Humanities and Arts

Translating

We invite volunteers to participate in the translation of teh Anthology of Estonian folklore. The website can publish texts in three languages at the same time: one of the South Estonian languages (Võro, Seto, Mulgi, Tartu), the common Estonian language, English.

By clicking on the name of the language for each folklore text, you can view the translation. If there is no translation, the window will remain blank. Write the translation in a separate file and send it via the "Add translation" window next to the text.

Thank you!

The Problem of the Relationship Between Humans and Nature in Society

Today, with the increasing focus on environmental protection and the search for a sustainable lifestyle, the relationship between humans and nature has come to the forefront. Often, people look to the past in search of a lifestyle that consumes fewer natural resources, a time when at least Estonian rural people were able to make do with relatively little. Estonian folklore reflects this ancient worldview. The natural philosophy—or philosophies—of that time are not usually expressed through discussions, but rather emerge as a background system of beliefs, values, and attitudes that run through various genres and texts.

In Estonian written culture, people often turn to heritage, much like sacred texts, to express important values and truths, passed down as a legacy from previous generations. In his novel The Man Who Spoke Snakish, Andrus Kivirähk has created a symbolic portrayal of an ancient, nature-aligned way of life—a world of humans and snakes. In this world, snake words represent the ancient wisdom and the ability to communicate with nature. Valdur Mikita further develops the philosophy of human-nature relationships, particularly that of the "forest people," in his series of essayistic books that began with Wild Linguistics. Many popular concepts about folklore have stemmed from these books. As Maris Pedaja wrote in 2022: "To achieve progress in environmental conservation, we need a linguistic foundation that fosters it – a holistic mastery of the art of snake words." (Pedaja 2022)

Our project began in 2019, at a time when ideas about the importance of ancient wisdom in folklore were circulating in many forms. Knowledge of nature-related heritage was often based more on popular ideas than archival material. We decided to expand the range of accessible nature-related folklore. In this anthology, one can find several "snake words" as well as other folklore genres that share the common thread of reflecting people's views on nature and their interactions with it.

Folkloristics and Natural Sciences

Nature-related folklore is primarily connected with two major scientific fields – folkloristics and life sciences. These fields, in turn, belong to two broad domains: the humanities and the natural sciences. The former studies human beings and their intellectual activities, while the latter focuses on nature and matter. Developments in practical skills, science and technology have helped humans to exploit nature, but have neglected the deeper relationship between humans and nature as a collection of living things. .

Estonia's older nature-related folklore provides insight into how people in the past understood the surrounding world and how they conceptualized and organized their relationships with nature. Studying older folklore can offer both beauty and usefulness in the modern day – for example, helping to understand what changes have occurred in nature, whether and how the natural balance was maintained, how people managed to live in wild areas or deal with encounters with wild animals, and how they utilized wood and plants. Folklore also contains much entertainment, including stories, songs, beliefs, and customs, whose settings transport us to a completely different, old-fashioned village life. Folk wisdom reveals the values people cherished, as well as the mindset and lifestyle that helped them cope with life while maintaining both physical and mental well-being.

Folkloristics is the field dedicated to the study and interpretation of folklore. Folklore consists of knowledge, skills, customs, and art that spread through communication. Folklore is one of humanity's oldest cultural phenomena, at least as old as language and music. Before the invention of writing, most human knowledge was preserved in memory and transmitted orally. Intangible folklore includes verbal and performance art – stories, songs, proverbs, riddles, music, and dance. These become visible or audible through performance, which is why they are often referred to, depending on the genre, as either verbal art or performance art.

Folklore Allows Us to Discover the World 

A folklorist, when studying past traditions, acts like a detective or an archaeologist of the intangible, trying to gather knowledge about the past based on the information that has been passed down to us. Folklore is especially valuable as a source of information when other data is scarce, such as in historical research. Unlike historical documents, folklore does not convey exact facts but reflects people's attitudes, values, and perspectives. Through folkloristics, we can gain insight into both the human experience and the world around them as seen through their eyes. While official history is often said to be the history of rulers and wars, folklore portrays more of the everyday lives of different people.

Even modern folklore provides knowledge that other fields do not, such as information about everyday beliefs, mentalities, prevailing social moods, entertainment, practical advice, or ways of spending time.

To work with nature-related folklore, one must also know a great deal about nature. The natural sciences directly study the material world. In the natural sciences, researchers study inanimate matter, the cosmos, and living organisms, with the same care and precision. In a narrower sense, the term "nature" often refers to living organisms, studied by sciences focused on plants, animals, and other living beings. Processes that took place in nature in the past are often understood through genetic research and the analysis of ancient biological remains preserved in the earth. Through these studies, traces of human activity in nature can also sometimes be discovered.

By studying how humans have understood nature in the past and how they conceptualized their relationship with it, we can gain new knowledge and perspectives on history, humanity, our place in nature, and perhaps even find valuable ideas for future plans.

This website approaches nature-related folklore primarily from the perspective of folkloristics. However, since in the past all knowledge and the origins of sciences existed in oral tradition, folklore also opens up other fields for us, such as folk botany– knowledge of plants, plant names, and the uses of plants– as well as folk zoology, ichthyology, and the study of other living organisms. Another branch of folklore is folk astronomy, which also, in some cases, considers celestial bodies as living beings. This is because in folklore, an animistic worldview connects humans and nature, envisioning everything as imbued with spirit, capable of transforming from one form to another, and interacting with each other.

Estonian Folklore Archives

The Estonian Folklore Archives at the Estonian Literary Museum is the central archive of folklore, where all folklore collected from Estonia is gathered, along with its metadata and other related important information. The archive consistently collects, organizes, researches, and interprets folklore to make the collected materials accessible to society in a suitable manner. Folklore, which has long developed in close connection with the Estonian language and way of life, forms a foundation for the creation of native culture and the expression of identity.

The collections of the Estonian Folklore Archives also include folklore from other Finno-Ugric peoples and various ethnic groups living in Estonia. Having lived in close contact with one another, often in similar natural and economic conditions, the traditions of different peoples have influenced each other significantly.

Centers for Folkloristics 

The main centers for research and development in Estonian folkloristics are closely connected: the Chair of Estonian and Comparative Folklore at the University of Tartu and the Estonian Folklore Archives at the Estonian Literary Museum, led by Professor Ülo Valk and Senior Researcher Risto Järv, respectively. High-level folkloristics teaching and research also take place at the Viljandi Culture Academy of the University of Tartu, under the leadership of Kadri Steinbach in the humanities department, and at Tallinn University, where folkloristics and ethnology are taught by Senior Researcher Marju Kõivupuu. Additionally, studies and research in folk music are carried out at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, where the prominent ethnomusicologist, Senior Researcher Žanna Pärtlas, works.

Researchers of Nature-Related Folklore

The most prominent researcher of Estonian nature-related folklore is Mall Hiiemäe, who has spent most of her life working at the Estonian Folklore Archives. She has published dozens of extensive academic works and hundreds of other writings, primarily on folktales, the calendar, and nature-related traditions.

Oskar Loorits, the founder of the Estonian Folklore Archives, was the first to delve deeply into Estonian folklore and beliefs related to nature. It is largely from him that the idea originates that one of the valuable characteristics of Estonians is their close connection with nature and their intuitive way of perceiving the world. Following Loorits' example, people today increasingly speak with pride of Estonians as a nature people and forest people.

In modern times, the topic of nature-related folklore has gained prominence due to concerns about environmental protection and maintaining a livable world, as well as preserving Estonia's traditional cultural values. Through folklore, we can gain information about traditional landscapes and sacred sites in Estonia, which were closely tied to nature. The Place Lore Working Group, operating at the Folklore Archives, studies and applies this knowledge to address contemporary issues, such as the protection of wetlands and natural sacred sites.

The University of Tartu Natural History Museum

The University of Tartu Natural History Museum is located next to the Estonian Literary Museum. This spatial connection, partly coincidental, gained meaningful significance in the main output of this website – a joint exhibition titled "Forest Spirits in the Machine." The exhibition, based on Estonian nature-related folklore, was housed in both neighboring buildings and the space between them. For this anthology, we have also taken images from the biodiversity database managed by the Natural History Museum, eBiodiversity.

The Natural History Museum and its associated Botanical Garden serve as a center for natural sciences, aligning with our project's core values of connecting scientific research and collections with environmental studies and conservation. The University of Tartu Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden house collections in geology, zoology, botany, mycology, microbiology, as well as DNA and environmental samples. The collections include minerals, rocks, fossils, meteorites, invertebrate and vertebrate animals, algae, mosses, vascular plants, fungi, and lichens. These collections are regularly used by scientists, lecturers, students, educators, and other specialists in their daily work.

The Natural History Museum offers a wide range of nature education, teaching how to understand and protect nature, and promoting environmental values and a sustainable lifestyle. It also fosters nature observation and citizen science. Each year, the museum organizes the Nature Festival and a nature observation marathon.

Taive Särg