Juba juubilar juubeldab: “Viru regi” Eesti Vabariigi 90. sünnipäevaks

In 2007, Estonians were asked to write a song, “Viru regi”, in the style of the old Estonian folksong regilaul as a gift for the 90th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia. 6,500 verses from nearly 650 authors were received, formed into a 373-verse greetingsong by a group of folklorists. This paper analyzes the verse structure, poetic devices and language of the verses people sent to “Viru regi”, comparing them to old folksongs and folksong-imitating epos Kalevipoeg (1853–1862). While the 8-syllabic trochaic rhythm of the regilaul was followed quite regularly (though in a simplified form prevalent also in Kalevipoeg), the main poetic devices thereof, alliteration and parallelism, are less familiar to modern Estonians. The present-day is indeed revealed in the language of the verses: the frequent archaic word forms of regilaul are used quite seldom andinaccurately, the dialectal features act rather as archaisms, the content frequently reflects the modern world, conveyed by contemporary concepts and foreign words. Still the old regilaul and its poetic codes associate with the ethnic originality and culturalheritage of Estonians, being one of the ethnic markers which are also used in the national self-representation of Estonia.