Estonian Devil Legends in the International Context: Problems of Classification

Abstract

Extensive folklore collecting in Estonia began at the end of the 19th century. In 1888 Jakob Hurt’s (1839–1907) public appeal appeared in the Estonian newspaper “Olevik” where he called on everybody who cherished Estonian folklore to start recording it. J. Hurt found many collaborators all over the country. Matthias Johann Eisen (1857–1934) engaged himself in similar activities, collecting folklore with the help of local correspondents. When Estonia became independent, new possibilities arose for preserving and researching the national culture. In 1927 the Estonian Folklore Archives were founded in Tartu. Oskar Loorits (1890–1961) became the head of this institution. He continued extensive folklore collecting and he worked out the principles of arranging the material with the help of indexes and card files. In 1940 when Estonia was occupied by the Soviet army, the rearrangements of cultural institutions imposed the state control over them. The Estonian Folklore Archives were turned into the Folklore Department of the State Literature Museum. However, the folklore collections were preserved over the Soviet period and new manuscripts (later also tapes) were added year by year. The old system of card files remained unchanged. Some years after Estonia had regained her independence — in 1995 — the Estonian Folklore Archives retrieved the old historical name, and nowadays belong to the Estonian Literature Museum. By January 1, 1995 the Estonian Folklore Archives contained 1,258,583 pp. of folklore manuscripts. The number of recorded folk narratives exceeds 120,000 texts. Unfortunately there are no exact statistical data about different prose genres, but folk legends form the largest part of the narratives.