Kalevala - Lands of Kaleva

[Master Bates]

The Kalevala (lands of kaleva) is a book and epic poem which the Finn Elias Lönnrot compiled from Finnish and Karelian folklore in the nineteenth century.

It is held to be the national epic of Finland and is traditionally thought of as one of the most significant works of Finnish literature.

The epic consists of 22,795 verses, divided into fifty cantos.

The most famous example of the Kalevala's influence upon another author is most likely with J.R.R. Tolkien. He claimed the Kalevala as one of his sources for the writings which became the Silmarillion.

For example, the story of Kullervo has been extensively used in the Silmarillion (including the sword that speaks when the anti-hero uses it for a suicide) as the basis of Túrin Turambar in Narn i Chîn Húrin.

Echoes of the Kalevala's characters, Väinämöinen in particular, can also be found in the wizards of The Lord of the Rings.

 

 

 

Story:

 

Cantos 1–10: Origin of Earth; the first man;

 

Thus our hero reached the water,

Rested five years in the ocean,

Six long years, and even seven years,

Till the autumn of the eighth year,

When at last he leaves the waters,

Stops upon a promontory,

On a coast bereft of verdure;

On his knees he leaves the ocean,

On the land he plants his right foot,

On the solid ground his left foot,

Quickly turns his hands about him,

Stands erect to see the sunshine,

Stands to see the golden moonlight,

That he may behold the Great Bear,

That he may the stars consider.

Thus our hero, Wainamoinen,

Thus the wonderful enchanter

Was delivered from his mother,

Ilmatar, the Ether's daughter.

 

 

Väinämöinen

 

A shamanistic hero with the magical power of songs and music. He is born of the primeval Maiden of the Air and contributes to the origin of Earth. He plays the kantele, a Finnish stringed instrument that resembles and is played like a zither. One of his kanteles is made of the jaw-bone of a giant pike. His search for a wife is a central element in many stories; he never finds one, though.

 

 

Väinämöinen and Joukahainen’s encounter; Joukahainen promises his sister’s hand to Väinämöinen in exchange for his life; Aino (Joukahainen’s sister) walks into the sea;

 

The three pictures tell the story: the left panel one is about the first encounter of Vainamoinen and Aino in the forest, the right panel depicts mournful Aino weeping on the shore and listening to the call of the maids of Vellamo who are playing in the water. Aino has made her decision to choose death rather than her wizened suitor. The middle panel depicts the end of the story. Vainamoinen uses his magic to fish for Aino in the lake that she entered. He catches a small fish but decides it is too plain and insignificant to be his fiancée, so he throws it back. In that instant the fish changes into Aino who proceeds to mock the old man, that he held her in his hand but chose to let her go. After that she vanishes for ever.

 

Joukahainen’s revenge;

the wounded Väinämöinen floats into Pohjola (Northland); Väinämöinen encounters the Maid of the North and promises the Mistress of the North the Sampo in exchange for her daughter;

 

 

Väinämöinen tricks the smith Ilmarinen into Pohjola where he forges the Sampo.

 

On the third night Ilmarinen,

Bending low to view his metals,

On the bottom of the furnace,

Sees the magic Sampo rising,

Sees the lid in many colors.

Quick the artist of Wainola

Forges with the tongs and anvil,

Knocking with a heavy hammer,

Forges skilfully the Sampo;

On one side the flour is grinding,

On another salt is making,

On a third is money forging,

And the lid is many-colored.

Well the Sampo grinds when finished,

To and fro the lid in rocking,

Grinds one measure at the day-break,

Grinds a measure fit for eating,

Grinds a second for the market,

Grinds a third one for the store-house.

 

 

the Sampo was a magical artifact constructed by Ilmarinen that brought good fortune to its holder; nobody knows exactly what it was supposed to be. When the Sampo was stolen, it is said that Ilmarinen's homeland fell upon hard times.

 

Seppo Ilmarinen, the Eternal Hammerer, blacksmith and inventor in the Kalevala, is an archetypal artificer from Finnish mythology. Immortal, he is capable of creating practically anything, but is notoriously unlucky in love. The great works of Ilmarinen include the crafting of the dome of the sky and the forging of the Sampo.

 

Forging of the sampo

 

 

Cantos 11–15: Lemminkäinen steals the maid Kyllikki of the Island; they make a vow; she forgets her vow; Lemminkäinen travels to Pohjola to propose to the Maid of the North; deeds Lemminkäinen must accomplish: ski for the Demon’s elk, bridle the Demon’s horse and shoot the Swan of Tuonela (the land of the dead); a herdsman kills Lemminkäinen and throws him into the River of Tuonela; Lemminkäinen’s mother awakens him into life.

 

 

Cantos 16–18: Väinämöinen' travels to Tuonela and to meet Antero Vipunen in order to get spells for boat building and sails to Pohjola; Ilmarinen and Väinämöinen compete for the hand of the Maid of the North.

 

Cantos 19–25: Ilmarinen accomplishes the needed deeds with the help of the Maid: ploughing the viper-field, quelling of the wolves of Tuonela and catching the pike out of the River of Tuonela; the wedding of Ilmarinen and the Maid of the North. The story of the brewing of the ale.

 

Cantos 26–30: Lemminkäinen is resentful for not having been invited to the wedding; he travels to Pohjola and wins the duel with the Master of Northland; an army is conjured to get back at Lemminkäinen; at his mother’s advice he flees to the Island of Refuge; returning home he sees that his house is burned down; he goes to Pohjola with his companion Tiera to get revenge but the Mistress of the North freezes the seas and Lemminkäinen has to return home.

Cantos 31–36: Untamo kills his brother Kalervo’s people except for the wife who begets Kullervo; Untamo gives Kullervo several tasks but he sabotages them all; Kullervo is sold as a slave to Ilmarinen; after being tormented by Ilmarinen’s wife, he exacts revenge and the wife gets killed; Kullervo runs away and finds his family unharmed near Lapland; Kullervo seduces a maiden and later finds out she is his sister; Kullervo destroys Untamola (the realm of Untamo) and upon returning home finds every one killed; Kullervo kills himself.

 

Cantos 37–38: Ilmarinen forges himself a wife out of gold and silver but finds her to be cold and discards her; Ilmarinen then robs the sister of the Maid of the North from Pohjola; she insults him so he discards her; Ilmarinen tells Väinämöinen of the carefree life of Pohjola because of the Sampo.

 

Cantos 39–44: Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen and Lemminkäinen sail to get the Sampo; they kill a great pike out of whose jaw bone the first kantele is made; Väinämöinen lulls everyone in the hall of Pohjola to sleep with his singing and the Sampo is stolen; the Mistress of the Northland conjures a great army, turns herself into an eagle and fights for the Sampo; the Sampo falls into the sea.

[Master Bates]

Louhi

In Finnish mythology and the mythology of Lapland, Louhi is a queen of the land known as Pohjola. She is described as a powerful witch with the ability to change shape and weave mighty enchantments. She is also the main opponent of Väinämöinen and his group in the battle for the magical artifact Sampo in the Kalevala. She has a number of beautiful daughters, whom Ilmarinen, Lemminkäinen and other heroes attempt to win in various legends.

 

The battle for sampo

Cantos 45–49: The Mistress of the North sends the people of Kaleva diseases and a bear to kill their cattle; she hides the sun and the moon and steals fire from Kaleva; Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen restore fire and Väinämöinen forces the Mistress to return the Sun and the Moon to the skies.

 

Louhi, hostess of Pohyola,

Northland's old and toothless wizard,

Makes the Sun and Moon her captives;

In her arms she takes fair Luna

From her cradle in the birch-tree,

Calls the Sun down from his station,

From the fir-tree's bending branches,

Carries them to upper Northland,

To the darksome Sariola;

Hides the Moon, no more to glimmer,

In a rock of many colors;

Hides the Sun, to shine no longer,

In the iron-banded mountain;

Thereupon these words she utters:

"Moon of gold and Sun of silver,

Hide your faces in the caverns

Of Pohyola's dismal mountain;

Shine no more to gladden Northland,

Till I come to give ye freedom,

Drawn by coursers nine in number,

Sable coursers of one mother!"

 

 

Canto 50: Marjatta gets impregnated from a berry she ate and begets a son, an allusion to Mary and Jesus Christ; Väinämöinen orders the killing of the boy; the boy starts to speak and reproaches Väinämöinen for ill judgement; he is then baptised king of Karelia; Väinämöinen sails away.

 

 

 

Whole thing in eglish: http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thus they come across at a glade in the woods of Kalevala

 

The Rough Mesikaemmen and the Big Sisukainen

 

They looked each other from toe to tuft again and again

 

The Rough Honeypaw took a step and then one more

 

The Big Sisuman kicked away twigs and stones

 

Step by step the heavy breaths come nearer

 

 

When the Swearing Sisukainen sensed the animal odour

 

He gripped his knife and directed some words to Ahti, Lord of Wood

 

"Listen now Ahti, never that I bad or appealed to you

 

But now Ahti, stay out of this fight! Perkele!"

 

Thus it ended as it ended

[Hatch]

I'll wait for the film

[St Landrew]

I'll wait for the film

 

You realise with that kind of response you've pushed MB back to his NSFW - lingerie in TMS roots.

[Master Bates]

You realise with that kind of response you've pushed MB back to his NSFW - lingerie in TMS roots.

 

My life has been ruined by his comment.

[Eyes k8]

I went out with a finnish girl called Marja, she looked very much like the girl in the picture. She couldn't speak any English and I couldn't speak any finnish but it was ok.

 

I had already read kalevala which drives you mad

 

Da de da de dah de dah dah

dah de dah de dah de dah dah

 

It's the metre used by Longfellow in Hiawatha, which in turn is because Longfellow wasn't an indian at all but had borrowed it from Kalevala.