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- Convenors:
-
Liina Saarlo
(Estonian Literary Museum)
Rita Zara (Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia)
Olha Petrovych (Estonian Literary Museum)
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- Chairs:
-
Rita Zara
(Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia)
Olha Petrovych (Estonian Literary Museum)
Liina Saarlo (Estonian Literary Museum)
Short Abstract
This panel explores how folk narratives reflect and shape understandings of nature and traditional archives, through both traditional and digital lenses, engaging with posthumanist, ecological, and ontological approaches to cultural memory.
Long Abstract
What are the natures of archives, and how is nature itself archived in folk narratives? This panel explores the dynamic entanglements between narrative, environment, and memory, focusing on how nature is perceived, represented, and preserved through oral traditions and archival practices.
We draw on theoretical frameworks from posthumanism (Haraway 2008; Braidotti 2013), the ontological turn (Descola 2013; Viveiros de Castro 2004), and narrative ecology to examine how storytelling mediates human–nonhuman relations. Folklore often encodes cosmologies in which the natural and supernatural, human and animal, material and spiritual are intertwined, resisting modern binaries. These narratives offer insight into situated ways of knowing nature—mythological, affective, communal—that challenge extractive, linear models of history and archiving.
We also consider the evolving role of archives—not only as repositories of memory but as active agents in shaping ecological and cultural meaning. Digital archives, in particular, offer new ways to trace themes such as climate, catastrophe, landscape, and kinship across large corpora, while also raising important questions about mediation, representation, and authority.
We welcome contributions that combine folklore and archival studies with other approaches, including digital methodologies, to examine how narratives of nature are transmitted, stored, and reimagined.
References
Braidotti, Rosi. The Posthuman. Polity Press, 2013.
Descola, Philippe. Beyond Nature and Culture. University of Chicago Press, 2013.
Haraway, Donna J. When Species Meet. University of Minnesota Press, 2008.
Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo. “Perspectival Anthropology and the Method of Controlled Equivocation.” Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America 2(1), 2004: 3–22.
Accepted papers
Session 1 Tuesday 16 June, 2026, -Paper short abstract
In my presentation, I will examine the materials preserved in the research archive of the University of Turku, relating to the natural environment and landscape. I will find out how the materials have been archived and what impacts it has on the reuse of the materials and the history of knowledge.
Paper long abstract
Natural environments and landscapes are important places of life and well-being for Finns. They are often present in leisure time, but also as part of work. The Archives of the School of History, Culture and Art Studies (SHCAS Archives) at the University of Turku contains a wealth of materials in which natural environments and their effects are part of narrative and life. Natural environments can serve, for example, as a working space or as a place for memories.
The SHCAS Archives is a research archive whose materials are mainly produced by researchers, university staff and students, and preserved for reuse. The history of the SHCAS archives goes back to the middle of the 20th century, when the collections began to be increase with inquiries sent to the respondent network and recordings. Today, the SHCAS Archives is a part of the researchers' information pool, the place where information is stored, and the space for learning.
In my presentation, I will examine the archive materials that are preserved in the SHCAS Archives, about the natural environment in Finland and different landscapes. What materials related to natural environments can be found in the archive? How do the archive materials describe the natural environment with their contents and metadata? How are the materials archived and what effects do archive methods have on their reuse, such as usability and discoverability? What do materials tell us about decades of research, and what do they tell us about the history of knowledge?
Paper short abstract
This paper explores how folklore archives in the Baltics and Scandinavia engage with ecological themes, focusing on the role of archived nature folklore in shaping public discourse amid climate concerns.
Paper long abstract
Estonians have a distinct narrative when it comes to land and nature. During the War of Independence (1918-1920), Estonian soldiers were promised plots of land as a means of boosting morale in the trenches. Estonians also see themselves as a forest nation - one among many globally who identify deeply with woodland landscapes.
Since its founding in 1927, the Estonian Folklore Archives has been collecting and archiving nature-related folklore from various perspectives. These efforts have complemented earlier collections and helped shape a growing body of cultural knowledge.
Amid global concerns about climate change, such folklore has increasingly entered public and political discourse - sometimes acting as a mediator in conflict (e.g., Päll, 2025), and at other times serving as a means of (re)connecting people with nature through creative projects, such as 'Enter Woodland Spirits', part of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 programme in Estonia.
In this context, I aim to explore the intersections of archival authority, traditional knowledge, and creative expression. Is nature a neutral topic, or a provocative one?
My focus lies on a range of recent projects supported by folklore archives in Scandinavia and the Baltics, examining how archives have chosen to present nature folklore to the public, what their intentions were, and how this material and the outcomes have been received by both creators and audiences.
References
Päll, Lona (2025). Bridging the disconnections: An ecosemiotic approach to place-lore in environmental conflict communication (Doctoral dissertation, University of Tartu). Tartu: University of Tartu Press.
Paper short abstract
Place-lore has been used for mapping and interpreting the nature. Now it is increasingly used to market a place or to establish conservation restrictions. Archiving enhances the lore’s credibility and significance initiating a process of heritagization. What is the nature of archived narratives?
Paper long abstract
Place-lore — narratives connected to places and toponyms — expresses local and popular, as well as public meanings related to the environment. People have used stories to map the landscape, to make a place feel familiar, to domesticate it. In Estonia, most place-lore is nature-related — connected to natural objects, stones, extraordinary trees, bodies of water, and landscapes. Place-lore has been considered as part of the national heritage and preserved in archives together with oral poetry and fairy tales.
Place-lore is seen as evidence of history; it connects a person to the landscape, and its existence or awareness of it demonstrates a person’s attachment to a place. Nowadays, place-lore increasingly becomes part of discussions, an argument expressing values, used both to market a place in the tourism industry or attention economy, as well as to establish nature conservation restrictions and to oppose industrial production or infrastructural constructions.
Although place-lore is part of community-based communication, archived narratives reach a wider audience and circulation, gaining certain added value. Place-lore stored in archives is considered scholarly verified, as if the folklorist’s attention is a mark of quality that increases the narrative’s credibility and importance. Moreover, archiving itself initiates a process of heritagisation; stories not archived may be dismissed as insignificant.
The presentation discusses who is given a voice when local stories are archived. What is the nature of the narratives that are archived? Does all archived stories hold a similar status in terms of truthfulness or argumentative value? Who gets to decide this?
Paper short abstract
In my presentation, I examine how a Transylvanian Hungarian weekly newspaper (published between 1830 and 1844) sought to encourage its readers to travel, and how it attempted to teach them how to perceive and appreciate nature through the travelogues published in its columns.
Paper long abstract
The first Hungarian political weekly newspaper in Transylvania was published in 1827 (under the name Erdélyi Híradó [Transylvanian News]). Its co-journal, Nemzeti Társalkodó [National Conversationalist] (1830–1844), dealt with issues of public education. Reflecting on the popularity of travel in the 1830s, the editors and authors of the paper sought to encourage Hungarian readers in Transylvania to travel as well. They presented this as an important intellectual goal of the era, as the underlying purpose was to create a thorough description of the country. At the same time, however, these narratives also sought to teach their readers how to prepare for and carry out their travels and how to enjoy nature. They listed and highlighted which elements of nature were worth paying attention to, what was worth seeing, visiting, and recording in their travelogues, or what they should ask others, the representatives of local knowledge, about. The travelogues were mostly written by people who can be identified as pioneers in the field of folk literature or later collectors of folklore. The travelogues typically only allowed for the appearance of certain folklore genres (such as historical legends, descriptions of customs, etc.).
Paper short abstract
This paper examines Holy Rag Wells as transtemporal archives, which are in possession of long literary histories, as well as preserving recent offerings imbued with meaning. Using field work and literary analysis, I consider how wells act as a place for the past, present, and future to communicate.
Paper long abstract
This paper examines Holy Rag Wells in Britain as transtemporal archives, which are in possession of long literary histories, as well as preserving recent offerings imbued with encoded meaning. Following principles of sympathetic magic, rag wells were historically used for healing. Visitors would tie rags to the trees around the water, believing that as these decayed, their ailments would heal. However, nowadays, several sites are inundated with obtrusive, non-biodegradable offerings. Having visited over 30 Holy Wells, I have recorded the offerings (if any) in situ. Rather than being left to decay, many objects are now intended to stay permanently, as tangible reminders of a holiday or in memory of someone. Other offerings observed, like face masks, remembrance poppies, and ribbons printed with the Ukrainian flag, demonstrate how these spaces continue to adapt to meet visitors’ needs. I also examine the ethical concerns associated with maintaining these archives; stakeholders like land managers and heritage trusts may have environmental and conservation concerns about the potential damage which offerings can cause.
As well as engaging with tangible offerings, I interrogate the cultural construction of rag wells in non-fiction and fiction, from Daphne du Maurier to Ian Rankin. These texts are frequently populated with imaginative recollections of their previous visitors. By re-treading the paths of past visitors, new arrivals metaphorically travel down the vertical plane into an imagined past. Leaving an offering allows visitors to assert their own place in a well’s archive, for future generations, or their future selves, to see.
Paper short abstract
This paper analyses the roles of animals in Ukrainian and Estonian folk songs as carriers of ecological knowledge and cultural memory. Using digital corpora and computational methods, we examine how animals mediate human–nonhuman relations and sustain more-than-human worldviews.
Paper long abstract
Animals occupy a central place in the symbolic and narrative structures of folklore, functioning not only as metaphors but also as agents, companions, and moral signifiers. The concept of the “more-than-human,” popularized by eco-philosopher David Abram (1996), challenges hierarchical views that place humans above other beings. It frames animals, plants, and environments as co-actors and knowledge bearers within shared cultural worlds.
This paper investigates the diverse roles of animals in Ukrainian and Estonian folk songs, asking how these presences function as archives of ecological knowledge and cultural memory. Using large datasets and a custom zoo-lexical dictionary, we analyse how references to domestic and wild animals mediate relations between humans and their environments. Methodologically, the paper situates itself within computational folkloristics (Kallio et al. 2023; Sarv & Järv 2022), showing how tools such as lexical clustering, frequency analysis, and network analysis can extend but not replace qualitative interpretation.
Our research sets out to trace recurring patterns of animal imagery across genres and regions, while leaving open the question of whether these presences operate symbolically, pragmatically, or otherwise. We also examine how traditional archives preserve ecological sensibilities, highlighting representations of human–animal relations that resist extractive, anthropocentric models of nature. At the same time, we investigate the role of the digital archive as an active site of re-interpretation, where computational methods make visible long-term continuities as well as transformations in animal imagery.
Paper short abstract
This paper examines the role of archives and the archived folk osipon (narrative/s) on nature in Bikol, Philippines, in the production of the lore of the folk. What kind of knowledge/lore is produced? How was it produced, circulated, maintained, and challenged by other human and non-human narrators?
Paper long abstract
If collective memories are archives, we should then ask how these archives are produced, and how were/are osipon (stories) circulated, maintained, and for whose benefit. Examining the history itself of the different archives of the myths on nature in Bikol including those of the famous Mayon Volcano, reveals concerns not only on the identity of the area which will eventually be officially named as Bikol but a host of other issues as well including the meaning itself of folklore. Is the lore truly of that of the people? What is the discursive position of a specific version of a folk story? or more properly, what positions are revealed? How does nature speak in these narratives? How is the human and the non-human understood in certain stories? What is the place of nature in the narratives of a people whose geographic location gifted them with seas and mountains and yes, typhoons and earthquakes as well?
The paper proposes to investigate selected Bikol folk narratives on nature including the myths on Mayon Volcano, located in the province of Albay in the geopolitical region named Bikol. These narratives exist today in archives with versions of the myths circulating in different media. In all these narratives of nature, this short paper aims to study the role of the archives in the production of the nation's or region's knowledge, the lore of the people. Which people? We might be compelled to ask. Osipon, Bikol's word for story, is also orosipon (plural).
Paper short abstract
Albatross were important for twentieth-century seafarers, whose ideas about sailing tradition gave them a protected status and viewed killing or eating them as potentially disastrous. This divergence from archived practice marks a collective reimagining of the birds and the seas they inhabited.
Paper long abstract
Aboard Euro-American sailing ships in the first half of the twentieth century that made the long transits from North Atlantic or Pacific ports around Cape Horn to Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand and back, seafarers often saw themselves as taking part in an enduring tradition of seafaring that was in the process of dying out. The passage around Cape Horn and its surrounding latitudes formed an especially significant part of the journey for seafarers, one that was marked by both frequent high winds and high seas, as well as the persistent presence of the albatross. These large birds, which can circle above the waters with seeming endlessness, occupied a protected place: killing or eating them could prove disastrous to the ship and the crew who worked aboard.
In shipboard archival records from previous centuries—especially ship’s logs and journals kept by seafarers and passengers—ships sailing through these latitudes gave no special protection to albatross. They were caught and released, but also killed and sometimes eaten, especially when crews had no access to fresh stores of meat. Rather than see this as an error, a lack of knowledge about the recorded history of which twentieth-century seafarers saw themselves as a final part, this paper argues that this can be viewed as a communal reimagining of that history in a way that sacralizes the oceanic environment further, propelled by the power of the albatross itself and the particular regions of the ocean which it inhabits.
Paper short abstract
Forest and sea are important liminal spaces in 17,000 fairy tales from the Estonian Folklore Archives. Both appear as realms where protagonists may lose and find themselves, thresholds between the everyday world and fairy land, the in-between space.
Paper long abstract
Fairy tales often unfold at the edges of the familiar world – not within “our country”, but beyond it. Every path that leads away from home is lined with choices and opportunities, and chance plays a central role. Drawing on more than 17,000 tales from the Estonian Folklore Archives at the Estonian Literary Museum, I analyse how the forest and the sea are depicted – both through the frequency of related vocabulary and the narrative roles these spaces fulfil.
The forest frequently emerges as a realm of danger, encounter, and enchantment – a place where protagonists may lose and find themselves. The sea is often portrayed as more distant, yet equally imbued with symbolic resonance and uncertainty, shaped by chance and unpredictability. Both serve as thresholds between the everyday world and fairy land, the in-between space.
Especially in the forest, protagonists encounter beings who look human but conceal uncertain natures – both helpers and adversaries. This layered multivocality mirrors the forest archive itself – dense, varied, and full of divergent perspectives. Like these liminal spaces, fairy tales invite non-linear journeys and unexpected discoveries, even when entered against one’s will.