The formation of Estonian folklore collections reflects a tension between archaism and modernity, with folklore serving as a cornerstone of 19th-century national identity and ethnic historiography. Authenticity, rooted in orality, historicity and philological precision, dominated collecting practices to rescue ‘old treasures’ from destruction and disappearance in a modernising society. This study examines the interplay of oral and printed traditions in the runosong corpus, employing a hybrid methodology of close reading of archival texts (supplemented by historical publications) and distant reading via the Estonian Runosongs Database and linked FILTER database. This approach bridges quantitative pattern detection with qualitative, contextual interpretation, addressing challenges in analysing dialectical, poetic corpora.