Rahvaluulekogumine Epistolaarses Kontekstis
Folklore collecting in an epistolary context: Helene Maasen’s letters to Jakob Hurt

Summary/Abstract: The article is based on the correspondence between folklorist Jakob Hurt (1839-1907) and local folklore collector Helene Maasen (1869-1933). My main aim is to analyse the way Hurt communicated with his co-workers and to see how this communication was divided between public (reports about folklore collecting published in newspapers) and private spheres (letters). Maasen was one of the most prolific female co-workers of Hurt – in the years 1888-1896 she sent in 1150 pages of folkloric materials (tales, songs, minor forms etc.). Besides folklore she also sent Hurt several letters; some of them dealt with practical matters (what to collect), while in others she reflected quite emotionally on her role as a folklore collector. 290 KEEL JA KIRJANDUS 4/2017 The article addresses the subjects that come up in their correspondence, showing that there were topics which were discussed equally in public and private spheres (for example the questions connected with the age of the songs), and those that were only discussed privately (for example the moral contents of the tales). Besides those themes, we can see how Maasen positions herself as a folklore collector, wavering between self-diminution (stressing the scarcity of her collected material) and sincere and heartfelt happiness about what she is doing. Compared to that ambivalence, the representations of Maasen in Hurt’s newspaper reports are rather plain – she is always referred to as a ‘diligent maiden’.

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