Chapter III: Introduction: Esthonia

Esthonia, or Estonia, as some prefer to write it, is the most northerly of the three so-called German or Baltic provinces of Russia—Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland. It is bounded on the north by the Gulf of Finland, which lies between that country and Esthonia; on the east by the Government of St. Petersburg; on the south by Livonia, and on the west by the Baltic. Opposite its western coast lie numerous large islands, the most important of which are Dagö and Oesel; these islands nearly close the north-west corner of the Gulf of Riga.

The northern part of Livonia (including the island of Oesel,
already mentioned) is partly inhabited by Esthonians, and is
dealt with in popular literature as forming part of the
country. The four provinces of Esthonia proper, which are
constantly referred to,
[Pg xiv]
are as follows, the German names being added in brackets. Two
western, Arju or Harju (Harrien) on the north, and Lääne
(Wiek) on the south; one central, Järva (Jerwen), and one
eastern, Viru (Wierland). East of Livonia lies the great Lake
Peipse or Peipus, eighty miles long and thirty-two miles broad
at the broadest part, across which the son of Kalev is said to
have waded to fetch timber from Pihgast or Pleskau, which name
is used to include the Russian province of Pskov, bordering
the lake on the south and south-east. At two-thirds of its
length the lake is divided nearly in two, and the southern
portion is sometimes called Lake Pskov. It may have been
across the narrow part between the two ends of the lake that
the hero is supposed to have waded, when, even during a great
storm, the water reached only to his girdle.

The coast of Esthonia is rocky, but the interior of the country is very marshy, though there are no navigable rivers or lakes of much importance except Lake Peipus, which we have already mentioned. Small lakes, however, are very numerous, the largest being Lake Virts.

Esthonia was one of the countries conquered during the Middle
Ages by the crusading German
[Pg xv]
Knights of the Sword, and has been described as a country with
a Finnish population and a German aristocracy under Russian
rule. Occasionally we meet with reminiscences of oppression by
the German nobility in the songs and tales; as, for instance,
in the story of the Royal Herd-boy; while everything beautiful
or above the ordinary life of the peasants is characterised as
Saxon.

The bulk of the population speak a language very closely allied to Finnish, and they possess a large store of oral literature, much of which has been collected, and in part published, during the present century. It has, however, attracted very little attention out of Esthonia, except in Finland, and to some extent in Germany, and very few articles on the subject have appeared in England or France. It is believed that this is the first work published in England giving any detailed account of the popular literature of Esthonia, and it does not pretend to be exhaustive, nor to extend much beyond the publication of Kreutzwald, Neus, and Jannsen.

The Finnish-Ugrian race, though not Aryan, is widely
distributed throughout Europe and Asiatic Russia, and the
principal peoples belonging to it
[Pg xvi]
in the North are the Finns, the Esthonians, and the Lapps, who
speak very similar languages, and whose tales and legends
possess much similarity, while in the south the Magyars are
more distantly related to them. The Lapp hero-tales, however,
have more of a historical basis, while the popular tales are
much shorter and less artistic. It is, however, curious that
Swan-maiden stories are peculiarly common among the Lapps.
Several other lesser known peoples belong to the same race,
whom we need not further notice.

Esthonian abounds in dialects, but is so close to Finnish that it bears almost the same relation to it as Lowland Scotch to English, or perhaps as Danish to Swedish. But there is a strong admixture of German words in Esthonian, and their tales, when exhibiting traces of foreign influence, have apparently derived it from Germany. In Finnish tales, on the contrary, Russian influence is often very apparent.

The orthography is a little unsettled, words like Ukko or Kalev
being often written with a single or double consonant, as Uko
or Kallev; while words like Käpä are often written with double
vowels, as Kääpä.
[Pg xvii]

The pronunciation of most of the letters resembles that of English, or, in the case of the vowels, German, and calls for no special remark.

_j_, as in nearly all languages except English and French,
corresponds to our _y_.

_v_ is printed either _v_ or _w_ in Finnish and Esthonian, but
corresponds to our _v_, and is thus used by the best Finnish
authorities. Of course the Germans properly write it _w_, their
_w_
corresponding to our _v_.

For the modified vowels we have no exact equivalent in English;
_ä_ and _ü_ are pronounced nearly as in German; but the _õ_ may
roughly be said to resemble our _ee_ in sound. _y_ has somewhat
of a _u_ sound, as in the Scandinavian languages; and, as in
these too, the modified vowels are placed at the end of the
alphabet, but in the following order: _ü_,
_ä_,
_õ_. Musical as is Finnish itself, Esthonian is still softer,
as may be seen in the dropping of final consonants, as
Vanemuine for Väinämöinen; and in such words as _kannel_ (harp)
for _kantele_. As in most parts of Northern Europe, the Gothic
character is still much used in Finland and Esthonia,
especially in literary works.

As a specimen of the language we may quote the original of the
lines on p. 14:
[Pg xviii]
—

Ristitantsi tantsitie,

Viru tantsi veeritie,

Arju tantsi hakkatie,

Lääne tantsi lõhutie,

Sõre liiva sõtkutie,

Murupinda piinatie.

Tähte peig ja Salme neidu,

Pidasivad pulma ilu!

We may add the text of the lines on p. 49:—

Kalevide poeg ei väsi;

Piht on meehel pihlakane,

Õlanukud õunapuusta,

Käevarred vahterased,

Küünarnukud künnapuusta,

Sõrmelülid sõsterased,

Sõrmeküüned kuuslapuused,

Raudarammu kõiges kehas.

THE KALEVIPOEG

In the year 1838 some Esthonian scholars founded a society
called " _Die gelehrte Ehstnische Gesellschaft_, " and set
themselves to collect the popular literature of their country.
Doubtless encouraged by the recent publication of the
_Kalevala_ in Finland, Dr. Fählmann undertook specially to
collect any fragments of verse or prose relative to the
mythical
[Pg xix]
hero of Esthonia, the son of Kalev, intending to weave them
into a connected whole. He did not live to complete the work;
but after his death Dr. Kreutzwald carried out his design, and
the book was published, accompanied by a German translation by
Reinthal and Bertram, from 1857 to 1861.

The materials were defective, and were augmented and pieced
together, not always very successfully or artistically,
[1] by Dr. Kreutzwald, and the story is interrupted by long
lyrical passages, especially at the beginning of some of the
cantos, which are tedious and out of place in a narrative poem.
Consequently, a complete translation would hardly be
sufficiently attractive; but there is so much that is curious
and beautiful in the poem, that I think that a tolerably full
prose abstract may perhaps be found both useful and
interesting, as opening up an almost new subject to English
readers.

Besides Reinthal's translation, there are two condensed
abstracts of the poem in German, one by C. C. Israel, in prose,
published in 1873, and the other by Julius Grosse, in
hexameters, published in 1875.
[Pg xx]

But while the _Kalevala_ has been translated into six or seven
languages, and into several of them two or three times,
extremely little has been published on the _Kalevipoeg_ outside
of Esthonia and Finland.

The metre is the eight-syllable trochaic, which is the
commonest metre used by the Esthonians and Finns. In the
_Kalevipoeg_ the verse usually flows continuously, while in the
_Kalevala_ it is arranged in distichs, almost every second line
being a repetition of the first in other words; nor is the
_Kalevipoeg_ quite so full of alliteration as the _Kalevala_.

Longfellow adapted this metre in his _Hiawatha_ from
Schiefner's German translation of the _Kalevala_, and as it was
then a novelty in English, it was set down at the time as
Longfellow's own invention, and was much ridiculed. A similar
metre, however, was used before the appearance of _Hiawatha_ in
some parts of Kenealy's _Goethe_, which was published in 1850,
and subsequently condensed and completed under the title of "A
New Pantomime." I quote a passage from this wonderful but
eccentric poem ( _Goethe_, p. 301) to show the manner in which
Kenealy has used it in the lighter parts of his work; but in
some of the darker passages it shows itself as a versatile
metre of great power in English:
[Pg xxi]
—

"We have come, enchanting ladyes,

To sojourn awhile, and revel

In these bowers, far outshining

The six heavens of Mohammed,

Or the sunbright spheres of Vishnu,

Or the Gardens of Adonis,

Or the viewless bowers of Irim,

Or the fine Mosaic mythus,

Or the fair Elysian flower-land,

Or the clashing halls of Odin,

Or the cyclop-orbs of Brahma,

Or the marble realms of Siva,

Or the grandly proud Walhalla."

I do not find this metre used in either of the two cognate
poems, _Faust_ and _Festus_.

To return to the _Kalevipoeg_, the poem consists of twenty
cantos and about 19,000 verses. Some of the legends are found
also in the _Kalevala_, and the giant-hero whose life and
adventures form its subject is evidently the same as the
Kullervo of the _Kalevala_, as will be seen in our notes on
various passages in the poem.

Of the other heroes of the _Kalevala_, besides an occasional
reference to Vanemuine and Ilmarine (Väinämöinen and
Ilmarinen), we find no trace; but three heroes, apparently
cousins of the Kalevipoeg, appear suddenly in the poem. These
are usually
[Pg xxii]
called by their patronymics, Alevide, Sulevide, and Olevide,
but sometimes simply Alev, Sulev, and Olev.

FOLK-TALES IN PROSE

The most important collection of Esthonian prose tales was
edited by Kreutzwald, and was published by the Finnish Literary
Society at Helsingfors in 1866, under the title of _Eestirahwa
Ennemuistesed jutud_, and has since been reprinted at Dorpat.
In 1869 the same Society published a useful little
Esthonian-Finnish glossary to the volume. A good German
translation of many of these tales, by F. Löwe, appeared at
Halle in 1869, under the title of _Ehstnische Märchen_, with
notes by various contributors; and M. Dido, who has lately
translated two or three of the tales into French, and given
more or less detailed notices of the others, mentions that they
have also been translated into Russian. Other collections of
Esthonian tales have since been published; and Harry Jannsen
has published a selection in German under the title of _Märchen
und Sagen des estnischen Volkes_ (Dorpat, 1881; Riga, 1888).
Some of his tales are taken from Kreutz
[Pg xxiii]
wald, but I have not seen the Esthonian originals of the
others. Many of the longer and more interesting tales in those
collections I have given in full; others are more or less
abridged, or simply noticed, and some few unimportant tales
towards the end of Kreutzwald's collection have been passed
over altogether.

One of Kreutzwald's longer tales, which I thought too unlike the others to be noticed in the body of the work, is, "How Seven Tailors went to war in Turkey." Their names were, "First-man, One-strong, Two-strong, Three-strong, Four-strong, Five-strong, and Last-man;" and the story gives a comic account of their poltrooneries.

Other tales relate to a plot against a chaste wife; a girl who clears herself from scandal by lifting and hurling a huge stone; &c.

BALLADS AND OTHER SHORT POEMS

The plan of the present work did not allow of many short
poetical pieces being included; nevertheless, two of the best
of the numerous songs and ballads interspersed through the
_Kalevipoeg_ have been given, and two other specimens from
[Pg xxiv]
Neus' _Ehstnische Volkslieder_ (Revel, 1850-1852) and
Kreutzwald and Neus' _Mythische und Magische Lieder der
Ehsten_ (St. Petersburg, 1854). More poetical specimens were
thought unnecessary, because many of the principal ballads in
the former work will be found translated in Latham's
"Nationalities of Europe," 1863.

PASTOR HURT'S COLLECTIONS

In recent years enormous collections of Esthonian folk-lore have been formed by Pastor Jacob Hurt and his coadjutors.

"Three volumes of these collections were edited by Hurt in
1875, 1876, and 1886, under the title of _Vana Kannel_, the
'Old Harp;' and other collections were published by several of
his colleagues. In 1888 Hurt made a renewed appeal to the
Esthonians to collect their old songs, and fresh contributions
came pouring in from all quarters.

"Special attention was called to Pastor Hurt's work at the Congress of Folk-lorists in Paris by Henry Carnoy.

"According to the latest intelligence which I have received
from Dr. Krohn, Pastor Hurt has received
[Pg xxv]
contributions from 633 different folk-tale collectors in the
last three and a half years. Most of these contributors are
simple peasants; some are schoolmasters, but only a few are
students or highly educated persons.

"He now possesses, as the result of three and a half years' work of this nature, epics, lyrics, wedding-songs, &c., upwards of 20,000 items; tales, about 3000; proverbs, about 18,000; riddles, about 20,000. Besides these he has a large collection of magical formulæ, superstitions, &c.

"He has only been able to accomplish these extraordinary
results by his having been able to awaken popular interest in
the subject."
[2]

I am glad to hear from my friend Dr. Kaarle Krohn, to whom I
have been indebted for much useful information and assistance
in my own studies, that part of the results of these great
collections are likely to be published very shortly. Of course
a great number of tales and songs are merely variants. Many
relate to legends belonging rather to the _Kalevala_ than to
the _Kalevipoeg_.

In Dr. Krohn's important paper, _Die geogra_
[Pg xxvi]
_phische Verbreitung Estnischer Lieder_, published in 1892, he
divides Esthonia and Northern Livonia into several districts,
and marks the number of variants obtained in each. It may be
interesting to summarise the latter, to show the extent to
which the collection of variants has been carried on in
Esthonia.

1. Legend of the creation of the earth and of the origin of the heavenly bodies, 62 variants.

2. Salme and her suitors, 160 variants; and 33 relative to the celestial suitors.

3. The Great Ox, 24 variants.

4. The Great Oak, 130 variants, and 61 relative to its fragments.

5. The Weeping Oak, 61 variants.

6. The origin of the harp and of boating, three variations, with 19, 39, and 17 variants respectively.

7. The bride of gold and silver, 52 variants.

8. Songs of the Seluks or Orthodox Esths, 91 variants.

MYTHOLOGY

We can, I think, trace Finnish and Esthonian religion through
four well-marked stages.
[Pg xxvii]

1. Fetishism, as seen in the story of the Treasure-Bringer, and in the account given of the origin of various animals, &c.

2. Nature-worship.

3. Transitional stage, well marked in the _Kalevala_, where the
heroes sometimes pray to the gods in conventional Christian
phraseology, and at other times try to compel their assistance
by invocations and spells. This stage is also seen in the
strange travesty of the Nativity in the last Runo of the
_Kalevala_ ; and indeed, one of the older writers says that the
favourite deities of the Finns in his time were Väinämöinen and
the Virgin Mary. But this stage is much less visible in the
_Kalevipoeg_, which is, on the whole, a more archaic and more
heathenish poem than the _Kalevala_.

4. Mediæval Christianity.

The gods belong to the stage of Nature-worship. The supreme god
is Taara, to whom the oak is sacred. The most celebrated of his
sacred oak-forests was in the neighbourhood of Dorpat. Thursday
is his day; whence it is more often mentioned in popular tales
than any other day in the week. He is also called Uko or Ukko
(the Old God), by which name he is usually known in the
[Pg xxviii]
_Kalevala_ ; and also Vana Isa, or Old Father. The Christian
God is called Jumal or Jumala, and is probably to be identified
with Taara. Ukko or Taara is the ancestor and protector of the
heroes; he attended with Rõugutaja at the birth of the
Kalevipoeg, watched over and protected him during his life,
sometimes appeared to counsel him in visions, received him in
his heavenly halls after death, and assigned to him his future
employment.

Ukko's daughters are Lindu and Jutta, the queens of the birds;
and Siuru, who is described as a blue bird herself. Possibly
these may be all the same; and the first at least may be
identical with Kalev's bride, Linda, who was born from an egg,
and whose name is evidently derived from _lind_ or _lindu_, a
bird.

Äike, Kõu, Paristaja, Pikne, Piker, or Pikker, is the god of
thunder, and some of his names connect him with the Lithuanian
Perkunas. He thunders across the iron bridges of the skies in
his chariot; and hurls his thunderbolts at the demons, like
Thor. He also possesses a musical instrument, of which the
demons stand in great terror. He has a ne'er-do-weel son, who
has dealings with the Devil, and a mischievous little daughter,
called the Air-Maiden.
[Pg xxix]

Ahti, the god of the waters, is mentioned occasionally, but
much less frequently than Ahto in the _Kalevala_. He must not
be confounded with Ahti, one of the names of the hero
Lemminkainen in the latter poem.

Rõugutaja is the god of the winds and waves, and attends specially on births. In one story, however, he appears rather in the character of a morose wood-demon with very undesirable family connections than as a god. This is very probably due to missionary efforts to malign his character and discredit his worship. However, there is a class of magicians who are called Wind-sorcerers, and witches often invoke the aid of the Mother of the Wind.

An old man, with one eye and a long grey beard, often appears to travellers in the forests. He is probably the Finnish Tapio, but is not named.

The sun, moon, and stars are represented as male deities.

Goddesses preside over the woods, fields, waters, &c. Thus we
have the Meadow-Queen (literally, Grass-mother), who presides
over the home-field, and is therefore one of the protecting
deities of the household. She is also the queen of the woods
and fields. The Wind-mother and Water-mother are
[Pg xxx]
similar deities, and the wood-nymphs and water-nymphs are
their daughters.

Vanemuine, the Väinämöinen of the Finns, is the god of song and
music, rather than the patriarch and culture-hero of the
_Kalevala_. All voices and sounds in nature are only echoes of
his music. He has a foster-daughter, Jutta, of whom we have
given an account elsewhere.

Ilmarine (Finnish, Ilmarinen) is a great smith, whose workshop is under a mountain at the centre of the earth.

The Devil has many names, being called Kurat, the Evil One;
Tühi or Tühja, the Empty One, or rather, perhaps, the
Contemptible One; but most often Vana Pois, the Old Boy; God
being frequently called Vana Isa, the Old Father. He dwells in
the underground kingdom, and has three daughters, or
foster-daughters; a hat of invisibility, composed of
nail-parings; a bridge-building wand, and a sword. He has also
much gold and silver plate, and ducks and geese with gold and
silver plumage. These treasures are often carried off by
enterprising heroes. The maidens whom the Kalevipoeg found in
the palace of Sarvik do not appear to have been at all unkindly
treated, though they had to work
[Pg xxxi]
hard, and much regretted that they had no human company.

Another Devil, more prominent in the _Kalevipoeg_, is Vana
Sarvik, or Old Hornie, who is represented as Tühi's
brother-in-law.

The Devil's underground kingdom is called Põrgu, or Hell. His mother usually appears in the form of a bitch, and his grandmother under that of a white mare. The minor Esthonian devils are usually stupid rather than malevolent. They are sometimes ogres or soul-merchants, but are at times quite ready to do a kindness, or to return one to those who aid them. Their great enemies are the Thunder-God and the wolf. The principal outwitter of the devil is generally called Crafty Hans; and several volumes of their adventures have been published in Esthonian. The Devil is often represented as fond of beer.

Besides the above-named gods and demons, we have spirits of the
whirlwind and the Northern Lights; gnomes; and a host of
inferior demons, as well as various grades of sorcerers,
especially Wind-sorcerers, Word-sorcerers, or soothsayers, and
Death-sorcerers, or necromancers. The Tont, or House-Spirit,
goes by various names; among others Kratt or Puuk. Kratt is
perhaps a word
[Pg xxxii]
of Scandinavian or German origin; Puuk must be the same as our
Puck, or the Irish Pouka. He was probably originally a
beneficent house-spirit, and in later times assumed the
demoniacal character in which he appears in the story of the
Treasure-Bringer. In the story of "Martin and his Dead
Master," we have a spectre much resembling a vampyre in
character.

The gigantic race of the heroes is represented as descended
from Taara. As in the case of so many other hero-races—as, for
example, the knights of Arthur, Finn, Charlemagne, Vladimir,
Palmerin, &c.—they are at length practically destroyed in a
series of terrible battles, while the Kalevipoeg, like Arthur,
Olger, Barbarossa, and Tell, remains in enchanted bondage till
the day shall come for him to restore the ancient glories of
his country.
[3]

[Pg 1]