Tautasdziesmu raganas - Dieva meitas, Velna līgavas: falsifikācija vai tradīcijas relikts?

Texts LFK 527, 23380 and LFK 527, 23381 written down in Pēteris Šmits' folklore collection and later published in his edited Tautas dziesmas (Folksongs, 1936-1939, see Tdz 55175 and Tdz 55176) are the only Latvian folksongs typical of the night witch tradition which is extensively discussed in folk narratives. Due to the fact that only partial contextual information is available, the possibilities of using these texts for research are restricted. Both texts are written down by one and the same person V. Ašmane without any information about the informants, or any other variants and with an atypical content for the folksongs which usually describe other types of witches. That makes one doubt about their authenticity. However, a more rewarding approach in this case would be the assessment of the folksong authenticity from the perspective of the content of tradition. When the content of the two songs is analysed, it is surprising how well it represents the essence of the tradition of night witches. In the vicinity of Nītaure at the time when these texts were written down, the night witch tradition was already extinct; therefore it would be impossible to create such songs for a person, who was not the bearer of the tradition. Folksongs Tdz 55175 and Tdz 55176 do not provide an accurate copy of the features of the night witch tradition registered in folk legends. Moreover, they provide very detailed nuances, which in these legends either have not been preserved or have never existed. Furthermore, the metre of folksongs, the vocabulary and other stylistic devices do not give rise to doubts about their authenticity, since both songs correspond to all requirements of an ideal quatrain. Even more so, a comparatively rare grammatical form can be found in both songs, which would be hardly included in a deliberate falsification. Summarizing, one can conclude that although the folksongs Tdz 55175 and Tdz 55176 are only partially documented and lack variants, they still seem to be naturally corresponding to the night witch tradition, and thus cannot be regarded false. In fact, it is not important, whether the respective folksongs have appeared several centuries ago or only in the 19™ or the 20™ centuries, since their content prove that they were made with a competency in the night witch tradition. Therefore, from this perspective they should be regarded as authentic traditional texts.