Oral and Literary Culture in the Medieval and Early Modern Baltic Sea Region (2011–2015)

This project concentrated on the interactions of oral and literary culture around the Baltic Sea - in particular in Finland, Estonia, Karelia and Ingria - from 1200 to 1700. The interdisciplinary research project will make use of folklore, literary studies, communications, and network research as well as ideological and social historical concepts.

New religious poetics, registers and musical aesthetics in hymns, discourse on ‘paganism’ and ‘ungodly’ beliefs of the common people by the early reformers, ethnic divisions in learned literature and the afterlife of Catholic Saints’ cult in Lutheran folklore and multilingual correspondence around late medieval and early modern Baltic Sea were studied with cross-disciplinary cooperation between scholars of folklore and history. Learned literate world and oral folk cultures shared same basic assumptions of enchanted reality, despite diverging views of how the supra-normal phenomena should be approached. Neither poetic ideals were simply borrowed and established above but various languages, poetics and song-cultures influenced on each other. Many different hybrid modes of poetic expression like mixing non-strophic alliterative Kalevala metric poetry with rhymes and strophic poetry were created.

The project had three areas of focus:

  • Assimilation and textualisation of vernacular and religious traditions
  • Oral and written traditions and linguistic registers of interaction
  • Communicative networks of the Baltic Sea region

See full description of the publications, progress and results below.

Research Group

  • Responsible Director: Adjunct professor, Secretary General Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen
  • Researchers: Irma-Riitta Järvinen (Folklore), Linda Kaljundi (History), Kati Kallio (Folklore), Ilkka Leskelä (Social History), Senni Timonen (Folklore)
  • See full list of the publications and the progress of the project below.
  • See full list of the publications and the progress of the project below.

See: Lehtonen, Tuomas M. S. and Kaljundi, Linda (eds.), Re-forming Texts, music, and Church Art in the Early Modern North, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2016, 482 p.

 

Publications

Publications credited for the project are listed first:  34 publications of which 23 peer-reviewed articles or chapters (20 published, 3 accepted or submitted, 13 international marked with *), 5 peer-reviewed books (3 published, 2 submitted, 3 international marked with *), 4 non-reviewed scientific publications (published), 2 PhD theses.

Number of all publications: 87 of which in addition to the above mentioned 8 peer-reviewed articles or chapters (5 published, 3 submitted, 3 international marked with *), 2 peer-reviewed books (published, 1 international marked with *), 11 non-reviewed scientific publications (published), 31 publications intended for general public (published).

List of publications credited for the project:

A. Peer-reviewed scientific articles and chapters:

  1. Järvinen, Irma-Riitta (submitted), Finnish Saints’ Traditions and Folklore. In Saints and Sanctity around the Baltic, eds. Carsten Selch Jensen,  Kurt Villads Jensen, Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen, Nils Holger Petersen, Tracey Sands. Milton Park, Abingdon: Francis & Taylor.*
  2. Järvinen, Irma-Riitta, Transformations of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Finnish Vernacular Poetry and Rituals. In Re-forming Texts, Music, and Church Art in the Early Modern North, eds. Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen & Linda Kaljundi. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2016, pp. 421—447.*
  3. Järvinen, Irma-Riitta, Provider of Prosperity. The Image of St Anne in Finnish and Karelian Folklore. In The Performance of Christian and Pagan Story-worlds. Non-canonical Chapters of the History of Nordic Medieval Literature, eds. Lars Boje Mortensen & Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen, with Alexandra Bergholm. Turnhout: Brepols. 2013, pp. 273—293.*
  4. Kaljundi, Linda, Expanding communities: Henry of Livonia on the making of a Christian colony, early thirteenth century. In Imagined Communities on the Baltic Rim, 11th – 15th Centuries, eds. Wojtek Jezierski, Lars Hermanson, Auður Magnúsdóttir . Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2016, pp. 191—221.*
  5. Kaljundi, Linda, From pagans to peasants: Ethnic and social boundaries in early modern Livonia. In Re-forming Text, Music, and Church Art in the Early Modern North, eds. Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen & Linda Kaljundi. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2016, 357—392.*
  6. Kaljundi, Linda, Challenging Expansions: Estonian Viking Novels and the Politics of Memory in the 1930s’. In Novels, Histories, Novel Nations: Historical Fiction and Cultural Memory in Finland and Estonia, eds. Eneken Laanes, Ilona Pikkanen and Linda Kaljundi. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society 2015, pp. 182–207.
  7. Kaljundi, Linda, together with Laanes, Eneken and Pikkanen, Ilona, Preface. In Novels, Histories, Novel Nations: Historical Fiction and Cultural Memory in Finland and Estonia, eds. Eneken Laanes, Ilona Pikkanen and Linda Kaljundi. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society 2015, pp. 8–25.
  8. Kaljundi, Linda together with Laanes, Eneken and Pikkanen, Ilona, Introduction: Finnish and Estonian Historical Fiction and Cultural Memory. In Novels, Histories, Novel Nations: Historical Fiction and Cultural Memory in Finland and Estonia, eds. Eneken Laanes, Ilona Pikkanen and Linda Kaljundi. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society 2015, pp. 26–76.
  9. Kaljundi, Linda, Väljatung kui väljakutse. Eesti viikingiromaanid ja mälupoliitika 1930. aastatel. [Challenging expansions: Estonian Viking novels and the politics of memory in the 1930s].In Keel ja Kirjandus 8–9, 2013, pp. 623–644.
  10. Kaljundi, Linda together with Laanes, Eneken, Eesti ajalooromaani poeetika ja poliitika. Sissejuhatuseks [The poetics and politics of Estonian historical fiction: Introduction]. In Keel ja Kirjandus 8–9, 2013, pp. 561–578.
  11. Kaljundi, Linda, (Re)Performing the Past: Crusading, History Writing and Rituals in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. In Uncanonical Chapters of the History of Nordic Medieval Literature, eds. Lars Boje Mortensen and Tuomas M.S. Lehtonen with Alexandra Bergholm. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013, pp. 295–338.*
  12. Kallio, Kati, Changes in the Poetics of Song during the Finnish Reformation. In Re-forming Text, Music, and Church Art in the Early Modern North, eds. Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen & Linda Kaljundi. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2016, pp. 125—155.*
  13. Kallio, Kati, Multimodal Register and Performance Arena in Ingrian Oral Poetry. In Registers of Communication, eds. Asif Agha & Frog, Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society 2015, pp. 322—335.
  14. Kallio, Kati, Oppineiden kalevalamitta ja suulliset kulttuurit uuden ajan alun Suomessa. In Elore (ISNN 1456-3010), vol. 22-1/2015, www.elore.fi/arkisto/1_15/kallio.pdf,  pp. 1–30 Kalevala-metre in learned world and oral cultures in early modern Finland]
  15. Kallio, Kati , Launis, inkeriläinen runolaulu ja Kullervon venäläinen tausta. In Musiikki-lehti 44(3—4), ed. Juha Ojala, Liisa-Maija Hautsalo, 2015, pp. 5–25. [Armas Launis, Ingrian rune-song and Russian Kullervo]
  16. Kallio, Kati (accepted), Inkerikkojen runolaulu. In Inkerikot, setut, vatjalaiset, ed. Lassi Saressalo. Helsinki: SKS (submitted).
  17. Kallio, Kati (accepted), Inkerikkojen proosaperinteistä. In Inkerikot, setut, vatjalaiset, ed. Lassi Saressalo. Helsinki: SKS (submitted).
  18. Lehtonen, Tuomas M. S. & Kaljundi, Linda, Introduction. In Re-forming Texts, Music, and Church Art in the Early Modern North, eds. Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen & Linda Kaljundi. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2016, pp. 21—40.*
  19. Lehtonen, Tuomas M. S., Pious Hymns and Devil’s Music: Michael Agricola (c. 1507-1557) and Jacobus Finno (c. 1540-1588) on Church Song and Folk Beliefs. In Re-forming Texts, Music, and Church Art in the Early Modern Nort:, eds. Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen & Linda Kaljundi. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2016, pp. 179—216.*
  20. Lehtonen, Tuomas M. S. together with Mortensen, Lars Boje, Introduction: What is Nordic Medieval Literature? In, The Performance of Christian and Pagan Storyworlds. Non-Canonical Chapters of the History of Nordic Medieval Literature. Medieval Identities in Socio-Cultural Spaces, eds. Lars Boje Mortensen & Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen, with Alexandra Bergholm. Turnhout: Brepols 2013, pp. 1—27.*
  21. Lehtonen, Tuomas M. S., Spoken, Written and Performed in Latin and Vernacular Cultures from Middle Ages to the Early 17th Century: Ramus virens olivarum. In, The Performance of Christian and Pagan Storyworlds. Non-Canonical Chapters of the History of Nordic Medieval Literature. Medieval Identities in Socio-Cultural Spaces, eds. Lars Boje Mortensen & Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen, with Alexandra Bergholm. Turnhout: Brepols 2013, pp.67—87.*
  22. Leskelä, Ilkka, Trade, travel, communication: Culture imports in the late medieval Baltic periphery. In Re-forming Texts, Music, and Church Art in the Early Modern North, eds. Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen & Linda Kaljundi. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2016, pp. 69—96.*
  23. Timonen, Senni, ’She was fulfilled, she was filled by it’: a Karelian popular song of St Mary and the Conception of Christ. In The performance of Christian and pagan storyworlds: non-canonical chapters of the history of Nordic medieval literature, eds. Lars Boje Mortensen, Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen, with Alexandra Bergholm, Turnhout: Brepols, 2013, pp. 389—432.*

 

B. Non-reviewed scientific articles, review articles and other research-related publications:

  1. Järvinen, Irma-Riitta, Studying the transformations of medieval hagiography in folklore: St Katherine of Alexandria. In Folklore Fellows´ Network 41, 2011, p. 14.
  2. Kallio, Kati, Ave Maria! In Folklore Fellows Network 43, 2013, p.18.
  3. Lehtonen, Tuomas M. S., Suvivirsi. In Maailman paras maa, ed. Anu Koivunen. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura 2012, pp. 224—246.  [Summerhymn. In The Best Country of the World].
  4. Lehtonen, Tuomas M. S., Mikä pitää koossa folkloristiikkaa? In Elore (ISNN 1456-3010), vol. 20-2/2013, pp. 77—93. http://www.elore.fi/arkisto/2_13/lehtonen.pdf [What holds folkloristics together?]

 

C. Peer-reviewed scientific books

  1. Kaljundi, Linda together with Laanes, Eneken and Pikkanen, Ilona (eds.), Novels, Histories, Novel Nations: Historical Fiction and Cultural Memory in Finland and Estonia. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society 2015. 344 p.
  2. Kallio, Kati, Lehtonen, Tuomas M. S., Timonen, Senni, Järvinen, Irma-Riitta, Leskelä, Ilkka, Laulut ja kirjoitukset, rahvas ja oppineet: Suullinen ja kirjallinen kulttuuri uuden ajan alun Suomessa. Helsinki: SKS [Songs and writings, commoners and learned: Oral and literary culture in the Early Modern Finland] (submitted).
  3. Lehtonen, Tuomas M. S.  together with Jensen, Carsten Selch, Jensen, Kurt Villads, Petersen, Nils Holger, Sands, Tracey (eds.), Saints and Sanctity around the Baltic, Milton Park, Abingdon: Francis & Taylor (submitted).*
  4. Lehtonen, Tuomas M. S. and Kaljundi, Linda (eds.), Re-forming Texts, music, and Church Art in the Early Modern North, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2016, 482 p.*
  5. Lehtonen, Tuomas M. S. together with Mortensen, Lars Boje and Bergholm, Alexandra, Uncanonical Chapters of the History of Nordic Medieval Literature, eds. Lars Boje Mortensen and Tuomas M.S. Lehtonen with Alexandra Bergholm. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013. 448 p.*

 

D. Theses

  1. Kallio, Kati, Laulamisen tapoja. Esitysareena, rekisteri ja paikallinen laji länsi-inkeriläisessä kalevalamittaisessa runossa. Doctoral dissertation. eThesis, Helsinki: Helsinki University 2013. 488 p. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-10-9566-5. [Ways of Singing. Performance arena, register and local genre in West-Ingrian oral poetry]
  2. Kaljundi, Linda, Baltic crusades and the culture of memory: Studies on historical representation, rituals and recollection of the past. Article-based doctoral dissertation Helsinki: University of Helsinki. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:ISBN 978-951-51-1874-5

 

List of other publications of the project members during the project:

A. Peer-reviewed scientific articles or chapters:

  1. Järvinen, Irma-Riitta and Timonen, Senni, Pyhän Henrikin tiellä – mitä “kansan muisti” kertoo? In Kun maailma aukeni. Näkökulmia suomalaisten pyhiinvaelluksiin, eds. Sari Katajala-Peltomaa, Christian Krötzl & Marjo Meriluoto-Jaakkola, Helsinki: SKS 2014, pp. 321–339. [On the road of St Henry: what does folk memory tell?]
  2. Järvinen, Irma-Riitta (accepted), Inkerikkojen kansanomainen uskonto. In Inkerikot, setut, vatjalaiset, ed. Lassi Saressalo. Helsinki: SKS (submitted). [Vernacular Religion of Izhors]
  3. Järvinen, Irma-Riitta (accepted), Viron Inkeri 1930-luvulla – elävä museo? In Inkerikot, setut, vatjalaiset, ed. Lassi Saressalo. Helsinki: SKS (submitted). [Estonian Ingria in the 1930´s – a living museum?]
  4. Kaljundi, Linda together with Tamm, Marek and Jensen, Cartsen Selch, Preface. In Crusading and Chronicle Writing on the Medieval Baltic Frontier: A Companion to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, eds. Marek Tamm, Linda Kaljundi and Carsten Selch Jensen. Farnhamn: Ashgate, 2012, pp. xvii–xxv.*
  5. Kaljundi, Linda together with Kļaviņš, Kaspars, The Chronicler and the Modern World: Henry of Livonia and the Baltic Crusades in the Enlightenment and National Traditions. In Crusading and Chronicle Writing on the Medieval Baltic Frontier: A Companion to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, eds. Marek Tamm, Linda Kaljundi and Carsten Selch Jensen. Farnhamn: Ashgate, 2011, pp. 409–456.*
  6. Kallio, Kati, Interperformative Relationships in Ingrian Oral Poetry. In Oral Tradition 25(2), 2014, pp. 391–427. http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/25ii/kallio *
  7. Timonen, Senni together with Knuuttila, Seppo, Vuorten myytit ja mytologiat – esimerkkejä Itä-Suomesta ja Karjalasta. In Ympäristömytologia, eds. Seppo Knuuttila & Ulla Piela. Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja 93, Helsinki: SKS 2014, pp. 109—119.  [Mountain myths and mythologies in Eastern Finland and Karelia].
  8. Timonen, Senni (accepted), Pyhien laulujen sanomaa. In Inkerikot, setut, vatjalaiset, ed. Lassi Saressalo. Helsinki: SKS 2015. [Ingrian holy songs]

 

B. Non-reviewed scientific articles, review articles and other research-related publications:

  1. Järvinen, Irma-Riitta & Timonen, Senni, Salmin kansanperinne [‘Folklore in the Parish of Salmi’]. In Rajoil ja randamil: Salmi ja salmilaiset 1617–1948 [‘On borders and shores: Salmi and its people 1617–1948’]. Ed. by Jukka Kokkonen. Kuopio: Salmi-säätiö. pp. 527—576.
  2. Kaljundi, Linda, Performatiivne pööre [‘Performative Turn’]. In Humanitaarteaduste metodoloogia: Uusi väljavaateid [‘Methodologies in Humanities: New Perspectives’], ed. Marek Tamm. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2011, pp. 128–149.
  3. Kaljundi, Linda together with Juhan Kreem, Tiina-Mall Kreem, Ain Mäesalu, Inna Põltsam-Jürjo, Friedrich Ludwig von Maydelli pildid Baltimaade ajaloost Friedrich Ludwig von Maydells baltische Geschichte in Bildern / Friedrich Ludwig von Maydell’s Baltic History in Images. Tallinn: Art Museum of Estonia 2013. 287 p.
  4. Kallio, Kati, Tulkintoja kerääjän kokemuksista: Armas Launis, runosävelmät ja Inkeri. In Regilaulu müüdid ja ideoloogiad. Eesti rahvaluule arhiivi toimetused 29.  Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum 2012, pp. 147–177. http://www.folklore.ee/regilaul/kogumik2012/kallio.pdf [Interpretations on collector’s experiences: Armas Launis rune-melodies and Ingria]
  5. Kallio, Kati,  A. O. Väisänen Kullervon mailla 1914. In Taide, tiede, tulkinta: kirjoituksia A. O. Väisäsestä, eds. Ulla Piela, Seppo Knuuttila ja Risto Blomster. Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja 90. Helsinki: SKS 2011, pp. 120–135. [A. O. Väisänen in the land of Kullervo 1914]
  6. Kallio, Kati, Julius and Kaarle Krohn Anniversary Symposium, Helsinki, 6 September, 2013. In Folklore Fellows Network 44, 2014, pp. 25–27.
  7. Lehtonen, Tuomas M. S., Tieteellinen kustantaminen ja tieteen sisällöt. In Tieteessä tapahtuu 28:8, 2011, pp.1-2. http://ojs.tsv.fi/index.php/tt/article/view/4636/4348 [Scientific publishing and the contents of science]
  8. Timonen, Senni, Kanna korppi kaihoani. Toivo kansanrunoudessa. In Sairaus ja toivo, eds. Risto Pelkonen, Matti O. Huttunen, Kaija Saarelma, 252–259. Helsinki: Duodecim, 2013. [Carry crow my longing: Hope in folk poetry]
  9. Timonen, Senni together with Knuuttila, Seppo, Havainnonmukainen ja myyttinen taivas. In Korkea taivas, eds. Yrjö Sepänmaa, Liisa Heikkilä-Palo and Virpi Kaukio. Helsinki: Maahenki, 2012, pp. 101—114. [Perceived and mythical heaven]
  10. Timonen, Senni, Kalevalaiset hävyttömät laulut. In Sommelon säikeitä. Runolaulu-Akatemian seminaarijulkaisu 2009-2010,  eds. Pekka Huttu-Hiltunen, Janne Seppänen, Frog, Eila Stepanova, Riikka Nevalainen. Kuhmo: Juminkeko, 2011, pp. 11—31. [Impudent Kalevala songs]
  11. Timonen, Senni, Sävel, virzi, ihminen: Suojärven kalevalaisesta kulttuurista. In Omal mual – vierahal mual: Suojärven historia 3, ed. Tapio Hämynen. Nurmes: Suojärven pitäjäseura, 2011, pp. 395—421. [Melody, virzi, human: Kalevala culture in Suojärvi]

 

C. Peer-reviewed scientific books

  1. Kaljundi, Linda together with Tamm, Marek and Jensen, Carsten Selch, Crusading and Chronicle Writing on the Medieval Baltic Frontier: A Companion to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. Farnhamn: Ashgate, 2012. 484 p.*
  2. Kaljundi, Linda together with Tiina Kala, Juhan Kreem, Ivar Leimus, Kersti Markus, Anu Mänd, Inna Põltsam-Jürjo, Erki Russow, Anti Selart, Marek Tamm, Heiki Valk, Eesti ajalugu II: Eesti keskaeg [‘Estonian History II: The Estonian Middle Ages’]. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Ajaloo ja arheoloogia Instituut, 2012. 456 p.

 

D. Publications intended for general public linked to research

  1. Järvinen, Irma-Riitta, Aleksandrian pyhä Katariina Suomessa. In Hiidenkivi 6/2011, pp.36—37. [St Catherine of Alexandria in Finland]
  2. Järvinen, Irma-Riitta, Ortodoksisen Karjalan kansanomainen uskonnollisuus ja kansanusko. – www.karjalansivistysseura.fi/main. 2011 [Folk religion and beliefs in Orthodox Karelia]
  3. Kallio, Kati, Länsi-inkeriläinen runolaulu. In Inkeriläisten viesti 1/2014, pp. 10–11. [West Ingrian rune-song.]
  4. Timonen, Senni: Runolaulu. – www.karjalansivistysseura.fi/main. 2011. [Kalevala-metric singing]

 

Vähäisiä lisiä –blogit (ISSN 2341-7285), http://www.finlit.fi/blogi/ [The Finnish Literature Society blog-site]:

  1. Kallio, Kati, Pyhät kirjat 25.2.2014. [Holy books]
  2. Kallio, Kati, Vihreä puutarhani 18.3.2014. [My green garden]
  3. Kallio, Kati, Väinämöinen virret takoi - mitä teki Agricola? 8.4.2014 [Väinämöinen forged the songs – What did Agricola?]
  4. Kallio, Kati, Runo, rytmi ja toisto 23.5.2014 [Poem, rhythm and repetition]
  5. Kallio, Kati, Kauniissa joukoss! 28.5.2014 [In the beautiful crowd]
  6. Kallio, Kati, Karjasoitto 30.6.2014 [Cattle music]
  7. Kallio, Kati, Kirjoittamaton kirjallisuus 19.9.2014 [Oral literature]
  8. La miä rupian tuulettelomaa niitä tulenpalavaisii tuskahuisii 26.9.2014 [On the language of Karelian laments]
  9. Kallio, Kati, Kalevalamitta ja länsisuomalaiset kulttuurit 16.2.2015 [Kalevala metre and western Finnish culture]
  10. Kallio, Kati, Lajien avarat rajat 9.4.2015 [Wide borders of poetic genres]
  11. Lehtonen, Tuomas, M. S. Herrahissi 15.3.2013 [Social elevator]
  12. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Kadonneet tiedostot, kansakunnan muisti 2.4.2013 [Lost files, nation’s memory]
  13. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Jalopeura, yksisarvinen ja avara luonto 9.4.2013 [Lion, unicorn and wide nature]
  14. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Silminnäkijän paluu: Ihmistieteiden lyhyt historia 26.4.2013 [Return of the eyewitness: Short history of humanities]
  15. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Äkeät trokeet, hillityt jambit 17.5.2013 [Fierce trochees, gentle iambics]
  16. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Puhdasoppisuus ja kamppailu karsinoista 24.5.2013 [Learned orthodoxy and the battle over stalls]
  17. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Menneisyyden lume ja arvo 7.6.2013 [Delusion and worth of the past]
  18. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Wanderlust 14.6.2013 [Wanderlust]
  19. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Oman elämänsä pyhiinvaeltajat 9.8.2013 [Pilgrims of their own lives]
  20. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Romantiikan lapset 23.8.2013 [Children of Romanticism]
  21. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Suomalainen menetelmä 6.9.2013 [Finnish method]
  22. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Lumoutuminen ja seikkailun historia 15.11.2013 [Fascination and history of adventure]
  23. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Tyhmyrien juhla 20.12.2013 [Feast of Fools]
  24. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Nyrjähtänyt nero vai Doktor Besserwisser 7.3.2014 [Twisted genius or Doktor Besserwisser]
  25. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Avoin tiede: utopia vai dystopia 12.9.2014 [Open science: utopia or dystopia?]
  26. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Taianomaisuus, väärät rituaalit ja suomalaisten epäjumalat 7.4.2015 [Enchantment, wrong rituals and Finnish idols]
  27. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Mytologeja ja kateellisia kollegoja 17.4.2015 [Mythmakers and envious colleagues]
  28. Lehtonen, Tuomas M.S., Kirja avoimessa tieteessä: miksi ja kenen rahoilla? 30.4.2015 [Book in the open access science: why and on whose money?]

 

The progress of the project

The project promised to re-evaluate late medieval and early modern developments in the Eastern Baltic Sea region and to provide new empirical study of vernacular poetry, Latin literature, images of pagans, linguistic and musical registers and communicative networks.

Initial working plan was revised to fit in with the allotted funding. Subject matter was redefined to cover the most essential materials and phenomena of the development of new religious poetics, registers and musical aesthetics in the hymns, the discourse on ‘paganism’ and ‘ungodly’ beliefs of common people by early reformers, ethnic divisions in learned literature and  afterlife of Catholic Saints’ cult in Lutheran folklore and multilingual correspondence around the Baltic Sea.

We claim to have reached a new insight of the Reformation period and the interaction of oral and literary cultures especially in Finland and Livonia. The cross-disciplinary cooperation between scholars of folklore and history has led us to re-conceptualise learned elites and ordinary people, ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultures or the great and small traditions and oral and literary spheres. Even if the early modern Baltic societies were hierarchically stratified, learned literate world and oral folk cultures interacted in multiple ways. Both shared the same basic assumptions of the enchanted reality, despite the diverging views of how the supra-normal phenomena should be approached. Neither the poetic ideals were simply borrowed and established above but various languages, poetics and song-cultures influenced on each other. At the same time, the closer analysis of this vivid cultural interaction also sheds new light to the adaptation of new religious forms, also showing that it was a slow process through the long Reformation covering the 16th and 17th centuries. All social groups participated in this process, be they clerical or laymen, elites or peasants.

As the result, we are able to propose a new interpretation of the interface of oral and cultural spheres and show that the Lutheran clergy did not attack Kalevala metre poetry as has been argued earlier. Instead the clergy was attacking the remnants of Catholic religious practices labelled “superstitious” even though its eagerness in cleansing the religious habits varied greatly as is evident from the persistence of Saints’ cults and other folk beliefs and practices. Many different hybrid modes of poetic expression like mixing non-strophic alliterative Kalevala metre poetry with rhymes and strophic poetry or adapting oral tradition into authoritative literary and textual forms were created. Our study makes visible these forms of interaction between oral and literary cultures.

In the early phase the project contributed the book edited by Mortensen, Lehtonen & Bergholm, The Performance of Christian and Pagan Story-worlds (Turnhout: Brepols 2013), see publications C:5).

The project members have given papers at a number of academic events and published several international and domestic refereed papers. In addition, we have published non-refereed scientific articles and various other publications, many of which have been intended for a wider audience and thereby contributing to the wider public out-reach. In addition, we regularly organized research seminars at the Finnish Literature Society, thereby contributing to the enlivening of the study of oral and literary cultures also in Finland and bringing together scholars from various academic backgrounds. 

 A session series was organized at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds in 2013 to work out a book edited by Lehtonen & Kaljundi, Re-forming Texts, Music and Church Art the Early Modern North (Amsterdam University Press 2016, see publications C:4). The sessions, as well as the book itself included contributions from a wide range of scholars from Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Austria and the Netherlands specialized on early modern Europe, Scandinavia and Baltic Sea Region covering subjects of Reformation process in Sweden, Baltic trade networks and literacy, transformations of traditional folk and ecclesiastical song, and new Lutheran hymns around the Baltic rim, attitudes of early Lutheran clergy on folk-beliefs,  appropriation of medieval Catholic Church interiors to the Lutheran confession, images of the Baltic pagans, peasants and peoples, folklore of Saints in the post-Reformation times and adaptation of 16th-century Finnish ‘pagan pantheon’ in Estonia.

The project has finished a joint monograph in Finnish by Kallio, Lehtonen, Timonen, Järvinen & Leskelä Laulut ja kirjoitukset, rahvas ja oppineet: Suullinen ja kirjallinen kulttuuri uuden ajan alun Suomessa [Songs and writings, commoners and learned: Oral and literary culture in the Early Modern Finland] which has been accepted to be published by the Finnish Literature Society (SKS). The book presents a synthesis of the interaction of literary and oral cultures in the early modern Finland by analysing the 16th-century learned discourse on folk beliefs, magic and singing, the cults of various Saints and Virgin Mary in Finnish and Karelian folklore, the interaction of oral Kalevala metric and literary poetics in the 16th and 17th centuries, and finally an analysis of some long traditional Kalevala metric poems related to the medieval and early modern trade (Annikaisen virsi), saints (Pyhän Henrikin surmavirsi) and warfare (Kaarle herttuan runo) all reflecting the interchange of Baltic Sea cultures and oral and literary spheres.

Kallio defended her doctoral dissertation in December 2013 and Kaljundi in January 2016. The doctoral dissertation of Leskelä will be submitted in 2017.