The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That CountryKirby, W. F. (William Forsell)
History
The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That Country
Kirby, W. F. (William Forsell)
Estonian literature; Estonian literature -- History and criticism
[34]
In the _Maha-Bharata_ Bhima is represented as carrying
enormous loads, and in one passage Yudhishthira is
searching for his brother in the Himalayas, when he
comes to a place where slaughtered lions and tigers
are lying about by thousands, which convinces him that
he is on the right track.
[35]
This passage would seem to indicate that the daughter
of the king of Kungla was sometimes looked upon rather
as a fairy than as a human princess.
[36]
Visits to a father's grave for counsel are very common
in the literature of Northern Europe.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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).
[41]
Literally a "house-hen;" one of those idiomatic terms
of endearment which cannot be reproduced in another
language.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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