The Genre of Trolls - Doria

The rest of the texts that I have utilized from this collection spring from
the extensive collecting activities of Jakob Edvard Wefvar (1840–1911) who
collected for many other employers as well. Wefvar’s records are made in
the vernacular, though not using the phonetic script called landsmålsalfabet
which had not been invented at this point. Jakob Edvard Wefvar was born
in the parish of Munsala and studied under Rancken before entering the
University of Helsingfors, called Kejserliga Alexandersuniversitetet (‘the Imperial
Alexander University’) while the country was under Russian rule. He
continued collecting folklore whenever he was not prevented by illness, and
later in life he became known as a lay preacher and teacher (Häggman 1990:
139–152. For more details see Dahlbacka 1984; Häggman 1990; Häggman
1992; Wolf-Knuts 1991).
As for the technical aspects of collection, Rancken preferred prose narratives
to be recorded verbatim in order to bring out the peculiarities of the
narrator’s language. Ulrika Wolf-Knuts deems Wefvar willing to comply
with these instructions, but she finds it improbable that he would have
been able to follow them to the letter, as the texts do not reflect real
speech, even if they are in the vernacular. She does however indicate the
possibility of the narrator employing a specialized style of speech in storytelling
(Wolf-Knuts 1991: 22–24; Wolf-Knuts 1997: 32), what Dell Hymes
and other scholars following in his footsteps have labelled a register (Hymes
1989: 440). Ann-Mari Häggman in her turn has noted on perusal of
Wefvar’s posthumous documents that his field notes were often imperfect
and vague drafts, while the submitted manuscripts were clean copies and
edited to some degree (Häggman 1992: 81).
Wefvar seems to have been able to create a good rapport with the performers;
his own background as the son of a crofter placed him more on a
par with the people he interviewed, his personality and his long stays in
their midst during the collecting trips endeared him to his hosts, and he
succeeded in developing a trusting relationship with them (Wolf-Knuts
1991: 22–23). I think the great interest in folk life he exhibited might have
contributed to this circumstance, as well as his proneness to tell stories of
his own (for examples suggesting this interpretation see Wolf-Knuts 1991:
22; Häggman 1990: 153). Generally, Wefvar has provided the name, profession
and domicile of the performer in the clean copy of the record (cf.
Wolf-Knuts 1991: 24), with some exceptions. At times he mentioned only
geographical provenance, which applies to eight records, six of which were
The Sources 49