Kalevala and Kalevipoeg

The Maiden of Northland
written by Aaron Shepard, illustrations Carol Schwartz
1996, 40 pages

This children's version of the hero tale Kalevala is simply and elegantly written by Aaron Shepard. It tells the story of two friends and rivals, Vainamoinen (greatest of magicians, who helped create the world) and Ilmarinen (the blacksmith who forged the heavens). They travel from Kalevala, set in the south of Finland, to the land of magic (Pohjola) in the north, to win the hand of Aila, daughter of Louhi, a powerful witch with the ability to change shapes. The illustrations are beautiful and wonderfully detailed.

Elias Lönnrot compiled Kalevala in the 1800s as he travelled throughout Finland collecting folk poems and songs. The poetry was usually sung to tunes, sometimes accomonpanied by the kannel-kantele (a five-string zither). The songs were based on folk tales from ancient times that were handed down by word of mouth. The first version, called Old Kalevala, appeared in 1835-1836. The final version of his epic poem, consisting of 22,795 verses, divided into fifty cantos or "chapters", was published in 1849. The first English translation appeared in 1888, the latest in 1998.

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald started writing the Estonian national epic, Kalevipoeg, in 1850. It was based on an outline presented by Friedrich Robert Faehlmann at an academic lecture in 1839. He also travelled around Estonia collecting stories and songs. His epic tale first appeared as a series of academic publications; the final version of his epic poem was published in 1862 in Finland. It contained 19,023 verses and was divided into 20 cantos.

The word sampo may have originally referred to a pillar, a sort of good luck charm, but the original meaning was lost over the years. It has represented a magical chest, boat, eagle or mill; something that brought good fortune to its owner. In Ancient Powers of the Baltic Sea Finnish author Matti Klinge explores the concept of sampo-sammas as an ancient boundary marker, similar to the Roland statues that appeared all over Europe in medieval times.

The word ausammas in Estonian means monument, hauasammas is tombstone, tugisammas means pillar and ilmasammas is a very old person. Interestingly, the word sammal or moss, is not related to sammas, (although it does grow on old monuments).

Sammas (post) in Estonian derives from an indo-european word stambhas while sammal comes from the same Finnish-Lapland word group as huul, hõbe, ilves, ime, mahl, nina, kurk, nälg, põud, põõsas.

From Lembit Vaba:
Kalima oletus [Kalima 1930: 346–347], et e. sammas võiks tuleneda indo-iraani algkujust stambhas, sm. seiväs ja eL saivas võiksid olla sama ootuspärased balti *steibas ~ *staibas kujude järglased kui eP teivas..”
(Mägiste 1932: 131.)