Versification: Metrics in Practice

312 Pages·2021·4.537 MB·English

by  Frog, Satu Grünthal, Kati Kallio, Jarkko Niemi (eds.)

Versification

Metrics in Practice
Edited by
Frog, Satu Grünthal, Kati Kallio and Jarkko Niemi
Studia Fennica
Litteraria

Studia Fennica
Litteraria 12
The Finnish Literature Society (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has, from
the very beginning, engaged in publishing operations. It nowadays publishes
literature in the fields of ethnology and folkloristics, linguistics, literary research
and cultural history.
The first volume of the Studia Fennica series appeared in 1933. Since 1992,
the series has been divided into three thematic subseries: Ethnologica, Folkloristica
and Linguistica. Two additional subseries were formed in 2002, Historica and
Litteraria. The subseries Anthropologica was formed in 2007.
In addition to its publishing activities, the Finnish Literature Society maintains
research activities and infrastructures, an archive containing folklore and literary
collections, a research library and promotes Finnish literature abroad.
Studia Fennica Editorial Board
Editors-in-chief
Timo Kallinen, Professor, University of Eastern Finland, Finland
Katriina Siivonen, Adjunct Professor, University of Turku, Finland
Karina Lukin, Title of Docent, University of Helsinki, Finland
Sari Katajala-Peltomaa, Title of Docent, Tampere University, Finland
Laura Visapää, Title of Docent, University of Helsinki, Finland
Viola Parente-Čapková, Title of Docent, University of Turku, Finland
Deputy editors-in-chief
Kenneth Sillander, Title of Docent, University of Helsinki, Finland
Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Anne Heimo, Professor, University of Turku, Finland
Heini Hakosalo, Professor, University of Oulu, Finland
Salla Kurhila, Professor, University of Helsinki, Finland
Saija Isomaa, Title of Docent, University of Tampere, Finland
Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen, Secretary General, Dr. Phil., Finnish Literature Society, Finland
Kirsi Keravuori, Publishing Director, Finnish Literature Society, Finland
Maija Yli-Kätkä, Secretary of the Board, Finnish Literature Society, Finland
oa.finlit.fi
Editorial Office
SKS
P.O. Box 259
FI-00171 Helsinki
Versification
Metrics in Practice
Edited by Frog, Satu Grünthal, Kati Kallio and Jarkko Niemi
Finnish Literature Society • SKS • Helsinki • 2021
studia fennica litteraria 12
The publication has undergone a peer review.
© 2021 Frog, Satu Grünthal, Kati Kallio, Jarkko Niemi, and SKS
License CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International, unless otherwise specified.
Cover Design: Timo Numminen
EPUB: Tero Salmén
ISBN 978-951-858-418-9 (Print)
ISBN 978-951-858-419-6 (EPUB)
ISBN 978-951-858-420-2 (PDF)
ISSN 0085-6835 (Studia Fennica. Print)
ISSN 2669-9605 (Studia Fennica. Online)
ISSN 1458-5278 (Studia Fennica Litteraria. Print)
ISSN 2669-9540 (Studia Fennica Litteraria. Online)
DOI https://doi.org/10.21435/sflit.12
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License.
To view a copy of the license, please visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
A free open access version of the book is available at https://doi.org/10.21435/sflit.12
or by scanning this QR code with your mobile device.
BoD – Books on Demand, Norderstedt, Germany 2021
Table of Contents
Preface 7
Hans Nollet
Helsinki sive in Tartarum descendens sive
Katabasis: ad urbis nomen lusus 8
Helsinki or Sinking down into Hell or
Katabasis: Pun on the Name of the Town 9
Frog, Satu Grünthal, Kati Kallio, and Jarkko Niemi
Introduction 10
I. An Overview
Frog, Satu Grünthal, Kati Kallio, and Jarkko Niemi
Metrics in Practice 19
II. From Metre to Performance
Kati Kallio
Performance, Music, and Metre in Kalevala-Metric Oral Poetry 59
Jarkko Niemi
Styles of Northern Uralic Sung Meters in Comparison 79
Nicolas Royer-Artuso
Towards a Generative Model of Ottoman Aruz to Usul Textsetting 111
Jacqueline Pattison Ekgren and Joe Siri Ekgren
“Not Singing, Not Saying”
Performance Flexibility of Norwegian Stev and Re-Performance of
Accentual Poetry, such as Old English and Old Norse Poetry 126
Sergei B. Klimenko, Maria V. Stanyukovich, and Galina B. Sychenko
Poetic Language and Music of the hudhud ni nosi, a Yattuka Funeral Chant,
the Philippines 149
5
III. Poets and Metres over Time
Erika Laamanen
“Do Not Think Whether This Is Poetry or Prose”
Metre and Poetics in the Works of Lauri Viita 173
Hans Nollet
A Case Study
Dactylic Hexameter in Justus Lipsius’s Poetry 187
Hanna Karhu
Many Ways to Use and Play with Rhymes
The Poet Otto Manninen and the Rhymes in Finnish Rhymed
Couplets 200
IV. Language and Poetic Form
Janika Oras and Mari Sarv
Metrics of Runosongs of the Border Area
Quantity and Broken Lines in Seto Songs 217
Yelena Sesselja Helgadóttir
Migration of Poetic Formulae
Icelandic Post-Medieval þulur 233
Frog
Metrical Entanglement
The Interface of Language and Metre 249
List of Contributors 294
Abstract 297
Index of Persons 298
Index of Languages 300
Index of Poetic Terms 301
Index of Places 303
General Index 304
6
Preface
It was 2016, on the lovely morning of May 25th. The Great Hall of the
Finnish Literature Society (SKS) swiftly became crowded with voices as
innumerable hands fastened nametags, flipped through papers and hastened
to pour another cup of coffee. The air veritably shimmered with the vibrant
bustle of enthusiasm in the beams of sunlight that poured in through the
room’s dizzyingly tall, slender windows, playing on a chandelier otherwise
too high to be noticed. And at the crescendo rose a voice above the multitude,
words of welcome washing across the crowd as shuffling feet rapidly found
their places, and from the impression of chaos emerged an illusion of order.
Sometimes a lively scholarly event sets into motion spirited discussions
that grow for years to follow. Thus began Versification: Metrics in Practice,
the 13th conference of the Nordic Society for Metrical Studies (NordMetrik),
organised by Folklore Studies of the University of Helsinki, the Finnish
Literature Society and the Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and
Scandinavian Studies, University of Helsinki. This three-day event brought
together forty-seven speaking participants and roughly as many additional
attendees. The participants represented a wide variety of disciplines, meeting
to discuss shared interests in the operation of metrics and poetics as they
are and have been used. The cordial atmosphere nurtured rich and fruitful
dialogues across the diversity of views, alternating between plenary lectures
and parallel sessions on sites of both the Finnish Literature Society and
the University of Helsinki. The book that you hold before you has been
developed on the platform of those discussions. Rather than conference
proceedings that aim to provide a written record of the many papers and
lectures presented inthat venue, this volume is a continuation and sequel
as apublication project. The chapters of this volume have been invited,
organized and developed to form a dynamic exposition of discussions
surrounding the phenomenon of versification.
We are grateful for the support from the Academy of Finland research
project, “Oral Poetry, Mythic Knowledge, and Vernacular Imagination:
Interfaces of Individual Expression and Collective Traditions in Pre-modern
Northeast Europe” (2012–2016) of Folklore Studies, University of Helsinki,
the University of Helsinki Research Community, “Cultural Meanings and
Vernacular Genres (CMVG)”, the Finnish Literature Society, the Department
of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies, University of Helsinki,
and the generous support of the Wihuri Foundation.
— The Editors
7
Helsinki sive in Tartarum descendens sive
Katabasis: ad urbis nomen lusus
In Tartarum descendenti mi non eunt
umbrae viventes obviam, quidem tenera
luce carentes utque vidimus neque
Stygias paludes nec cumbam Charonticam.
5 Quam mirum quam novum quanto inauditu’ sit.
Nunc apparent rari nantes in gurgite
salso, nunc Baltico in sinu laeti manent.
Mutantur Elysii campique in Piceam
hanc insulam, pratorum divitem, mare
10 complectentem fluctusque undasque et aequora.
Non mirum non novum neque inauditu’ sit,
ut prato quondam ranam conspexi levem,
ranam non ranam quandam, quae minime viret,
colorem mutans purpureum accipit, caput
15 summum ferens nigrum vel ambulat et non salit.
Quam mirum quam novum quanto inauditu’ sit
Humanam quasi imaginem dabat sibi.
Venimus ad illud, linguam conantes mihi
captare ignotam, quae caret sono lepido
20 Latinitatis haud mihi inimicissimae.
Nequit coaxare illud peregrinum sed tamen
Quid dicit, quid dicit exoticum rogo,
et audiendo iterum audiendo amplexa tum
nonnulla verba demum capto: Terve tervetuloa.
Ab imo pectore vobis gratias agimus,
Hans Nollet
8