Kalevala : the Epic Poem of Finland — Complete

Kalevala
THE
EPIC POEM OF FINLAND

INTO ENGLISH


BY
JOHN MARTIN CRAWFORD


[1888]

TO

DR. J.D. BUCK,

AN ENCOURAGING AND UNSELFISH FRIEND, AND TO HIS AFFECTIONATE FAMILY,

THESE PAGES ARE GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.




Contents


 PREFACE
 PROEM
 RUNE I. Birth of Wainamoinen
 RUNE II. Wainamoinen’s Sowing
 RUNE III. Wainamoinen and Youkahainen
 RUNE IV. The Fate of Aino
 RUNE V. Wainamoinen’s Lamentation
 RUNE VI. Wainamoinen’s Hapless Journey
 RUNE VII. Wainamoinen’s Rescue
 RUNE VIII. Maiden of the Rainbow
 RUNE IX. Origin of Iron
 RUNE X. Ilmarinen forges the Sampo
 RUNE XI. Lemminkainen’s Lament
 RUNE XII. Kyllikki’s Broken Vow
 RUNE XIII. Lemminkainen’s Second Wooing
 RUNE XIV. Death of Lemminkainen
 RUNE XV. Lemminkainen’s Restoration
 RUNE XVI. Wainainoinen’s Boat-building
 RUNE XVII. Wainamoinen finds the Lost Word
 RUNE XVIII. THE RIVAL SUITORS.
 RUNE XIX. Ilmarinen’s Wooing
 RUNE XX. The Brewing of Beer
 RUNE XXI. Ilmarinen’s Wedding-feast
 RUNE XXII. The Bride’s Farewell
 RUNE XXIII. Osmotar, the Bride-adviser
 RUNE XXIV. The Bride’s Farewell
 RUNE XXV. Wainamoinen’s Wedding-songs
 RUNE XXVI. Origin of the Serpent
 RUNE XXVII. The Unwelcome Guest
 RUNE XXVIII. The Mother’s Counsel
 RUNE XXIX. The Isle of Refuge
 RUNE XXX. The Frost-fiend
 RUNE XXXI. Kullerwoinen, Son of Evil
 RUNE XXXII. Kullervo as a Shepherd
 RUNE XXXIII. Kullervo and the Cheat-cake
 RUNE XXXIV. Kullervo finds his Tribe-folk
 RUNE XXXV. Kullervo’s Evil Deeds
 RUNE XXXVI. Kullerwoinen’s Victory and Death
 RUNE XXXVII. Ilmarinen’s Bride of Gold
 RUNE XXXVIII. Ilmarinen’s Fruitless Wooing
 RUNE XXXIX. Wainamoinen’s Sailing
 RUNE XL. Birth of the Harp
 RUNE XLI. Wainamoinen’s Harp-songs
 RUNE XLII. Capture of the Sampo
 RUNE XLIII. The Sampo lost in the Sea
 RUNE XLIV. Birth of the Second Harp
 RUNE XLV. Birth of the Nine Diseases
 RUNE XLVI. Otso the Honey-eater
 RUNE XLVII. Louhi steals Sun, Moon, and Fire
 RUNE XLVIII. Capture of the Fire-fish
 RUNE XLIX. Restoration of the Sun and Moon
 RUNE L. Mariatta—Wainamoinen’s Departure
 EPILOGUE
 GLOSSARY




PREFACE


The following translation was undertaken from a desire to lay before
the English-speaking people the full treasury of epical beauty,
folklore, and mythology comprised in _The Kalevala_, the national epic
of the Finns. A brief description of this peculiar people, and of their
ethical, linguistic, social, and religious life, seems to be called for
here in order that the following poem may be the better understood.

Finland (Finnish, Suomi or Suomenmaa, the swampy region, of which
Finland, or Fen-land is said to be a Swedish translation,) is at
present a Grand-Duchy in the north-western part of the Russian empire,
bordering on Olenetz, Archangel, Sweden, Norway, and the Baltic Sea,
its area being more than 144,000 square miles, and inhabited by some
2,000,000 of people, the last remnants of a race driven back from
the East, at a very early day, by advancing tribes. The Finlanders
live in a land of marshes and mountains, lakes and rivers, seas,
gulfs, islands, and inlets, and they call themselves Suomilainen,
Fen-dwellers. The climate is more severe than that of Sweden. The mean
yearly temperature in the north is about 27°F., and about 38°F., at
Helsingfors, the capital of Finland. In the southern districts the
winter is seven months long, and in the northern provinces the sun
disappears entirely during the months of December and January.

The inhabitants are strong and hardy, with bright, intelligent faces,
high cheek-bones, yellow hair in early life, and with brown hair in
mature age. With regard to their social habits, morals, and manners,
all travellers are unanimous in speaking well of them. Their temper
is universally mild; they are slow to anger, and when angry they keep
silence. They are happy-hearted, affectionate to one another, and
honorable and honest in their dealings with strangers. They are a
cleanly people, being much given to the use of vapor-baths. This trait
is a conspicuous note of their character from their earliest history
to the present day. Often in the runes of The Kalevala reference is
made to the “cleansing and healing virtues of the vapors of the heated
bathroom.”

The skull of the Finn belongs to the brachycephalic (short-headed)
class of Retzius. Indeed the Finn-organization has generally been
regarded as Mongol, though Mongol of a modified type. His color is
swarthy, and his eyes are gray. He is not inhospitable, but not
over-easy of access; nor is he a friend of new fashions. Steady,
careful, laborious, he is valuable in the mine, valuable in the field,
valuable oil shipboard, and, withal, a brave soldier on land.

The Finns are a very ancient people. It is claimed, too, that they
began earlier than any other European nation to collect and preserve
their ancient folk-lore. Tacitus, writing in the very beginning of the
second century of the Christian era, mentions the Fenni, as he calls
them, in the 46th chapter of his De Moribus Germanoram.