Laul jutustab lauljast. Ülevaade Lüganuse lauliku Mai Alasi regilauluvarast
Song Tells about a Singer: Overview of the Runo Song Repertoire of Lüganuse Singer Mai Alasi

Summary/Abstract: The 9th volume of Vana kannel (Old Zither), a serial publication of runo songs, comprises 1320 song lyrics collected and written down from Lüganuse parish. The number of presenters is over a couple of hundred, yet Mai Alasi is the only one whose repertoire includes over a hundred songs. Such a big number of runo songs from one person, written down as late as in the first decades of the 20th century, makes us wonder about her song repertoire. The most relevant approach seems to be the description of her runo song lyrics from a typological aspect. This enables us to point out the register of motifs in the texts and gives us an idea of the applied artistic methods and the language of images. This way we can treat the runo song lyrics as a piece of poetry. The author was also interested to find out what kind of facts about the personality of the singer and her life her song repertoire, its content and themes reveal. The conclusions are certainly at least partly hypothetical, yet they might help us to revitalise the memory of a remarkable singer.

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