REVIEWS 5I7 biography became 'a fact of intrinsic poetic interest' (p. 83). As personal destiny became intertwinedwith the historyof the nation (forit was a nation that was now emerging)and as an inspiredlyricego began also to develop, so the poet came to conceive of his task 'as that of a seer or visionary endowed with a sacred prophetic power' (p. 54). The sublime became a vehicle for a vision of the poet's own greatness as well as, or rather than, a vehicle for glorificationof the emperor or empressand the state. Then, when Enlightenment values had taken hold in Russia and when, in the early nineteenth century, state and educated society grew apart, the ode furnished'the terms and framefor an incipientliterarydiscourseof opposition' (p. 6o). The poetic culture of the Decembrists, despite the Decembrists' rebellion against autocracy, Ram argues, retained many of the formal trappings of the odic sublime. For the Decembrists viewed the civic poet's laurels 'as nothing less than the tsar's crown, first toppled and then usurped' (p. I27). At the same time, as 'the imperial sublime became progressively detached from its commitmentto tsaristautocracy'(p. I 2 I), the ode began to lose itsdominance. It was supplantedby the elegy, a vehicle for the romanticexpressionof loss or evanescence. The elegist,while not questioningthe necessityof empire, could no longer 'identify completely' with empire's victories (p. I97). Through 'alienated introspection' he offered a new identity for the poet that was 'markedby an increasingambivalencetowardthe imperialstate'(p. i98). It may be that some readers will find Ram's fresh readings of Pushkin's 'Prisonerof the Caucasus'and of thatpoet's problematicpoem 'The Prophet' somewhat strainedor unconvincing. Some might also have wished for a fuller examination of the perplexinglyvague concept of 'Decembristpoetic culture' or 'Decembrist literarydiscourse' (pp. 126, I 27). However, any omissions or weaknesses are more than counterbalanced by the many merits of Ram's monograph. Full of freshinsights,interestingclaims and challenginggeneralizations , this is a dense, thoughtful and attractively written book which engages with previous scholarship and furnishessensitive readings of many individual poems against a richly illuminated historical and literary background. Department ofRussian Studies DEREK OFFORD University ofBristol Honko, Lauri(ed.). TheMaiden's DeathSong andtheGreat Wedding: AnneVabarna's OralTwinEpicwritten downbyA. 0. Vdisdnen. In collaborationwith Anneli Honko and Paul Hagu. FF Communications, vol. I3 I, no. 28 I. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Helsinki, 2003. 529 pp. Notes. Illustrations . Bibliography.Appendices. ?38.oo (paperback). ANNE VABARNA (i 877-I964) deservesa place of honour in anyliteraryhistory of Estonia. A member of the Orthodox Seto ethnic group of southeastern Estonia, Vabarna set out in I927 to create a Seto national epic. She was encouraged in this effort by the Estonian folklorist Paulopriit Voolaine (i899-I985), whose hopes for a heroic male narrative that could stand alongside the great epics of Europe were deftly modified by a singer whose 5I8 SEER, 83, 3, 2005 deep Orthodox religiosity and repertoire of songs focusing on women's experiences led her to produce an entirelydifferentsortof text. Dictating her work to her children, Vabarna produced a unique epic in her Peko(Kuopio, 1995), which attractedsubstantialinterest at the time but reached print only in 1995, through the joint efforts of the Seto folkloristPaul Hagu and the Finnish linguist Seppo Suhonen. The text reached an English audience in 2002 through Kristin Kuutma's fine translation, produced as part of her doctoraldissertation('ASami Ethnographyand a Seto Epic:Two Collaborative Representations in their Historical Contexts', University of Washington, SA). Now, in 7The Maiden's DeathSongandtheGreat Wedding, the team of Lauriand Anneli Honko havejoined with PaulHagu to bringto light anothermilestone in Vabarna'sartisticdevelopment:a pair of improvisedepics which the singer dictated to the Finnish folkloristA. 0. Vaisanen (I890-I969) in I923. Faced with a scholarlyinterlocutorwhose predilectionslay in 'discovering'particularly long 'epic' songs, Vabarna set out to demonstrate her artisticmerit to Vaisanen by singing as long a song as possible. As her initial effortproceeded into an extended renderingof traditionalfunerallaments,Vabarna'sdaughter suggested that she make a new start,harnessingher prodigious repertoireof wedding songs to the task.Vabarnatook up the suggestionand continued her dictation for several more days. Together, TheMaiden'sDeathSongand Tlhe Great Weddingmake up what the editors term (somewhat confusingly) Vabarna's 'twin epic'. Although it contains...