The Monumenta Estoniae Antiquae is a corpus of Estonian folksongs which contains around 800,000 pages of manuscript, including 100,000 songs in the standard trochaic dimeter form. This corpus is one of the largest and and most significant of its kind in the world. [1]
History
Interest in Estonian folklore began at the beginning of the 19th century. Estonian folklore. The earliest mentioning of Estonian singing dates back to Saxo Grammaticus Gesta Danorum (c The Learned Estonian Society was established in 1839 as the central organisation for the collection and study of Estonian folklore. The Learned Estonian Society (Õpetatud Eesti Selts or ÕES was Estonia's first scholarly organisation formed in Tartu in 1838 It was this society that coordinated the compilation of the Estonian epic Kalevipoeg, begun by Friedrich Robert Faehlmann and completed by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald. Kalevipoeg is an epic poem by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald held to be the Estonian National epic. Friedrich Robert Faehlmann ( Fählmann) ( December 20, 1798 &mdash April 22 ( April 10 ( O Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald ( at the Jõepere Manor in Kadrina, Virumaa &mdash in Tartu) was an Estonian Writer and Physician
In 1843 Kreutzwald initiated the idea of the systematic collection of Estonian folklore. Alexander Neus, under the auspices of the Estonian Literati Society (Eesti Kirjameeste Selts) founded in 1842, published a three volume anthology of Estonian folksongs in 1852. This three volume set of some 1300 songs is considered the first scholarly publication. [2]
Soon after Dr. Jakob Hurt assumed the presidency of the Estonian Literati Society in 1872, a project was initiated for the systematic collection of folklore across Estonia. Jakob Hurt ( 22 July 1839 in Vana-Koiola - 13 January 1907 in St Petersburg) was a notable Estonian Folklorist . Both collecting and editing was coordinated by Jakob Hurt, organising around 1400 volunteer collectors through appeals, through the press, brochures and personal correspondance. Hurt had planned the publication of a six volume series to be called the "Monumenta Estoniae Antiquae".
Between 1875 and 1886 two volumes of folksongs were published under the serial title Vana Kannel, (in German Alte Harfe). Each volume contained the total material from one parish (kihelkond), thus establishing a principle of geographical and dialectal, rather than thematic, unity. Vana Kannel I gathered up the songs of the Põlva parish in south-eastern Estonia, and volume II included those of Kolga-Jaani in central Estonia. Hurt was about to complete a third volume, the songs of the Viljandi parish in central Estonia, but difficulties of publishing and the continual inflow of new material intervened.
Between 1904 and 1907, under the auspices of the Finnish Literature Society, Hurt published a three volume series of songs (Setukeste laulud) from the Setumaa district in southern Estonia. Setoland (In Estonian "Setumaa" in Seto "Setomaa" is region south of Lake Peipus and inhabited by the seto speaking Setos. Later in 1907 Jakob Hurt died.
During the 1930's the Estonian Folklore Archives revived Hurt's original project and published volumes III and IV of Vana Kannel in 1938 and 1941 respectively. Edited by Herbert Tampere the third volume contains songs of Kuusalu parish and the forth volume songs of Karksi parish. A fifth volume containing songs from Muhu island was under preparation, however World War II intervened. Muhu (in German Moon or Mohn; in Estonian also called Muhumaa) is an Island in the Baltic Sea. At that point songs from only four parishes and Setumaa, out of a total of 112 parishes were in print.
During the Soviet period, the Monumenta Estoniae Antiquae project was revived in the mid 1950's, with an additional 40 volumes planned. The plan was to publish a volume on the Haljala parish on the island of Saaremaa in 1960, then publish one volume per year for the next 40 years through the joint efforts of the Museum of Literature and Tartu University. The University of Tartu (Tartu Ülikool Тартуский университет Universität Dorpat is a classical University in the city of Tartu, Estonia However nothing came of that plan until 1985, when Vana Kannel 5 (Mustjala parish) was published. Kannel 6 (Haljala parish) was published in 1989. On the resumption of independence, volumes 7 (Kihnu parish) and 8 (Jõhvi and Iisaku parishes) were published in 1997 and 1999 respectively.
References
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