"Kui mina noorelt mängisin" folkloristlik analüüs Eesti Rahvaluule Arhiivi allikate põhjal

Abstract

When I was young and played”: a folkloristic analysis on the basis of the sources from The Estonian Folklore Archives. The aim of this BA thesis is to get an overview of the newer end-rhyme warsongs titled „When I was young and played“. My purpose is to explore what the folk song expresses, how it has changed in time and to which kind of historical events is the song connected. The analysis is based on 64 songs from The Estonian Folklore Archive. I have also analysed the information I could find about the specific war song from fieldwork diaries, the travel letters and letters accompanying the materials of folklore researchers, as well as their reports. The research is divided into two parts. The first part analyses archival sources that provide information about the singing tradition. I draw on folkloristic studies in Estonian that discuss the development of folkloristic studies and the discipline. In addition, the thesis gives an overview of the changes in the methods of folkloristic field work and the ways it has affected the material, e.g. fieldwork diaries and reports. On the basis of the comments, I analyse the song “When I was young and played” – focusing on the years in which the war songs were collected and the specific parishes. The thesis also analyses how folklore has spread among people – i.e. in writing through handwritten notebooks of songs or orally. Likewise, the analysis also clarifies to which historical event the song “When I was young and played” is connected. The second part concentrates on a comparative analysis of the war song texts. The analysis is divided into three chapters. In the first, on the basis of Eduard Laugaste’s analysis method, I follow the plot of the song and divide the texts into topic sections. The chapter describesthe seven topic sections and shows how the plot is presented throughout the aforementioned parts. Furthermore, the chapter outlines how much the topic sectionsvary. The second chapter follows the methodology of Senni Timonen’s analysis method. The chapter analyses how the event in the song is presented throughout the topic sections: whether the song embodies the singer’s dreams and fantasy or the event is communicated through facts. The third chapter discusses how the songs have changed in time. The analysis showed that the time when the songs were written down (which can be viewed in the Estonian Folklore Archives as well) is connected to the variations in song texts, and it became evident that the trends of change are remarkably chronological. In conclusion it can be said that the song “When I was young and played” belongs to the category of war lyricism. The song mainly expresses the singer’s thoughts and feelings, even though the events in the song are communicated via facts. The war song is not only connected to the Russo-Turkish war (1877–1878), but has also emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, during revolutions and World War I.