As my December reading has concentrated on the related subjects of shamanism, Finno-Ugric linguistics and folklore, it’s appropriate for me to start off the year by re-reading the Kalevala and the Kalevipoeg. The Finnish Kalevala has been a constant, haunting presence with me for most of my life, but the less well known Estonian Kalevipoeg is something I’ve gotten into more recently. Finnish and Estonian are closely related languages, about as close as Spanish and Portuguese are to each other. Though Finland and Estonia are European countries, their languages are not Indo-European, but belong to the Finno-Ugric family. The metre of the epics is suited to the agglutinative grammar and the distinctive stress patterns of these languages, and is rather difficult to duplicate in English without sounding a bit absurd. You have to hear Finnish and Estonian spoken or sung to get the spirit of it, and I recomend doing that before reading the works. Both epics were compiled in the 19th century by stitching together folk epics sung by traditional bards. These folk epics draw on a vast reservoir of song and myth common to the Finno-Ugric peoples, which in turn forms part of a great circum-polar cultural continuum that runs from the forests of northern Europe, across through Siberia, and continues all the way to Canada. The Cree of Canada’s North find the Kalevala myths congenial, and a Cree drumming to ancient songs near the sweat hut has no difficulty picturing a Finn singing by the sauna.
Despite the historic and linguistic proximity, the two epics have different atmospheres. The Kalevala has been justly described as a “shamanic epic.” The central characters occasionally take out a sword and do some thwacking, like their Norse neighbours, but most of the time they are preoccupied with singing spells, going on magical journeys, and besting each other’s magic. It is difficult to tell whether some characters are gods or merely human heroes. There are elements in the myth system that belong to an agricultural world, but the dominant atmosphere is of hunters and fishers moving freely in wild forest and lakes. The Kalevipoeg is grounded much more firmly in an agricultural society, and there is no question but that the main character is a human culture hero, who combats sorcerers and monsters, as well as foreign aggression, on behalf of his people.
While the Kalevala has enjoyed international renown, the Kalevipoeg is pretty much known only to Estonians. An American fantasy writer, Lou Goble, adapted the work into a prose fantasy in 1982 (The Kalevide, Bantam Books; item 18349 in December). I thought Goble’s novel was well-written, and quite entertaining. But I don’t think it had much impact on English-language fantasy readers, who are comfortable with the familiar tropes of Arthurian, Celtic and Norse mythology, and show little interest in venturing further afield. It might have helped if Arvo Pärt, Estonia’s internationally known composer, had chosen to make choral works based on the epic, as Sibelius did with the Kalevala, but he seems not to have been interested in it. The Kalevala has also benefited from the extraordinary paintings of Axeli Gallén-Kallela, which are often used to illustrate prestige editions of the epic.
18426. [3] (Elias Lönnrot) The Kalevala: Epic of the Finnish People . [translated by Eino Friberg ;
. editing and introduction by George C. Schoolfield; illustrated by Björn Landström]
. [read previously in Kirby (1) and Bosley (2) translations]
18427. [2] (F. R. Kreutzwald) Kalevipoeg: An Ancient Estonian Tale . compiled by Fr.R. Kreutzwald ;
. translation with notes and afterword by Jüri Kurman
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