Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/333

 Kirhy. — Hero of Esthonia. 325

grateful ; and he has added to it a translation, chiefly from the German of Lowe and Janssen, of something like a hundred folk-tales, besides translations in verse from the Esthonian of two ballads incorporated in the Kalevipoeg, and, apparently from the German, of another folk-song and a charm.

Prefixed to these is an introduction, which might well have been lengthened, containing a brief account of the geography (illustrated by a map) and population of Esthonia, of the Kalevipoeg, of Esthonian folk-lore in general, and of the heathen mythology of the Finns and Esthonians. The Kalevipoeg, like the Kalevala of the neighbouring Finns, is a patchwork of traditional songs. It was begun by Dr. Fahlmann and completed by Dr. Kreutzwald. It relates the adventures of the son of Kalev. The events of the poem are highly mythological. The scene is chiefly laid in Esthonia ; but the hero under- takes a journey to the Far North, wherein there appear fragments of geographical reminiscences, though it seems vain to expect any more exact information than is to be found in the voyage of Jason or of Odysseus. He also goes down into Porgu, the nether world, and there finds the shade of his mother, and wrestles with Sarvik, the lord of Hades. A complete examination of the epic in the light of other Esthonian traditions, and of those of Finland, is much to be desired. This, however, was not within Mr. Kirby's purview.

Many of the folk-tales lie outside the European circle : these are, of course, chiefly mythological. Others are what Mr. Kirby calls cosmopolitan. Cinderella is hardly so genteel as Perrault's Cendrillon. The magical tree planted on her mother's grave seems a case of transformation. It, or rather a woman an ell high who appears on its top, takes the part of the fairy-godmother, and dresses her " as magnificently as a Saxon lady". This is a reference to the German conquerors of Esthonia, who provided their subjects with comparisons for oppression, magnificence and other