I forgot to mention yesterday that while my evening reading is John Kessel, my lunchtime reading is The Kalevala and oh man, is it good.
I bought it a few weeks before Clarion last year and read the first dozen chapters or so before I had to plunge into the Clarion instructors’ stuff and I never quite got back to it even though I remembered liking it a great deal. I thought about picking up an Icelandic Saga but then saw the Kalevala and thought might as well go back to it.
And oh man, is it good.
It’s epic poetry so it’s not the easiest thing to sit down and read and I often have to read passages over again to get what’s going on but the rhythm of the poetry is amazing. Like most old stuff it take a bit to get into the groove but when it takes y0u over, look out.
I’m on chapter 14 where Lemminkäinen just got ambushed, killed, and cut into pieces then dumped into the river.
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FromSacred Texts Online: Northland’s old and wretched shepherd, Nasshut, the despised protector Of the flocks of Sariola, Throws the dying Lemminkainen, Throws the hero of the islands, Into Tuonela’s river, To the blackest stream of death-land, To the worst of fatal whirlpools. Lemminkainen, wild and daring, Helpless falls upon the waters, Floating down the coal-black current, Through the cataract and rapids To the tombs of Tuonela. There the blood-stained son of death-land, There Tuoni’s son and hero, Cuts in pieces Lemminkainen, Chops him with his mighty hatchet, Till the sharpened axe strikes flint-sparks From the rocks within his chamber, Chops the hero into fragments, Into five unequal portions, Throws each portion to Tuoni, In Manala’s lowest kingdom, Speaks these words when he has ended: “Swim thou there, wild Lemminkainen, Flow thou onward in this river, Hunt forever in these waters, With thy cross-bow and thine arrow, Shoot the swan within this empire, Shoot our water-birds in welcome!” Thus the hero, Lemminkainen, Thus the handsome Kaukomieli, The untiring suitor, dieth In the river of Tuoni, In the death-realm of Manala. |
…and from Magoun’s Translation that I’m reading: Then, Soppy Hat, blind cattle herder of North Farm, rushed on reckless Lemminkainn went, hurled the Kalevala descendant into Death’s dark river, into the most terrible whirlpool. Reckless Lemminkainen went, went bumping along in the rapids, like a flash downstream there to the dwellings of Death’s Domain, The blood-stained son of Death struck the man with his sword, gave him a quick blow with his short sword. Like a flash he cut the man into five pieces, into eight bits. He threw them into the river of Death’s Domain, into the backwaters of the Abode of the Dead: “Lie there forever with your crossbow, your arrows! Shoot the swans on the river, the waterfowl on the banks!” That was the end of Lemminkainen, the death of the brave suitor, in Death’s dark river, in the lower reaches below the Abode of the dead. |
Kind of interesting how much the translations differ.