TEXTES EPIQUES DANS LA TRADITION TRANSYLVAINE (ROUMANIE)
EPIC SONGS IN TRANSYLVANIAN HUNGARIAN TRADITION

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the practical function of a group of epic songs. On the basis of local folk ballads (ballade populaire), it shows that the epic songs preserve local history and recall members of the community and events of their lives. The songs in part function as a record of memory, as a means of prompting memory, and in part they serve to marginalise members of the local community. The author examined songs written for funerals which contain biographic data of the deceased person. The function of the songs is to bid farewell and preserve the memory of the deceased and popularise him or her, and to preserve the cult of the dead. In the 18th century the verses bidding farewell to the dead were part of the official church funeral and were written by the priest or cantor. From the 19th century the church rejected these farewells in verse. From then on the epic songs bidding farewell to the dead were written by lay persons. At the end of the 20th century the church banned the singing of such farewells at funerals.

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