According to Lotte Tarkka, the unique nature of the old rune-singing tradition also creates responsibilities:

– The material is unique and extensively documented. Interest within the international research community is great, but the poems themselves are behind a language barrier, and it is the responsibility of those who understand the poetic language to produce information on this Intangible Cultural Heritage. And World Heritage is exactly what these poems are, as well as the archives where the notes on them are kept.

Tarkka emphasises that recognising the value of this tradition is not “nationalistic bravado.” The poems are mainly the shared heritage of the Baltic Finnic cultural region, and most of them have been documented outside Finnish national borders. In this sense the Kalevala, which was created for and by Finnish national culture, as well as the ideology attached to it, is a totally alien, even antagonistic, phenomenon when it comes to ancient poetry. When ancient poems were compiled as the Kalevala, a living cultural tradition was stripped of its context and transformed to serve the ideological purposes of another culture, used as its emblem.

Similar struggles over cultural heritage are still being fought around the world today, Tarkka reminds us. According to her, contemporary folkloristics has come to terms with the nationalistic legacy of the discipline, and the former “national science” is today both international and critically reflective. The task of a researcher of folk poetry and oral tradition is to give voice to those sections of society that have been left out of official histories. Without this voice the picture we have of history would be woefully deficient.

Data-based research requires much work, and there is little time to spare for basic research when working for a university. Articles are also not the ideal form of publication for this kind of slow research, where close reading of poetry and its subsequent placement within a historical context are essential. Tarkka therefore defends the right of researchers to publish monographs:

– Large pictures and long stories do not fit into a format that allows twenty pages. Furthermore, the University is also duty-bound to produce research in Finnish—it is part of its social responsibility.

Indeed, Tarkka is currently working on a monograph written in Finnish.