A New Edition of Juhan Kurrik’s Anthology "Ilomaile" Was Published by University of Tartu Press

The oral traditions of Estonia have a history that dates back millennia. The most remarkable of them is the archaic folk song, regilaul. While cross-currents from East to West have left their traces in Estonia, the folk song preserves its ancient meter and its archaic language. Ilomaile, an anthology of Estonian folk songs with translations and commentary compiled and commented upon by Juhan Kurrik, is an excellent source for making the Estonian (and Setu) regilaul texts accessible outside the Estonian language space. This is also the reason why a new edition of the book has been published for the international readership.

This book was born in the forests of Muskoka, Ontario, where, from 1967 onwards, young Estonians from all over the world came to search for their roots. The week-long lecture series was called Metsaülikool, the ‘Forest University’. Juhan Kurrik was a folklore enthusiast, whose lectures at the Metsaülikool form the basis for this book. The first edition of the book, published in 1985 in Toronto (publisher Vello Salo/Maarjamaa), was also the first to introduce the Estonian regilaul to an English-speaking readership. The anthology embraces a wide range of songs providing a comprehensive overview of the Estonian treasury of regilaul from both a thematic and geographic perspective. The current edition offers a supplement by Madis Arukask about the present state of research and further readings on regilaul.

Kanni Labi, a folklorist of the Estonian Literary Museum, has commented on the translations and interpretations of Juhan Kurrik taking into account the results of the ongoing research on these old songs now, almost 30 years after the publication of the first edition. An appendix Translating Old Songs: Selected Estonian Texts, compiled by Kanni Labi, is available at the digital archive of the University of Tartu on DSpace (http://hdl.handle.net/10062/33616)

Author: Juhan Kurrik
Title: Ilomaile. Anthology of Estonian folk songs with translations and commentary
ISBN 978-9949-32-408-8
Format: hard cover, 384 pages, dimensions: 215x175x35 (mm)
Publisher: University of Tartu Press. 2013

The book is available in bigger book stores (Apollo and Rahva Raamat), from University of Tartu Press and from the Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore, University of Tartu.