Nature as Metaphor in Romanian and Slavic Ritual Wedding Poetry
Nature as Metaphor in Romanian and Slavic Ritual Wedding Poetry

Summary/Abstract: This essay is an examination of the figurative language of nature that informs bridal laments and wedding songs in Romanian and Slavic ritual poetry. Most wedding rituals and songs in these largely patrilocal societies center on the bride. I discuss oral traditional verse that articulates her separation from her past as both personal expression representing her “vertical” growth as well as a “horizontal” journey to a new life in her in-laws’ home with implications for the community. Nature imagery depicts the bride through metaphorical language that invokes plants and birds. These tropes portray the bride, as well as her fear and anguish, in the symbolic “death” that traditional weddings signified for her. I also consider how, later in the wedding, the bride and groom figure together in the poetry as a couple. At this time, the tone shifts as images of death are left behind and the bride’s imminent “rebirth” and incorporation into her new family and home are celebrated. I demonstrate how motifs of plants and birds in Romanian and Slavic ritual wedding poetry voice  through an economy of words yet depth of meaning  the profound concerns of the bride in the most significant rite of passage in the traditional world, marriage.

• Details
• Contents