012_Approaching_Methodology.pdf

Honko, Lauri. 1996. Introduction: Epics along the SilkRoads: Mental Text, Performance, and Written

Codification. Oral Tradition 11(1): 117.http://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/11i/5_introduction_11_1.pdf

Korhonen, Mikko. 1994. The Early History of theKalevala Metre. In Songs Beyond the Kalevala:Transformations of Oral Poetry. Ed. Anna-LeenaSiikala & Sinikka Vakimo. Studia FennicaFolkloristica 2. Helsinki: SuomalaisenKirjallisuuden Seura. Pp. 7587.

Kriiska, A., & A. Tvauri. 2002. Eesti muinasaeg.Tallinn: Avita

Kuusi, Matti. 1963. Varhaiskalevalainen runous. InSuomen KirjallisuusI. Ed. Matti Kuusi. Helsinki:

Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Otava. Pp. 129215.

Kuusi, Matti. 1994a.The Five Stylistic Periods ofAncient Kalevala Epic. In Mind and Form in

Folklore: Selected Articles. Ed. Henni Ilomki.Trans. Hildi Hawkins. Studia Fennica Folkloristica3. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. Pp.3749.

Kuusi, Matti. 1994b. Questions of the Kalevala Metre:What Exactly Did Kalevala Language Signify to ItsUsers?. In Songs Beyond the Kalevala:Transformations of Oral Poetry. Ed. Anna-LeenaSiikala & Sinikka Vakimo. Studia FennicaFolkloristica 2. Helsinki: SuomalaisenKirjallisuuden Seura. Pp. 4155.

Lang, Valter. 1996. Muistne Rvala: Muistised,kronoloogia ja maaviljelusliku asustuse kujunemine

Loode-Eestis, eriti Pirita je alamjooksu piirkonnasIII. Muinasaja Teadus 4. Tallinn: TeadusteAkadeemia Kirjastus.

Lang, Valter. 2006. Die Wacke im vorzeitlichen undmittelalterlichen Estland: Ein Beitrag zurErforschung der vorzeitlichen Bodennutzung unddes Steuersystems. Forschungen zur BaltischenGeschichte[1]: 728.

Ligi, Priit. 1995. hiskondlikest oludest Eesti alalhilispronksi- ja rauaajal. In Eesti arheoloogiahistoriograafilisi, teoreetilisi ja kultuuriajaloolisiaspekte. Ed. Valter Lang. Muinasaja Teadus 3.Tallinn: Teaduste Akadeemia Kirjastus. Pp. 182270.

Lintrop, Aado. 2006. Saateks: Kas regilaul onsurnud?. In Regilaul: Esitus ja tlgendus. Ed.Aado Lintrop. Tartu: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum. Pp.1114.

Mirov, Ruth. 1996. Older Estonian Song Games.Journal of the Baltic Institute of Folklore. Availableat:

http://www.folklore.ee/rl/pubte/ee/bif/bif1/sisu.htmlOdn, Birgitta. 1961. Gstning. Kulturhistoriskleksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingetid til
http://www.folklore.ee/laulud/erla/e55.htm#L476http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511562372http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511562372http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/64496/biblical-literature/73325/Daniel?anchor=ref597857http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/64496/biblical-literature/73325/Daniel?anchor=ref597857http://www.helsinki.fi/folkloristiikka/English/RMN/RMNNewsletter_4_MAY_2012_Approaching_Methodology.pdfhttp://www.helsinki.fi/folkloristiikka/English/RMN/RMNNewsletter_4_MAY_2012_Approaching_Methodology.pdfhttp://www.helsinki.fi/folkloristiikka/English/RMN/RMNNewsletter_4_MAY_2012_Approaching_Methodology.pdfhttp://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/11i/5_introduction_11_1.pdfhttp://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/11i/5_introduction_11_1.pdfhttp://www.folklore.ee/rl/pubte/ee/bif/bif1/sisu.htmlhttp://www.folklore.ee/rl/pubte/ee/bif/bif1/sisu.htmlhttp://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/11i/5_introduction_11_1.pdfhttp://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/11i/5_introduction_11_1.pdfhttp://www.helsinki.fi/folkloristiikka/English/RMN/RMNNewsletter_4_MAY_2012_Approaching_Methodology.pdfhttp://www.helsinki.fi/folkloristiikka/English/RMN/RMNNewsletter_4_MAY_2012_Approaching_Methodology.pdfhttp://www.helsinki.fi/folkloristiikka/English/RMN/RMNNewsletter_4_MAY_2012_Approaching_Methodology.pdfhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/64496/biblical-literature/73325/Daniel?anchor=ref597857http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/64496/biblical-literature/73325/Daniel?anchor=ref597857http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511562372http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511562372http://www.folklore.ee/laulud/erla/e55.htm#L476


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reformationstid VI. Ed. Allan Karker. Kbenhavn:Rosenkilde og Bagger. Pp. 14.

Pldme, Rudolf. 1940. Rootsi aja kajastus Eestirahvamlestustes. In Eesti ajalugu III. Ed. HansKruus. Tartu: Eesti Kirjanduse Selts. Pp. 398408.

Pyysiinen, Ilkka. 2000. Variation from a CognitivePerspective. In Thick Corpus, Organic Variation

and Textuality in Oral Tradition. Ed. Lauri Honko.Studia Fennica Folkloristica 7. Helsinki: FinnishLiterature Society.

Russow, Balthasar. 1967 [1584]. Chronica derProvintz Lyfflandt.Hannover-Dhren: Hirschheydt

Rtel, Ingrid. 1980. Eesti uuemad laulumngud 1:Kogumik.Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.

Siig, Kristo. 2012. Kuningamng kui kultuurifossiil:Uurimus he laulumngu seostest muinas- javarakeskaegse hiskonnakorraldusega. Seminar

paper. Available in the library of the Department ofEstonian and Comparative Folkloristics of TartuUniversity and in the digital repository of electronic

materials of Tartu University (Dspace):http://dspace.utlib.ee/dspace/bitstream/handle/10062/26859/ST_Siig.pdf?sequence=1

Sundqvist, Olof. 2002.Freyrs Offspring: Rulers andReligion in Ancient Svea Society. Uppsala: ActaUniversitatis Upsaliensis

Tedre, . (ed.) 1999. Eesti rahvalaulud: Antoloogia.

Web publication. Tartu: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum.Available at:http://www.folklore.ee/laulud/erla/

Vissel, Anu. 2004.Lasteprimus muutuvas hiskonnas.Ars Musicae Popularis 15. Tartu: EestiKirjandusmuuseum. Available at:http://dspace.utlib.ee/dspace/bitstream/handle/10062/1042/vissel.pdf?sequence=5

Wiedemann, F. J. 1876. Aus dem inneren undusseren Leben der Ehsten. St. Petersburg:Keiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften.Available at:http://www.folklore.ee/rl/pubte/ee/vanad/aiale/

On the Case of VambarljI: Comments on Formulaicity in the sagnakviFrog, University of Helsinki

In the last issue of RMN Newsletter, Haukurorgeirsson (2012) presented a case study of

probable and possible formulaic language inthe poem Vambarlj. Vambarlj is one ofthe sagnakvi [folktale poems], a

neglected poetic narrative genre that exhibitsa potential continuity of meter and poeticsystem from Old Norse so-called eddic

poetry. orgeirsson focuses oncorrespondences in other poetry and early

prose recorded in Iceland (primarily) since the13th century, taking particular interest in theoccurrence of formulaic language acrossdifferent sagnakvi and across poetry ofdifferent periods and of different meters. Hisstudy presents a number of valuable

observations and makes accessible allexamples reviewed in his data. This providesa valuable foundation for the furtherdiscussion and exploration of this tradition.

The present two-part article engagesorgeirssons work in dialogue on the basis ofdata and analyses of 55 potential formulaeorganized there into four catego

RMNNewsletter 5 Dec 2012

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