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- Convenors:
-
Saša Babič
(Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts)
Nataša Jakop (ZRC SAZU)
Tiber Falzett (University College Dublin)
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- Chairs:
-
Nataša Jakop
(ZRC SAZU)
Saša Babič (Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts)
Tiber Falzett (University College Dublin)
Short Abstract
Short folklore forms are all tightly connected to everyday life of the society. These forms mirror in a compressed message the conceptualisations of to everyday, including the natural world, its observation, or even its utilisation for economic activity,like harvesting and livestock.
Long Abstract
Short folklore forms— proverbs, riddles, onomatopoetic representations of animal sounds etc.—are deeply embedded in the everyday life of a society. Their content is typically grounded in lived experience, impressions, and insights, often shaped by socially embedded stereotypes. Through embodied sensory experience and metaphor, these forms generalize communicate individual experiences, reflecting and reinforcing social norms and values within specific cultural contexts (e.g., ‘The early bird catches the worm’; Rana ura – zlata ura ‘Early hour – golden hour’).
In this sense, language becomes a mirror of society worldviews and cultural concepts. These concise expressions also encapsulate and challenge our perceptions of nature—its observation, representation, and even its manipulation—especially in the context of subsistence activities such as harvesting and livestock keeping. At the same time, language functions as a carrier of cultural values. The contextual use of these short forms reveals not only society’s practical relationship with nature, but also its embodied, emotional and ethical attitudes toward it and within it—highlighting perceived value, vulnerabilities, and the threats nature may pose or endure.
This panel explores how nature is conceptualized in short folklore forms, whether directly (e.g., weather proverbs or animal sound imitations) or indirectly (e.g., through the notion of labour), as well as how can we interpret short folklore forms with the folkloristic, ethnolinguistic and ethnographic approaches. We are particularly interested in papers that combine the mentioned approaches with the aim of gaining deeper insight into the topic under discussion.
Accepted papers
Session 1 Tuesday 16 June, 2026, -Paper short abstract
In my paper, I examine how natural phenomena are represented in Hungarian riddles, drawing on a corpus of approximately 15,000 riddle texts. I explore differences in the selection of phenomena appearing in the descriptions and solutions, as well as the use of metaphorical and literal descriptions.
Paper long abstract
While short folklore forms are „all tightly connected to everyday life of the society”, they reflect and conceptualize the environment surrounding their users in various ways. Riddles, as a rule, describe everyday objects and natural phenomena misleadingly, using descriptive elements and concepts belonging to a different register, and pointing out irregular aspects in the appearance or behavior of the described object. This juxtaposition serves as a cue that the statement is to be understood as a riddle.
In my paper, I examine how natural phenomena are represented in Hungarian riddles, drawing on a corpus of approximately 15,000 riddle texts recorded between the 1850s and the 1950s. I explore the differences in the selection of phenomena appearing in the descriptions and solutions, as well as the use of metaphorical and literal descriptions.
Paper short abstract
Globally birds and beasts are familiar in proverbs. My paper explores those in a classic corpus of 100 common European proverbs. The fauna include both domestic and wild as well as exotic. In some proverbs the animals vary from language to language. The corpus includes the odd Universal proverb.
Paper long abstract
Animals and birds are familiar referents in proverbs worldwide but which and how frequently? My proposal is to explore the fauna which occur in a classic corpus of proverbs, namely, Gyula Paczolay's 'European Proverbs in 55 Languages with Equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese.' (Veszprem 1997). The corpus consists of around 100 proverbs which the Editor defines as 'Common European,' namely, those found throughout Europe and in over half of the 55 living languages there. My paper will look at how often within the corpus fauna are used as the main referents and what kind of fauna feature - domesticated -dog, wild -hare, exotic -elephant? Are there any mythological animals? The range is quite astonishing and even includes insects. Do some categories show up more than others and why? In certain proverbs some fauna are specifically named while other proverbs simply use generics such as 'bird,' 'fish' or 'snake'. In some proverbs this varies from language to language and, again, possible reasons why will be suggested. The Editor of the corpus, Paczolay, designates a few of the one hundred different proverbs 'Universal,' that is, that they also occur in several non-European languages like Arabic and Japanese. 'A barking dog doesn't bite' is one such. As well as being found outside Europe it is the third commonest within Europe. The other Universal proverbs will be highlit and a special look will be taken of the proverbs in Ireland which are in Paczolay's top one hundred.
Paper short abstract
By analyzing zoonymic motifs in Slovenian proverbs, unconventional phraseological replies, and incantations, while considering the genre characteristics of these short folklore forms, we aim to reveal the roles and values of domestic animals in everyday human life.
Paper long abstract
Domestic animals frequently appear as motifs in short folklore forms because they were essential both for human subsistence and economy. Living in constant proximity to people naturally led to their reflection in everyday language. Such zoonymic motifs were used not only to describe realities directly related to animals but also to characterize human behavior, social relations, and situations not directly related to domestic animals. Since short folklore forms serve diverse functions and differ in their semantic content and their structural formation, the question arises of how these differences influence the choice of domestic animal motifs in everyday communication. We will focus on three genres: Proverbs, unconventional phraseological replies, and incantations. Unconventional phraseological replies—deliberately inappropriate, often humorous responses to another's statement—differ sharply from the proverb. Incantations differ from the other two genres as they are closely associated with ritual and magical practices through their attempt to influence reality. We will examine the range of domestic animals found in Slovene short folklore forms of these three genres, along with some parallels from other languages, and attempt to determine which semantic and structural features are decisive for the use of domestic animal motifs in each expression. Thus, a basic domestic animal imaginary in the selected genres within the Slovenian linguocultural space will be outlined, providing a reliable material basis for further study. Through this it will be possible to better understand the roles of different animals in human everyday life, that is, their evaluation in various functions they fulfill within society.
Paper short abstract
The paper seeks to study the proverbs of 17th century Indian Poet Ghagh which are full of natural elements. It discusses the questions pertaining to the medium, appropriation and relevance of these proverbs in contemporary times, particularly in the backdrop of the discourse of anthropocene.
Paper long abstract
Proverbs as shorter narrative forms encapsulate folk wisdom, yet compared to other prominent genres of folklore, like folk songs or folk tales, scientific studies dedicated to them are scant, at least in India. The proposed paper seeks to shed light on the proverbs of North Indian Poet Ghagh of 17th century which are an ethnological account of everyday life comprising primarily of, but not limited to, weather forecast and agricultural practices. The aim of the paper is to critically analyse these proverbs in the backdrop of their diachronic development over the years. Since these proverbs are rooted in rural set up, and thus full of nature metaphors, the questions pertaining to the shift in their medium (from oral to written), their appropriation as well as the relevance of these proverbs in contemporary times, particularly under the threat of the anthropocene, are central to the analysis of this paper.
Paper short abstract
This paper explores the symbolic role of animals in the short tales and proverbial wisdom of Transylvania, a region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe, drawing upon Romanian, Hungarian, and Saxon (German) traditions preserved in the area.
Paper long abstract
This paper explores the symbolic role of animals in the short tales and proverbial wisdom of Transylvania, a region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. Drawing upon Romanian, Hungarian, and Saxon (German) traditions preserved in the area, the study highlights how animals function as moral exemplars, mediators between the human and natural worlds, and carriers of communal memory. Both short tales and popular sayings encode a worldview where cunning, strength, and survival are negotiated through animal archetypes. By examining motifs and idioms, the paper situates Transylvanian animal lore within broader European folklore while stressing its local specificity. The persistence of animal imagery in Transylvanian lore reflects the region’s landscape: forests, mountains, and pastures created close contact with wild and domestic animals. Oral traditions thus naturalized the human struggle for survival into symbolic animal narratives. I am going to analyze how and why these stories and proverbs preserve a vernacular wisdom—both playful and profound—that continues to resonate in the region’s cultural memory, using mostly archived materials from the Cluj- Napoca (Transylvania, Romania) folklore archive. My purpose is to approach as well what is their impact nowadays and how different groups of readers perceive/understand them and what kind of effort was done by the researchers of the mentioned institution to make them accessible to different audiences in the latest.
Paper short abstract
The paper explores human evaluations of pigs and the values attached to them in Slovenian proverbs. It identifies two dimensions: the pig as a living animal in daily life and as a symbolic figure of human character, reflecting the broader human relationship with nature.
Paper long abstract
This paper investigates human evaluations of the pig as reflected in Slovenian traditional proverbs. It is framed by the conceptual distinction between value as the qualitative pole and worth as the quantitative pole of social value processes (cf. Graeber 2001). Methodologically, the study combines two approaches: a critical examination of ethnological and historical sources on pig farming and slaughter practices, and a semantic analysis of materials from the largest Slovenian digital proverb collection.
The findings indicate that proverbs articulate a wide range of attitudes toward the pig, from highly positive associations with prosperity, abundance, and well-being to negative associations with dirt, gluttony, and moral corruption. On a symbolic level, the pig remains a bearer of happiness and economic security as long as it is seen in its role as livestock. Yet when projected onto human behavior, the same animal comes to embody impurity, greed, and excess. While these results already suggest a deeply ambivalent picture, further ethnographically supported research is added to fully uncover the dynamics at play. Thus, a more precise understanding of this ambivalence represents a central aim of our research.
By situating these meanings within gradual, long-term transformations of value systems in Slovenian linguistic and cultural contexts, the paper shows two intertwined dimensions of the pig in proverbial tradition: as a live animal tied to everyday experience, livelihood, and emotion, and as a symbolic figure through which moral traits and broader reflections on humanity’s relationship with nature are expressed.
Paper short abstract
Slovenian proverbs on textiles reveal the close bond between nature and craft: from flax sowing and sheep shearing to the symbolism of thread and weaving. They preserve ecological knowledge, seasonal rhythms, and cultural values intertwining environment, economy, and memory.
Paper long abstract
Textile production has always been dependent on nature – on the availability of plants and animals such as flax, hemp, and sheep, on the rhythm of seasons, and on the weather that determined both harvest and processing. In Slovenian culture, this close relationship between textiles and nature is preserved in proverbs, idioms, and other short folklore forms. These expressions encode ecological knowledge about cultivation and processing – for example, guidance on when to sow flax or warnings about timely harvesting – as well as the vulnerability of work to weather and environmental change. They reveal how natural cycles structured economic life and how observation of the environment was essential for survival.
At the same time, textile-related proverbs reflect the symbolic and cultural dimensions of this bond with nature. Threads, yarn, and weaving appear as metaphors for order, continuity, and fate, linking human life to natural and cosmic cycles. The material properties of flax or wool become images through which communities articulated values such as patience, diligence, and thrift.
By analysing a corpus of Slovenian proverbs and idioms, this paper explores how short folklore forms intertwine natural resources, agricultural knowledge, and cultural imagination. It argues that textiles served not only as economic goods but also as cultural mediators, encoding ecological practices, social values, and symbolic meanings. In this way, folklore reflects how societies perceived, utilised, and symbolised nature, leaving behind a linguistic archive of the interdependence between environment, economy, and culture.
Paper short abstract
Trees in proverbs, folk songs, and bardic traditions speak as symbols of endurance, morality, and memory. From Polish oaks and birches to Celtic and Central Asian epics, they whisper resilience and fate, serving as silent witnesses that bridge human experience with natural eternity.
Paper long abstract
Trees have always spoken in human imagination. They are more than features of the landscape: they are guardians of memory, mediators of fate, and symbols of endurance. In Polish tradition, proverbs such as “A bent tree the wind does not break” or “One tree does not make a forest” condense moral lessons into arboreal imagery. Oaks embody strength and individuality, birches youth and femininity, while the forest itself is proverbially both “father” and “mother,” transcending generations as a timeless witness.
Folk songs collected by Oskar Kolberg echo these motifs: lindens as confidantes of love, birches as emblems of youthful femininity, and groves as stages of joy and courtship. Literary voices such as Kasprowicz, Leśmian, and Konopnicka sacralise trees, transforming them into poetic interlocutors of human existence.
Placed in a wider context, these traditions resonate with bardic and minstrel cultures across Europe and Central Asia, where trees and forests frame oral memory. Celtic englynion, troubadour refrains, Slavic epics, and Central Asian bakhshi epics all employ arboreal metaphors to articulate resilience, love, or destiny. Their proverbial brevity served both mnemonic and moral purposes, linking human experience to natural cycles.
Finally, modern bardic echoes—such as the song High Wood—reinscribe the forest as archive and oracle, carrying scars of history yet promising renewal.
This paper argues that when trees “whisper” through proverbs, songs, and bardic echoes, they articulate a universal symbolic language of resilience, morality, and memory. They stand as silent witnesses, mediating between human temporality and natural eternity.
Paper short abstract
Khonar Bochon is a compendium of concise sayings orally composed by Khona, a poet of Medieval Bengal. It reflects her nuanced knowledge of the rural climate and harvesting techniques. This paper examines the sayings by situating them within the indigenous wisdom, memory and folklore of the region.
Paper long abstract
Khonar Bochon (The Sayings of Khona) is a compendium of rhythmic, concise and profound utterances, composed and transmitted orally since the 9th century in rural Bengal. Khona was a renowned poet, astrologer, and mathematician of Medieval Bengal, and the folklore of the region considers her to have existed around the 9th century. She composed these sayings, which embodied the intricate knowledge she possessed of the rural climate, agricultural techniques, rituals and the methods of harvesting to be employed in different seasons by the farmers and the people of the region. These sayings not only depict the indigenous wisdom of the people but are also cultural markers denoting significant details and intricacies of rural Bengal. These sayings establish the link between the practicalities of an agrarian community and nature, which is closely associated with its sustenance and survival. Khona, who inhabited an arguably patriarchal society, articulated her voice and opinions on the socio-cultural and environmental aspects of such a society through recourse to rhyme and folklore, leading to a widespread acceptance of her sayings by the largely non-literate population. The eco-consciousness embedded within her sayings is at once metaphorical and realistic, portraying both the emotional and practical aspects of being of the people. They can be placed within the larger framework of the cultural memory of the region. This paper aims to study and examine these sayings from a mnemocultural perspective, highlighting the lived experiences of the people and their intimate connection with all kinds of natural phenomena.
Paper short abstract
The study explores whether the same humour mechanisms are used in climate change memes and in humorous climate protest posters. The analysis reveals that both datasets use juxtapositions, witty cultural references, and visual humour, but only posters use word play and self-deprecation.
Paper long abstract
As climate changes, so does humour - from satirical posters at School Strike 4 Climate (SS4C) protests to internet memes on social media. This presentation builds upon the research on common humour mechanisms in SS4C posters (Hee et al., 2022), according to which humorous posters often employ such mechanisms as wordplay, juxtapositions, witty cultural references, visual humour and personification, and self-deprecating humour. The current study explores whether the same mechanisms create humorous effects in climate change memes. The analysis of 130 humorous memes posted on Instagram, Facebook and Reddit between 2019 and 2025 reveals that adding witty cultural references, playing with visuality and creating juxtapositions (both verbal and visual) are among the most common mechanisms in the dataset. However, both wordplay and self-deprecating humour were rather marginal. The discrepancy can be explained both by the different formats of humorous data (i.e., visuality was much more prevalent in humorous memes than in SS4C posters) and by the different nature of communication in street protests and among online groups. While the protest participants clearly positioned themselves as climate change activists and could thus afford self-deprecation without the fear of being misinterpreted, climate change internet memes have to express their stance less ambiguously to avoid being used by climate change skeptics.
Reference:
Hee, M., Jürgens, A. S., Fiadotava, A., Judd, K., & Feldman, H. R. (2022). Communicating urgency through humor: School Strike 4 Climate protest placards. Journal of Science Communication, 21(5), A02.
Paper short abstract
This paper explores Tibetan short folklore forms—proverbs, riddles, and concise allegories—highlighting how brevity supports memorability, transmits ecological knowledge, and conveys Buddhist ethical principles within everyday life.
Paper long abstract
This paper examines the mnemonic and cultural functions of brevity in Tibetan short folklore forms, with a focus on proverbs, riddles, and concise allegorical expressions. These genres, closely connected to everyday life, distill practical experiences and observations of the natural world into compressed messages while simultaneously conveying deeply embedded cultural and ethical values. Drawing on Jan Assmann’s theory of cultural memory, the analysis emphasizes that brevity is a deliberate strategy enhancing memorability and transmission.
For the purposes of this study, Tibetan proverbs and riddles related to agricultural, pastoral, and ecological themes are examined, comparable to weather proverbs or animal-sound imitations found in other traditions. They also function as carriers of Buddhist ethical principles, social norms, and cosmological frameworks. Through their condensed forms, these texts link practical subsistence activities, such as harvesting and livestock keeping, with broader moral and religious teachings. Short epic forms in Tibet similarly act as key vessels of cultural memory, transmitting ecological knowledge and spiritual worldviews across generations.
By situating Tibetan examples within the wider study of short folklore forms, this paper contributes to an ethnolinguistic and folkloristic understanding of how societies conceptualize nature, sustain values, and ensure intergenerational continuity through brevity.
Paper short abstract
This paper explores how Aesopic animal fables are reimagined in internet memes. It examines whether these multimodal narratives highlight nature as a source of wisdom for human life or reinforce an anthropocentric worldview of human dominance.
Paper long abstract
Animal fables, inseparably linked with Aesop in Greek tradition, have long functioned as tools of moral teaching, social critique, and artistic expression. As one of the most enduring forms of folk narrative, they attribute human traits to animals in order to communicate lessons of survival and ethical conduct. Over time, fables have continually adapted their form and function, responding to new cultural contexts.
In the contemporary digital world, this adaptability finds expression in internet memes, where images- often layered with humor, irony, or satire- reproduce and transform the didactic core of the fable. Much like the paroimiomythoi (proverbial fables) of old, such memes rely on shared cultural memory, assuming familiarity with earlier narratives while simultaneously reshaping them for new audiences.
This paper examines a corpus of memes that reference Aesop and animal fables, focusing on the way they represent the relationship between humans, animals, and nature. On one level, nature remains a wise teacher with relevant insights for human society. Yet, on another level, the presence of humans in these narratives often reframes the dynamic, underscoring an anthropocentric stance in which human beings claim authority over animals and the natural world.
Through this analysis, the paper asks whether animal fables in their digital, multimodal reincarnations continue to serve as exempla of ethical living inspired by nature, or whether they confirm and perpetuate a human-centered model of interpretation and control.
Paper short abstract
The paper explores Hitopadeśa by Narayana, a ninth–tenth century CE Sanskrit text, as eco-critical narrative that interweaves niti (pragmatic wisdom) with environment. It explores forest as a sacred space and metaphor for physical, psychological, and cultural journeys in Hitopadesa.
Paper long abstract
This paper explores Hitopadeśa by Narayana, a ninth–tenth century CE Sanskrit text, as eco-critical narrative that interweaves niti (pragmatic wisdom) with environment. While focusing on folk literary traditions, the text employs fables, frame narratives, and symbolism to elucidate the interdependence of nature and society. The Hitopadesa emerges as a profound folk-literary work offering reflection on the complexity of the forest and the natural world within human life and imagination. The study examines how the Hitopadesa portrays the forest as a sacred space and metaphor - physical, psychological, and cultural - for wisdom, and inner journeys. Through anthropomorphized animals, symbolic rivers, trees, and the earth itself, the narrative renders the natural world as ethical and active existence, echoing the pattern from mythology and oral traditions. The eco-critical theory and narrative aesthetics examines the text (select tales) that frames landscapes as storehouse of ecological wisdom and righteousness. It will examine the forest as both a narrative and visual apparatus-comparable to sequential art-juxtaposing panoramic ‘panels’ of ecosystems with intimate sketching of human and non-human connections. In dialogue with Felix Guattari’s notion of “three ecologies,” the select folktales that articulate ecology, circulating the orality of nature narratives as sacred spaces will be discussed.
Paper short abstract
The paper discusses the reflection of economic images of everyday life in folkloric forms such as proverbs, phrasemes, and riddles.
Paper long abstract
The paper discusses the reflection of economic images of everyday life in folkloric forms such as proverbs, phrasemes, and riddles. In analyzing the material of genre-diverse folkloric forms, we focused on three key concepts related to the economic aspect of daily life: prosperity, work, and the hierarchy of economic relations. Through ethnolinguistic and linguocultural analysis, we explored how folkloric forms reflect socio-cultural phenomena, focusing on their use and changes in the context of globalization, neoliberalism, and rapid technological development. The study provides insight into the interplay between traditional forms of expression and contemporary social dynamics, offering a deeper understanding of how folklore forms are integrated into the socio-cultural context