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Laufey's Sagas and Kalevala Thread
Martin:
I'm reading the Kalevala right now, and enjoying it immensely. Seeing as how I had never heard of it before reading SSSS, I figure that anyone else reading it (I know that at least one person asked a few days ago which translation to read) may be as clueless about the background of history and mythology as I am.
I'm creating this thread as a sort of FAQ of things that confuse me, and if anyone has answers or can help in anyway, or have questions of their own, join in. If there's any response, I may create a commentary page as well, in which we can discuss the story.
Questions:
1. Who is Hiisi? Every time he's mentioned seems to be in a negative connotation; everything regarding him appears to be evil and bad. But no background has been given thus far, and while I think I can piece together all that I need to understand the references to him, clarification would be nice.
2. Who is Jumala? He seems to be a version of the almighty Christian God (although focusing on his role as Creator), which is probably all I need to know, but any other info would be appreciated.
3. What is the cultural significance of the locations in the story? Lapland, Pohja, etc. I'm curious if there is any cultural baggage attached to these places that would go over the head of an uneducated American.
4. Which English translation of Kalevala would you recommend? I'm reading Kirby's translation and having a lot of fun with it, but if more people ask for the best translations, it would be nice to point them to a thread.
Thanks a lot for any help or opinions you can offer! :D
Sunflower:
Hi, Martin. I could take a crack at some of your questions, but I'll wait for authentic Finns to answer first.
Meanwhile, here are some cross-references to Kalevala posts on this forum.
1) Kalevala Day: http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=124.msg21806#msg21806
2) FinnishViking is one of our Finnish (naturally) members with a deep interest in his national mythology and folklore: http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=131.msg17270#msg17270
3) Haverberg shares helpful links: http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=224.msg13762#msg13762
4) Pessi is *very* knowledgeable about the Kalevala: http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=54.msg1833#msg1833
5) And about hiisi (the word is used about old, pre-Christian holy places and the spirits that inhabited them, which is why after Christianization "hiisi" became the word for *evil* spirits):
http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=54.msg25277#msg25277
6) Hiisi and the Rash: http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=18.msg18405#msg18405
Hope this helps!
Pessi:
1. Who is Hiisi?
Hiisi meant originally a sacred place, usually a burial place. It later came to mean also the haltija, "owner/protector spirit", of a hiisi place. The negative connotations are due to christian propaganda which ultimately turned hiisi into a synonym of Satan.
Taivaannaula, a society riviving our ethnic religion and old world view, has declared march 28th the official Hiisi Day on which they remind people of the old sacred places and arrange expeditions to some of them.
2. Who is Jumala?
Jumala is nowadays the name we use for the Christian God, written with small j it means any god. Originally Jumala seems to have been a deity of sky/heaven (the Finnish word "taivas" means both), a kind of later replacement of Ukko. My guess is that when christianity started spreading here in the end of 10th century Jumala was the main deity at least on the west coast and therefore got kind of fused with the christian "main god". (Funny fact: "Perkele", another sky/thunder god, got fused with devil ;))
3. What is the cultural significance of the locations in the story?
Lapland, Lappi, is a little bit exotic place even on today's terms: the nature is quite different from rest of the country and there live the sami people who speak their own language and have their own culture. I'd say it was even more so in the past, though the divide between "lappalainen", Lappish (a name for the sami people nowadays considered a somewhat impolite), and other people was still in the 18th century defined more on terms of livelihood than actual culture or living area. The marking "living as a Lapp" on cencus meant simply someone living by hunting, fishing and gathering, without a permanent living place or aggricultural work.
Pohja/Pohjola is an interesting place since in Kalevala it has gotten quite much mixed up with Tuonela, the place of the dead. This may be due to the fact that our ancestors seemed to think that Tuonela is in the north, "pohjoinen/pohjola" (in an old cemetery around a place where there once stood an early church the deceased people's religions can quite much be deduced from the way the graves are directed: the christians - who have no grave goods - are buried with their feet towards east, while the pagans - with their grave goods - have their feet towards north), so perhaps even for them the difference between Pohjola and Tuonela wasn't precise. The mixup may however have been made by Elias Lönnrot who liked to modify and connect the old poems he'd gathered to make Kalevala the kind of national epic he thought it should be.
4. Which English translation of Kalevala would you recommend?
Can't say, I've never read it in English ;)
Edit: whoops, took me so long to write this in among my actual work that Sunflower had already given an answer. I hope this message is useful anyway =)
starfallz:
Thank you for starting this thread! I have questions, but I need to go back to reading to remember what they are. I've been reading the Bosley translation. I got started on Crawford translation but wanted to pitch it through the window with how the Finnish names were written (Wainamoinen instead of Väinämöinen, for example), as well as seeming to be a bad OCR. I'm currently at the point of Ilmarinen forging the Sampo.
Oh I remembered a few of my questions.
1. With the adornments of Aino, it mentions (forgive, I just know the English):
"I wrenched the cross from my breast
the beads I shook from my neck
and the blue threads from my eyes
and the red threads off my head
cast them on the ground for the
ground's sake"
What are the threads mentioned? Scarves? Ribbons?
I'm curious about what the other decorations are too, but those ones I was most curious about.
2. With numbering things, there always seems to be a progression. Is there a reason for that or just a poetic way?
"Early in the morning she
looked out at the headland's tip:
three maids at the headland's tip
there were, bathing in the sea!
The maid Aino would be fourth
and the slip of a girl fifth!"
The three, four, five there.
3. Copper seems to be a very prominent metal. Gold and silver are of generally understood, from my experience, to be valuable metals. Is copper also important in Finland?
Laufey:
Can't say I know of the blue threads, but a maiden typically wears a red silk ribbon around her head. A married woman would cover her hair instead.
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