Suur tamm, kuduvad neiud ja punane paat, kadunud harjast rääkimata

• Main Author: Aado Lintrop
• Format: Article
• Language: Estonian
• Published: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum 1999-01-01
• Series: Mäetagused
• Online Access: http://www.folklore.ee/tagused/nr10/tamm.htm
• ISSN: 1406-992X; 1406-9938

The article focuses on the religious aspect of Finno-Ugric song types Big Oak, Sweeping Brush Lost and Sea in the Farmyard (Ring of Bone), based on neither the methods of textual criticism, editorial analysis nor any solely text-centred approach, since, traditionally, this type of songs or their redaction have never displayed the particular worldview that has been tried to apply to them as folk heritage.In cultures without literary language, every performance transmitting religious or conceptual information is a recurrent creation combining at least two different types of texts of which one is the main carrier of information as far as heritage is concerned, and the other(s) include renditions, comments, attitudes, evaluations. In order to oblige the members of the group to perform heritage over and over it is necessary to establish institutions based on in-group rituals and/or rites. For those familiar with heritage (not necessarily the performer) the total effect of texts and rituals could result in preternatural experience at a critical moment, intensifying in its turn the topicality of heritage in traditional form.If one link of the chain were to be missing for some reason, the others will be effected as well. Since the mythological songs of our ancestors were similar to rune songs in their quite a strong poetic character, other types of texts must have played a more important role for transmitting heritage. With their perishing or alteration the songs lost the touch with actual religion. However, if the ancient mythological songs were less poetic in nature (being therefore the main carriers of heritage) the alteration might have been caused by slight changes in religion and rituals. In both cases the song was not regarded as one of the possible ways of transmitting important information to the group but was values as the poetical self-expression of the singer, which in our cultural region brought along the influx of lyrical elements, the relatively stronger independence of figurative (also formative) motives, the absolutization of alliteration and the widened scope of the use of parallelism, which resulted in the emergence of rune and regi-song as we know them. Their connection with religion was based on a totally different foundation as they were considered as a distant and vague reflection of the past at best. As such, they or parts of them were perfectly good for entertainment or magic influencing (for the latter one can use even incomprehensible texts), but the did not reflect contemporary religious concepts. This is the reason why the comparison of the song types on the basis of textual analysis is not sufficient for understanding the former mythological background of the songs. Only the more thorough comparison of the songs and drawing possible parallels with tradition enables us to reveal the possible reasons for their origin and study their former mythological contents. Thus we can find several traces of conceptions and beliefs connected to the summer equinox in the texts of the song types Big Oak and Sweeping Brush Lost. The four (three) maids a-weaving/ a-scything/ a-sweeping the sea perform as symbols of unearthly creatures who cause the change of seasons, course of time and fate of people. It is impossible to provide mythological counterparts for them, in fact they probably did not exist as such. Regarding the song of the lost sweeping brush, the alteration of the Sun and the maiden, and the celestial weavers of the chain in Sea in the Farmyard, they might be considered as the poetic counterparts of celestial spheres (the Sun, the Moon, the Morning and the Evening Stars). The motif of weaving the belt in many song types is the best symbol for the course of time, life and fate.In chain songs about the oak/ pillar supporting the heaven and the giant tree in the song Big Oak, three archetypal concepts interrelate, a motif that has occurred in beliefs about the world and life-tree all over the world. Such beliefs have been formed by a) concepts about a tree, pillar or mountain (the axis of world) supporting and/ or holding the celestial spheres, which in case of multi-level world-view also serves as a transitory way between different worlds, b) beliefs of a tree which in one or another way causes immortality and death and c) last but not least, myths about gods who cause the night and day and the change of seasons by its nature or actions (including their death and rebirth).