In Spring semester 2004, the Estonian Studies Programme at the University of Toronto will again offer EST 210H, an introductory course in Baltic Folklore. In spring 2003 the course was offered by Dr. Tiina Kirss, Assistant Professor of Estonian Studies, and a diverse group of students were introduced to topics in Estonian and Latvian folklore, ranging from the folkloric calendar with its songs and customs, ways of birthing, living, and dying, rituals and ceremonies (Why on earth would a bride cry at a wedding? as in Seto wedding rituals) patterns of decorating everyday tools and festive costumes. The course went on to examine folk religion, cosmologies and folktales ranging from the sublime to the hilarious, and the writing of epics in the period of national awakening in the second half of the 19th century. Highlights of the course were two guest lectures by prominent Latvian ethnomusicologist prof. Valdis Muktupavels, a lecture by Dace Veinberga, MA student in the Programme in Religious Studies at the University of Toronto, and a lecture/slide presentation by Anu Liivandi, Curator of the Baltic Textiles collection at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Last year’s class included several students of Estonian and Latvian extraction who were very curious to gain deeper knowledge of the culture of their familial roots, as well as a wide variety of University of Toronto students from across the globe, whose majors ranged from biochemistry and physics, to English and history. Several final papers were in the form of field work, examining the way stories travel through families and often across great geographical distances.

Since its inauguration in the late 1990s by dr. Harri Mürk,Baltic Folklore remains one of the most popular courses among offerings in Finno-Ugric studies and Estonian Studies, and one of the few courses at the University of Toronto devoted to folklore. For the Estonian students who attended the course in 2003- who shyly admitted at the outset that they could not have studied Estonian folk traditions as effectively if the course had been taught in Estonian- it was a strong stimulus to reconnect with deeper study of the Estonian language. This fall finds them enrolled in EST 200, Intermediate Estonian.

EST 210H will be taught from 2-4PM on Mondays and Wednesdays. The language of instruction is English, and all readings will be in English. No prior knowledge of Baltic or Finno/Ugric languages is required. Interested auditors (non-degree students or members of the community) may participate in the course for a required auditors fee. For more information, please contact dr. Tiina Kirss at 416/946-8945, or by email at .

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