Epic Kalevala read a summary. Study of the Karelian-Finnish epic "Kalevala"

The poem is based on Karelian-Finnish folk epic songs (runes), which in the 18th century. collected and edited by Elias Lönnrot.

Rune 1

Ilmatar, daughter of the air, lived in the airy spaces. But soon she became bored in the skies, and she went down to the sea. The waves swept up Ilmatar, and from the waters of the sea the daughter of the air became pregnant.

Ilmatar carried the fetus for 700 years, but childbirth did not occur. She prayed to the supreme deity of the sky, the thunderer Ukko, to help her get rid of the burden. After some time, a duck flew past, looking for a place for a nest. Ilmatar came to the duck’s aid: she offered her her big knee. The duck made a nest on the knee of the daughter of the air and laid seven eggs: six gold, the seventh iron. Ilmatar, moving her knee, dropped the eggs into the sea. The eggs broke, but did not disappear, but underwent transformation:

The mother came out - the ground was damp;
From the egg, from the top,
The high vault of heaven rose,
From the yolk, from the top,
The bright sun appeared;
From the protein, from the top,
A clear month has appeared;
From the egg, from the motley part,
The stars appeared in the sky;
From the egg, from the dark part,
Clouds appeared in the air.

And time goes by,
Year runs forward after year,
When the young sun shines,
In the brilliance of the new moon.

Ilmatar, the mother of the waters, the maiden of creation, sailed the sea for another nine years. In the tenth summer she began to change the earth: with the movement of her hand she erected capes; where she touched the bottom with her foot, there were depths, where she lay down sideways, a flat shore appeared, where she bowed her head, bays were formed. And the earth took its present appearance.

But the fruit of Ilmatar - the prophetic singer Väinämöinen - was not born. For thirty years he wandered in his mother's womb. Finally, he prayed to the sun, moon and stars to give him a way out of the womb. But the sun, month and stars did not help him. Then Väinämöinen himself began to make his way to the light:

Touched the fortress gates,
He moved his ring finger,
He opened the bone castle
Small toe of the left leg;
Crawling from the threshold in my arms,
On my knees through the entryway.
He fell into the blue sea,
He grabbed the waves with his hands.

Väinö was born as an adult and spent another eight years at sea until he finally made it to land.

Rune 2

Väinämöinen lived for many years on bare, treeless land. Then he decided to develop the region. Väinämöinen called Sampsa Pellervoinen, the sowing boy. Sampsa sowed the land with grass, bushes and trees. The earth was dressed with flowers and greenery, but only one oak tree could not sprout.

Then four maidens came ashore from the sea. They cut the grass and collected it in a large stack. Then the monster-hero Tursas (Iku-Turso) rose from the sea and set fire to the hay. Väinämöinen placed the acorn in the resulting ash and from the acorn grew a huge oak tree, blocking the sky and the sun with its crown.

Väinö thought about who could cut down this giant tree, but there was no such hero. The singer begged his mother to send him someone to fell the oak tree. And then a dwarf came out of the water, grew into a giant, and with the third swing he cut down a wonderful oak tree. Whoever picked up its branch found happiness forever, whoever lifted its tip became a sorcerer, whoever cut its leaves became cheerful and joyful. One of the wonderful oak chips floated into Pohjola. The maiden of Pohjola took it for herself so that the sorcerer could make enchanted arrows out of it.

The earth was blooming, birds were fluttering in the forest, but the barley did not sprout and the bread did not ripen. Väinämöinen approached the blue sea and found six grains at the edge of the water. He picked up the grains and sowed them near the Kalevala River. The titmouse told the singer that the grains would not sprout because the land for arable land had not been cleared. Väinämöinen cleared the land, cut down the forest, but left a birch tree in the middle of the field so that the birds could rest on it. The eagle praised Väinämöinen for his concern and, as a reward, delivered fire to the cleared area. Väinö sowed the field, offering a prayer to the earth, Ukko (as the lord of the rain), so that they would take care of the ears of corn and the harvest. Shoots appeared on the field and the barley ripened.

Rune 3

Väinämöinen lived in Kalevala, showing his wisdom to the world, and sang songs about the deeds of times past, about the origin of things. Rumor spread the news of Väinämöinen's wisdom and strength far and wide. This news was heard by Joukahainen, a resident of Pohjola. Joukahainen was jealous of Väinämöinen's fame and, despite the entreaties of his parents, went to Kalevala in order to shame the singer. On the third day of the journey, Joukahainen encountered Väinämöinen on the road and challenged him to compare the power of his songs and the depth of his knowledge. Joukahainen began to sing about what he sees and what he knows. Väinämöinen answered him:

Childish mind, woman's wisdom
Not suitable for bearded people
And it’s inappropriate for a married man.
You tell me the beginning of things
The depth of eternal deeds!

And then Youkahainen began to boast that it was he who created the sea, the earth, and the stars. In response, the sage caught him in a lie. Joukahainen challenged Väine to a fight. The singer answered him with a song that made the earth tremble, and Youkahainen plunged to his waist into the swamp. He then begged for mercy and promised a ransom: wonderful bows, fast boats, horses, gold and silver, bread from his fields. But Väinämöinen did not agree. Then Joukahainen offered to marry his sister, the beautiful Aino. Väinämöinen accepted this offer and released him. Joukahainen returned home and told his mother about what had happened. The mother was delighted that the wise Väinämöinen would become her son-in-law. And sister Aino began to cry and grieve. She was sorry to leave her native land, to leave her freedom, to marry an old man.

Rune 4

Väinämöinen met Aino in the forest and proposed to her. Aino replied that she was not going to get married, but she returned home in tears and began to beg her mother not to give her to the old man. The mother tried to persuade Aino to stop crying, put on an elegant dress and jewelry and wait for the groom. The daughter, grieving, put on a dress and jewelry and, determined to commit suicide, went to the sea. She left her clothes on the seashore and went swimming. Having reached a stone cliff, Aino wanted to rest on it, but the cliff and the girl collapsed into the sea, and she drowned. The nimble hare delivered sad news to the Aino family. The mother mourned her dead daughter day and night.

Rune 5

News of Aino's death reached Väinämöinen. In a dream, the saddened Väinämöinen saw the place in the sea where mermaids live, and learned that his bride was among them. He went there and caught a wonderful fish, unlike any other. Väinämöinen tried to cut this fish to prepare food, but the fish slipped out of the singer’s hands and told him that she was not a fish, but a maiden of the queen of the seas Vellamo and the king of the abyss Ahto, that she was Youkahainen’s sister, young Aino. She swam from the depths of the sea to become Väinämöinen’s wife, but he did not recognize her, mistook her for a fish and now lost her forever. The singer began to beg Aino to return, but the fish had already disappeared into the abyss. Väinämöinen threw a net into the sea and caught everything that was in it, but he never caught that fish. Reproaching and scolding himself, Väinämöinen returned home. His mother, Ilmatar, advised him not to worry about his lost bride, but to go for a new one, to Pohjola.

Rune 6

Väinämöinen went to the gloomy Pohjola, the foggy Sariola. But Joukahainen, harboring a grudge against Väinämöinen, envious of his talent as a singer, decided to destroy the old man. He waylaid him on the road. Seeing the wise Väinämöinen, the evil thief fired and hit the horse on the third attempt. The singer fell into the sea, and the waves and wind carried him far from the land. Joukahainen, thinking that he had killed Väinämöinen, returned home and boasted to his mother that he had killed the elder Väinö. The mother condemned her foolish son for his bad deed.

Rune 7

The singer swam on the open sea for many days, and there he was met by a mighty eagle. Väinämöinen talked about how he fell into the sea and the eagle, in gratitude for leaving a birch tree in the field for the birds to rest, offered his help. The eagle brought the singer to the shore of Pohjola. Väinämöinen could not find his way home and cried bitterly; the maid heard his cry and told Mrs. Louhi, the mistress of Pohjola, about it. Louhi found Väinämöinen, took him to her home and welcomed him as a guest. Väinämöinen missed his native Kalevala and wanted to return home.

Louhi promised to marry Väinämöinen to her daughter and take him to Kalevala, in exchange for his forging the wonderful Sampo mill. Väinämöinen said that he could not forge Sampo, but upon returning to Kalevala he would send the most skilled blacksmith in the world, Ilmarinen, who would make her the desired miracle mill.

After all, he has already forged the sky,
He bound the roof of the air,
So there are no traces of forging
And there are no traces of ticks.

The old woman insisted that only the one who binds Sampo would get her daughter. But she still gathered Väinämöinen for the journey, gave him a sleigh and told the singer not to look at the sky during the journey, otherwise an evil fate would befall him.

Rune 8

On the way home, Väinämöinen heard a strange noise, as if someone was weaving in the sky, above his head.

The old man raised his head
And then he looked up at the sky:
There is an arc in the sky,
A girl sits on an arc,
Weaves clothes of gold,
Decorates everything with silver.

Väinö invited the girl to get off the rainbow, sit in his sleigh and go to Kalevala to become his wife there. Then the girl asked the singer to cut her hair with a dull knife, tie an egg in a knot, grind a stone and cut poles out of ice, “so that the pieces would not fall off, so that a speck of dust would not fly off.” Only then will she sit in his sleigh. Väinämöinen fulfilled all her requests. But then the girl asked to plan a boat “from the fragments of a spindle and lower it into the water without pushing it with your knee.” Väinö set to work on the boat. The ax, with the participation of the evil Hiisi, jumped off and stuck into the knee of the wise old man. Blood flowed from the wound. Väinämöinen tried to conjure the blood and heal the wound. The conspiracies did not help, the bleeding did not stop - the singer could not remember the birth of iron. And Väinämöinen began to look for someone who could speak to the deep wound. In one of the villages, Väinämöinen found an old man who undertook to help the singer.

Rune 9

The old man said that he knew the cure for such wounds, but did not remember the beginning of iron, its birth. But Väinämöinen himself remembered this story and told it:

Air is the mother of everything in the world,
The elder brother is called water,
The younger brother of water is iron,
The middle brother is a hot fire.
Ukko, that supreme creator,
Elder Ukko, god of heaven,
Separated the water from the sky,
He divided the water with the land;
Only iron was not born,
It was not born, it did not rise...

Then Ukko rubbed his hands, and three maidens appeared on his left knee. They walked across the sky, milk flowing from their chests. From the black milk of the eldest girl came soft iron, from the white middle one - steel, from the red milk of the youngest - weak iron (cast iron). Born iron wanted to see its older brother - fire. But the fire wanted to burn the iron. Then it ran away in fright into the swamps and hid under water.

Meanwhile, the blacksmith Ilmarinen was born. He was born at night, and during the day he already built a forge. The blacksmith was attracted by traces of iron on animal trails, and he wanted to put it on the fire. Iron was afraid, but Ilmarinen calmed him down, promised a miraculous transformation into various things and threw him into the crucible. The iron asked to be taken out of the fire. The blacksmith replied that then the iron could become merciless and attack a person. Iron swore a terrible oath that it would never encroach on a person. Ilmarinen pulled iron from the fire and forged various things from it.

To make the iron strong, the blacksmith prepared a composition for hardening and asked the bee to bring honey to add it to the composition. The hornet heard his request and flew to his owner, the evil Hiisi. Hiisi gave the hornet poison, which he brought to Ilmarinen instead of the bee. The blacksmith, not knowing treason, added poison to the composition and tempered the iron in it. Iron came out of the fire evil, cast aside all oaths and attacked people.

The old man, having heard Väinämöinen's story, said that he now knew the beginning of iron, and began to spell the wound. Calling on Ukko for help, he prepared a wonderful ointment and cured Väinämöinen.

Rune 10

Väinämöinen returned home, on the border of Kalevala he cursed Joukahainen, because of whom he ended up in Pohjola and was forced to promise the blacksmith Ilmarinen to the old woman Louhi. On the way, he created a wonderful pine tree with a constellation at the top. At home, the singer began to persuade Ilmarinen to go to Pohjola for a beautiful wife, who would go to the one who forged the Sampo. The forge asked if this was why he was persuading him to go to Pohjola in order to save himself, and he categorically refused to go. Then Väinämöinen told Ilmarinen about the wonderful pine tree in the clearing and suggested that they go and look at this pine tree and remove the constellation from the top. The blacksmith innocently climbed the tree, and Väinämöinen, with the power of song, summoned the wind and carried Ilmarinen to Pohjola.

Louhi met the blacksmith, introduced her to her daughter and asked him to forge Sampo. Ilmarinen agreed and got to work. Ilmarinen worked for four days, but other things came out of the fire: a bow, a shuttle, a cow, a plow. They all had a “bad quality”, they were all “evil”, so Ilmarinen broke them and threw them back into the fire. Only on the seventh day did the wonderful Sampo emerge from the flame of the forge, and the motley lid began to spin.

The old woman Louhi was delighted, took Sampo to the Pohjola mountain and buried him there. A wonderful mill took down three deep roots in the ground. Ilmarinen asked to give him the beautiful Pohjola, but the girl refused to marry the blacksmith. The sad blacksmith returned home and told Väinö that Sampo had been forged.

Rune 11

Lemminkäinen, the cheerful hunter, the hero of Kalevala, is good to everyone, but has one drawback - he is very susceptible to female charms. Lemminkäinen heard about a beautiful girl who lived in Saari. The obstinate girl did not want to marry anyone. The hunter decided to get her. The mother tried to dissuade her son from a rash act, but he did not listen and went on his way.

At first, the Saari girls mocked the poor hunter. But over time, Lemminkäinen conquered all the maidens of Saari, except for one - Kyllikki - the one for whom he set off. Then the hunter kidnapped Kyllikki to take her as a wife to his poor house. While taking the girl away, the hero threatened: if the Saari girls tell who took Kyllikki away, he will start a war and destroy all their husbands and boyfriends. Kyllikki initially resisted, but then agreed to become Lemminkäinen’s wife and took an oath from him that he would never go to war in her native land. Lemminkäinen swore and took a reciprocal oath from Kyllikki that she would never go to her village and dance with the girls.

Rune 12

Lemminkäinen lived happily with his wife. One day a cheerful hunter went fishing and stayed late, and meanwhile, without waiting for her husband, Kyllikki went to the village to dance with the girls. Lemminkäinen's sister told her brother about his wife's actions. Lemminkäinen got angry and decided to leave Kyllikki and go to woo the Pohjola girl. The mother frightened the brave hunter with the sorcerers of the gloomy land, saying that his death awaited him there. But Lemminkäinen confidently replied that the sorcerers of Pohjola were not afraid of him. Having combed his hair with a brush, he threw it on the floor with the words:

“Only then is evil misfortune
Lemminkäinen will suffer,
If blood splashes from the brush,
If the red one flows.”

Lemminkäinen set out on a journey, in the clearing he offered a prayer to Ukko, Ilmatar and the gods of the forest so that they would help him on a dangerous journey.

The hunter was greeted unkindly in Pohjola. In the village of Louhi, a hunter entered a house full of sorcerers and magicians. With his songs he cursed all the husbands of Pohjola, depriving them of their strength and magical gift. He cursed everyone except the lame old shepherd. When the shepherd asked the hero why he spared him, Lemminkäinen replied that he spared him only because the old man was already pitiful, without any spells. The evil shepherd did not forgive Lemminkäinen for this and decided to lie in wait for the hunter near the waters of the gloomy Tuonela River - the river of the underworld, the river of the dead.

Rune 13

Lemminkäinen asked the old woman Louhi to marry him his beautiful daughter. In response to the old woman’s reproach that he already had a wife, Lemminkäinen declared that he would drive Kyllikki away. Louhi set the condition for the hunter that she would give up her daughter if the hero caught Hiisi’s elk. The cheerful hunter said that he could easily catch the elk, but it was not so easy to find and catch him.

Rune 14

Lemminkäinen asked Ukko to help him catch a moose. He also summoned the forest king Tapio, his son Nyurikki and the forest queen Mielikki. The spirits of the forest helped the hunter catch the elk. Lemminkäinen brought the moose to the old woman Louhi, but she set a new condition: the hero must bring her the stallion Hiisi. Lemminkäinen again asked for help from Ukko the Thunderer. Ukko drove the stallion towards the hunter with an iron hail. But the mistress of Pohjola set a third condition: to shoot the swan of Tuonela - a river in the underground kingdom of the dead. The hero went down to Manala, where a treacherous shepherd was already waiting for him by the gloomy river. The evil old man snatched a snake from the waters of the gloomy river and pierced Lemminkäinen as if with a spear. The hunter, poisoned by the snake's venom, dies. And the poisoner cut the body of poor Lemminkäinen into five pieces and threw them into the waters of Tuonela.

Rune 15

At Lemminkäinen's home, blood began to ooze from a brush he had left behind. The mother realized that an accident had happened to her son. She went to Pohjola for news about him. The old woman Louhi, after persistent questioning and threats, admitted that Lemminkäinen went to Tuonela for the swan. Having gone in search of her son, the poor mother asked the oak tree, the road, the month where the cheerful Lemminkäinen had disappeared, but they did not want to help. Only the sun showed her the place of her son’s death. The unfortunate old woman turned to Ilmarinen with a request to forge a huge rake. The sun put all the warriors of the gloomy Tuonela to sleep, and meanwhile Lemminkäinen’s mother began to look for the body of her beloved son with a rake in the black waters of Manala. With incredible efforts, she caught the remains of the hero, combined them and turned to the bee with a request to bring some honey from the divine palaces. She smeared the hunter's body with this honey. The hero came to life and told his mother how he was killed. The mother persuaded Lemminkäinen to give up the thought of Louhi’s daughter and took him home to Kalevala.

Rune 16

Väinämöinen decided to make a boat and sent Sampsa Pellervoinen to fetch wood. Aspen and pine were not suitable for construction, but the mighty oak, nine fathoms in girth, was quite suitable. Väinämöinen “builds a boat with a spell, he knocks down a shuttle with stumps from pieces of a large oak tree.” But three words were not enough for him to launch the boat. The wise singer went in search of these cherished words, but could not find them anywhere. In search of these words, he descended into the kingdom of Manala

There the singer saw the daughter of Mana (the god of the kingdom of the dead), who was sitting on the bank of the river. Väinämöinen asked to give him a boat to cross to the other side and enter the kingdom of the dead. Mana's daughter asked why he descended into their kingdom alive and unharmed.

Väinämöinen evaded answering for a long time, but in the end he admitted that he was looking for the magic words for the boat. The daughter of Mana warned the singer that few were returning from their land, and transported him to the other side. There he was met by the hostess of Tuonela and brought him a mug of dead beer. Väinämöinen refused beer and asked to reveal the treasured three words to him. The hostess said that she did not know them, but still Väinämöinen would never be able to leave the kingdom of Mana again. She plunged the hero into a deep sleep. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of gloomy Tuonela have prepared barriers that should hold back the singer. However, the wise Väinö bypassed all the traps set and rose to the upper world. The singer turned to God with a request not to allow anyone to arbitrarily descend into the gloomy Manala and told how hard it is for evil people to live in the kingdom of the dead, what punishments await them.

Rune 17

Väinämöinen went to the giant Vipunen for magic words. He found Vipunen buried in the ground, covered with forest. Väinämöinen tried to wake up the giant and open his huge mouth, but Vipunen accidentally swallowed the hero. The singer built a forge in the giant’s womb and woke Vipunen with the thunder of his hammer and heat. Tormented by pain, the giant ordered the hero to get out of the womb, but Väinämöinen refused to leave the giant’s body and promised to hammer harder:

If I don't hear the words,
I don't recognize the spells
I don't remember any good ones here.
Words should not be hidden
Parables should not be hidden
Shouldn't bury themselves in the ground
And after the death of sorcerers.

Vipunen sang a song “about the origin of things.” Väinämöinen climbed out of the belly of the giant and completed his boat.

Rune 18

Väinämöinen decided to go to Pohjola on a new boat and marry Louhi’s daughter. Ilmarinen’s sister, Annikki, went out to do laundry in the morning, saw the singer’s boat moored to the shore and asked the hero where he was going. Väinämöinen admitted that he was going to gloomy Pohjola, foggy Sariola to marry the beauty of the North. Annikki ran home and told everything to her brother, the blacksmith Ilmarinen. The blacksmith became sad and began to get ready for the journey so as not to miss his bride.

So they rode: Väinämöinen by sea on a wonderful boat, Ilmarinen by land on horseback. After some time, the blacksmith caught up with Väinämöinen, and they agreed not to force the beauty into marriage. Let the one whom she chooses as her husband be happy. Let the less fortunate one not be angry. The grooms drove up to Loukha's house. Sariola's mistress advised her daughter to choose Väinämöinen, but she liked the young blacksmith better. Väinämöinen went to Louha's house, and the beautiful Pohjola woman refused him.

Rune 19

Ilmarinen asked Louhi about his fiancee. Louhi replied that she would marry her daughter to the blacksmith if he plowed Hiisi’s snake field. Loukha's daughter gave advice to the blacksmith on how to plow this field, and the blacksmith coped with this task. The evil old woman set a new condition: to catch a bear in Tuonela, to catch the gray wolf of Manala. The bride again gave the blacksmith advice, and he caught the bear and the wolf. But the mistress of Pohjola became stubborn again: the wedding will take place after the blacksmith catches a pike in the waters of Manala. The bride advised the blacksmith to forge an eagle, which would catch the fish. Ilmarinen did so, but on the way back the iron eagle ate the pike, leaving only the head. Ilmarinen brought this head as evidence to the mistress of Pohjola. Loukhi resigned herself and gave her daughter as a wife to the blacksmith. And the saddened Väinämöinen went home, ordering the old suitors never to compete with the young ones in the future.

Rune 20

A wedding feast is being prepared in Pohjola. In order to prepare the treat, you need to roast a whole bull. They brought in a bull: the horns were 100 fathoms, the squirrel had been jumping from head to tail for a whole month, and there was no hero who could slaughter it. But then a hero with an iron fist rose from the waters of the sea and killed a huge bull with one blow.

Old woman Loukhi did not know how to brew beer for the wedding. The old man on the stove told Louhi about the birth of hops, barley, and the first creation of beer by Osmotar, the daughter of Kaleva. Having learned how beer is brewed, the owner of Sariola began preparing it. The forests thinned out: they cut firewood for cooking, the springs dried up: they collected water for beer, and the smoke filled half of Pohjola.

Louhi sent messengers to invite everyone to a magnificent wedding, everyone except Lemminkäinen. If Lemminkäinen comes, he will start a fight at the feast and make old men and women laugh.

Rune 21

Louhi greeted the guests. She ordered the slave to better receive his son-in-law and give him special honors. The guests sat down at the table, began to eat, and drink foamy beer. Old Väinämöinen raised his mug and asked the guests if anyone would sing a song “so that our day will be merry, so that the evening will be glorified?” But no one dared to sing in the presence of the wise Väinämöinen, so he himself began to sing, glorifying the young, wishing them a happy life.

Rune 22

The bride is getting ready to leave. They sang songs to her about her maiden life and about the hard life of a wife in someone else's house. The bride began to cry bitterly, but they consoled her.

Rune 23

The bride is taught and given advice on how she should live her married life. The old beggar woman told about her life, how she was a girl, how she was married and how she left her evil husband.

Rune 24

The groom is given instructions on how he should treat the bride, and is not told to treat her badly. A poor old man told how he once brought his wife to reason.

The bride said goodbye to everyone. Ilmarinen put the bride in the sleigh, set off and arrived home on the third day in the evening.

Rune 25

At home, Ilmarinen and his wife were met by the mother of the blacksmith Locke, spoke kindly to her daughter-in-law, and praised her in every possible way. The newlyweds and guests were seated at the table and treated to plenty. Väinämöinen in his drinking song glorified his native land, its men and women, master and hostess, matchmaker and bridesmaid, and guests. After the wedding feast, the singer went home. On the way, his sleigh broke down, and the hero asked the local residents if there was someone brave enough to go down to Tuonela for a gimlet to repair his sleigh. He was told that there was no such thing. Väinämöinen had to go down to Tuonela himself, after which he repaired the sleigh and got home safely.

Rune 26

Meanwhile, Lemminkäinen learned that a wedding was being celebrated in Pohjola, and decided to go there to avenge the insult. His mother dissuaded him from such a risky undertaking, but the hunter remained adamant. Then the mother spoke about the dangers that awaited Lemminkäinen on the way to Pohjola, reproaching that her son had forgotten early on how he had already died once in that land of sorcerers. Lemminkäinen did not listen and went on his way.

On the road, Lemminkäinen met his first death - a fiery eagle. The hunter saved himself by conjuring a flock of hazel grouse. Then the hero encountered his second death - an abyss filled with red-hot blocks. The hunter turned to the supreme god Ukko, and he sent snowfall. Lemminkäinen used his magic to build an ice bridge across the abyss. Then Lemminkäinen met the third death - a ferocious bear and a wolf, on whom he released a flock of sheep with the help of magic. At the very gates of Pohjola, the hunter met a huge snake. The hero bewitched her, uttering magic words and remembering the first birth of the snake from the saliva of Suetar (an evil water creature) through the witchcraft of Hiisi, and the snake cleared the way for the hunter to Pohjola.

Rune 27

Having passed all the dangers, the cheerful Lemminkäinen arrived in Pohjola, where he was greeted unkindly. The angry hero began to scold the owner and hostess for secretly celebrating their daughter’s wedding and now greeting him with such hostility. The owner of Pohjola challenged Lemminkäinen to compete in witchcraft and sorcery. The hunter won the competition, then the prisoner challenged him to a sword fight. Lemminkäinen won here too; he killed the owner of Pohjola and cut off his head. Enraged, Louhi summoned armed warriors to avenge the death of her husband.

Rune 28

Lemminkäinen hastily left Pohjola and flew home in the guise of an eagle. At home, he told his mother about what happened in Sariol, that the Louhi warriors were going to war against him, and asked where he could hide and wait out the invasion. The mother reproached the violent hunter for going to Pohjola and bringing such danger upon himself, and suggested that he go for three years to a small island beyond the seas, where his father had previously lived during the wars. But first she took a terrible oath from the hunter not to fight for ten years. Lemminkäinen swore.

Rune 29

Lemminkäinen went to a small island. Local residents greeted him. The hunter charmed the local girls with his magic, seduced them and lived happily on the island for three years. The men of the island, angry at the frivolous behavior of the hunter, decided to kill him. Lemminkäinen found out about the plot and ran away from the island, which the girls and women bitterly regretted.

A strong storm at sea wrecked the hunter's boat, and he was forced to swim to the shore. On the shore, Lemminkäinen got a new boat and sailed on it to his native shores. But there he saw that his house was burned, the area was deserted and there was no one from his family. Here Lemminkäinen began to cry, began to reproach and scold himself for going to Pohjola, incurring the wrath of the Pohjola people, and now his entire family was killed, and his beloved mother was killed. Then the hero noticed a path leading into the forest. Having walked along it, the hunter found a hut, and in it his old mother. The mother spoke about how the people of Pohjola destroyed their home. The hunter promised to build a new house, even better than the previous one, and to take revenge on Pohjola for all the troubles, and talked about how he lived all these years on a distant island.

Rune 30

Lemminkäinen could not come to terms with the fact that he had taken an oath not to fight for ten years. He again did not listen to his mother’s entreaties, again got ready for war with Pohjola and invited his faithful friend Tiera with him on the campaign. Together they went on a campaign against the people of Sariola. The mistress of Pohjola sent a terrible frost on them, which froze Lemminkäinen's boat in the sea. However, the hunter drove away the frost with spells.

Lemminkäinen and his friend Tiera left the shuttle in the ice, and they themselves reached the shore on foot, where, saddened and depressed, they wandered through remote places until they finally returned home.

Rune 31

There lived two brothers: Untamo, the younger, and Kalervo, the eldest. Untamo did not like his brother and plotted all sorts of intrigues against him. Enmity arose between the brothers. Untamo gathered warriors and killed Kalervo and his entire family, except for one pregnant woman, whom Untamo took with him as a slave. The woman gave birth to a child, who is named Kullervo. Even in the cradle, the child promised to become a hero. Growing up, Kullervo began to think about revenge.

Untamo, concerned about this, decided to get rid of the child. Kullervo was put in a barrel and thrown into the water, but the boy did not drown. He was found sitting on a barrel, fishing in the sea. Then they decided to throw the child into the fire, but the boy did not burn. They decided to hang Kullervo on an oak tree, but on the third day he was found sitting on a branch and drawing warriors on the bark of the tree. Untamo resigned himself and left the boy as his slave. When Kullervo grew up, they began to give him work: babysitting a child, cutting down forest, weaving wattle fence, threshing rye. But Kullervo is good for nothing, he ruined all the work: he tortured the child, chopped up good timber, wove the fence up to the sky without an entrance or exit, and turned the grains into dust. Then Untamo decided to sell the worthless slave to the blacksmith Ilmarinen:

The blacksmith gave a high price:
He gave away two old boilers,
Three rusty iron hooks,
He gave scythes to unsuitable heels,
Six hoes bad, unnecessary
For the worthless boy
For a very bad slave.

Rune 32

Ilmarinen's wife, the daughter of the old woman Louhi, appointed Kullervo as a shepherd. And out of laughter and insult, the young housewife prepared bread for the shepherd: the top was wheat, the bottom was oatmeal, and baked a stone in the middle. She handed Kullervo this bread and told the shepherd not to eat it before he drove the flock into the forest. The mistress released the herd, cast a spell on it against misfortunes, calling Ukko, Mielikki (the queen of the forest), Tellervo (the daughter of the king of the forest) as assistants and begging them to protect the herd; asked Otso - the bear, the beauty with the honey paw - not to touch the herd, to avoid it.

Rune 33

Kullervo tended the herd. During the day, the shepherd sat down to rest and eat. He took out the bread baked by the young housewife and began cutting it with a knife:

And the knife hit the stone
The blade hits the hard pebble;
The blade of the knife fell apart,
The blade fell into pieces.

Kullervo was upset: he got this knife from his father, this is the only memory of his family, cut out by Untamo. Furious, Kullervo decided to take revenge on the hostess, Ilmarinen’s wife, for the ridicule. The shepherd drove the flock into the swamp and the wild animals devoured all the cattle. Kullervo turned the bears into cows and the wolves into calves and, under the guise of a herd, drove them home. On the way, he ordered them to tear the mistress into pieces: “She will only look at you, she will only bend over to milk!” The young housewife, seeing the herd, asked Ilmarinen’s mother to go and milk the cows, but Kullervo, reproaching her, said that a good housewife milks the cows herself. Then Ilmarinen's wife went to the barn, and the bears and wolves tore her to shreds.

Rune 34

Kullervo ran away from the blacksmith's house and decided to take revenge on Untamo for all the insults, for the persecution of the Kalervo family. But in the forest the shepherd met an old woman who told him that Kalervo, his father, was actually alive. She suggested how to find him. Kullervo went in search and found his family on the border of Lapland. The mother met her son with tears and said that she considered him missing, like her eldest daughter, who had gone off to pick berries and never returned.

Rune 35

Kullervo remained to live in his parents' house. But even there there was no use for his heroic strength. Everything the shepherd did turned out to be useless and spoiled. And then the upset father sent Kullervo to the city to pay the tax. On the way back, Kullervo met a girl, lured her into his sleigh with gifts and seduced her. It turned out that this girl is the same missing sister of Kullervo. In despair, the girl threw herself into the river. And Kullervo went home in grief, told his mother about what had happened and decided to commit suicide. His mother forbade him to part with his life and began to persuade him to leave, find a quiet corner and quietly live out his life there. Kullervo did not agree, he was going to take revenge on Untamo for everything.

Rune 36

The mother dissuaded her son from committing a rash act. Kullervo was adamant, especially since all his relatives cursed him. One mother was not indifferent to what would happen to her son. While Kullervo was fighting, news of the death of his father, brother and sister reached him, but he did not cry for them. Only when the news of his mother's death came did the shepherd cry. Arriving at the Untamo clan, Kullervo destroyed both women and men and destroyed their homes. Returning to his land, Kullervo did not find any of his relatives, everyone had died and the house stood empty. Then the unfortunate shepherd went into the forest and lost his life, throwing himself on the sword.

Rune 37

At this time, the blacksmith Ilmarinen mourned his dead mistress and decided to forge himself a new wife. With great difficulty he forged a maiden from gold and silver:

He forged without sleeping at night,
During the day he forged without stopping.
He made her legs and arms,
But my leg can't walk
And the hand does not hug.
He forges the girl's ears,
But they can't hear.
He made his lips skillfully
And her eyes are as if alive,
But my lips remained without words
And eyes without sparkle of feeling.

When the blacksmith went to bed with his new wife, the side with which he was in contact with the statue became completely frozen. Convinced of the unsuitability of the golden wife, Ilmarinen offered her as his wife to Väinämöinen. The singer refused and advised the blacksmith to throw the precious maiden into the fire and forge many necessary things from gold and silver, or take her to other countries and give her to gold-hungry suitors. Väinämöinen forbade future generations from bowing before gold.

Rune 38

Ilmarinen went to Pohjola to marry the sister of his former wife, but in response to his proposal he heard only abuse and reproaches. An angry blacksmith kidnapped the girl. On the way, the girl treated the blacksmith with disdain and humiliated him in every possible way. The enraged Ilmarinen turned the evil maiden into a seagull.

The sad blacksmith returned home with nothing. In response to questions, Väinämöinen told how he was driven out of Pohjola, and how the region of Sariola was prosperous, because there was the magic Sampo mill there.

Rune 39

Väinämöinen suggested that Ilmarinen go to Pohjola and take the Sampo mill from the owner of Sariola. The blacksmith replied that Sampo was very difficult to get, the evil Louhi hid it in a rock, and the miracle mill was held up by three roots rooted in the ground. But the forge agreed to go to Pohjola, he forged a wonderful fire blade for Väinämöinen. While getting ready for the journey, Väinämöinen heard crying. It was a boat crying, missing its exploits. Väinämöinen promised the boat to take her on a journey. Using spells, the singer lowered the boat into the water, Väinämöinen himself, Ilmarinen, and their squad got into it and sailed to Sariola. Driving past the home of the cheerful hunter Lemminkäinen, the heroes took him with them and together went to save Sampo from the hands of the evil Louha.

Rune 40

The boat with the heroes sailed to a lonely cape. Lemminkäinen cursed the river flows so that they would not break the boat or harm the soldiers. He turned to Ukko, Kiwi-Kimmo (the deity of underwater rocks), the son of Kammo (the deity of horror), Melatar (the goddess of stormy currents), with a request not to harm their canoe. Suddenly the boat of the heroes stopped; no amount of effort could move it. It turned out that the canoe was being held by a huge pike. Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen and the squad caught a wonderful pike and moved on. On the way, the fish was boiled and eaten. From fish bones, Väinämöinen made himself a kantele, a musical instrument of the gusli type. But there was no real skill on earth to play the kantele.

Rune 41

Väinämöinen began playing the kantele. The daughters of creation, the maidens of the air, the daughter of the Moon and the Sun, Ahto, the mistress of the sea, gathered to listen to his wonderful play. Tears appeared in the eyes of those listening and Väinämöinen himself, his tears fell into the sea and turned into blue pearls of fabulous beauty.

Rune 42

The heroes arrived in Pohjola. Old woman Loukhi asked why the heroes came to this region. The heroes replied that they had come for Sampo. They offered to share the miracle mill. Louhi refused. Then Väinämöinen warned that if the people of Kalevala did not get half, they would take everything by force. The Mistress of Pohjola summoned all her warriors against the heroes of Kalevala. But the prophetic singer took the kantele, began to play it, and with his playing enchanted the people of Pohjöl and put them to sleep.

The heroes went in search of the mill and found it in the rock behind iron doors with nine locks and ten bolts. Väinämöinen opened the gate with spells. Ilmarinen lubricated the hinges with oil to prevent the gate from squeaking. However, even the boaster Lemminkäinen was unable to lift Sampo. Only with the help of a bull were the Kalevala residents able to plow up the roots of the Sampo and transport it to the ship.

The heroes decided to transport the mill to a distant island “unharmed and calm and not visited by the sword.” On the way home, Lemminkäinen wanted to sing to pass the time. Väinämöinen warned him that now was not the time to sing. Lemminkäinen, not listening to wise advice, began to sing in a bad voice, and with loud sounds woke up the crane. The crane, frightened by the terrible singing, flew to the North and woke up the inhabitants of Pohjola.

Having discovered that Sampo was missing, the old woman Louhi became terribly angry. She guessed who stole her treasure and where it was being taken. She asked Udutar (the maiden of the fog) to send fog and darkness to the kidnappers, the monster Iku-Turso - to drown the Kalevals in the sea, return Sampo to Pohjola, she asked Ukko to raise a storm to delay their boat until she herself caught up with them and took hers jewel. Väinämöinen magically got rid of the fog, using spells from Iku-Turso, but a storm broke out and took away the wonderful kantele made of pike bones. Väinämöinen grieved over his loss.

Rune 43

The evil Louhi sent Pohjola's warriors in pursuit of Sampo's kidnappers. When the Hojöl ship overtook the fugitives, Väinämöinen took a piece of flint from the bag and, with spells, threw it into the water, where it turned into a rock. Pohjola's boat crashed, but Louhi turned into a terrible bird:

Brings old braids of heels,
Six hoes, long unnecessary:
They serve her like fingers,
They are squeezed like a handful of claws,
Instantly half the boat was picked up:
Tied under the knees;
And the sides to the shoulders are like wings,
She gave herself a rudder like a tail;
A hundred men sat on wings,
A thousand sat on the tail,
A hundred swordsmen sat down,
A thousand brave shooters.
Louhi spread her wings,
She rose into the air like an eagle.
Flapping its wings in the air
Following Väinämöinen:
Strikes the cloud with one wing,
Another is being dragged through the water.

The mother of water, Ilmatar, warned Väinämöinen about the approach of a monstrous bird. When Loukhi overtook the Kalevala boat, the wise singer again suggested that the sorceress divide Sampo fairly. The mistress of Pohjola again refused, grabbed the mill with her claws and tried to pull it off the boat. The heroes attacked Louhi, trying to interfere. However, with one finger, Louhi the bird still clung to the wonderful mill, but could not hold it, dropped it into the sea and broke it.

Large fragments of the mill sank into the sea, and that is why there is so much wealth in the sea that will not be lost forever. Small fragments were washed ashore by the current and waves. Väinämöinen collected these fragments and planted them in the Kalevala land so that the region would be rich.

And the evil mistress of Pohjola, who received only the motley lid from the miracle mill (which is why poverty set in in Sariola), began to threaten in revenge to steal the sun and the month, hide them in the rock, freeze all the seedlings with frost, destroy the crops with hail, send the bear out of the forest to the herds of Kalevala, to bring pestilence on the people. However, Väinämöinen replied that with the help of Ukko, he would ward off her evil spell from his land.

Rune 44

Väinämöinen went to sea to look for a kantele made of pike bones, but despite all his efforts he did not find it. Sad Väinö returned home and heard a birch tree crying in the forest. The birch tree complained about how hard life was for her: in the spring they cut its bark to collect sap, girls knit brooms from its branches, the shepherd weaves boxes and sheaths from its bark. Väinämöinen consoled the birch tree and made a kantele out of it, better than before. The singer made the nails and pegs for the kantele from the singing of a cuckoo, and the strings from the delicate hair of a girl. When the kantele was ready, Väinö began to play, and the whole world listened to his play with admiration.

Rune 45

Louhi, who heard rumors about the prosperity of Kalevala, became jealous of her prosperity and decided to send a pestilence to the people of Kalevala. At this time, the pregnant Lovyatar (goddess, mother of diseases) came to Louhi. Louhi accepted Lovyatar and helped give birth. Lovyatar had 9 sons - all illnesses and misfortunes. The old woman Louhi sent them against the people of Kaleva. However, Väinämöinen, with spells and ointments, saved his people from illness and death.

Rune 46

The old woman Loukhi learned that in Kalevala they were cured of the diseases she had caused. Then she decided to set the bear on Kaleva's herds. Väinämöinen asked the blacksmith Ilmarinen to forge a spear and went on a bear hunt - Otso, the apple of the forest, beauty with a honey paw.

Väinämöinen sang a song in which he asked the bear to hide his claws and not threaten him, convinced the bear that he did not kill him - the bear himself fell from the tree and tore his clothes-skin and turned to the beast, as if inviting him to visit.

A feast was held in the village on the occasion of a successful hunt, and Väinö told how the gods and goddesses of the forest helped him in the bear hunt.

Rune 47

Väinämöinen played the kantele. The sun and the moon, hearing the wonderful play, descended lower. The old woman Louhi grabbed them, hid them in a rock and stole fire from the hearths of Kaleva. A cold, hopeless night fell on Kalevala. Even in the sky, in Ukko’s dwelling, darkness fell. People became sad, Ukko became worried, left his house, but did not find either the sun or the moon. Then the Thunderer struck a spark, hid it in a bag, and the bag in a box and gave this box to the airy maiden, “so that a new month will grow, a new sun will appear.” The virgin began to cradle the heavenly fire in the cradle and nurse it in her arms. Suddenly the fire fell from the nanny’s hands, flew across nine heavens and fell to the ground.

Väinämöinen, seeing the spark fall, said to the blacksmith Ilmarinen: “Let's see what kind of fire fell to the ground!”, and the heroes went in search of heavenly fire. On the way they met Ilmatar, and she said that on earth the heavenly fire, the spark of Ukko, burns everything in its path. She burned Turi's house, burned fields, swamps, and then fell into Lake Alue. But even in the lake the heavenly fire did not go out. The lake boiled for a long time, and the lake fish began to think about how they could get rid of the evil fire. Then the whitefish absorbed Ukko's spark. The lake calmed down, but the whitefish began to suffer from pain. The pied bird took pity on the whitefish and swallowed it along with the spark, and also began to suffer from an unbearable burning sensation. The gray pike swallowed the mottled pike, and it, too, began to feel the heat. Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen came to the shore of Lake Alue and cast their nets to catch a gray pike. The women of Kalevala helped them, but there is no gray pike in the nets. The second time they cast the nets, now men helped them, but again there was no gray pike in the nets.

Rune 48

Väinämöinen wove a giant net from flax. Together with Ilmarinen, with the help of Vellamo (the queen of the sea) and Ahto (the king of the sea), who sent a sea hero, they finally catch a gray pike. The son of the sun, helping the heroes, cut the pike and took out a spark from it. But a spark slipped from the hand of the son of the Sun, scorched Väinämöinen’s beard, burned the hands and cheeks of the blacksmith Ilmarinen, ran through forests and fields, and burned half of Pohjola. However, the singer caught the fire, enchanted it and brought it to the dwellings of Kaleva. Ilmarinen suffered from magic fire burns, but, knowing the spells against burns, he was cured.

Rune 49

There was already fire in the dwellings of Kaleva, but there was no sun and no month in the sky. Residents asked Ilmarinen to forge new luminaries. Ilmarinen set to work, but the wise singer tells him that:

You have worked in vain!
There will be no gold for a month,
Silver will not be the sun!

Despite this, Ilmarinen continued his work, he raised the new sun and moon to tall spruce trees. But the precious lights did not shine. Then Väinämöinen began to find out where the real sun and moon had gone, and learned that the old woman Louhi had stolen them. Väinö went to Pohjola, where its inhabitants greeted him with disrespect. The singer entered into battle with the men of Sariola and won. He wanted to see the heavenly bodies, but the heavy doors of the dungeon did not give in. Väinö returned home and asked the blacksmith Ilmarinen to forge a weapon that could be used to open the rock. Ilmarinen set to work.

Meanwhile, the mistress of Pohjola, turning into a hawk, flew to Kaleva, to Ilmarinen’s house, and learned that the heroes were preparing for war, that an evil fate awaited her. In fear, she returned to Sariola and released the sun and the moon from prison. Then, in the form of a dove, she told the blacksmith that the lights were back in their places. The blacksmith, rejoicing, showed Väinämöinen the stars. Väinämöinen greeted them and wished them to always decorate the sky and bring happiness to people.

Rune 50

The girl Maryatta, the daughter of one of Kalevala’s husbands, became pregnant from eating lingonberries. Her mother and father kicked her out of the house. Maryatta's maid went to the evil man Ruotus, asking him to shelter the poor thing. Ruotus and his evil wife put Maryatta in a stable. In that stable Maryatta gave birth to a son. Suddenly the boy disappeared. The poor mother went in search of her son. She asked the star and the month about her son, but they did not answer her. Then she turned to the Sun, and the Sun said that her son was stuck in a swamp. Maryatta saved her son and brought him home.

The villagers wanted to baptize the boy and called Elder Virokannas. Väinämöinen also came. The singer proposed to kill the child born from the berry. The child began to reproach the elder for the unjust sentence, and recalled his own sins (the death of Aino). Virokannas christened the baby the King of Karjala. Angry, Väinämöinen created a copper boat for himself with a magic song and sailed forever from Kalevala “to where earth and sky come together.”

One of the most famous monuments of the past is the Karelian-Finnish poetic epic " Kalevala" The epic itself was written by the Finnish linguist Elias Lönnrot (1802-1884). He based his work on Karelian folk songs. Elias Lönnrot collected epic songs and plotted them into one whole, resulting in a full-fledged work in which there is a certain plot and main characters. Despite the fact that the poetic epic is a selection, substitution and adaptation of folk songs, the Kalevala is considered an important source of information about the pre-Christian beliefs and worldview of peoples such as the Finns and Karelians.

The treatment of folk songs was carried out by the author of Kalevala twice. The first edition was published in 1835, and the second in 1849. The translation into Russian was first carried out by Leonid Petrovich Belsky, a translator, literary critic, and poet. Despite the fact that the Kalevala was subsequently translated by other translators, it is under Belsky’s translation that the Kalevala is known to most Russian-speaking readers. For the first time in Russian, the Karelian-Finnish epic was published in 1888 in the magazine “Pantheon of Literature”.

The material for composing the poem was a collection of folk songs of Karelian and Finnish peasants, which were collected by Lönnrot himself and his predecessors. The epic tells about a certain country Kalevala. The name “Kalevala” comes from the name of the ancestor of the heroes - Kaleva. In Karelian-Finnish myths, the children of Kaleva are the legendary heroes - Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen and Lemminkäinen. It is these heroes who become the main characters of Kalevala. The Kalevala describes the moment of the creation of heaven and earth, as well as the various adventures of mythological heroes. Researchers who have been and are still engaged in a detailed study of this work point out that practically no coincidences of historical events and events in Kalevala can be found. Most likely, all the songs from which the epic was composed are part of the mythology of the Karelian-Finns, that is, pagan ideas about gods, spirits, heroes and the structure of the world.

Kalevala has become so famous and so important for the residents of Karelia and Finland that in honor of this epic there is even a national holiday - “Kalevala Folk Epic Day”, which is celebrated on February 28.

Buy the Karelian-Finnish epic “Kalevala” translated by L. P. Belsky in the online store.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela paintings on the theme “Kalevala”

Fratricide

Defense of the Sampo

Ilmarinen plowing a snake field, fresco

The Legend of Aino

Lemminkäinen's mother

Epic is a literary genre, as independent as poetry and drama, telling about the distant past. It is always voluminous, extended over a long period of time in space and time, and extremely eventful. "Kalevala" is Karelian-Finnish epic poetry. Over the course of fifty folk songs (runes), the heroes of the Kalevala are sung. There is no historical basis in these songs. The adventures of the heroes are purely fabulous in nature. The epic also does not have a single plot, as in the Iliad, but a brief summary of the Kalevala will be presented here.

Processing of folklore

The Karelian folk epic began to be processed and recorded only in the nineteenth century. The famous Finnish doctor and linguist collected various versions of epic songs, made a selection, trying to connect the individual parts with each other in a plot. The first edition of "Kalevala" was published in 1835, and only almost fifteen years later - the second. The epic was translated into Russian in 1888 and published in the “Pantheon of Literature” by the poet L.P. Belsky. Public opinion was unanimous: “Kalevala” is literature and a pure source of new information about the religious pre-Christian ideas of the Karelian and Finnish peoples.

The name of the epic was given by Lönnrot himself. Kalevala is the name of the country in which they live and perform feats. Only the name of the country is a little shorter - Kaleva, because the suffix la in the language designates precisely the place of residence: those living in Kaleva. It was there that the people settled their heroes: Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen, Lemminkäinen - all three were sung as the sons of this fertile land.

Composition of the epic

The poem of fifty runes was made up of various individual songs - there were lyrical, epic, and even magical ones. Lönnrot wrote down most of it directly from the peasants' lips, and some had already been written down by folklore collectors. The most song-filled lands were found in Russian Karelia, in and in the Arkhangelsk regions, on the banks of Ladoga and in Finnish Karelia, where people’s memory has preserved very, very much.

The runes do not show us historical realities; not a single war with other nations is reflected there. Moreover, neither the people, nor society, nor the state are shown, as in Russian epics. In the runes, the family rules everything, but even family relationships do not set goals for heroes to accomplish feats.

Bogatyrs

The ancient pagan views of the Karelians give the heroes of the epic not only physical strength, and not even so much of it, but magical powers, the ability to conjure, cast spells, and make magical artifacts. Bogatyrs have the gift of werewolfism, they can turn anyone into anything, travel, instantly moving to any distance, and control the weather and atmospheric phenomena. Even a brief summary of “Kalevala” will not be complete without fabulous events.

The songs of the Karelian-Finnish epic are diverse, and it is impossible to fit them into a single plot. The Kalevala, like many other epics, opens with the creation of the world. The sun, stars, moon, sun, earth appear. The daughter of the wind gives birth to Väinämöinen, who will be the main character of the epic, who will develop the land and sow barley. Among the many and varied adventures of the hero, there is one that can claim to be the beginning of the main, albeit thread-like, plot.

Wonderful boat

Väinämöinen meets by chance the maiden of the North, as beautiful as day. In response to an offer to become his wife, she agrees on the condition that the hero builds a magic boat for her from fragments of a spindle. The inspired hero set to work so eagerly that he could not hold the ax and injured himself. The blood did not subside, I had to visit a healer. It tells the story of how iron came about.

The healer helped, but the hero never returned to work. He raised his wind grandfather with a spell, who found and delivered the most skilled blacksmith, Ilmarinen, to Pohjola, the country of the North. The blacksmith obediently forged the magic mill Sampo for the Maiden of the North, bringing happiness and wealth. These events contain the first ten runes of the epic.

Treason

In the eleventh rune, a new heroic character appears - Lemminkäinen, completely displacing previous events from the songs. This hero is warlike, a real sorcerer and a great lover of women. Having introduced the listeners to a new hero, the narrative returned to Väinämöinen. What the loving hero had to endure to achieve his goal: he even descended into the underworld, allowed himself to be swallowed by the giant Viipunen, but still obtained the magic words that were needed to build a boat from a spindle, on which he sailed to Pohjola to get married.

Not so. During the hero's absence, the northern maiden fell in love with the skilled blacksmith Ilmarinen and married him, refusing to fulfill her word to Väinämöinen. Not only the wedding, with all its customs and traditions, is described here in great detail, and even the songs that were sung there are given, clarifying the duty and responsibility of the husband to his wife and the wife to her husband. This plot line ends only in the twenty-fifth song. Unfortunately, the very brief content of “Kalevala” does not contain the exceptionally lovely and numerous details of these chapters.

Sad story

Further, six runes tell about the daring adventures of Lemminkäinen in the northern region - in Pohjola, where Severnaya reigns, not only no longer a maiden, but also spiritually spoiled, with an unkind, acquisitive and selfish character. With the thirty-first rune begins one of the most piercing and deeply sensual stories, one of the best parts of the entire epic.

Over the course of five songs, the sad fate of the beautiful hero Kullervo is told, who, out of ignorance, seduced his own sister. When the whole situation was revealed to the heroes, both the hero himself and his sister could not bear the sin committed and died. This is a very sad story, written (and, apparently, translated) elegantly, heartfeltly, with a great feeling of sympathy for the characters so severely punished by fate. The epic "Kalevala" gives many such scenes where love for parents, for children, for native nature is glorified.

War

The following runes tell how three heroes (including an unlucky blacksmith) united in order to take away the magical treasure - Sampo - from the evil Northern Maiden. The heroes of Kalevala did not give up. Fighting couldn’t solve anything here, and it was decided, as always, to resort to sorcery. Väinämöinen, like our Novgorod guslar Sadko, built himself a musical instrument - the kantele, enchanted nature with his play and put all the northerners to sleep. Thus, the heroes kidnapped Sampo.

The Mistress of the North pursued them and intrigued them until Sampo fell into the sea. She sent monsters, pestilence, and all sorts of disasters to Kaleva, and in the meantime Väinämöinen made a new instrument, which he played even more magically than he returned the sun and moon stolen by the mistress of Pohjola. Having collected the fragments of Sampa, the hero did a lot of good for the people of his country, many good deeds. Here, with a rather long joint adventure of the three heroes, “Kalevala” almost ends. Retelling this story cannot in any way replace reading a work that has inspired many artists to create great works. This needs to be read in its entirety to truly enjoy it.

Divine baby

So, the epic has come to its last rune, which is very symbolic. This is practically an apocrypha on the birth of the Savior. The virgin from Kaleva - Maryatta - gave birth to a divinely wonderful son. Väinämöinen was even frightened by the power that this two-week-old child possessed, and advised him to be killed immediately. To which the infant shamed the hero, reproaching him for injustice. The hero listened. He finally sang a magic song, boarded a wonderful shuttle and left Karelia to a new and more worthy ruler. This is how the Kalevala epic ends.

introduce the history of the creation of the epic “Kalevala”, the main character of the work - Väinemöinen, and the main storylines associated with the image of the main character.
develop skills in working with text (expressive reading, retelling, characterization of the hero)
cultivate interest in the culture of Karelia, in literature in general.

Equipment: multimedia projector, exhibition of drawings.

During the classes

What was the name of Väinämöinen's mother?
How is the origin of the world explained in Kalevala?
How is the origin of nature explained?
How was Väinämöinen born?
What words and expressions characterize the hero? (working with vocabulary)
What did you find unusual or interesting in this story?

Reading the text “The Birth of Fire.” Conversation on content

You, of course, know the ancient Greek myth about people finding fire. Remember and Tell (the myth of Prometheus)
What have we learned from the Karelian epic about how our ancestors imagined the appearance of fire on earth?
How did Ilmarinen and Väinämöinen manage to catch the flame?
This rune describes in great detail the process of processing flax. What new things have you learned about yourself? What is the role of this description?
Compare this rune with the ancient Greek myth. What difference will you see?

8. Generalization

What new did you learn in class today?
What is Kalevala?
Let's solve the crossword puzzle and check what you remember (slide 20)

9. Lesson summary (slide 21–22)

10. Homework (slide 23)

The Kalevala are folk epics collected together by Elias Lönnrot, a Finnish collector of folk tales.

In this work there is no single plot; all the characters intersect only once or do not intersect at all. Kalevala in simple words can be described as a collection of stories and legends.

It tells about the creation of the world and also about some Finnish and Karelian rituals.

As the creator of the epic Elias himself stated, Kalevala is the state where epic heroes live and all the actions take place.

What is noteworthy is that there are no historical events in Kalevala.

There are no records of wars, there are not even Finnish or any other Finno-Ugric people.

Runes

Runes are an eight-syllable verse, without rhyme, but with the repetition of identical or homogeneous consonants in the poem. This gives it a special sound expressiveness.

Nowadays in Finnish the rune means song in a general sense.

When colliding with more developed peoples, the Finno-Ugric peoples formed an ideal fantasy hero without flaws in their runes.

Spell runes and magic runes have also become very popular. In the work of Kalevala there are 50 of these runes, and they are not unrelated to each other.

After the publication of the Karelian-Finnish epic Kalevala in 1835-1849, interest in this genre increased, and accordingly, the popularity increased among those who performed these works, that is, among rune singers.

Here are the names of some of them, Larin Paraske was an Izhora rune singer, Vaassila Kieleväinen are representatives of the Karelian people.

If we draw some parallel with Russian literature, then this genre is similar to Russian folk tales collected by A.S. Pushkin.

What is an epic

But what is an epic? First of all, the word epic comes from the Greek eżpos. The meaning of this word is narrative and story.

Some features are also characteristic of this genre of literature.

Usually, the time of action and the time of narration do not coincide. The author talks about what happened or what happened in the mythical world.
Almost all literary devices can be used in an epic work. This gives the authors almost unlimited freedom of action and allows them to reveal the character as much as possible.

Since epic is a rather loose concept, it includes the following epic genres:

large ones - epic, novel, epic poem;
middle - story;
small - story, short story, essay;
fairy tales and epics.

Folk epic

Unlike the Slavic or Germanic epic, the Finnish epic followed a completely different path of development.

In the beginning, like all shamanistic peoples, the Finns had simple pagan legends. They were not much different from the others.

But in the VIII-XI centuries. During the Scandinavian raids, the Finns began to develop moral, epic characters. In particular, the styles appear as ideal spontaneous characters and moral heroes without flaws.

The main number of runes has been preserved in Finnish and Russian Karelia, the Arkhangelsk region, on the shores of Ladoga and in the former Olonets province.

There is no single plot in Kalevala and it is almost impossible to connect these stories.

Firstly, Kalevala is the name of one of two countries - Kalevala and Pohjola. The first 10 runes tell how the world came into being and introduce the first character, the son of the daughter of the wind, Väinämöinen. Many runes will be associated with him and he will be the main hero of the entire Kalevala.

Then the action returns to Väinämöinen and his wanderings in search of magic words. They are needed to complete the creation of a spindle boat for his beloved. While Väinämöinen was looking for the magic words, his beloved Maiden of the North fell in love with the forge of Ilmarinen, who created Sampo.

Afterwards, wedding customs are described in detail, what vows the bride and groom make to each other, and wedding songs. All this ends on the 25th rune.

On the 31st rune the story begins about the sad fate of the hero Kullervo. He was a slave in one house. After being sold to other owners, Kullervo rebels and kills both owners and their families. Afterwards, the main character finds out that his family is alive and returns to her. But one day evil tongues arrange incest between him and his sister. After the characters find out that they are brother and sister, they commit suicide.

From the 35th rune one of the final adventures begins. Three heroes - Väinämöinen, Lemminkäinen and Ilmarinen - decide to steal the magic mill Sampo from the country of Pohjol. To do this, they resort to cunning. Väinämöinen creates a magical musical instrument, the kantele, which puts all northerners to sleep. After this, they calmly kidnap Sampo.

But the evil mistress Mistress of the North plotted against them until the mill fell into the sea. She sent pestilence, disasters and floods to Kalevala. Väinämöinen created an even more beautiful musical instrument from the remains of the Sampa. With his help, the hero not only returned the Moon and the Sun from the Mistress of the North, but also did a lot of good for Kalevala.

The last rune tells how one of the residents of Kalevala, Maryatta, gave birth to a very powerful and wise son. His strength was so great that when Väinämöinen offers to kill the boy, he responds strongly and wisely to the hero. The folk hero, unable to bear the shame, leaves Kalevala forever.

Kalevala stories

Väinämöinen, Joukahainen and Aino

One of the residents of Pohjola named Joukahainen challenged the hero from Kalevala Väinämöinen to a competition.

When they met, Joukahainen began to convince everyone that he was the creator of the earth, the sky and the oceans.

But Väinämöinen caught the Pohjola resident in a lie and, with the help of his magic songs, forced Joukahainen to get stuck in a swamp.

Frightened, Youkahainen offered his sister's hand to the hero. Väinämöinen agreed. However, Youkahainen’s sister Aino refused to marry the old hero.

But the wedding was inevitable. In order not to marry Väinämöinen, she committed suicide by drowning in the sea.

After Aino’s death, she became a mermaid, and the saddened Väinämöinen caught a magic fish from the sea that told him about this.

The campaign of the Kalevala heroes for Sampo and the battle with Louhi

After the death of his wife, Ilmarinen decides to forge himself a new wife from silver and gold, but the new wife still remained a soulless object.

Väinämöinen advised Ilmarinen to throw his unloved wife into the fire. Here Väinämöinen forbids people to be tempted by gold and silver.

Ilmarinen decides to go to Pohjola and bring his first wife’s sister from there.

But their family life does not work out, and Ilmarinen turns his wife into a seagull.

Meanwhile, Sampo makes the people of Pohjola very rich. Having learned about this, Väinämöinen decides to steal Sampo from the cunning mistress of Pohjola Louhi.

On the way, a huge pike stops the boat on which the heroes were sailing. They catch it, cook it and eat it. From her bones, Väinämöinen makes the Finnish kantele harp.

Upon arrival in the northern country, the heroes offered Loukhi to divide Sampo equally. But Louhi began to gather an army to attack the heroes.

Then Väinämöinen played the kantele and put all the inhabitants of Pohjola to sleep, including Louhi. After the successful theft during sailing, one of the heroes Lemminkäinen sang a song at the top of his voice with joy, which woke up the crane. The bird awakened Louhi from her sleep.

Having learned about the disappearance, Loukhi immediately began to send various misfortunes to the heroes. During one of them, Väinämöinen loses his kantele.

Afterwards, Pohjola's warriors crashed against a rock created with the help of sorcery by Väinämöinen.

But Louhi was not going to give up so easily. Having turned into a huge bird, she took the crashed ship with the wars and set off in pursuit of the boat of the heroes.

During the battle, Louhi took the Sampo in her claws and flew up with him, but was unable to hold him, dropping him and breaking him. The large remains of the Sampo gave rise to all the riches of the sea, but the small ones were caught by Väinämöinen and taken to Kalevala, making its inhabitants very rich.

Story

Kalevala is purely folk art. Most runes had to be written down directly from the indigenous population.

Not all the runes had to be collected by Elias Lönnrot. Some runes were already written down before him. But it was he who was the first to put them together and try to create a single story and at least one thread of the plot.

Such a small circulation was due to the fact that Elias considered his work unfinished. This is indicated by the fact that his initials appear only once in the book without his surname.

The second version came out in 1849.