Diss.: Åbo Akademi University.
The supernatural tradition that is the object of this study, the Swedish troll tradition in Finland as documented in archived material collected between the 1850s and 1925, has previously received little scholarly attention; apart from a few articles, this is the first monograph produced on the subject, and I will therefore begin my inquiry with a description of the folklore of trolls for the benefit of readers with a comparative interest. The troll in the Swedish oral tradition in Finland is a supernatural creature primarily associated with hills and rocks in the forest, but apart from that, it is difficult, if not impossible, to give a good definition of the troll. It is often a solitary being, but it may also live with others of its kind. Judging by the sources at my disposal, it is not chiefly an empirical being — I have not been able to find reports of sightings or personal experience stories, apart from a legend told in the first person singular, but that seems to be more of a narrative strategy—but this impression may well be false due to the haphazard nature of collection. Perhaps reports of sightings never happened to be recorded, even though they existed. Any definite conclusion cannot be drawn on the basis of the recorded material alone.
My basic research problem can be thus formulated: how do the performers, of whose narratives we have some form of transcript, construct the image of the troll, and how is the relation between man and troll represented in the texts? These questions recur in many guises throughout the thesis, and I find them important because they imply an examination of the world view of the narrators, and of what it means to be human in a world also inhabited by extra-human forces.
Author(s): Camilla Asplund Ingemark
Publisher: Åbo Akademi University Press
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: XIV+328
Preface vii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Statement of Purpose 1
1.2 Delimitations and Definitions 6
1.3 Trolls in the History of Research 13
1.4 Intertextuality in the History of Research 21
1.4.1 Intertextuality 22
1.4.2 Interdiscursivity 30
1.4.3 Intergenericity 33
1.4.4 Cultural Intertextuality 37
1.4.5 Subjective Intertextuality 38
1.5 Method 42
2 Material and Context 46
2.1 General Considerations 46
2.2 The Sources 47
2.2.1 The Rancken Collection (R) and Its Contributors 47
2.2.2 The Collections of the Swedish Literature Society in Finland (SLS) 50
2.2.3 The Collectors of the Swedish Literature Society and Their Interviewees 55
2.2.4 Printed Sources 65
2.2.5 On the Principles of Transcription and Translation 70
2.3 Context 71
2.3.1 Historical and Social Context 71
2.3.2 Religious Context 76
3 Description of the Troll Tradition 86
3.1 The Conditions of Encounter 86
3.1.1 The Place and Time of the Encounter 86
3.1.2 Women’s Encounter with the Troll 88
3.1.3 Men’s Encounter with the Troll 90
3.1.4 Children’s Encounter with the Troll 92
3.2 The Troll and Its World 94
3.2.1 The Troll and Its Abilities 94
3.2.2 The Dwelling and Possessions of the Troll 96
3.3 Interaction between the Realms 98
3.3.1 Conflicts 98
3.3.2 Tension-Filled Tolerance 106
3.3.3 From Tolerance to Conflict 112
3.3.4 Tolerance and Conflict 115
3.3.5 From Conflict to Tolerance 117
3.3.6 The Troll and Christianity 118
3.4 Breaking the Contact 120
3.4.1 Men Dissociate 120
3.4.2 Women, Children and Animals Dissociate 124
3.4.3 Trolls Dissociate 126
3.4.4 Impersonal Phenomena Dissociate 127
3.4.5 Protective and Apotropaic Measures 129
3.4.6 The Fateful Encounter 132
3.5 Encountering the Troll 135
4 Intertextuality as Ideological Critique 137
4.1 Blindness and Illumination 143
4.2 The Outline of an Intertextual Network 176
5 Intertextuality as Social Critique 181
5.1 The Sins of an Exorcist 181
5.2 Intertextuality, Interdiscursivity and Power 206
6 Genre, Parody, Chronotopes and Novelization: The Wonder Tales of Johan Alén 218
6.1 Genre 219
6.2 Parody 233
6.3 Chronotopes 245
6.4 Novelization 248
6.5 Integrating the Perspectives 250
7 The Problems of Unfinalizability and Dialogue 253
7.1 Introduction 253
7.2 The Terrors of Unfinalizability 257
7.3 Halting Unfinalizability? 269
7.4 Aborted Dialogues 274
7.5 Unfinalizability, Dialogue and Stories of the Supernatural 275
8 Discussion 280
9 Abbreviations and Bibliography 286
Appendix A: The Recorded Narratives of Johan Alén 301
Appendix B: Select Narratives of Johan Alén 302
Appendix C: Select Troll Narratives 314
