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Death, in either case, is rationalized in a meaningful and supportive sense for Ihe
community.
Beyond the different strategies of their discourse. imported and local songs lake their
cue from the ballads' positive and constructive outlook on life, and like them recuperate
death 10 some positive end. Broadside ballads, however "sensational" their plOlS, as
Kadish suggests, symbolically elaborate matters of community. Death, which crosses the
young adults' life and love on their way to realization in marriage, gives Ihe me,lSllre of Ihe
external obstacles and moral trials standing on this way. These hero(in}es need no less
detemlination and courage to oppose frivolity, villainy or hard luck than their classical
counterparts. If death is the only prize for their valour, they die for a cause greater than
their own life: the community future which they assure as prospective husbands and wives.
Victimized in life, they are redeemed in death, and their failed union is restored in a shared
grave. "for both of them belonged in life and deep in death belong."l
Also in local songs, the cultural values of community solidarity by which Ihc victims
are either rescued or mourned for, their courage honoured, their bodies recovered and their
families comforted, sign the victory of community and its determination to survivc. While
tragedy, in actuality, is destructive and purposeless, its cultural exprcssion in disaster
songs sublimates ("tames") its chaotic reality in a wishful affirmation of death's defeat, the
restoration of order, and the continuation of social life. The abounding local compositions
offer the clearest tangent between folklore and culture: of all tragic deaths to be sung of.
these songs indefatigably focus on "a watery grave." Their popularity in this maritime
milieu makes it hard to conceive of a demoralizing effect or merely entertaining appcaL
Culture, which has altogcther been defined as strategy against death,2 could hardly opt for
defeat, and entertainment would find another subject with which to distract fisherfolk from
their hard routine than storms at sea, and loss of life at that! A more plausible hypothesis is
that songs as well as personal experience narratives of disaster directly relate to such
hazards for the sake of greater expertise and confidence in the face of the uncontrollable.
This "rationalization" of tragedy through expert and meticulous analysis of nature's ways
as well as of human errors, here as in ballads and broadsides, if anything, augments the
chances of survivaL
I The las\ linc of onc of thc \wo vcrsions of the oikotype of "Thc Unquic\ Gravc." in
MU 'FLA ms 68-40/C469.
2Thc refcrence is to the quotation by Edgar Morin in 8.1.