Practice-Bound Variation in Cosmology? – A Case Study of Movement between Worlds in Finno-Karelian Traditions (original) (raw)

2020, In Between the Worlds: Contexts, Sources and Analogues of Scandinavian Otherworld Journeys. Ed. Matthias Egeler & Wilhelm Heizmann. Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde Ergänzungsbände 118. Berlin: de Gruyter. Pp. 566–690.

This monograph-length study illustrates that mythology, and, more specifically, cosmology, may vary from one type of practice to the next and even from one epic to the next. The study shows that mythology or features of cosmology may become interfaced with poetic language, narrative, discourse function or ritual practice. It also shows that, when paradigmatic patterns linked to cosmology are used in relation to places in the immediate environment, they construct the meaningfulness of those places. The study is intended to provide researchers with a comparative frame of reference when considering variation within a mythological corpus. The primary material of the study is Finno-Karelian traditions, with an extensive introduction and variety of examples. A survey of movement between worlds in kalevalaic epic is presented first. Examples from the kalevalaic incantation tradition are presented in relation to epic. Movement in Karelian laments is then presented in relation to kalevalaic poetry. Finally, the ritual orchestration of movement between places in the immediate landscape linked to both seen and unseen communities is discussed. Diese Fallstudie demonstriert, dass Mythologie und insbesondere Kosmologie von einer Art der Praxis zur nächsten und sogar von einem Epos zum nächsten variieren können. Mythologie oder Einzelaspekte der Kosmologie können mit poetischer Sprache, Erzählung, Diskursfunktion oder ritueller Praxis verbunden werden. Es wird auch gezeigt, dass paradigmatische, mit der Kosmologie verbundene Strukturen die Sinnhaftigkeit eines Ortes konstruieren können. Die Fallstudie soll Forschern einen vergleichenden Bezugsrahmen bieten, wenn sie Variationen innerhalb eines mythologischen Korpus betrachten. Das behandelte Material entstammt vorwiegend finno-karelischen Traditionen, mit einer umfassend Einführung und einer Vielzahl von Beispielen. Ein Überblick über die Bewegung zwischen den Welten im kalevalaischen Epos wird zuerst präsentiert. Es folgen Beispiele aus der kalevalaischen Beschwörungstradition in Bezug auf das Epos sowie eine Analyse des Motivs der Bewegung in karelischen Klageliedern in Bezug auf kalevalaische Poesie. Schließlich wird die rituelle Orchestrierung von Bewegungen zwischen Orten in der unmittelbaren Landschaft, die mit sichtbaren und unsichtbaren Gemeinschaften verbunden sind, diskutiert. 1. Introduction 1.1 Background 1.2 A brief theoretical orientation 1.3 Finno-Karelian mythology in historical geopolitical context 1.4 Movement between what worlds? 1.4.1 Otherworld polities 1.4.2 Otherworld wildernesses (to the north) 1.4.3 Identity-bearing topographical sites 1.4.4 A plurality of otherworlds 1.5 Poetic form, stability and variation in kalevalaic poetry 1.6 Kalevalaic epic 2. Movement between worlds in kalevalaic epic 2.1 The Sampo-Cycle, 2.1.1 Shooting Väinämöinen 2.1.2 Väinämöinen travels to and from Pohjola 2.1.3 Ilmarinen travels to and from Pohjola 2.1.4 A sea-raid on Pohjola and battle for the sampo 2.1.5 Overview of the Sampo-Cycle 2.2 The Courtship Competition 2.3 Visiting Tuonela 2.4 Visiting Vipunen 2.5 The Song of Lemminkäinen 2.5.1 Lemminkäinen’s journey to Päivölä 2.5.2 Lemminkäinen’s mother visits Tuoni’s River 2.5.3 Lemminkäinen (Kaukomieli) and the Island of Women 2.5.4 Overview of movement between worlds in The Song of Lemminkäinen 2.6 The subaquatic realm 2.7 Overview of movement between worlds in kalevalaic epic 3. Movement between worlds in the tietäjä’s incantations 3.1 Historiolae 3.2 Actualizing and interacting with unseen worlds 3.2.1 Interactions with the celestial sphere 3.2.2 Other spirit helpers 3.2.3 Banishment locations 3.2.4 Movement into and from the earth 3.2.5 Summoning power from a ‘hole’ 3.3 Some perspectives on movement in incantations and rituals of the tietäjä 4. The mythic world of Karelian lamenters 4.1 Comparison of otherworld topography 4.2 The village of the dead 4.3 A copper staircase 4.4 Death is a happy place? 4.5 Perspectives on shared and unshared features 5. The ritual construction of space 5.1 The cemetery as a local realm of the dead 5.2 The community of the forest 5.3 Forest versus cemetery 5.4 Other villages, Other worlds and a Structural distribution of ritual labour 5.5 Excursus: The bear’s wedding 5.6 Ritual constructions of space through regulated movement and relations 6. Perspectives on variation 6.1 Interfaces of cosmology, narration and practice 6.2 A broad schematic structuring of cosmology 6.3 Worlds and worlds and worlds 6.4 Closing remarks