“Pride and Prejudice”: The Preservation of the Icelandic Rímur Tradition
The Iðunn Society of Intoners and Versifiers (Kvæðamannafélagiðd Iðunn) was founded in Reykjavik in 1929. Iðunn set out to protect the practice of rímur -'intoning and versification (kves&kapur) and immediately took very strong ownership of the means of preserving and disseminating the trad...
Published in: | Yearbook for Traditional Music |
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Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2008
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0740155800012121 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0740155800012121 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0740155800012121 2024-03-03T08:45:47+00:00 “Pride and Prejudice”: The Preservation of the Icelandic Rímur Tradition Ólafsdóttir, Ragnheiður 2008 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0740155800012121 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0740155800012121 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Yearbook for Traditional Music volume 40, page 104-116 ISSN 0740-1558 2304-3857 Music journal-article 2008 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0740155800012121 2024-02-08T08:40:36Z The Iðunn Society of Intoners and Versifiers (Kvæðamannafélagiðd Iðunn) was founded in Reykjavik in 1929. Iðunn set out to protect the practice of rímur -'intoning and versification (kves&kapur) and immediately took very strong ownership of the means of preserving and disseminating the tradition. By nature, folk traditions are constantly fluctuating, but during the era of national romanticism it became important to preserve and “freeze” these traditions in order to serve the purposes of the formation of national identity. An example would be the Norwegian fiddle and vocal tradition which was systematically gathered from the most remote mountain areas in order to firstly save it from extinction and secondly to serve as a source for the composers of the new “national music.” The Dane Svend Grundtvig had a different agenda, wanting his collection to become a trustworthy and perfect museum of folksongs (Havåg 1997:23-33). In Finland, Elias Lönnrot gathered folksongs and compiled the Kalevala, which became the symbol of Finnish national identity (Pekkila 1994:406). Even though the rímur tradition was not an element in the official identity-building taking place in Iceland around 1930, ideas of national romantic origins had a “freezing and policing” effect on it. In this paper I will demonstrate how the Iðunn Society exercised strong ownership of the old rímur tradition. Specifically, I will show how Iðunn re-shaped and policed the form. The study also draws attention to contradictions in the way Iðunn's members took pride in their cultural roots and their childhood practice while simultaneously holding prejudices and beliefs that worked against a living tradition. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Cambridge University Press Dane ENVELOPE(-146.667,-146.667,-76.850,-76.850) Yearbook for Traditional Music 40 104 116 |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
Music |
spellingShingle |
Music Ólafsdóttir, Ragnheiður “Pride and Prejudice”: The Preservation of the Icelandic Rímur Tradition |
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Music |
description |
The Iðunn Society of Intoners and Versifiers (Kvæðamannafélagiðd Iðunn) was founded in Reykjavik in 1929. Iðunn set out to protect the practice of rímur -'intoning and versification (kves&kapur) and immediately took very strong ownership of the means of preserving and disseminating the tradition. By nature, folk traditions are constantly fluctuating, but during the era of national romanticism it became important to preserve and “freeze” these traditions in order to serve the purposes of the formation of national identity. An example would be the Norwegian fiddle and vocal tradition which was systematically gathered from the most remote mountain areas in order to firstly save it from extinction and secondly to serve as a source for the composers of the new “national music.” The Dane Svend Grundtvig had a different agenda, wanting his collection to become a trustworthy and perfect museum of folksongs (Havåg 1997:23-33). In Finland, Elias Lönnrot gathered folksongs and compiled the Kalevala, which became the symbol of Finnish national identity (Pekkila 1994:406). Even though the rímur tradition was not an element in the official identity-building taking place in Iceland around 1930, ideas of national romantic origins had a “freezing and policing” effect on it. In this paper I will demonstrate how the Iðunn Society exercised strong ownership of the old rímur tradition. Specifically, I will show how Iðunn re-shaped and policed the form. The study also draws attention to contradictions in the way Iðunn's members took pride in their cultural roots and their childhood practice while simultaneously holding prejudices and beliefs that worked against a living tradition. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ólafsdóttir, Ragnheiður |
author_facet |
Ólafsdóttir, Ragnheiður |
author_sort |
Ólafsdóttir, Ragnheiður |
title |
“Pride and Prejudice”: The Preservation of the Icelandic Rímur Tradition |
title_short |
“Pride and Prejudice”: The Preservation of the Icelandic Rímur Tradition |
title_full |
“Pride and Prejudice”: The Preservation of the Icelandic Rímur Tradition |
title_fullStr |
“Pride and Prejudice”: The Preservation of the Icelandic Rímur Tradition |
title_full_unstemmed |
“Pride and Prejudice”: The Preservation of the Icelandic Rímur Tradition |
title_sort |
“pride and prejudice”: the preservation of the icelandic rímur tradition |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0740155800012121 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0740155800012121 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-146.667,-146.667,-76.850,-76.850) |
geographic |
Dane |
geographic_facet |
Dane |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Yearbook for Traditional Music volume 40, page 104-116 ISSN 0740-1558 2304-3857 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0740155800012121 |
container_title |
Yearbook for Traditional Music |
container_volume |
40 |
container_start_page |
104 |
op_container_end_page |
116 |
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1792501428417200128 |