National Epics by Kate Milner Rabb

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She spake, and bade the master of the swine,
The good Eumaeus, place the bow and rings
Of hoary steel before the suitor train.
In tears he bore the bow and laid it down.
The herdsman also wept to see again
His master's bow.

* * * * *

He (Telemachus) spake and, rising, from his shoulders took
The purple cloak, and laid the trenchant sword
Aside; and first he placed the rings of steel
In order, opening for them in the ground
A long trench by a line, and stamping close
The earth around them. All admired the skill
With which he ranged them, never having seen
The game before. And then he took his place
Upon the threshold, and essayed the bow;
And thrice he made the attempt, and thrice gave o'er,
Yet hoping still to draw the cord, and send
An arrow through the rings. He would have drawn
The bow at the fourth trial, but a nod
Given by his father caused him to forbear,
Though eager for the attempt.

* * * * *

... And then Eupeithes' son,
Antinoues, to the crowd of suitors said:--

"Rise one by one, my friends, from right to left.
Begin where he begins who pours the wine."
So spake Antinoues, and the rest approved.
Then rose Leiodes, son of Oenops, first.
He was their seer, and always had his seat
Beside the ample bowl. From deeds of wrong
He shrank with hatred, and was sore incensed
Against the suitors all. He took the bow
And shaft, and, going to the threshold, stood
And tried the bow, yet bent it not; it galled
His hands, for they were soft, and all unused
To such a task.

... The swineherd went
Forward along the hall, and, drawing near
The wise Ulysses, gave into his hands
The bow.

* * * * *

... but when the wary chief
Had poised and shrewdly scanned the mighty bow,
Then, as a singer, skilled to play the harp,
Stretches with ease on its new fastenings
A string, the twisted entrails of a sheep,
Made fast at either end, so easily
Ulysses bent that mighty bow. He took
And drew the cord with his right hand; it twanged
With a clear sound as when a swallow screams.
The suitors were dismayed, and all grew pale.
Jove in loud thunder gave a sign from heaven.
The much-enduring chief, Ulysses, heard
With joy the friendly omen, which the son
Of crafty Saturn sent him. He took up
A winged arrow, that before him lay
Upon a table drawn; the others still
Were in the quiver's womb; the Greeks were yet
To feel them. This he set with care against
The middle of the bow, and toward him drew
The cord and arrow-notch, just where he sat,
And aiming opposite, let fly the shaft.
He missed no ring of all; from first to last
The brass-tipped arrow threaded every one.
Then to Telemachus Ulysses said:--

"Telemachus, the stranger sitting here
Hath not disgraced thee. I have neither missed
The rings, nor found it hard to bend the bow;
Nor has my manly strength decayed, as these
Who seek to bring me to contempt pretend;
And now the hour is come when we prepare
A supper for the Achaians, while the day
Yet lasts, and after supper the delights
Of song and harp, which nobly grace a feast."

He spake, and nodded to Telemachus,
His well-beloved son, who girded on
His trenchant sword, and took in hand his spear,
And, armed with glittering brass for battle, came
And took his station by his father's seat.

Then did Ulysses cast his rags aside,
And, leaping to the threshold, took his stand
On its broad space, with bow and quiver filled
With arrows. At his feet the hero poured
The winged shafts, and to the suitors called:--

"That difficult strife is ended. Now I take
Another mark, which no man yet has hit.
Now I shall see if I attain my aim,
And, by the aid of Phoebus, win renown."

He spake; and, turning, at Antinoues aimed
The bitter shaft--Antinoues, who just then
Had grasped a beautiful two-eared cup of gold,
About to drink the wine. He little thought
Of wounds and death; for who, when banqueting
Among his fellows, could suspect that one
Alone against so many men would dare,
However bold, to plan his death, and bring
On him the doom of fate? Ulysses struck
The suitor with the arrow at the throat.
The point came through the tender neck behind,
Sideways he sank to earth; his hand let fall
The cup; the dark blood in a thick warm stream
Gushed from the nostrils of the smitten man.
He spurned the table with his feet, and spilled
The viands; bread and roasted meats were flung
To lie polluted on the floor. Then rose
The suitors in a tumult, when they saw
The fallen man; from all their seats they rose
Throughout the hall, and to the massive walls
Looked eagerly; there hung no buckler there,
No sturdy lance for them to wield. They called
Then to Ulysses with indignant words:--

"Stranger! in evil hour hast thou presumed
To aim at men; and thou shalt henceforth bear
Part in no other contest. Even now
Is thy destruction close to thee. Thy hand
Hath slain the noblest youth in Ithaca.
The vultures shall devour thy flesh for this."

So each one said; they deemed he had not slain
The suitor wittingly; nor did they see,
Blind that they were, the doom which in that hour
Was closing round them all. Then with a frown
The wise Ulysses looked on them, and said:--

"Dogs! ye had thought I never would come back
From Ilium's coast, and therefore ye devoured
My substance here, and offered violence
To my maid-servants, and pursued my wife
As lovers, while I lived. Ye dreaded not
The gods who dwell in the great heaven, nor feared
Vengeance hereafter from the hands of men;
And now destruction overhangs you all."

He spake, and all were pale with fear, and each
Looked round for some escape from death.

_Bryant's Translation, Books XXI., XXII_.

THE KALEVALA.

"Songs preserved from distant ages."

The national epic of Finland, the Kalevala, or Place of Heroes, stands
midway between the purely epical structure, as exemplified in Homer, and
the epic songs of certain nations.

It is a purely pagan epic, and from its complete silence as to Finland's
neighbors, the Russians, Germans, and Swedes, it is supposed to date back
at least three thousand years.

The first attempt to collect Finnish folk-song was made in the seventeenth
century by Palmskoeld and Peter Baeng. In 1733, Maxenius published a volume
on Finnish national poetry, and in 1745 Juslenius began a collection of
national poems. Although scholars saw that these collected poems were
evidently fragments of a Finnish epic, it remained for two physicians,
Zacharias Topelius and Elias Loennrot, to collect the entire poem.
Topelius, though confined to his bed by illness for eleven years, took
down the songs from travelling merchants brought to his bedside. His
collections were published in 1822 and 1831. Loennrot travelled over
Finland, collecting the songs, which he published, arranged in epical
form, in 1835. A revised edition was published in 1849.

The Kalevala consists of fifty parts, or runes, containing twenty-two
thousand seven hundred and ninety-three lines. Its historical foundation
is the contests between the Finns and the Lapps.

Its metre is the "eight syllabled trochaic with the part-line echo,"
alliteration also being used, a metre familiar to us through Longfellow's
"Hiawatha."

The labors of a Wolf are not necessary to show that the Kalevala is
composed of various runes or lays, arranged by a compiler. Topelius and
Loennrot were conscientious collectors and compilers, but they were no
Homers, who could fuse these disconnected runes into one great poem. The
Kalevala recites many events in the lives of different heroes who are not
types of men, like Rama, or Achilles, or Ulysses, but the rude gods of an
almost savage people, or rather, men in the process of apotheosis, all
alike, save in the varying degrees of magic power possessed by each.

The Finnish lays are interesting to us because they are the popular songs
of a people handed down with few changes from one generation to another;
because they would have formed the material for a national epic if a great
poet had arisen; because of their pictures of ancient customs, and
particularly the description of the condition of women, and because of
their frequently beautiful descriptions of nature. But because they are
simply runes "loosely stitched together" we can regard them only with
interest and curiosity, not with admiration.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM, THE KALEVALA.

Andrew Lang's Homer and the Epic, pp. 412-419;

Andrew Lang's Kalevala, or the Finnish National Epic (in his Custom and
Myth), 1885, pp. 156-179;

C. J. Billson's Folk-songs, comprised in the Finnish Kalevala, Folk-Lore,
1895, vi. pp. 317-352;

F. C. Cook's Kalevala, Contemporary, 1885, xlvii., pp. 683-702;

Preface of J. M. Crawford's Translation of the Kalevala, 1891.

STANDARD ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS, THE KALEVALA.

The Kalevala, Tr. by J. M. Crawford, 2 vols., 1891;

The Kalevala, Tr. by W. F. Kirby, through the German translation of
Schiefner;

Selections from the Kalevala, Tr. from a German version by J. A. Porter,
with an introduction and analysis of the Poem, 1868.

THE STORY OF THE KALEVALA.

Wainamoinen was born upon the ocean after his mother, Ilmatar, daughter of
the illimitable Ether, had floated upon its surface for more than seven
hundred years. During this time Ilmatar had created the islands, the
rocks, and the continents. After eight years of swimming through the
ocean, studying his surroundings, Wainamoinen left the waters and swam to
a barren promontory, where he could rest himself on dry land and study the
sun, the moon, and the starry skies. At last he called to him
Pellerwoinen, that the slender youth might scatter seeds broadcast upon
the island, sowing in their proper places the birch, the alder, the
linden, the willow, the mountain ash, and the juniper. It was not long
until the eyes of the sower were gladdened by the sight of trees rising
above the hitherto barren soil.

But as Wainamoinen cast his eyes over the place he perceived that the oak,
the tree of heaven, was wanting. The acorn planted in the sterile soil
developed not until Tursas, the giant, arose from the ocean, burned some
meadow grasses, and raking together the ashes, planted therein the acorn,
from which soon sprang up a mighty oak-tree whose branches hid the sun
rays and the starlight.

The oak-tree must be felled if the land was to prosper, but who could fell
it? "Help me, Kape, daughter of the Ether, help me, my ancient mother, to
uproot this terrible tree that shuts out the sunshine," cried Wainamoinen.

Straightway arose from the ocean a little being clad in copper,--cap,
boots, gloves, and belt. He was no longer than a man's forefinger, and the
blade of the hatchet at his belt was but a finger's breadth. "Art thou
divine, or human?" queried Wainamoinen. "Tell me who thou art. Thou surely
hast the bearing of a hero, though so small. But thou must be of the race
of the pygmies, and therefore useless."

"I came here to fell the oak," replied the pygmy. "I am a god and a hero
from the tribes that rule the ocean."

"Never canst thou lop the branches of this mighty tree," replied
Wainamoinen.

As he spoke, the pygmy became a giant; with one step he left the ocean,
and stood piercing the clouds with his head. He whetted his hatchet on the
great rocks, and with three steps reached the tree; with four blows felled
it. The trunk fell eastward, its tops westward, the leaves to the south,
the hundred branches to the north. Full of magic power were the parts of
this tree, and happy was he who possessed himself of some part of it.

Then vegetation flourished, the birds sang happily in the trees, and all
was well except that barley was wanting. On the ocean strand Wainamoinen
discovered the barley seed; and, advised by the birds how to plant it, was
soon gratified by the sight of the growing barley. His next act was to
clear the forest; but he left the slender birch for the birds to nest in,
thus winning the gratitude of the silver-voiced singers.

In the land of Kalevala, Wainamoinen passed many happy years, and the fame
of his wonderful songs of wit and wisdom spread even to the land of the
Lapps, in the dismal north, where lived Youkahainen, a young minstrel.
Against the advice of his parents, the youth, filled with jealousy,
visited Kalevala, to hold a singing contest with Wainamoinen.

He proudly displayed his wisdom to the old minstrel, who laughed at it as
"women's tales and children's wisdom," and when Youkahainen declared in
song that he was present at the creation, Wainamoinen called him the
prince of liars, and himself began to sing. As he sang, the copper-bearing
mountains, the massive rocks and ledges, trembled, the hills re-echoed,
and the very ocean heaved with rapture. The boaster stood speechless,
seeing his sledge transformed into reed grass and willows, his beautiful
steed changed to a statue, his dog to a block of stone, and he himself
fast sinking in a quicksand. Then comprehending his folly, he begged his
tormentor to free him. Each precious gift he offered for a ransom was
refused, until he named his beautiful sister Aino. Wainamoinen, happy in
the promise of Aino for a wife, freed the luckless youth from his
enchantment, and sent him home.

Aino's mother was rejoiced to hear that her daughter had been promised to
the renowned Wainamoinen; but when the beautiful girl learned that she was
tied by her brother's folly to an old man, she wandered weeping through
the fields. In vain her mother and father sought to console her; she wept
for her vanished childhood, for all her happiness and hope and pleasure
forever gone. To console her daughter, the mother told her of a store of
beautiful ornaments that she herself had worn in girlhood; they had been
given her by the daughters of the Moon and Sun,--gold, ribbons, and
jewels. Beautifully arrayed in these long-concealed ornaments, Aino
wandered through the fields for many days, bewailing her sad fate. On the
fourth day, she laid her garments on the sea shore, and swam out to the
standing rock, a little distance from the shore. No sooner had she
clambered on the rainbow-colored rock than it turned and fell to the
bottom of the sea, carrying with it the weeping maiden, chanting a
farewell to her family. The fleet and haughty hare bore the news of her
death to the household, where her unfortunate mother sat weeping, urging
other mothers never to force their daughters to wed against their choice.
The tears that rolled down her cheeks formed three streamlets, that,
growing larger, became torrents with foaming cataracts. From the cataracts
towered three pillared rocks upon which rose three hillocks, and upon each
hillock sprang a birch-tree. On the summit of each tree sat a golden bird
singing; and the first sang, for three moons, his song of "Love! O Love!"
the second called for six moons, "Suitor! Suitor!" but the third bird sang
forever his sad song of "Consolation! Consolation!"

Wainamoinen was deeply grieved when he heard of the fate of the lovely
Aino, and he at once went to angle in the deep where dwelt the mermaids,
the daughters of Wellamo.

After he had fished many days in vain, he caught a wondrous salmon, larger
and more beautiful than he had ever before caught. But as he took out his
silver knife to cut it, the fish sprang from his hand into the deep,
telling him that it was Aino who had thus come to him, and whom he had now
lost forever by his stupidity. Then indeed the song of the golden bird
seemed sad to Wainamoinen, and he was disconsolate until his mother spoke
to him from her grave: "My son, go north and seek thy wife. Take not a
silly Lapp, but choose one of the daughters of Suomi."

Quickly Wainamoinen prepared for his journey, and mounted his magic steed,
that galloped over the plains of Kalevala and crossed the waste of blue
sea-water as though it were land.

But the envious Youkahainen was informed of the journey, and had prepared
a cruel cross-bow and three poisoned arrows. In spite of the protests of
his mother, he waited for the hero and shot at him three times. The third
arrow struck Wainamoinen's horse, which sank to the bottom of the ocean,
leaving the hapless rider struggling in the water. "Seven summers must he
tread the waves," chuckled Youkahainen; "eight years ride the billows."

For six days Wainamoinen floated on the waters; then he was rescued by a
huge eagle that carried him on its back to Pohyola, the dismal Sariola,
and left him on a barren promontory, where he bemoaned his unhappy fate.
Here he was found by Louhi, the toothless dame of Pohyola, who took him
home and fed him. Then she promised to provide him with a sledge that he
might journey safely home if he would forge for her the Sampo, a magical
jewel that gave success to its possessor. If he could make her this, she
would also give him her daughter in marriage. "I cannot forge the Sampo,
but if thou wilt help me to my distant country I will send thee my brother
Ilmarinen, the blacksmith, who can forge for thee the magic Sampo, and win
thy beautiful daughter."

Louhi provided a sledge and horse, and as Wainamoinen seated himself she
warned him, as he journeyed, not to look upward before nightfall, or some
great misfortune would befall him.

The maiden of the Rainbow, beautiful daughter of Pohyola, was sitting on
the rainbow weaving, and Wainamoinen, hearing the whizzing of the loom,
forgot the warning, and, looking up, was filled with love for the maiden.

"Come to me," he cried.

"The birds have told me," she replied, "that a maiden's life, as compared
to a married woman's, is as summer to coldest winter. Wives are as dogs
enchained in kennels."

When Wainamoinen further besought her, she told him that she would
consider him a hero when he had split a golden hair with edgeless knives
and snared a bird's egg with an invisible snare. When he had done these
things without difficulty, she demanded that he should peel the sandstone,
and cut her a whipstick from the ice without making a splinter. This done,
she commanded that he should build her a boat from the fragments of her
distaff, and set it floating without the use of his knee, arm, hand, or
foot to propel it.

While Wainamoinen was engaged in this task, Hisi, the god of evil, caused
him to cut his knee with the axe. None of his charms availed to stanch the
blood, so he dragged himself to his sledge and sought the nearest village.
In the third cottage he found a graybeard, who caused two maids to dip up
some of the flowing blood, and then commanded Wainamoinen to sing the
origin of iron. The daughters of Ukko the Creator had sprinkled the
mountains with black, white, and red milk,--from this was formed iron.
Fire caught the iron and carried it to its furnace, and later Ilmarinen
worked the unwilling metal into various articles. As he sought something
to harden it, Hisi's bird, the hornet, dropped poison into the water; and
the iron dipped into it, formed the hard steel, which, angry because it
could not be broken, cut its brother, and vowed that it would ever cause
man's blood to flow in torrents.

The old man then addressed the crimson stream flowing from the wound, and
prayed to mighty Ukko to stop it.

When it ceased to flow at his prayer, he sent forth his son to gather
various charmed plants, steep them, and make a magic balsam. After many
attempts the son was successful; and the balsam, applied to Wainamoinen's
wound, healed it immediately.

Wainamoinen returned home and sought Ilmarinen, who refused to go north to
forge the Sampo. Inducing his brother to climb a lofty fir-tree to bring
down the Moon and the Bear he had conjured there, the wizard caused a
great storm-wind to arise and blow Ilmarinen to the woodlands of Pohyola.

There the blacksmith at once set up a forge, and after four days' work saw
the Sampo rising from the furnace, its many colored lid rocking and
grinding, every day, many measures of meal.

Joyfully Louhi received the magic Sampo and locked it in a secret chamber
under the copper-bearing mountains. But when Ilmarinen asked for the hand
of the Rainbow Maid, he was refused. "Never shall I, in my lifetime, say
farewell to maiden freedom." So the blacksmith was compelled to return
alone to Wainola.

While Ilmarinen was forging the Sampo and Wainamoinen was building the
magic boat, Lemminkainen, or Ahti, the reckless wizard, king of the
islands, was longing for a bride from Ehstland. In spite of his mother's
entreaties, Lemminkainen went to Ehstland, and when he found it was
impossible to gain the favor of Kylliki, the Sahri maid of beauty, he
carried her off by force in his sledge. She became reconciled to him when
he promised that he would never go to battle, and she in turn vowed that
she would not visit the village dances. They lived happily together until
Lemminkainen tarried late at the fishing one evening, and Kylliki went to
the village dance. When Lemminkainen returned, his sister told him of
Kylliki's broken vow; and in spite of the prayers of his mother and wife,
the hero declared that he would break his promise and go to war. To the
Northland he would go, and win another wife. "When my brush bleeds, then
you may know that misfortune has overtaken me," he said angrily, flinging
his hairbrush at the wall.

Through many dangers he passed unscathed by the aid of his magic, until he
stood in the halls of Louhi and asked for her daughter, the Rainbow
Maiden.

"First bring me the wild moose from the Hisi-fields and forests," said
Louhi.

From Kauppi, able smith, Lemminkainen procured the wondrous snow-shoes;
but Hisi, who heard the boasts of the hero, fashioned a wild moose that
ran so rapidly that Lemminkainen could not overtake it, but broke his
snow-shoes in the race. He besought Ukko and the mistress of the forest
and her king, and at last, with their aid, the moose was captured and led
home to Louhi.

"Now bridle the flaming horse of Hisi," said she.

The mighty stallion stood on the Hisi mountain, breathing fire and smoke.
When the hero saw him he prayed to Ukko, "Let the hail and icy rain fall
upon him." His prayer was granted; and, going forward, Lemminkainen prayed
the steed to put its head into the golden head-stall, promising to treat
it with all gentleness. Then he led it to the courts of Sariola.

"Now kill for me the swan that swims in Tuoni, the black death-river. One
shot only canst thou have. If thou succeed, then mayst thou claim thy
bride."

When Lemminkainen entered Pohyola he had slain all his opponents but one
blind shepherd, whom he spared because he despised his helplessness. This
object of his scorn was waiting for him, and when Lemminkainen approached
the river he fell by a shot from the enemy, regretting, as he died, that
he had not asked his mother's advice before attempting to reach Tuoni.

Nasshut, the shepherd, threw the hero's body into the river, where it was
seized and cut in pieces by the son of Tuoni.

At home the mother and wife awaited anxiously tidings of their hero. When
they saw blood trickling from the brush, the mother could wait no longer,
but at once set out for the dreary Northland. After repeated threats, she
wrested from Louhi the fact that her son had gone to Tuoni; from the Sun
she learned his fate.

Quickly seeking Ilmarinen, the mother bade him forge for her a mighty
rake. With this she raked the deep death-river, collected the pieces of
the hero, bound them together with the aid of the goddess Suonetar, and
making a balsam, the materials for which were brought her by the bee, she
healed her hero son, comforted him, and led him back to Kalevala.

In the mean time, Wainamoinen, who was building his boat for the Rainbow
Maid, found that he had forgotten three magic words with which to fasten
in the ledges and complete the boat's forecastle.

After examining in vain the mouths of the wild animals, he sought the dead
hero Wipunen, forced open his jaws, and accidentally fell into his mouth.
Wipunen quickly swallowed him; but Wainamoinen, setting up a forge in his
body, caused him such discomfort that the giant was glad to give his
information, and get rid of his unwelcome visitor. Having thus learned the
secrets of the ages, and among them the three magic words, Wainamoinen
hastened home and finished his boat.

The boat builded, he at once set out for the Northland to woo the Rainbow
Maid. The boat was bedecked with silver and gold, and the linen sails were
blue, white, and scarlet. The sails were merely for ornament, however, for
the boat moved over the ocean without the aid of oars or sails.
Wainamoinen's departure from Kalevala was observed by Anniki, the sister
of Ilmarinen, who at once told her brother. With her assistance, Ilmarinen
cleansed the black from his ruddy countenance, and jumping into his
sledge, was soon on the way to Sariola. The approach of the heroes was
perceived by Louhi. "Daughter," said she, "the old man brings thee a boat
full of treasures; take him. Do not wed the empty-handed youth."

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