Estonian folklore scholarship is, I suspect, little known outside of the Baltic. Much of the older work of Estonian folklorists was published either in German or Estonian, a major factor in its obscurity in the English-speaking world. But, even though their work is little known, Estonians have done, and continue to do, first-rate scholarship in folklore research. Studies in Estonian Folkloristics and Ethnology is an excellent introduction to the main figures in Estonian folklore scholarship from the nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries.
The emphasis in the book is on the history of folklore studies--only four essays are on ethnomusicology or ethnology (which, in the European context, typically refers to material culture studies): one on the musicologist Herbert Tampere (by Andreas Kalkun) and the others on the ethnologists Ilmari Manninen (by Piret Õunapuu), Ferdinand Linnus (by Art Leete), and Gustav Ränk (by Ants Viires). After an introduction by Kristen Kuutma, there are essays on the nineteenth-century folklorists F. R. Kreutzwald (by Tiiu Jaago) and Jakob Hurt (also by Jaago), and the twentieth-century folklorists Matthias Eisen (by Kristen Kuutma), Oskar Kallas (also by Kuutma), Walter Anderson (by Elo-Hanna Seljamaa), Oskar Loorits (by Ergo-Hart Västrik), and Richard Viidelepp (by Mall Hiiemäe). Each essay gives a brief biography of the folklorist, with considerations of cultural and intellectual contexts of his folklore research. The essay is then followed by a typical example of each folklorist’s scholarship. Elo-Hanna Seljamaa’s article on Walter Anderson, the Estonian folklorist best known outside of Estonia, is, however, followed by what many might find an unusual article for Anderson, his examination of rumors from the 1921 Mars panic in Estonia, when it was believed that Mars had exploded and people feared that fragments of Mars were going to crash onto Estonia. Although best known for his “Law of Self-Correction” and as a scholar of the Finnish School, Anderson’s work included much more, such as this article, and it’s good to see this lesser-known side of his research represented here.
One aspect of the book that will be a problem for some is that the selections from the Estonian folklorists (those by Kreutzwald, Hurt, Eisen, Anderson, Viidalepp, Tampere, and Linnus) which were written in German have been left in German, and thus will be less accessible than they could be.
However, even with that limitation, the book still provides those unfamiliar with Estonian folklore research with an excellent orientation to the scholars who established folklore as an academic discipline in Estonia. And, for those familiar with Estonian folklore scholarship, Studies in Estonian Folkloristics and Ethnology: A Reader and Reflexive History offers an intriguing reflection on the history and methods of study of folklore and folklife in Estonia.
--------
[Review length: 443 words • Review posted on June 28, 2007]