The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That Country Part 5

CANTO IV

THE ISLAND MAIDEN

When the Kalevide had satisfied himself that no further traces of his mother were to be found, he cast himself into the sea beneath the stars, and swam northwards manfully towards Finland, swimming with his hands, steering with his feet, and with his hair floating like a sail. He swam on till past midnight without meeting with a resting-place; but at length he espied a black speck in the distance, which proved to be a small rocky island. The hero discovered a mossy bank on a projecting rock, and made his way to the sh.o.r.e, and lay down, intending to sleep a little, when he was roused by the voice of a maiden singing a love-song.

It was very dark and somewhat foggy, but he saw the light of a fire at a little distance at the foot of an oak-tree, beneath which sat a fair girl with brown eyes.[37] The hero soon joined her, and they talked together for some time, when the maiden became alarmed at his familiarities, and cried out. Her mother awoke, and thought it was only a bad dream; but her father hastened to her aid, armed with a great club. But when he saw the terrible giant, he grew as pale as death, and his club dropped from his hand.

The maiden could not lift her eyes to her father, but the Kalevide asked carelessly if he had seen the Finnish sorcerer pa.s.s the island in his boat on the previous evening. "No," replied the islander, "I have not seen anything of him for weeks; but tell me your name and lineage, for I judge that you are of the race of the G.o.ds." The hero answered him fully; but when the maiden heard that he was the son of Kalev and Linda, she was seized with terror, and her foot slipping she fell from the cliff into the sea.

The father shrieked and wrung his hands, but the Kalevide plunged into the sea after the maiden, and sought for her for a long time in vain.

When he abandoned the search, he did not venture to return to the island, but after crying out a few words of unavailing regret swam again towards Finland. The father's cry of despair fully roused the mother, who sprang up, and ran down to the sh.o.r.e, only to learn that her daughter was lost.

Then the mother took a rake with a long copper handle, and the father took his net, and with them they sought for their daughter's body at the bottom of the sea.[38] They did not find their daughter, but they raked up an oak-tree, a fir-tree, an eagle's egg, an iron helmet, a fish, and a silver dish. They took them all carefully home, and went again to seek for their lost child.

Then a song arose from the deep, telling how a maiden went down to the sea:[39]

What beheld she in the ocean?

What beneath the sea was s.h.i.+ning?

From the sea a sword shone golden, In the waves a spear of silver, From the sand a copper crossbow.

Then to grasp the sword she hastened, And to seize the spear of silver, And to lift the copper crossbow.

Then there came a man to meet her; 'Twas an aged man of copper;[40]

On his head a helm of copper; Wearing, too, a s.h.i.+rt of copper; Round his waist a belt of copper; On his hands were copper gauntlets; On his feet were boots of copper; In his belt were copper buckles, And the buckles chased with copper; Copper was his neck and body, And his face and eyes were copper.

And the copper man demanded: "In the sea what seeks the maiden, Singing thus amid the waters, She, a dove[41] among the fishes?"

And the maiden heard and hearkened, And the little duck made answer: "To the sea I went to rock me, And amid the waves to carol; And I saw the sword that glittered, And the spear of silver s.h.i.+ning, And the copper crossbow gleaming.

And to grasp the sword I hastened, And to seize the spear of silver, And to lift the copper crossbow."

Then the copper man made answer, With his copper tongue he answered: "'Tis the sword of son of Kalev, And the spear is son of Alev's, And the crossbow son of Sulev's.

On the bed of ocean guarded, Here the man of copper keeps them, Of the golden sword the guardian, Guardian of the spear of silver, Guardian of the copper crossbow."

Then the man of copper offered her the weapons if she would take him as her husband, but she refused, saying that she was the daughter of a landsman, and preferred a husband from the village on the land. He laughed scornfully; her foot slipped, and she sank into the sea. Her father and mother came to seek her, and found only her ornaments scattered on the beach. They called her by her name, and implored her to go home with them; but she answered that she could not, for she was weighed down by the water; and she related to them her adventure with the copper man. But she begged her parents not to weep for her, for she had a house at the bottom of the sea, and a soft resting-place in the ooze.

"Do not weep, my dearest mother, Nor lament, my dearest father.

In the sea is now my dwelling, On its bed a pleasant chamber, In the depths a room to rest in, In the ooze a nest of softness."

[Footnote 37: The story in the _Kalevipoeg_ is very confused, but this maiden evidently corresponds to the lost sister of Kullervo (_Kalevala_, Runo 35), whom he meets casually, and seduces. When they discover the truth, the girl throws herself into a torrent. In the _Kalevipoeg_, Canto 7, the Kalevide and the maiden are actually spoken of as brother and sister. There are many versions of this story; in one of them (Neus, _Ehstnische Volkslieder_, pp. 5-8; Latham's _Nationalities of Europe_, i. p. 138), the maiden is represented as slaying her brother, who is called indifferently the son of Kalev or of Sulev, to the great satisfaction of her father and mother.]

[Footnote 38: In the _Kalevala_, Runo 15, Lemminkainen's mother collects together the fragments of his body from the River of Death with a long rake.]

[Footnote 39: This song and story (except for the incident of the man of copper) resembles that of the drowning of Aino in the _Kalevala_, Runo 4.]

[Footnote 40: It was a copper man who rose from the water to fell the great oak-tree (_Kalevala_, Runo 2). Compare also the variant in Canto 6 of the _Kalevipoeg_. We may also remember the copper men connected with the mountain of loadstone (_Thousand and One Nights_, Third Calendar's Story).]

[Footnote 41: Literally a "house-hen;" one of those idiomatic terms of endearment which cannot be reproduced in another language.]

CANTO V

THE KALEVIDE AND THE FINNISH SORCERER

Day was breaking as the dauntless swimmer approached the coast of Finland, where his enemy, the sorcerer, had arrived somewhat before him, and had made his boat fast under a projecting rock. The Kalevide gazed round without seeing any traces of him, and lay down to sleep; but though the morning was calm and peaceful, his dreams were but of battle and murder.

Meantime the islander and his wife, not being able to find their daughter, returned home weeping, and planted the oak and the fir in the field where their daughter used to swing in the evening, in remembrance of her. Then they went to look in the helmet where they had put the egg; but it was cold and damp, so the mother put the egg in the warm sun by day, and nursed it in her bosom at night.

Then they went to look at the trees, and the oak had already shot up a hundred fathoms, and the fir-tree ten. Next they visited the fish, which prayed for its liberty, and they restored it to the sea.

The oak and fir now reached the clouds; and a young eagle was hatched from the egg, which the mother tended; but one day it escaped and flew away. The oak now scattered the clouds and threatened to pierce the sky.

Then they sought a sorcerer to fell the tree, and the woman took a golden rake on her shoulder with a copper handle and silver p.r.o.ngs. She raked up three swathes of gra.s.s, and in the third she found the eagle which she had lately reared from the egg. She took him home, and under his wing was a little man, scarcely two spans high, holding an axe in his hands.[42]

The Kalevide had only intended to take a short nap, but he was so weary that he slept all through the day and night, and did not awake till sunrise next morning.[43] When he awoke, he set off at once in search of his mother and the sorcerer into the interior of the country. At last he climbed a high mountain, and saw from thence an inhabited valley with a brook running through it, and the sorcerer's farm at the edge of the wood.

The son of Kalev rushed down the mountain and through the plain till he reached the gate of the enclosure and looked in. The sorcerer was lying on the gra.s.s in the shade of his house. The Kalevide turned towards the wood, tore up an oak-tree by the roots, and trimmed it into a club. He swung it in his right hand, and strode through the enclosure, the whole country trembling and the hills and valleys shaking with fear as he advanced.

The sorcerer started from his sleep, and saw Linda's avenger at the gate, but he was too unnerved and terrified to attempt to hide himself.

He hurriedly took a handful of feathers from his bosom, and blew them from him with a few magic words, and lo! they became an armed host of warriors,--thousands of them, both on foot and on horseback.[44] They rushed upon the son of Kalev like a swarm of gnats or bees; but he laid about him with his club as if he was thres.h.i.+ng, and beat them down, horse and man together, on all sides, like drops of hail or rain. The fight was hardly begun when it was over, and the hero waded chest-deep in blood. The sorcerer, whose magic troops had never failed him before, was now at his wit's end, and prayed for mercy, giving a long account of how he had endeavoured to carry off Linda, and had been struck down by the enraged Thunder-G.o.d. But the Kalevide paid no attention to his speech, and, after a few angry words, he smashed his head with his club.

Then he rushed through the house from room to room in search of his mother, breaking open every door and lock which opposed him, while the noise resounded far over the country. But he found not his mother, and regretted that he had killed the sorcerer, who might have helped him. At last, wearied out with his own violence, he threw himself on a couch, and wept himself to sleep. He had a vision of his mother in her youth and beauty, swinging with her companions, and awoke, convinced that she was really dead.

[Footnote 42: We find this great oak-tree over and over again in Finnish and Esthonian tales. Compare _Kalevala_, Runo 2, and Cantos 4, 5, 6, and 16 of the _Kalevipoeg_. Neus, _Ehstnische Volkslieder_, p. 47; Kreutzwald and Neus, _Mythische und Magische Lieder_, p. 8, &c. Could this oak have any connection, direct or indirect, with the ash Yggthrasil? or could the story have originated in some report or tradition of the banyan?]

[Footnote 43: The tremendous exploits of the Kalevide and his weariness afterwards give him much of the character of a Berserk.]

[Footnote 44: In the 26th Runo of the _Kalevala_ Lemminkainen creates a flock of birds from a handful of feathers, to appease the fiery eagle who obstructed his way to Pohjola. We may also remember Jason and the dragon's teeth.]

CANTO VI

THE KALEVIDE AND THE SWORD-SMITHS

The Kalevide mourned two days for his mother, but on the third day he began to get over his grief, and determined, before returning home, to visit a famous smith of Finland, and to provide himself with a good sword. So he set off in another direction, and lost himself in the woods, and had to pa.s.s the night on the wet gra.s.s under a fir-tree, which he did not at all relish. Next morning he started off again early, and a thrush sang to him, and directed him to turn to the west. He sprang forward with renewed energy and soon found himself in the open country, where he encountered an old woman,[45] who gave him minute instructions for finding his way to the smithy, which was three days'

journey off. When at length he reached the smithy, he found the old smith and his three sons hard at work forging swords.

The hero saluted the smith, who replied to him courteously, and at once acceded to his request to try the swords before purchasing one. At a sign from the smith, one of the sons went out and fetched an armful of swords. The Kalevide picked out the longest, and bent it into a hoop, when it straightened itself at once. He then whirled it round his head, and struck at the ma.s.sive rock which stood in the smithy with all his might. The sparks flew from the stone and the blade s.h.i.+vered to pieces, while the old smith looked on and swore.

"Who mixes up children's toys with weapons for men?" said the Kalevide scornfully, and caught up a second and third sword, which he s.h.i.+vered in the same way before the smith could interfere. "Stop, stop," cried the smith at last, "don't break any more swords to show off your strength;"

and he called to his sons to bring some swords of the best quality they had.

The youths brought in an armful of the very best, and the Kalevide chose a huge sword, which he brandished like a reed in his right hand, and then brought down on the anvil. The sword cut deep into the iron, and the blade did not fly, but the sharp edge was somewhat blunted.

Then the smith was well pleased, and said that he had one sword in store worthy of the strength of the hero, if he was rich enough to buy it; for, between friends, the price was nine strong carthorses, four pairs of good packhorses, twenty good milch kine, ten pairs of good yoke oxen, fifty well-fed calves, a hundred tons of the best wheat, two boatsful of barley, and a large s.h.i.+pload of rye, a thousand old dollars, a hundred pairs of bracelets, two hundred gold coins, a lapful of silver brooches, the third of a kingdom, and the dowries of three maidens.

Then from a little iron cupboard they fetched a sword which had not its equal in the world, and on which the smith and his sons had laboured for seven long years without intermission. It was wrought of seven different kinds of Swedish iron with the aid of seven powerful charms, and was tempered in seven different waters, from those of the sea and Lake Peipus to rain-water. It had been bespoken by Kalev himself, but he had not lived till the work was completed.