A Land of Heroes: First impressions of the Kalevala

The Myth:  The Mythic History of Finland. Gods! Goddesses! Culture heroes who are not exactly gods but are certainly impressive and sing very well indeed! Magic duels! Magic fish! Magic ... whatever the Sampo is!
The Book: Kalevala, The Land of Heroes (technically, volume 1 of 2)
The Author: Elias Lönnrot (1835)
This text: etext of a 1907 translation by W. F. Kirby.
Price: nothin' (Kindle Free Library)


I am loving the Kalevala.


Normally, it takes a bit of a run-up to get into a mythic read, as you adjust your expectations to the text, but this is readable from the get-go. It probably helps that I was reading it out loud - there's a constant, flowing, beating rhythm that makes it absolutely lovely to read.


Best thing I've found for settling my infant daughter, too.


The language is sumptuous, and conveys a vastness of the universe, a land of lakes and and oceans and forests and islands and stars. And this made all the more vast with an individual focus on the heroes - this isn't kings-and-empires stuff. The largest social unit is the household, and most of the heroes are loners. They live in wooden buildings and make their own boats. Their feuds are personal.

"Mum, I'm gunna go challenge Väinämöinen to a magic duel!"
"Don't be silly, dear. Väinämöinen is a nice old man. Also, a master wizard. Go milk the cows."
"Aw, mum!"

It's no less epic for that, though - wizard-hero Väinämöinen sings up the deepest powers of creation. His mate Ilmarinen made the sky. When Väinämöinen's axe turns on him while building a boat, the treating medic needs to be taught the mythic history of iron so that the axe can be properly chastised and shamed. Only then can the wound be coaxed into closing. 

"You sure are bleeding a lot, mister. It's filled up seven boats and eight tubs. What are you, some sort of hero?" 

 This is good stuff.

Next: There's one in every myth cycle.