Communicating with the Spirits

Visions of the Other World as Narrated in Contemporary Belief Legends from Resia

VISIONS OF THE OTHER WORLD AS NARRATED IN CONTEMPORARY BELIEF LEGENDS FROM RESIA ROBERTO DAPIT I would like to focus on a recurrent feature of contemporary popular narratives collected in the Resia valley (an ethnic Slovene area in Italy)—representations and manifestations of the world of the hereafter as obtained exclusively from recent testimonies gathered in the field. Narrative means here a complex of legends to be considered from the communicative standpoint not so much an aesthetic elaboration of items of entertainment as the expression of beliefs and, above all, individual or collective experiences. The age when narration stemmed from the desire to teach or entertain has almost come to an end in Val Resia—this form of expression is now almost bereft of any function. The rural socio-economic structure has been virtually wiped out here, and needs of this kind, even at a domestic level, are met in other ways. There are still about 1,300 people living in the Resia community however, and many people originating from the valley live in Friulan-speaking areas, not to mention those living in other regions of Italy or in other countries. The Resians’ strong sense of identity and their attachment to their homeland make it possible for researchers interested in their culture to investigate the fascinating features of the area’s material and spiritual–cultural tradition. Through contact with the oldest generations we can re-evoke a time in which their vision of the world may be defined in a variety of ways as mythical, and we can still This paper is a synthesis of the article published with the title “Manifestazioni dell’aldilà attraverso le testimonianze dei resiani.” In Studia mythologica slavica 2 (1999). Ljubljana–Udine, 99–144. VISIONS OF THE OTHER WORLD 205 reconstruct various facets of their existential system in its material and symbolic features. One of the reasons I expressly chose this contemporary material was to highlight the level of conservation of this aspect of spiritual culture. Compared with other areas in similar conditions, oral tradition is in an exceptional state of conservation in Resia. Although the world of hereafter is one of the most frequent themes in folk culture, both as a narrative exercise and as the expression of a simple communicative act, the extent to which it is still to be found in the Resia tradition appears to be noteworthy. It should also be stressed that the testimonies collected—about a hundred—were for the most part recounted with the deepest conviction of their truthfulness . In this regard, it must be pointed out here and now that many stories were narrated to us as direct experience, on the strength of which I define them as autobiographical. Conversely, legendary or fantastic stories are rare, so most of the narratives are devoid of references to known people or places. In my view the distinction between autobiographical accounts and the narration of indirect—reported—experiences is in itself a telling factor. In order to analyze the collected material during its classification , which was made difficult by the overlapping of themes that may be looked at from various points of view, I have decided to group the stories by their theme and content seen in the light of their effect as expressed by the narrator. In this initial phase, an attempt was made to carry out a preliminary comparison with the nearest ethnic areas, that is, the Friulan, German-speaking Sauris/ Zahre and the Veneto traditions. Although the comparison revealed a great many common themes, its results must be considered provisional as some individual and comparative analytical work still remains to be done. With the addition of further testimonies, our intention is to broaden the range of comparison to include the rest of the Slovene-speaking world and, if possible, the neighboring cultures as well, including other Slav countries besides the Latin and Germanic areas. The texts were collected from informants in two villages: Korïto/Coritis and Ućja/Uccea, in the easternmost linguistic area of Val Resia. The first stage of analysis produced a number of interesting fea- 206 COMMUNICATING WITH THE SPIRITS tures of spiritual culture which undoubtedly go beyond the Val Resia community to link up with testimonies which are very old and often widespread in vast cultural areas. One striking example is the common theme of the dead fiancé coming back for his girl, recalled in the famous lines: Da k...