Folkloras teicējas stāsti par notikumiem Kurzemē: izpētes avots “dažādām vēsturēm”. (Latvian)

The author of the present article is a folklore researcher currently working at an edition of the repertoire of his outstanding informant Alma Makovska (1922-2004). Over the period of 18 years, her stories and songs have been documented in audio and video recordings exceeding the total time of 100 hours; the same material is also reflected in the informant’s own writing. The informant speaks a well-preserved local dialect. It is planned to supplement the book with audio and video files, and also to create a database of the informant’s recordings providing search opportunities. Alma Makovska was born in Western Latvia (Vandzene), where she has also spent nearly all of her life. She attended school for 6 years, and although she was willing to continue her education, could not find such an opportunity. Ms. Makovska worked on her family farm; also from 1941 through 1949 worked as a weaver, but from 1950 till her retirement worked for the local medical care centre. Alma Makovska has an excellent memory and storyteller’s talent; her repertory includes several hundreds of different narratives - local legends, ghost stories (including her personal experiences), tales based on dreams, anecdotes and funny stories, as well as the history of her own family (mostly regarding events having taken place in the 19th century), recollections on ancient traditions, festivities, crafts, folk medicine, including also ca. 170 songs, riddles, games and folk dances, etc. Since 1987 more than 60 fairy tales have been recorded from her. These memories can be used to re-create a life story of the woman, but it was not told as a typical oral history interview. The author of the present research has paid special attention to the memories regarding storytelling situations, belief in ghosts, dreams, and various phenomena, therefore this one in hand is a material for the histories of the Latvian storytelling, folk esoteric, family relationship and maybe even some more “histories” still to be written. (Translated by A. Pūtelis) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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