Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/291

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41. Loviatar represents the evil and destructive powers of Nature, as opposed to the beneficent powers, represented in the Kalevala under the twin aspects of Ilmatar and Marjatta.

117. This speech or invocation is not addressed to Loviatar, but apparently to some goddess similar to the Roman Lucina.

168. Dr. Russell says that the itch was more dreaded than the plague in Aleppo in the eighteenth century.

181. Pestilence has often been attributed to the anger of gods or demons; and Finland suffered severely from plague till well into the eighteenth century. But I am inclined to regard the plague described here as the Black Death, which must have ravaged Finland about 1350.

269, 282, 283. All these names have nearly the same significance, and might be rendered by “Dolores, our Lady of Pain.”

13, 14. The pestilence having abated at the approach of winter, the wild beasts naturally overran the devastated country. So I would interpret this passage.

25. Literally, three feathers, but the commentary gives the meaning adopted above.

8l. For an account of bear-hunting in Finland, compare Acerbi’s Voyage to the North Cape, I., pp. 288, 289.

168. Tapio is the lord of the forest here alluded to, according to the commentary.

246. The word here rendered “charge” literally means “bundle” or “package.”

313. Probably the Danish Sound.

377. A honeyed forest perhaps means a forest abounding in honey-dew.

565, 566. These lines are rather musical:

Kuuluvilla karjan kellon,

Luona tiukujen tirinän.

15, 16. There is a Finnish ballad relating how the sun and moon were stolen by German and Esthonian sorcerers, and recovered by the son of Jumala. (Kanteletar, III., 2; translated by Mr. C. J. Billson, Folklore, VI., 343, 344.)

37. Compare the story of Maui stealing the fire in New Zealand legends.

128. Lake Ladoga seems to be intended.

233. Does this refer to tides? Tides can hardly be known in Finland, except by hearsay; the Baltic itself is almost tideless.