VepKar :: Collections

Collections

Veps lamentations

Ritual lamentations are considered to be one of the most ancient genres of Veps song folklore, as well as one of the most developed types of oral poetic tradition. Within the genre, three local traditions can be distinguished: Northern Veps, Central Veps and Southern Veps. In the past, being an integral part of the rituals of the family cycle, lamentations accompanied the main stages of the wedding and funeral rites. The text of the ceremonial lamentation is created using traditional formulas and expressive means specific for the Veps language.

The corpus contains texts of lamentations from the phonogram archive of the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in three dialects of the Veps language, coinciding with local traditions.

Karelian Runes

Karelian runes are folklore works of runic ("Kalevala") metrics, passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. Runic poetry is a vast area of ​​Karelian folklore, which is divided into different genres: epic, lyrical, incantatory, wedding, cumulative and others.

Karelian runes contain information about the religious and mythological ideas, way of life and ritual practice of the Karelians. They existed throughout the territory of the settlement of the ethnic group. Variants of Karelian runes, recorded mainly in the 1st half of the 19th century, formed the basis of the world-famous poem "Kalevala" by E. Lönnrot, thanks to which the runic talent of the Karelian people is generally recognized today.

This collection contains previously published versions of Karelian runes of various genres.

Karelian Legends

Historical legends are oral prose narratives about the events of the distant past, small in volume. They are told with an emphasis on authenticity, based on historical realities, but at the same time they cannot serve as proof of a historical fact, since along with real events, elements of fiction are revealed in them.

This collection of Karelian historical legends is the first attempt at a comprehensive presentation of historical prose texts written down from the Karelians in the Karelian language. The texts were found in the Scientific Archive of the Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Phonogram Archive of the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as in published sources.

The texts of historical legends are divided into cycles (plot-thematic groups). The presence of a toponymic motive is especially noted, which, combined with other motives, can occupy a central or peripheral place in the historical legend.