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Myth, Memory, Crisis and Cultural Imagination in a Changing World

The latest issue of Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore brings together a wide-ranging set of studies that explore how myth, tradition, sound, narrative and ritual continue to shape human responses to history, crisis, environment and identity in the contemporary world. Spanning Europe, Asia and Central Eurasia, the articles demonstrate the enduring relevance of folklore as a medium through which societies negotiate both inherited pasts and emerging futures.

Re-enchantment, Underground Culture and the Politics of Memory
One of the most striking themes of the issue is the role of fantasy and sound in confronting difficult ideological pasts. In Spectral Partisans: Secret History, (Re)enchantment, and Counter Mythopoiesis in Dungeon Synth, Athanasios Barmpalexis examines an underground dungeon synth project that reworks esoteric Nazi mythologies, South Slavic epic traditions and partisan memory into a form of historical fantasy.
Through digitally mediated ethnography and cultural theory, the article shows how underground music becomes a site of counter memory, allowing artists to reinterpret contested histories rather than repeat them. Fantasy and sound are not treated as escapist genres, but as powerful media for negotiating ideological legacies, re enchantment and political imagination in post Yugoslav cultural space.

Myths, Maps and Environmental Crisis Communication
Another central focus of the volume is the question of how societies understand and communicate crises. In Myths, Maps and Vernacular Perception, Reet Hiiemäe, Mare Kalda, Masood Masoodian and Andrus Tins address the growing complexity of environmental health crises, which increasingly combine ecological, medical and even military dimensions.
Challenging the conventional opposition between myth and science, the authors argue that mythological narratives provide crucial insights into how people mentally map danger, risk and survival. By comparing mythological spatial patterns with modern crisis mapping practices, the article proposes a new interdisciplinary framework that bridges scientific communication and vernacular, multisensory ways of understanding crisis. The study highlights myth as a resource for more empathetic, effective and culturally grounded crisis communication.

Folklore as Cultural Memory and Identity
The long-term role of folklore in shaping collective identity is explored in Overall Picture of Shirak’s Folklore Collection from the Mid 19th up to the Beginning of the 21st Century by Ester Khemchyan, Marine Khemchyan, Lusine Ghrejyan and Hasmik Matikyan.Based on more than a century of archival materials, the article presents Shirak folklore as a living record of population movements, social change, belief systems and cultural continuity. Drawing on Alan Dundes’s idea of folklore as a “mirror of culture,” the authors show how epic traditions preserve fragments of forgotten mythologies, practices and values. The study demonstrates the importance of archival folklore for understanding both the historical trajectory and present-day cultural memory of the Shirak region.

Ritual, Myth and Social Transformation
Ritual speech and symbolic testing stand at the center of Mythological Texts and Contexts in the Ritual Dialogues of the Russian Wedding Ceremony by Yulia Krasheninnikova. Focusing on the ritual moment when the groom’s party must “open the closed doors” of the bride’s home, the study analyzes ritual dialogues filled with cosmological riddles, Christian imagery and folk beliefs.
These dialogues do not function merely as verbal tradition: they actively structure social space, assess the moral and cultural worth of the groom, and mark readiness for a change in his social status. Drawing on 19th–early 20th century archival sources, including Russian and Komi traditions, the article reveals how mythological language operates as a mechanism of social transformation, evaluation and communal cohesion.

A Shared Perspective
Together, the articles in this issue reveal folklore as a dynamic field where myth, memory, ritual, sound and space intersect. Whether addressing underground music scenes, environmental crises, regional heritage or marriage rituals, the contributions demonstrate that folklore is not confined to the past. Instead, it remains a vital cultural force through which societies interpret uncertainty, reinterpret history and create meaning in times of change.

Learn more about the issue here:
https://folklore.ee/folklore/vol98

Mare Kõiva
Editor-in-Chief