Votian and ingrian folk songs

“The Creation Song” tells about the creation of the world. A bird flies over the sea and finds a patch of land where it lays its eggs, which in other song versions turn into celestial bodies and other important parts of the world. The creation song is known among all Baltic-Finnic peoples who sing runo songs—next to Votians, also Estonians, Ingrians, Finns, and Karelians. In the Estonian tradition, the bird usually lands on a paddock and a shrub, sometimes also a swing. In Karelia, the bird lays its egg on Väinämöinen’s knee, protruding from the water. In different places, the bird laying eggs is associated with different motifs, such as raking or sweeping the bottom of the sea, as in this song here. The creation song has its origins in the international legend of a world egg, which was known among others by Ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Japanese and Peruvian Incas. Interestingly, the legend is not known among our closest Indo-European neighbours.

The song text here was written down in 1947 by Paul Ariste in the Kukkuzi village from Mat´o Gerasimova, a singer from the Jõgõperä (Krakolye) village. The first part of the song also belonged to the repertoire of Oudekki Figurova, Mat´o’s husband’s niece, who recalled that the song used to be sung by Ingrian women.