Modern runosinging in Karelia and Finland
https://doi.org/10.22394/2412-9410-2025-11-1-130-153
Abstract
The article examines the current state of the runosinging tradition in Karelia and Finland. The objectives of the study include examining issues of performers’ motivation, strategies for selecting and memorizing material, the nature of the repertoire, the features and difficulties of the modern performance, the involvement of the state in performance practices, and the connections between the old and the new traditions of runosinging. Based on the material of semi-structured interviews in 2024 with eight performers of epic runes, and taking into account personal observations and the results of the author’s expedition trips to different districts of the Republic of Karelia in 2007–2023, the totality of storytelling practices of 21st century runosingers was studied. Today, Karelian epic runes do not exist among the people, but they continue to live in the stage format. There is a tradition of transferring performing arts skills from the older to the younger (from mother to child), from a teacher/master to a student. The epic repertoire of the performers goes back, in addition to the «Kalevala», also to the texts of scholarly collections, archival on their basis. There is a significant difference in the development of modern runosinging in Karelia and Finland in favor of the latter. It was not possible to identify any special role of the state in the development of modern runosinging.
Keywords
runosinging,
runosinger,
current state,
Karelia,
Finland,
epic,
«Kalevala»,
state,
storytelling,
, performing practices
Supporting agencies: The article was prepared as part of the planned research topic of the Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
About the Author
M. V. Kundozerova
Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Maria Vladimirovna Kundozerova, Cand. Sci. (Philology) Researcher, Folklore and Literary Studies Sector (with phonogram archive)
185910, Republic of Karelia, Petrozavodsk, Pushkinskaya Str., 11
References
1. Asplund, A. (2006). Kansanmusiikin paluu. In A. Asplund, P. Hoppu, H. Laitinen, T. Leisiö, H. Saha, & S. Westerholm (Eds.). Kansanmusiikki (pp. 506–523). Werner Söderström.
2. Briggs, Ch., & Bauman R. (1992). Genre, intertextuality, and social power. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 2(2), 131–172.
3. Dundes, A. (1969). The devolutionary premise in folklore theory. Journal of the Folklore Institute, 6(1), 5–19.
4. Enäjärvi-Haavio, E. (1949). Pankame käsi kätehen: Suomalaisten kansanrunojen esittämistavoista. Werner Söderström.
5. Haapoja, H. (2017). Ennen saatuja sanoja: Menneisyys, nykyisyys ja kalevalamittainen runolaulu nykykansanmusiikin kentällä (Dissertation, University of Helsinki).
6. Haavio, M. (1943). Viimeiset runonlaulajat. Werner Söderström.
7. Honko, L. (1990). Folkloreprosessi. Sananjalka, 32, 93–122.
8. Huttu-Hiltunen, P. (2008). Länsivienalainen runolaulu 1900-luvulla. Kuuden runolaulajan laulutyylin kulttuurisensitiivinen musiikkianalyysi. Juminkeko.
9. Ivanova, L. I. (2021). Belomorskaia Kareliia v biografiiakh karel’skikh skazitelei XIX veka [The White Sea Karelia through the biographies of the nineteenth-century Karelian taletellers]. Uchenye zapiski Petrozavodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 43(7), 97–106. https://doi.org/10.15393/uchz.art.2021.672. (In Russian).
10. Ivanova, L. I., & Mironova, V. P. (2023). Karel’skie runy kak ob”ekt nematerial’nogo kul’turnogo dostoianiia: traditsionnye i sovremennye formy populiarizatsii zhanra [Karelian rune songs as intangible cultural heritage: Traditional and modern forms of popularizing the genre]. Traditsionnaia kul’tura, 24(3), 11–22. https://doi.org/10.26158/ТК.2023.24.3.001. (In Russian).
11. Kundozerova, M. V. (2020). Kontsept mirozdaniia v karel’skikh runakh [The concept of the universe in Karelian runes]. Kundozerova M. V. (In Russian).
12. Kundozerova, M. V. (2022). Baza dannykh “Karel’skie runy”: ideia sozdaniia, kontseptsiia, perspektivy [Database Karelian Runes: Idea of creation, concept, prospects]. Al’manakh severoevropeiskikh i baltiiskikh issledovanii, 7, 233–240. https://nbsr.petrsu.ru/journal/article.php?id=2386&ysclid=m23m8hehjn623486020. https://doi.org/10.15393/j103.art.2022.2386. (In Russian).
13. Kundozerova, M. (2022). Epic poetry of the Karelian people: cosmogonic motifs. Studies on Cultures along the Silk Road, 3, 1–23.
14. Kundozerova, M. V. (2023). Siuzhetno-motivnyi sostav run Matveia Korgueva v kontekste karel’skoi epicheskoi poezii [Plots and motifs of Matvey Korguev’s runosongs in the context of Karelian epic tradition]. Studia Litterarum, 8(3), 232–255. https://doi.org/10.22455/2500-4247-2023-8-3-232-255. (In Russian).
15. Mironova, V. P. (2017). Karel’skie runopevtsy: k voprosu o sozdanii elektronnogo resursa [Karelian runosingers: on the issue of creating an electronic resource]. In A. V. Pigin, & I. V. Mel’nikov (Eds.). Kizhskii vestnik (Vol. 17, pp. 229–234). KarNTs RAN. (In Russian).
16. Mironova, V. (2022). Nominatsiia zhenikha i nevesty v karel’skikh svadebnykh runakh [Naming of the bride and groom in Karelian wedding songs using the Kalevala Metre]. Linguistica Uralica, 58(1), 27–34. https://dx.doi.org/10.3176/lu.2022.1.03. (In Russian).
17. Mironova, V. P. (2023). Fol’klornyi obraz Petra I v kontekste karel’skoi epicheskoi traditsii [Folkloristic image of Peter the Great in the context of the Karelian epic tradition]. Eposovedenie, 2023(1), 5–13. https://doi.org/10.25587/SVFU.2023.89.35.001. (In Russian).
18. Mochalova, M. A. (2022). Epicheskaia poema “Kalevala” i traditsiia runopeniia v diskurse naslediia i praktikakh ego sokhraneniia [The “Kalevala” epic poem and the tradition of runosong in the heritage discourse and safeguarding practices]. Ural’skii istoricheskii vestnik, 2022(3, no. 76), 65–73. https://doi.org/10.30759/1728-9718-2022-3(76)-65-73. (In Russian).
19. Niemi, A. R. (1921). Vienan läänin runonlaulajat ja tietäjät. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.
20. Petrov, N. V. (2020). Posle “traditsii”: oskolki russkogo eposa [After ‘tradition’. Shards of ‘Russian’ epos]. In Е. Е. Levkievskaya, N. V. Petrov, & O. B. Khristoforova (Eds.). “Oskolki” v traditsii (pp. 122–135). Neolith. (In Russian).
21. Petrov, N. V. (2023). Epicheskie skaziteli: stsenarii obreteniia masterstva [Singers of epic tales. Scenarios of gaining mastery]. Vestnik RGGU. Ser. Literaturovedenie. Iazykoznanie. Kul’turologiia, 2003(4), 100–116. https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2023-4-100-116. (In Russian).
22. Shvetsova, V. A. (2022). Traditsionnye muzykal’no-fol’klornye zhanry svad’by severnykh karelov: obriadovyi kontekst i strukturnye osobennosti [Traditional musical and folk genres of the wedding of northern Karelians: ritual context and structural features] (Cand. Sci. (Art Studies) Diss., State Institute for Art Studies). (In Russian).
23. Siikala, A.-L. (2012). Itämerensuomalaisten mytologia. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran toimituksia.
24. Silvonen, V., & Kallio, K. (2023). Tradition and ownership. Disputes about Karelian laments in Finland. Approaching Religion, 13(3), 40–59. https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.131229.
25. Stepanova, A. S. (1989). Epicheskie pesni Iuzhnoi Karelii [Epic songs of South Karelia]. In N. A. Krinichnaia, & E. S. Kiuru (Eds.). Fol’kloristika Karelii (pp. 48–81) (n. p.). (In Russian).
26. Vester, L., & Vester-Mäkinen, T. (2004). Etähäll’ on emoñi: Johannes (Jussi) Huovisen elämäntyö. Myllylahti.
27. Virtanen, L. (1968). Kalevalainen laulutapa Karjalassa. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.
Review
For citations:
Kundozerova M.V. Modern runosinging in Karelia and Finland. Shagi / Steps. 2025;11(1):130-153. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22394/2412-9410-2025-11-1-130-153
Views:
90
Email this article 