Epic Tradition Shared and Transformed. Comparisons between Kolva Komi and Tundra Nenets Sung Poetry

Niko Partanen; Karina Lukin

doi:10.6093/1826-753X/8661

Niko Partanen Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8584-3880
Karina Lukin Department of Cultures (Folklore Studies), University of Helsinki http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4085-2721

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/1826-753X/8661

Keywords: Komi, Nenets, language contact, folklore

Abstract

Since the 1960s, a unique Komi singing and narrative tradition has been described in the Kolva region. These materials, sung in the Komi language, were beyond doubt born in interaction with Tundra Nenets sung poetry. Indeed, comparable Nenets songs have been documented from all the regions where Nenets is spoken. We use both published and archived materials to compare individual texts in detail, and show various folkloristic and linguistic parallels. We pay particular attention to shared motives and narrative phases, which we consider very important as in the current state of research where exact parallel texts between the languages cannot be found. These detailed parallel concepts, however, serve as an evidence of the shared origin of these narratives, and also tell us how these Nenets conceptualizations have been transformed when integrated into Komi tradition.

Author Biographies

Niko Partanen, Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies

Niko Partanen (<niko.partanen@helsinki.fi>) is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki who works with documentation and description of the Uralic languages. His research focuses on variation in the Komi language, and his dissertation examines various grammatical processes in different Komi varieties and dialects. He also collaborates with research groups in other areas, including language technology and different types of cultural studies, and is interested in research methodology and research questions that make use of existing materials and resources more extensively and build on work that has already been done. Partanen currently works as an information specialist at the National Library of Finland, where his tasks involve digital support and localization services for the Saami languages spoken in Finland. He also serves as the librarian and archivist of the Société Finno-Ougrienne – Finno-Ugrian Society (Helsinki).

Karina Lukin, Department of Cultures (Folklore Studies), University of Helsinki

Karina Lukin (<karina.lukin@helsinki.fi>) is an Academy of Finland Research Fellow in Folklore Studies at the Department of Cultures at the University of Helsinki. She has studied the oral and written expressive culture and cultural heritage of the Nenets people based on both contemporary and historical ethnographic materials. Her research has concentrated on the interplay between materiality and orality in the narration of mythical and everyday places in epic and shamanic poetry, legends, and oral history. Furthermore, she is interested in the borders between the oral and written and in how they are crossed in the 20th century Nenets literature. In addition to Nenets culture, she is interested in research history and the ways in which the conceptions of tradition and indigeneity have affected the collection, description and archiving of northern communities and their traditions.