Regilaulu tunnused

Characteristics of runosong

The distinctive characteristics of runosongs are:

1. verse with trochaic core with four stresses (roughly eight syllables);
2. the simultaneous use of alliteration and parallelism
   Kasu no kasu kar´ussõs
   vinnü vitsavõtijas;
   Grow, grow to be a herder
   rise to carry the herding staff;
3. lack of stanzas and rhyme;
4. use of archaic language, traditional poetic formulae and motifs.

Characteristics of performance and melody change and vary more, and the metre has also changed along with the developments in language, differently in distinct areas.

The texts and melodies that have reached us reflect runosong as it was during the time of recording. They reflect the runosong form of the end of 19th and the 20th century, the interests and preferences of the singers of that era, but also of the collectors. Runosongs have not remained the same through the ages; rather, they have changed both in content and in form. On the one hand, recorded runosongs are one of the few windows for us into the mindset of our earlier ancestors. On the other hand, we must keep in mind that even songs with the most primal provenance have, as is characteristic of folklore, been in constant recreation and have accumulated knowledge, values, attitudes, emotions and experiences from different times.