[Bards] Fwd: [Bjornsborg] The Kalevala Day Celebrations; 28 February
YsfaelEleanor@aol.com
YsfaelEleanor at aol.com
Sat Feb 23 07:56:26 PST 2002
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In a message dated 2/23/2002 1:12:47 AM Central Standard Time,
t_fornof at yahoo.com writes:
> http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kalevala.htm
>
>
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To: Buffer <neomedia at hotmail.com>
From: Travis Fornof <t_fornof at yahoo.com>
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Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 23:11:57 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Bjornsborg] The Kalevala Day Celebrations; 28 February
Reply-To: Bjornsborg at yahoogroups.com
http://home.att.net/~Bob.Kasha.Breau/Kalevala.htm
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kalevala.htm
http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/kaleva.html
http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/kaleva7.html
Tolkein, one of his sources of inspiration.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/12/1219_tolkienroots.html
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/
Travis.
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The Kalevala's contents,
http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/kaleva7.html
1-2 Ilmatar (the Virgin of the Air) descends to the waters. A pochard lays
its eggs on her knee. The eggs break and the world is formed from their
pieces. The mother of the water then gives birth to Väinämöinen. Sampsa
Pellervoinen sows the forest trees. One of the trees, an oak, grows so
large that it blots out both the sun and the moon. A tiny man rises from
the sea and fells the giant oak. The sun and moon can shine once again.
3-4 Joukahainen challenges Väinämöinen to a contest of wisdom and is
defeated. With his singing, Väinämöinen causes Joukahainen to sink into a
swamp. In order to save himself, Joukahainen promises his sister' s hand
in marriage to Väinämöinen. Upon learning of the bargain, the sister Aino
mourns her fate and finally drowns herself.
5-7 Väinämöinen searches the sea for Aino and catches her (she has been
transformed into a fish) on his fishing hook. However, he loses her again
and sets out to woo the maiden of Pohjola, the daughter of the North Farm.
Meanwhile, eager for revenge, Joukahainen watches out for Väinämöinen on
the way to Pohjola and shoots Väinämöinen's horse from underneath him as
he rides across a river. Väinämöinen falls into the water and floats out
to sea. There an eagle rescues him and carries him to Pohjola's shores.
The mistress of Pohjola, Louhi, tends Väinämöinen until he recovers. In
order to be able to return home, Väinämöinen promises that Ilmarinen the
smith will forge a Sampo for Pohjola. The maiden of Pohjola, Louhi's
daughter, is promised to the smith in return for the Sampo.
8-9 On his way home, Väinämöinen meets the maiden of Pohjola and asks her
to marry him. She agrees on the condition that Väinämöinen carry out
certain impossible tasks. While Väinämöinen carves a wooden boat, his axe
slips and he receives a deep wound in his knee. He searchers for an expert
blood-stauncher and finally finds an old man who stops the flow of blood
by using magic incantations.
10 Using magic means, Väinämöinen sends the unwilling Ilmarinen to Pohjola.
Ilmarinen forges the Sampo. Louhi shuts it inside a hill of rock.
Ilmarinen is forced to return home without his promised bride.
11-12 Lemminkäinen sets off to woo Kyllikki, a maiden of Saari Island. He
makes merry with the other maidens and abducts Kyllikki. He later abandons
her and leaves to woo the maiden of Pohjola. With his singing he bewitches
the people of Pohjola to leave the farmhouse at North Farm. Only one
person, a cowherd, does not fall under his spell.
13-15 Lemminkäinen asks Louhi for her daughter, but Louhi demands that he
first hunt and kill the Demon's elk, then the Demon's fire-breathing
gelding, and finally the swan in Tuonela River, which is the boundary
between this world and the next. There the vengeful cowherd kills
Lemminkäinen and throws his body into the river. Lemminkäinen's mother
receives a sign of her son's death and goes out in search of him. She
rakes the pieces of her son's body out of Tuonela River, puts them back
together and brings her son back to life.
16-17 Väinämöinen begins to build a boat and visits Tuonela in order to
ask for the magic spells needed to finish it. He does not find them. He
then seeks the missing spells from the stomach of the ancient wise man,
Antero Vipunen, who has long been dead. He finds them and finishes his
boat.
18-19 Väinämöinen sets off in his boat to woo the daughter of Pohjola, but
she chooses instead Ilmarinen, the forger of the Sampo. Ilmarinen
successfully performs the three impossible tasks set before him: he plows
a field full of vipers, hunts down the bear of Tuonela and the wolf of
Manala and finally fishes the Great Pike out of the Tuonela River. Louhi
promises her daughter to Ilmarinen.
20-25 In Pohjola, preparations are made for the wedding and invitations are
sent to all except Lemminkäinen. The groom and his folk arrive in Pohjola,
and there is great feasting. Väinämöinen entertains the wedding guests
with his singing. The bride and groom are given advice concerning
marriage, and the bride bids farewell to her people and departs with
Ilmarinen for Kalevala. There a banquet is also ready for the guests.
Väinämöinen sings the praises of the wedding guests.
26-27 Lemminkäinen shows up at the banquet in Pohjola uninvited, and
demands food and drink. He is offered a tankard of beer filled with
vipers. Lemminkäinen engages the master of Pohjola in a singing contest
and swordfight and kills him.
28-30 Lemminkäinen flees the people of Pohjola who are rising up in arms
against him and hides on Saari Island, living among the maidens of the
island until he is forced to flee once again, this time from the island's
jealous menfolk. Lemminkäinen finds his home in ashes and his mother
hiding in a cottage in the forest. Lemminkäinen sets out to seek revenge
on Pohjola, but is forced to return home because a cold spell cast by the
mistress of Pohjola has frozen his ships in the sea.
31-34 Brothers Untamo and Kalervo quarrel violently, Kalervo's troop is
slain, and of his kin only his son Kullervo remains. Because of his
superhuman powers, Kullervo fails in every task he is given. Untamo sells
the boy to Ilmarinen as a serf. The wife of Ilmarinen send Kullervo out to
be a cowherd and out of spite bakes a stone into the bread which is his
only provisions. Kullervo breaks his knife on the stone while trying to
cut the bread, and in revenge drives the cows into the swamp and brings
home a pack of wild animals instead. The mistress, intending to milk the
cows, is mauled to death. Kullervo flees. He finds his family in the
forest, but hears that his sister has disappeared.
35-36 Kullervo's father sends him to pay the taxes. On his return trip,
Kullervo unwittingly seduces his sister, who then drowns herself in the
rapids upon discovering the truth. Kullervo sets out to seek revenge on
Untamo. Having killed Untamo and his family, Kullervo returns home to find
his own family dead. Kullervo commits suicide.
37 Ilmarinen mourns the death of his wife and decides to forge a woman of
gold. The golden maiden remains, however, lifeless and cold. Väinämöinen
warns the young people against worshipping gold.
38 Ilmarinen is rejected by the youngest daughter of Pohjola and carries
her off in his sleigh. The girl reviles Ilmarinen and so offends him that
he finally turns her into a seagull with his singing. Ilmarinen tells
Väinämöinen of the wealth and prosperity that the Sampo has brought the
people of Pohjola.
39-41 Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen and Lemminkäinen set out to steal the Sampo
from Pohjola. In the course of the journey, their boat runs aground on the
shoulders of a giant pike. Väinämöinen kills the pike and fashions a
kantele from its jawbone. No one else is able to play the instrument, but
Väinämöinen holds all living things spellbound with his playing.
42-43 Väinämöinen puts the people of Pohjola to sleep with his kantele
playing and the Sampo is taken to the travellers' boat and rowed away. The
people of Pohjola awaken and Louhi, the mistress of Pohjola, sends
obstacles in the path of the raiders to hinder their escape. The seafarers
survive, but the kantele falls into the sea. Louhi sets off in pursuit and
transforms herself into a giant bird of prey. In the ensuing battle the
Sampo is smashed and falls into the sea. Some of the fragments remain in
the sea, but others wash ashore and bring Finland good fortune and
prosperity. Louhi is left with only the worthless lid of the Sampo and an
impoverished land.
44 In vain, Väinämöinen seeks the kantele which fell into the sea. He
makes a new kantele from birchwood and his playing once again delights the
whole of creation.
45-46 Louhi sends diseases to destroy the people of Kalevala, but
Väinämöinen cures the sick. Louhi sends a bear to attack the Kalevala
cattle, but Väinämöinen slays the bear. The people of Kalevala organize a
bear-killing feast.
47-48 The mistress of Pohjola hides the sun and the moon inside a hill and
steals the fire as well. Ukko, the supreme god, makes a new sun and moon
by striking fire, but the fire falls to earth, into the belly of a giant
fish. Väinämöinen asks Ilmarinen to go fishing with him. They catch the
fish and place the fire in the service of humankind.
49 Ilmarinen forges a new sun and moon, but they do not shine. After
battling the people of Pohjola, Väinämöinen returns to ask Ilmarinen to
fashion a set of keys with which to release the sun and moon from
Pohjola's mountain. While Ilmarinen is forging, Louhi sets the sun and
moon free to return to their places in the sky.
50 Marjatta conceives a child from a whortleberry. Her baby boy is born in
the forest, but soon disappears, to be found finally in a swamp.
Väinämöinen condemns the fatherless child to death, but the child speaks
out against the sentence and is christened King of Karelia. Väinämöinen
departs in a copper boat with the prediction that he will be needed again
someday to make a new Sampo for the people, to bring new light and play
new songs.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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