摘要
爱沙尼亚是东波罗的海国家,其民族史诗《卡列维波埃格》世界闻名。这是一部诞生于浪漫主义时代,典型的"以传统为导向"的英雄史诗,它由F.R.克列茨瓦尔德根据民俗资料,用古老诗体形式写成。史诗的主人公形象在编写过程中也经历了从森林巨人到文化英雄的转变。本文试图通过对这部史诗的产生时代、搜集整理过程以及文本内容与主题等方面加以概述,来揭示英雄传说史诗化的历程,并讨论史诗对于族群认同的重要意义。
Heroic epic as ancient narrative genre has always been a part of ethnic historical memory. The existence of epics cannot be ignored in modern European nation-state building, especially in the undeveloped northeastern regions. The Kalevipoeg of Estonia emerged in the 19 th century as an influential result of both Romanticism and ethnic identity building. The title of the epic,also spelled Kalevide,means the son of Kalev. This epic is an adventure story of the his process of his magical revenge.I. Romanticism and the Age of National Awakening in Estonia During the second half of 19 th century,Estonia experienced a period of "national awakening "which had multiple implications for society,culture and politics. From 1869 till today the Singing Festival has been the most influential( cultural)marker,and the heroic epic is also an indispensable factor. Madis Arukask thought there were two main trends which caused the emergence of the epic: 1) the trend of Nationalism and Romanticism in Europe; and 2) the tradition which reflected local consciousness and mainstream ideology. Undoubtedly,folklore traditions have strong impacts.And,they are needed especially in those parts of Europe where the cultural development was relatively weak. From then on,the culture of the peasant gained an unprecedented respect and identity.Their aesthetics and beliefs also became the milestone for nation building.II. Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald and the Collection of Epics and their Classification The composition of the Kalevipoeg is attributed directly to the editor or "writer " Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, an Estonian scholar. He was honored as the cultural bridge between Estonian and German. In 1835,Kreutzwald,with foresight,edited the Kalevipoeg story in prose. In the same year,he read the German edition of the Kalevala and decided to rewrite it in old rhyme form. He finished the first 12 cantos in 1853, and, later wove them together into a unified whole using supplementary materials. From 1857 to 1861 this version was published as a serial. However,the edition of the epic which truly inspired the Estonian public was the Estonian-German version published in Finland in 1862,and reprinted in 1875. Until the end of 19 th century,the epic became the work which influenced the national consciousness of young Estonians.Prof. lo Valk in Tartu University concluded that the contribution of Kreutzwald as the author of the epic can be seen in three aspects,he: rewrote the epic from prose into verse form; changed the image of hero; and narrated the story using the biographical model. In addtion,the writer used four specific methods to edit the epic,he: connected the various plots; mixed the paradox variants; gave up those parts which lacked coherence; and,fixed the location of the epic event. Thus,the creative work realized the identity of Kreutzwald as an author and editor,and in that way the legend of a forest giant successfully changed into that of a na-tional heroic epic.III. The Themes and Characteristics of the Kalevipoeg1. Comparison between Kreutzwald and L9 nnrot In discussing this Estonian epic,we have to mention the influence of the Finnish epic Kalevala.Both of the epics received a lot of praises,as well as criticism. No matter, we cannot neglect their contributions to the epic even though there are big differences in the author's voices during the textualising process.Firstly,speaking from the original corpus,the Kalevala is more derived orally. Apparently Kreutzwald took references from the successful paradigm of the Kalevala,making only a few changes from the "runo"style to "regilaul". Estonian and Finnish,being two languages from the same language family,have similar poetic rhyme. But,many verses in the Kalevipoeg are composed by an individual author and have no accurate oral evidence. Secondly,the two authors made their own choices with regard to material. Only 12. 5 % of the content in Kalevipoeg derives from oral forms with nearly 90 %from Norse folk life,and 75 % of the plot from Estonia. Thus, the work of editor cannot be confirmed as original,but instead,it is a reorganization of the content. In contrast the Kalevala is more likely from the remote magic lands of heroes.2. A Synopsis of the Epic At the beginning of the epic,the hero Kalev flies with an eagle from the north to Estonia and constructs his kingdom. An old lady picks up a hen,an egg and a crow when she is returning home, and they respectively transform to in"Salme","Linda"and a female servant. Linda married King Kalev,and Kalevipoeg is the youngest son who is born after his father's death. Linda cries seven days and nights and her tears become the lake. As the youngest son,Kalevipoeg surpasses his brothers in intelligence and strength. One day when brothers go hunting, a witch trapped their mother Linda through magic. Kalevipoeg swims to Finland alone in search of his kidnapped mother. During this difficult journey he accidently kills a girl and a Blacksmith's eldest son. The Blacksmith places a curse on a sword and throws it into the river. On returning to Estonia,Kalevipoeg becomes king after defeating his brothers in a stone throwing competition. Then,Kalevipoeg journeys to the ends of the earth. He defeats evil in a trial of strength,and rescues three maidens from hell.They married his friends Olevi,Alevi and Sulevi.War breaks out, and after Alevi and Sulevi are killed,he hands his rule over to his friend Olevi,and,then,in depression,withdraws into the forest. When crossing a river,the sword cursed by the Blacksmith cuts off his legs. He dies and his soul goes to heaven. In the end,Kalevipoeg becomes a gatekeeper to hell,but his two hands are entrapped in rock.3. Theme Analysis one of the biggest difficulties in genre transformation from heroic legend to epic is keeping the coherence of the narrative structure and connections. According to this analysis,the researchers found two main problems in the Kalevipoeg:The first one is that there are two poetic systems within the epic which were noticed by Jüri Kurman,the translator of the English version. He pointed out the differences between the first ten stories and the remaining ones,in that they depict a different kind of hero. The first half is the mythic human being,but from the 11 th story,the episode is not in a chronicle time line,but more like series stories whose basic type is magical, adventurous trip of a super hero,and is one in which the divinity of hero become more significant. The other problem is the claim made by Felix J. Oinas who argued that the end of epic is an independent epic in miniature. He said that after the arrival of Kalevipoeg's soul in heaven and being bestowed with honor,the epic should be over,and,because he had paid his blood debt,it was not necessary to bind him to the door of hell. The ending,he feels,seems to be the memory of another legend,or a condensed version of a longer one.IV. Conclusion As the result of epicbeing composed from heroic legends,the Kalevipoeg constructed a symbolic culture. Legends concerning one hero are often diffused and chaotic,or even paradoxical. However,the tension regarding integration is limitless,and there are many possibilities to evolve into the epic narrative genre. The transformation strengthened the thematic expressions compared with other genres. The textualisation from legend to epic reflected the development of the history of national literature. In short,the evolutionary process from legend to epic is not only a breakthrough in literary construction,but also reflects the enhancement of ethnic identity and cohesion.
出处
《民族学刊》
CSSCI
2017年第6期54-59,113-115,共9页
Journal of Ethnology