Häiden topos ja morsiusmystiikan motiivit pietistisessä virsirunoudessa

• Eeva-Liisa Bastman Helsingin yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30665/av.74945

Abstract

The Nuptial Topos and the Motifs of Bridal Mysticism in Pietist Hymns

In representing the relation between God and the believer, hymns make abundant use of language and imagery derived from the tradition of bridal mysticism, in which the experience of being united with God is depicted allegorically as a marital union. This allegory, portraying Jesus as the bridegroom, the soul as the bride, and the communion with Jesus as marriage, has its roots in biblical parables and the medieval allegorical exegesis of the Song of Songs. Hymns use the marriage allegory as a conventional way to describe intimacy with, love of or longing for God.

This article examines the bridal mysticism in Finnish Pietist hymns from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and seeks to clarify the nature of nuptial imagery and its role in the poetics of the hymns. Bridal mysticism is treated as a literary topos: a framework combining different elements, such as motifs, symbols and phrases, and an essential feature in the conventional repertoire of hymns. The hymns are analyzed in the context of the literary history of the pre-Romantic period, the Protestant hymn tradition and Pietist devotional literature, but their connections to the folk song tradition are also taken into account. The article shows how the nuptial topos works both as a structuring unit and on a thematic level. Precisely because of its conventional nature, the nuptial topos offers intelligible and functional patterns for the representation and verbalisation of religious experiences.