Estonian Folklore Archives

The Estonian Folklore Archives (EFA) is the central folklore archives in Estonia. The Archives functions currently as the subdivision of the Estonian Literary Museum but it was established in 1927 as the division of the Estonian National Museum. The current Head of the Archives is Dr. Risto Järv.

History

The Estonian Folklore Archives was founded in 1927 as the central folklore archive and research institution of Estonia. The archive was created to store in one place all the existing folklore collections. The archive is located in the city of Tartu, Estonia.

Foundation and early years

The idea of establishing folklore archive has risen after the death of famous scholar and Estonian folklore collector Jakob Hurt (1939–1907). However by that time there was no appropriate preservation condition in Estonia for such a material therefore it was decided to transfer the collection to the repository of the Finnish Literature Society in Finland. Finnish scholar and folklorist Kaarle Krohn was the initiator of the move. On what institution would control the archive it was in 1927 decided that the archive will be established as independent institution of Estonian National Museum. The institution started its operation on September 24, 1927. Its resulting form and functioningwas inspired significantly by the example of Finnish Literature Society and also by newly established Archives of Latvian Folklore (1924).

Second World War

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on 23rd of August 1939 which divided Eastern-Europe into spheres of influence, and in 1940 the Republic of Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union. During the same year the Estonian Folklore Archives were reorganized into the Folklore Department of the State Literary Museum, according to the patterns of Soviet scientific tradition. However, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941 and during the same year they occupied Estonia. During the Nazi German occupation (1941–1944) reorganization happened again. Folklore Department with its collections became part of University of Tartu, and State Literary Museum ceased to exist. Oskar Loorits was removed from the position of the director of the archive. In 1943 in order to save collections from destruction, they were evacuated to different places all over Estonia. The Soviet Union occupied again Estonia in 1944 thus the Folklore Department belonged once again to the State Literary Museum, and collections were once again at their former depositories. The Soviet influence was superficial during the first occupation, but that would change during the second occupation, where Soviet repression can be traced.

Period of Soviet occupation

In the year 1944 Estonia was deliberated from Nazis by Soviet Army. However, in reality it was only about replacing one occupier by another. Soviets incorporated Estonia into Soviet Union and established Estonian SSR which remained until the collapse of USSR in 1991. Soviet occupation influenced all levels of political, social and cultural life in the country. Estonian Folklore Archives were not exception. Under the rule of Soviet ideology some significant changes in the wholesome approach towards folklore and its collecting and preserving appeared.

The Soviet approach towards folklore and national identities was in some way contradictory; on the one hand it repressed nationalism but on the other hand it supported significantly national cultures of particular SSR claiming the right for national and cultural autonomy of every republic. It was for example visibly seen in increasing numbers of various folklore ensembles, in borrowing folk motives in official art and state propaganda, in maintaining folk traditions etc. Together with that the study of folklore was supported however only in ways which fitted the regime. Generally speaking emphasize was placed on working class and lower social strata while topics like religion and believes were omitted.

Together with the new regimes the deep re-evaluating of collections occurred. For example Jakob Hurt was proclaimed a bourgeois researcher and the founder of archives Oskar Loorits was regarded as worthless and his name was erased from indexes and he was rarely mentioned in any new scholar works and publications. All of the existing collections were censored in the years 1945–1952, and the manuscript volumes were checked page by page.The methods of censorship included cut-outs, black ink, glue and leaving pages out from the volumes. Most of this work was carried out by folklorists themselves and censoring was part of the working plans of the staff of the Folklore Department. Some volumes were controlled by people from the Central State Archives and there, censorship had been stricter.

The censored materials consisted mostly of songs and jokes of the genres that reflected the contemporary society most clearly. During the 40s and 50s and the period of re-evaluating anti-Soviet folklore that was hostile or ironic towards Soviet ideas was cut out or covered by ink. Similarly obscene folklore as blue jokes, raunchy songs, riddles or sayings was censored. Also the principles of copying and indexing were affected by dominant state ideology. Unsuitable materials were very difficult to be found. For example, above mentioned Oskar Loorits, was erased from indexes and thus finding his materials was very complicated.New and detailed indexes were made about topics such as class struggles and historical events such as Great Patriotic war while other topics (for example Estonian Republic) were omitted. This indexing significantly hindered the possibility to find in the archives anything out of official stream.

Heads of Estonian Folklore Archive

Present days

In October 1944, the Literary Museum was restored as an institution, the reawakening of the collections began, and by August 1945 the treasures of the Department of Folklore finally returned to Aia Street in Tartu. But again several authoritative changes were made because of occupations. And finally, in 1995, the Department of Folklore of the Literary Museum became the successor to the Estonian Folklore Archives as its historical name. Manuscripts have been collected since 1996 in the EFA collection, and the percentage of audio and video recordings has increased significantly. In the 1990s, manuscript material was copied as electronic texts, and sound recordings were digital rebounds, and corresponding files are available in the folklorist's internal server. Since the end of the 1980s, collecting and researching materials has attracted more attention to contemporary folklore from the traditional folklore. Presently, the EFA has 1.5 million pages of manuscripts, approximately 188,000 audio recording pieces, approximately 62,000 photographs and approximately 1600 video recording items.

Collections

Collections of the Estonian Folklore Archives consist of sub-archives of manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings, films and videos, as well as of multimedia content.

Manuscripts

The EFA contains 31 collections of manuscripts, which is overall up to 1.5 million pages. The most essential period of collecting folklore in manuscript format is related to the activities of Jakob Hurt (1838–1907) and Matthias Johann Eisen (1880–1934). J. Hurt started to collect folklore in 1860s, his collection finally reaching 162 volumes of manuscripts, now one of the most priceless parts of the EFA (all 114,696 manuscript pages of this collection are available as scans through the digital file repository of the Estonian Literary Museum http://kivike.kirmus.ee/). Moreover, Oskar Kallas (1868–1946) also played an important role in collecting Estonian folklore. He organised the campaign of collecting Estonian folk melodies in a systematic and scientific way between 1904 and 1916 in association with the Estonian Students’ Society. This collection contains a total of 13,139 folk songs together with their melodies.

Each manuscript collection's name is provided with an abbreviation in accordance with the person's name who gathered it. For instance, E refers to the collection of M. J. Eisen, and H indicates the manuscript collection of J. Hurt. Some of the collections are also divided into series named after format of the manuscript, such as H I, H II, and H III according to the size of the manuscript pages. Since 2000 also digitised manuscripts have been archived.

Photographs

Among the sub-archives of the EFA there is a large collection of photographs. This was one of the EFA's earliest collections. The earliest photographs are glass plate negatives; these, however, went out of use in the first half of the twentieth century. Altogether in 2016 the collection included 17,993 black-and-white photographs, 8,075 colour photographs and 33,137 digital photographs which is the fastest growing type of photographs in the archives since then. Partly the photograph collections have been digitalised and made available at the digital file repository of the Estonian Literary Museum http://kivike.kirmus.ee/. The photograph collection also contains photographs depicting material and landscapes related to folk tradition. In the beginning of the 2000s the process of digitalization of analogous collections had been undertaken with all the collections, including the digitalization of photographs. The copies were prepared and preserved so that these would serve as security copies of analogous materials.

Sound recordings

The collection includes material on phonograph records, audio tapes, and cassettes. The first recordings, which were on wax cylinders, were made between 1912 and 1914 by the Finnish folklorist A. O. Väisänen (1890–1969). The main data carriers are DATs and Mini discs which have been used since 1995 and memory cards since the beginning of 2000. From 1992 Jaan Tamm – a sound engineer in the Estonian Folklore Archives – worked on digitalizing the earlier tape recordings. Older collections of sound recordings contain recordings of instrumental music performed on older instruments. In the 20th century, sound recordings mostly contain folksongs in newer styles. In the era of digitalization, the sound recordings were digitized in order to preserve them.

Films and videos

There are 1,377 items in the film and video collection, comprising film strips, videotapes from the 1980s, digital material on Mini DV and memory cards. These data carriers reflect the traditions of Estonians and other ethnic groups. For instance, the video collection consists of recordings of music performances taken both in authentic performance situations and at folk music festivals. Together this collection has 6 series. For example, analogue video recordings, digital tapes, digitally born recordings as files, etc.

Multimedia

In 2008 the multimedia collection was established. This includes digital material such as emails and Powerpoint presentations that do not fit into any of the other categories.

Collections of ethnic minorities

In the 19th century folklore collecting of ethnic minorities – non-Estonian Finno-Ugric peoples, Baltic Germans, Russians, Swedes, Jews, Romani people – was rather scant because of lack of interest and linguistic competence of the collectors who were mostly amateurs. The situation with Finno-Ugric folklore was approximately the same in that period as the feeling of kinship encompassed mostly with Finns.

The situation changed in independent Estonia. In EFA there appeared separate series of national minority collection (such as ERA, Vene – Russian collection; ERA, Saksa – Baltic German collection; ERA, Rootsi – Estonian Swedish collection, etc.). Folklorists of that time made systematic and thorough collection of ethnic minorities. Before the Second World War Estonians accounted for 90% of population. Still Russians, Swedes, Baltic-Germans and Jews were granted for cultural autonomy. Besides, here lived Ingrian Finns, Izhorians, Latvians, Tartars, Romani people and others.

During the Second World War folklore collecting stopped. After the war the work started again (under Soviet Government) but it differed compared to the prewar period. Germans and Swedes mostly had fled from the country. The Jews and Romani people were nearly all killed during the German occupation. Russian minority changed its structure. At the same time there appeared Belarusian and Polish folklore collections. After re-establishing independence in Estonia work on minority collections continued.

Non-Estonian Finno-Ugric collections

The Finno-Ugrian linguistic relatives of the Estonians were initially documented by Finnish researchers who were further along in folklore collecting. This may be surprising considering the relatively easy access Estonia had to eastern Finno-Ugrians as part of the Russian Empire. This lack of documentation by Estonian scholars was due to insufficient academic preparation and the high cost of fieldwork particularly among the more distant Finno-Ugric peoples. Exception in this respect was activities of Mikhel Veske, lecturer of Finno-Ugric languages at Kazan University, who conducted research on Mari and Mordvin languages in the years following 1886. However, although he amassed an extensive collection of Estonian folklore, which is housed at the Estonian Folklore Archives (EFA), Veske did not expand his scope to include the folklore of Finno-Ugrians of the Volga region in Kazan.

Ersa-Mordvinian Tatiana Danilova with her grandchildren – Viktor Danilov (1974)

The collecting campaign launched by Jakob Hurt including field research in Seto region was recognized by the Russian Geographical Society which subsidized his expeditions. In 1920s and 1930s minor collection series ERA, Ingeri was initiated for the folklore of Ingrian Finns and Izhorians. The series for the folklore of Votians ERA, Vadja was initiated by Paul Ariste.

During the Soviet period a separate series RKM, Soome-ugri was established for the materials of Finno-Ugric peoples. This series is made up of six volumes of around 3000 pages containing materials collected from the variety of Finno-Ugric peoples. In the sound collections of the EFA one can find also a considerable number of tape recordings of Mordvin folklore, made by Mikhail Tshuvashov and Viktor Danilov.

Old Setu collection, 1932

Krakovjak Seto, 1936 f315

Russian folklore collection

The biggest Russian folklore collection of the pre-WW2 period in the Estonian Folklore Archives is labeled as ERA, Vene. The head of Estonian Folklore Archives Dr. Oskar Loorits stated that Russian collection would provide important materials to do comparative studies with Estonian folklore. ERA, Vene collection has 10,656 pages which is divided into 17 volumes. Most of the materials were collected from the north-eastern and south-eastern part of Estonia. This collection was contributed as a part of voluntary work. Estonian volunteers were from the educational field while the Russian volunteers were from the intellectual background. The scholar students collected folklore from the Petseri district, and also regions by the river Narva and Lake Peipsi. To organise the collected materials, it was divided according to the language. In some cases, this classification occurred according to the ethnic identity.

Professor, academician, and employee of the Estonian Folklore Archives Paul Ariste also contributed by collecting folklore materials of the Old Believers from the coast of Lake Peipsi. He arranged collecting campaign in various Russian schools and also recorded the performance situations in Russian language. Another archive employee who collected Russian folklore in a larger amount was Menda Ehrenberg. Later in the post-war period, one of the creative student collector Vera Voogla collected Russian folklore and deposited it in a separate archive that belonged to the University of Tartu. The collection was later redeposited to as series RKM, Vene.

Baltic-German folklore collection

Prior to the establishment of the Estonian Folklore Archives in 1927, Baltic Germans were the largest group of Estophiles to contribute to the folklore collection. Two cultural associations co-ordinated their efforts: the Gelehrte Estnische Gesellschaft (GEG), established in Tartu in 1838 and the Estnische Literarische Gesellschaft, established in Tallinn in 1842.

Most Baltic German folklore material was collected randomly with the exception of the collection of the Learned Estonian Society. The collection is divided into materials collected in German (GEG, DH) and Estonian (GEG, EH). Even after Estonia gained independence in 1918, most members of the GEG were of German origin and remained so well into the early 1920s. Walter Anderson, a folklore professor at the University of Tartu, compiled about 2,500 pages of German folklore in five files in a series called ÕES, Anderson.

After the founding of the Estonian Folklore Archives, new collections were supplemented by a designation ERA. The German collection is called ERA, Saksa which contains three volumes of about 1,200 pages. Partly these materials have been published as an e-publication titled Und Vater und Mutter und Lust und Leben.

Although a substantial part of the foreign materials collected, the archived materials regarding Baltic Germans is relatively small, partly because early calls for folklore were done so in Estonian. Also because many of those collecting folklore did not have the language skills necessary to document Baltic German folklore and those who did have the skills felt it was unimportant. Further collection was also impeded by the Second World War as the Baltic Germans left Estonia after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed in 1939.

Swedish folklore collection

In the 13th and 14th centuries Swedes settled in the Western coastal regions of Estonia. Swedes had a social status similar to Estonians and it was less likely that their folklore would be documented due to inadequate knowledge of languages. This was during the first period of collection of folklore within Estonia initiated by Estophiles 1838. During the 18th century many Swedes were displaced by Russian authorities and relocated to Ukraine, but others may have been assimilated into Estonia. Data from the period of the independent Estonian Republic reflects that they represented 1% of the population. There are two files or approximately one thousand pages containing Swedish material in ERA, Rootsi. Data regarding these trends was collected primarily by Paul Ariste who focused his studies on Estonian and Swedish linguistic relations. In 1927 Ariste visited Estonian Swedes for the first time for the purpose of research and folkloric documentation with an emphasis on linguistic data, such as language of communication used among families within specific Villages. Estonian Swedish folklore was also documented by Oskar Loorits.

Jewish folklore collection

Jewish communities were predominantly in urban centres. Jews and Swedes were granted cultural autonomy by the state along with Germans and Russians. The Estonian Folklore Archives contain approximately 700 pages on Jewish communities in the ERA Juudi collection. University students of Jewish backgrounds recorded most of the material along with Estonian folklorist Paul Ariste. Tartu Jewish school were encouraged to participate by E. Levenberge. Tartu University folklore professor Walter Anderson supervised a portion of the collection process. Jewish folklore was also documented in nearby Daugavpils Latvia by Isidor Levin.

Romani folklore collection

Although research on Romani folklore was limited there are some traditional Estonian regilaul folk songs recorded by Laiuse. The collection of Romani folklore are contained under the heading ERA Mustlased and include 250 pages. Romani people lived in Southern Estonia near the Latvian border along with Tartars and Latvians who also resided in this region. Folklorist Paul Ariste and musicologist K. Leichter made phonograph recordings and Ariste published a collection of Romani tales along with a number of essays addressing traditional culture. Paulopriit Voolaine documented a couple hundred pages on Romani folklore collected in Russian and later recorded in Estonian. This collection is under the heading of Ludza-files of the main ERA collections as his ultimate goal was to make a comparative with Ludza Estonian folklore. Romani folklorist Medni Pilve recorded a considerable amount of material in the 1960s on tape.

Web-based databases of the Estonian Folklore Archives

With the start of the Digital Era in the mid-nineties, the Estonian Folklore Archive created the first digital registers and databases, which mostly replaced the continuation of the analog register and cardfile system. Some archival materials received immediate digital counterparts and digital born materials were included in the collections. Currently, there are 31 online databases, which are based on the material, stored in the Estonian Folklore Archives. Most of the databases are created on the base of the genre (graffiti, riddles, proverbs, etc.) or thematic field.

The database of Estonian runic songs

The runic song (regilaul in Estonian) is an archaic folk song tradition that plays an important role in Estonian folklore. The collection of runic songs were part of Jakob Hurt’s large-scale folklore collecting activities across Estonia. In 2003 this database for runic songs was created by the Estonian Folklore Archive to facilitate the access to the archival material for researchers as well as the public. Its structure was organised parallel to pre-existing publications of some of the archival material, which were constructed after the original classification system based on Estonia’s 101 parishes. The database was made available online in 2010.

Each song in the database is visible in the initial version and in a semi-edited version. The initial version includes the original historic spelling and the idiosyncratic features of the collectors. The edited versions are changed according to current orthographic rules to make the songs more accessible for non-specialists. They still include dialectal peculiarities and the collector’s phrasing. By late 2016 the database contained 83,547 texts which are searchable by the parish, the collector and the time (of recording) as well as by class, function, type, and genre. The database has an English-language interface but all the materials are in Estonian.

The database of Place-Lore “Koobas”

Place-Lore is an umbrella term for folklore focusing on place(name)s transmitted in prose. It includes (local) legends, beliefs, descriptions of customs, historical lore, and memoirs related to specific places. The structure refers hereby like the database of runic songs to the old parish system. Information on the current village, region, municipality or GPS-Coordinates can be found in the meta-data. Accompanying publications explain the location-specific features as well as its historical and social context.

The database was originally created for on-site use in 1998 and converted into a web-based database in 2012. In late 2016 the database contained 28,560 entries. The digital material is highly dependent on the interests in specific regions by research groups. Although the database also includes recent fieldwork, most of the materials are subject to personal data protection restriction and therefore not publicly accessible. This database is also part of the cluster database of the Estonian Heritage Board, which compiles archeological and folklore-related information on places.

The database of children’s games “Uka Uka”

The database of children’ games is built on the basis of several campaigns for the collection of children’s games and lore. Materials were collected in 1920-1930, 1934-1935, 1992, 2007 and 2013. The collection initiative in 2013 was conveyed into a web-based publication and inspired the creation of the online database.

The materials include game descriptions, playing situations, childhood memories connected with playing as well as starting rhymes. The contemporary entries additionally provide information regarding the context, time, place, gender, age and number of players as well as the region they were collected in and data on the collectors. The materials are searchable by name, kind or activity involved. In late 2016, the database contained 2,077 descriptions of games, some of which are accompanied by photos, figures or children’s drawings.

The database of folktales

The database of folktales emerged in 1999 and released to public use in 2016. It was created by researchers from University of Tartu and the Estonian Folklore Archives. The database is structured in three main categories: tales, storytellers and collectors. There is also a literature database with information on printed publications in relation to the stored tales. The materials are equipped with metadata, such as archival references, names of the performers and those who recorded them, places and dates of the collection of the materials, and types of folktales according to Aarne–Thompson classification systems.

As for 2018, it has 13000 entries. Some materials are only accessible after being logged-in.

Databases in Estonian

• Berta. Database of local holidays/cultural anniversaries in Estonia with historical background information, foods, customs, and more. Compiled by Mare Kõiva, Taive Särg, Liisa Vesik. Search the database by time markers (month/day), anniversaries, metadata, and other categories.
• Estonian twisted jokes. Compiled by Piret Voolaid. Contains over 25,000 twisted questions that are searchable by question, answer, archive reference, collector, collection, or topography, collection time, or keyword.
• Estonian acronyms. Compiled by Piret Voolaid. Contains over 3,000 short-cut puzzles focusing on acronyms that are searchable by question, answer, archive reference, collector, collection, or topography, collection time, or keyword.
• Estonian masking show. Compiled by Ülo Tedre, texts by Maris Müürsepp-Leponiemi. The new data environment includes Ülo Tedre's in-depth analysis of Estonian older ‘sanding’ and ‘masking practices’ with maps and photos. The database section contains texts about the masking scene from the ERA print folklore archive and the EKI archives.
• Estonian puzzles. Compiled by Jaak and Arvo Krikmann. Contains query options for 95,751 Estonian puzzles (text, solution, place, time, collector, parish, etc.), tools for parsing and generating cartographic results, and various additional materials.
• Estonian verse puzzles . Compiled by Piret Voolaid. Contains around 1,700 texts that can be found by question, answer, archive reference, collector, collection, or topography, collection time, or keyword.
• Estonian proverbs. Compiled by Arvo Krikmann. Includes all Estonian proverbs. The search bar allows you to sort the results by type number, frequency, and keywords.
• Ethnoastronomy. Compiled by Aado Lintrop. Selection of systematic religious messages and folk spells in relation to celestial beings and the sky.
• Graffiti Database. Compiled by Piret Voolaid. One of the outputs of the collaboration between the Estonian Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Sciences (Creativity and Tradition in Cultural Communication), which mainly consists of Tartu, but also parochial-phraseological graphite captured elsewhere.
• Herba. Herba is a database of ethnobotany. Compiled by Renata Sõukand and Raivo Kalle, it contains data from older manuscript collections, searchable by keywords and botanical features. Lists different folk medicinal usages of plants and their general properties.
• Estonian proverbs and phraseologisms. Compiled by Anneli Baran, Anne Hussar, Asta Õim, Katre Õim. Contains about 160,000 phrases that are searchable by expression, type, content, archive reference, location, collector, artist, collection time.
• Pronunciation and phraseology. Compiled by Arvo Krikmann. Contains approx. 25400 Estonian proverbs and phraseologies derived from: Asta Õimu Phraseological Dictionary, ERA Manuscript Folklore Archive and EKI Breakout Archive.
• LEPP, South Estonian Heritage Portal. Compiled by Mare Kõiva. Contains 10,000 folklore texts from Southern Estonia, mainly Võrumaa and Setumaa.
• Flying Freedom. Compiled by Mare Kõiva. Database focusing on Estonian folk tales, fairy tales, legends and other folklore stories. Searchable by keywords as well as a singular compiled list.
• Data Distribution Mapping. Compiled by Jaak and Arvo Krikmann. The map generator is designed to map any folkloric, ethnographic, dialectological or other phenomena and present it in spreadsheets or cartograms. You can enter data manually or from files with table format options (Word, OpenOffice, Notepad, Excel, Statistica, etc.).
• Online Humor. Compiled by Liisi Laineste. Contains u. 30,000 Estonian online jokes since 1996. Keyword search is possible.
• Rehepapp. Database of folk beliefs and stories. Compiled by Mare Kõiva, Mare Kalda et al. Contains legends, incantations and beliefs.
• Setu's tradition collected by Ello Kirs. Legends, fairy tales, beliefs, custom and other Setu traditions. Compiled by Kristi Salve (and carried out by Ülle Kärner).
• Estonian proverbs with their literal translation in German. Compiled by Arvo Krikmann. 12,700 Estonian proverbs with translations into German. Searchable by keyword and type number among Estonian or German texts. The interface in German; materials are in German and Estonian.

Research and development activities

While the importance of the primary role of the Archives as a physical repository of materials may have diminished, as many databases are already available online, the EFA have maintained their central position largely because of specialised research. Continuing a long lasting tradition, there is still an endeavour to cover by and large all the subjects and genres of the materials in the archives through the efforts of researchers and archivists competent within their field. Digital studio, as part of the Archives, supports digitisation of materials including video and audio records stored in the EFA as well as preparing audio and video material for publication. The research results of the archive’s workers are published mainly as articles and monographs, but academic source publications are also produced.

Research topics

Archives’ staff is currently doing research on various subjects, including such topics as ideologies and communities, runic songs, fairy tales, place lore, ethnomusicology, contemporary and children’s folklore, Estonians in Siberia.

Fairy tales

In 1999, a folktale project committee was established at the Department (at that time the Chair) of Estonian and Comparative Folklore at the University of Tartu. This project is focusing on fairy tales stored in the Estonian Folklore Archives. The work has been conducted in order to digitalise manuscripts and sound recordings from EFA’s collections, to develop typology of Estonian fairy tales and to prepare publications of Estonian fairy tales as well as conduct relevant special research on the topic.

Collecting activities

See also: Folklore Collection Award of the President of the Republic of Estonia

Every year Estonian Folklore Archives receive contributions from volunteers and professional lore collectors, schoolchildren and university students. As usual in recent years, collected material are recorded on diverse media carriers.

The President’s Award for collecting folklore is given annually since 1994 to recognise and acknowledge the best contributors to the Estonian Folklore Archives.

The circle of people helping to record folkloric heritage has been widening by way of collection contests. Contests are dedicated to specific topics. Thus, in 2009 it was “The Finland of My Memories”, in 2011 – “Teatetants” (eng: Relay Dance), in 2012 – “Something Funny Happened to Me”, in 2013 – competition for children’s games collection, in 2014 – “Stories about Our Homes”, etc. The participants are mainly elderly people; yet, there are also schoolchildren and youngsters among them. In addition to standard Estonian, contributions are made in Russian, as well as in Estonian dialects (for instance, Võru, which can be also considered as a separate language).

The availability of the means to conserve digital material has also introduced specific problems; for example, some collecting campaigns may result in the acquisition of a disproportionally large amount of a certain type of material, possibly causing diminished research interest in this type of material. In 2011, the countrywide campaign “Teatetants” (eng: Relay Dance) was held to collect traditions of folk dance groups. In response to the appeal, 189 memory sticks, containing more than 3,000 pages of text and 13,600 photos – in addition to audio and video files – were sent to the Archives. This unprecedented large corpus consisting of an array of different media files was so unusual in the history of the Folklore Archives that after preliminary description, more radical steps had to be taken. Due to the limited human resources and storage conditions, only a quarter of the huge number of photos have been previewed; photos depicting recurring motifs have been grouped and the lists of captions compiled. It was decided that the rest of the material will be left unprocessed; for the time being it is currently waiting to be archived.

On April 20, 2010 employees of the Estonian Folklore Archives created an institutional Facebook account to increase the efficacy of relevant folklore collection. The action was inspired by the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano and the impact of this on the life of people all over the world.

Publications

Series published by the Estonian Folklore Archives are

• Monumenta Estoniae Antiquae
• Commentationes Archivi Traditionum Popularium Estoniae (ERA Toimetused, since 1935)
• Pro Folkloristica (publication of young researchers, since 1993)
• Estonian Settlements (Eesti asundused, since 1995)
• Recordings from the Estonian Folklore Archives (Helisalvestusi ERAst, since 2001)
• Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics (in cooperation with the University of Tartu and the Estonian National Museum, since 2007)

External links

• Estonian Folklore Archives Official Web-page
• Estonian Folklore Archives on Facebook