Sep 4, 2016
Okay.
--Ilmarinen, to Väinämöinen, way too often
Poems 1-32 (Kalevala 1835)
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Okay.
--Ilmarinen, to Väinämöinen, way too often
Poems 1-32 (Kalevala 1835)
I really need to write a longer post about how the inclusion of Untamo changes Kullervo’s characterization in the New Kalevala. The biggest is that it indirectly adds depth to Kullervo's character via giving him a sense of empathy.
To summarize, Kullervo is...
Old Kalevala: a violent slave prone to overreaction, pettiness and passive aggressive gestures whose reaction to hearing his parents died is to shrug
New Kalevala: a perennial fuck-up with two settings - "fuck" and "kill" - and a massive problem with overreacting to things in the most melodramatic way possible but who still mourns his dead parents and siblings
Changes compared to New Kalevala, pt. 2
A continuation from this post. Knife, a family heirloom
In the New Kalevala, Kullervo's only memento of his family is his mother's knife. It's destroyed when Kullervo tried to use it to slice the bread, inside which Ilmarinen's wife baked a stone, and this prompts Kullervo to murder her and escape slavery.
In the Old Kalevala, the knife is just some random eating knife. Kullervo is pissed off, sure, and does indeed murder his mistress. It seems a bit of an overreaction without the sentimental value of the knife, though.
Ending (Summary)
After murdering Ilmarinen's wife, in the New Kalevala, Kullervo escapes back home, meets his mother, fails at household chores and then meets this young lady with whom he has sex. He then finds out that the girl is his sister. She throws herself into a rapid and Kullervo runs back home to cry to his mother. He then decides to commit mass murder (namely to kill the guy who took him as a slave in the beginning) before returning home, finding everyone dead and taking his own life. Roll credits.
In the Old Kalevala, Kullervo just saunters off while playing a pipe he earlier made of cow horn and ignores the ground telling him that his parents and never-before-mentioned wife are dead. And never again is he even mentioned in the whole epic. Death of the Maiden of the North
This is the main reason for the Kullervo saga to be in the Old Kalevala, by the way. Namely, Lönnrot needed Ilmarinen's wife to drop dead so that our favorite smith could go get a new one and start the whole "let's grab that sampo and run" action sequence. He decided to use the Kullervo saga for this. Apparently "woman dies of illness" was too unrealistic for the time.
As an aside, I trust all of you know that both Lönnrot's wife and all but one of his daughters died of various illnesses before him - even though he was ~20 years older than his wife and had a habit of doing dangerous things like being a doctor treating patients with easily communicable diseases and romping around countryside alone in awful weather after some songs or something. Guy had the immune system of a Greek god.
Since her death is pretty much required for the sampo plot to proceed (they can't invent divorce fast enough, eh?), it's fairly strange that she dies off-screen in the Old Kalevala. While she is maimed by beasts in the poem, she survives it and the camera zooms back to Kullervo's flute solo. We find out she has died only when the next poem starts with Ilmarinen mourning her.
In the New Kalevala, Kullervo just petitions Ukko to kill her and she promptly drops dead. After which the epic continues with Kullervo's tragedy for another three poems before we cut back to mourning Ilmarinen.
Does this change anything? Not much, but at least in the Old Kalevala, her death is a bit less on the nose and as such more dignified.
Part 3 will be published tomorrow, since this is already a fairly tl;dr post as-is.
Changes compared to New Kalevala, pt. 1
The legend of Kullervo is the part of Kalevala that has changed the most between the two editions, so I have made you a brief summary of the biggest differences. It probably says something that the legend of Kullervo is six poems long in the New Kalevala but only one poem in the Old One.
Kullervo's father
Most of you probably remember him as Kalervo. In the Old Kalevala, however, Kullervo's father is mentioned to be "Kalewa" (= Kaleva). This is a fairly daring choice, since "Kaleva" is a mighty folklore hero. Whether he is a giant or a king (you would think these not to be mutually exclusive, but hey) is a bit open but there is a fairly large amount of myths about his sons.
Kalevala is also named after Kaleva which why it's somewhat ironic that the man himself doesn't really make an appearance in the whole book and his son is seen only in one poem - a poem which is in the whole epic only because Lönnrot needed to fridge Ilmarinen's wife.
Feud between Kalervo and Untamo
Neither the feud nor Untamo exists as far as the Old Kalevala is concerned. Instead of his pregnant mother being kidnapped during a skirmish by Untamo and Untamo selling Kullervo to Ilmarinen as a slave, Kullervo's own parents live happily together and then just randomly sell him to slavery after he is born.
There will be a second part of this once we have gone through the whole Poem 19. Just to avoid spoilers for a book published in 1835.
What did I ever do to deserve this?!
--everyone, at some point, pointing at Lemminkäinen
Poems 1-32 (Kalevala 1835)
I think I just realized why the construction company Lemminkäinen Group named themselves after a teenaged self-centered prick like Kalevala's Lemminkäinen.
Kalevala's Lemminkäinen builds a bridge just by singing a few notes.
Because he was too lazy to walk through the snow Ukko dumped on the island at his request, but hey, he constructed something.
Eino Leino Day Today!
Eino Leino (1878–1926), one of the best known Finnish poets, is celebrated today and 6.7. is also a general celebratory day for poetry and summer ("Runon ja suven päivä" in Finnish for the curious).
In case you are wondering how this is relevant to this blog, there are two reasons (aside from Kalevala being poetry):
By publishing several poems and plays using influences from Finnish folklore, Eino Leino was actively participating in the romantic nationalism zeitgeist of late 1800s and early 1900s which - while certainly not being caused by the publication of Kalevala first in 1835 and then in 1849 - was given more momentum by it.
His most famous poetry collections, Helkavirsiä (yes, of course he had to publish two different poetry collections with the same name - the first was published in 1903, the second in 1916), are an excellent example of point 1. Although while strongly influenced by Kalevala and folklore, they don't even pretend to record folklore but use its symbolism and conventions to spice up (then) modern poetry. They are also entirely written in trochaic tetrameter (i.e. "Kalevala meter" - guess which other book was written in it :D).
Interesting trivia: Eino Leino's real name was Armas Einar Leopold Lönnbohm. Aren’t you glad he used a penname...
By the way, if anyone ever wondered about Ilmarinen's hair color? It's black*.
And he has brownish eyes, as mentioned earlier. Interestingly enough, he is usually depicted as a brunet.
Poem 15 (Kalevala 1835)
*No, it isn’t. “murti mustoa haventa” (lit. transl. “broke black hair”) is a poetic way of saying “felt offended”. Colors are quite often used metaphorically or, like in this case, to emphasize alliteration in Kalevala, so most mentions of color - especially if repeated and contradicted in the next line - should be taken with a grain of salt.