Week 14 Readings A and B: Russian Folk Tales!

This week I chose to read Russian Folk Tales ! This, like the Kalevala, is something I’ve been interested in for a while but have never really gotten around to investigating for myself.

The Three Copecks

Already I can tell these folk tales are going to be a strange affair. This story was like watching the domino effect. To be clear, a copeck is a small unit of money (probably equivalent to one of our pennies or nickels).

The story focuses on this one orphan who goes from job to job. At his first job, he collects three copecks after three years of work (a real rip-off if you ask me) and decides to buy a cat with them. This I can be on board with. I’m all about collecting cats. Or rather, I would be if my apartment complex didn’t have a ridiculous non-refundable deposit for them.

After he buys this cat he goes to work for a merchant who eventually becomes rich. The merchant sails overseas, taking the poor boys’ cat with him. He promises that if anything should happen to the cat he will pay the boy back in full.

So he goes overseas to a land that has no cats and is infested with mice and rats and stays the night in a hotel room. In the morning, the hotel manager finds a pile of dead mice and begs the man to sell him the cat. The merchant agrees, gets a sack full of gold coins for the kitty and sails back for home.

Initially he’s like, “Sweet, I just won’t give any of this gold to that orphan,” but then a storm comes and almost drowns the boat because God is like, “The hell you won’t, give that poor kid his money.”

So he comes back, gives the orphan the sack of gold, and the orphan buys a bunch of incense with it and burns it all to praise God. Personally, I think he should just buy a house and call it good for a while, but he wants to make the land smell like Franckincense and Myrrh.

Then as luck would have it, an old man comes down the road and asks him if he would prefer gold or a good wife. After seeking counsel from some other men, the boy decides a good wife. Lo and behold, he receives a wife and lives happily ever after. But only after a series of strange coincidences.

Dnieper, Volga, and Dvina

This is an origin story of three great rivers in Russia. It starts off describing the rivers starting off as three orphaned children (a boy and two girls) who had to toil and struggle just to survive each day. After a counsel between themselves, the siblings agree they shall all travel together to find a place free of pain and struggle.

So they set out to find this mythical place for three years. Then one night the two sisters decide to leave their brother and seek their own fortune. So they leave and flow their separate ways down to the sea.

Their brother upon waking discovers that his sisters have abandoned him and goes seeking after them in a torrent and rage. But his anger eventually subsides and he calms as he enters the sea.

I’m not sure how these children magically changed into swift, coursing rivers, but I suppose folk tales don’t need much explanation on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ certain things happen. 

Volga River

Image: Traveler's Digest

The Soldier and the Vampire

This is from the second half of the reading unit and I found this story to be the most riveting out of all the ones I read! Of course, it helps that I’ve held a fascination of vampires since I was very young, but that’s besides the point.

A soldier is coming back from war on furlough and as he’s nearing his village he stops by the house of a miller he had been friends with for a long time. They talk and talk and soon the night comes.

The miller warns the soldier against leaving, claiming there is an evil upon the village in the form of a warlock. The soldier, having little fear and owing his life’s duty to protecting those ‘under the crown’ sets off to find the cause of this mischief.

Lo and behold - he meets the Warlock (in a graveyard, of course)! Playing the part of a harmless passerby, he acquaints himself with the warlock and the two go into town for a wedding.

Everything is going well until the warlock drinks too much and decides to stab the bride and groom and collect their blood. The soldier follows him back to graveyard, asking him little things like, ‘Why did you collect that blood? Is there anyway to bring those two back? Is there any way to kill you?’ Except he asks much more tactfully than that.

The warlock, thinking himself invincible, tells the soldier everything. When they reach the graveyard, the warlock sets himself on the soldier, meaning to kill him (and no doubt drink his blood). After a long battle the sun rises and the warlock collapses.

That’s when the soldier steals the blood from him, returns to town, restores the bride and groom back to life, and burns the warlock. Then the town lives happily ever after!

But really though - if I were the warlock I wouldn’t be telling people my secrets willy-nilly. Nobody is invincible.

Week 13 Essay: Song Significance in Finnish Lore

I think this is the first time I’ve ever opted for the essay option instead of the extra reading, so yay!

Finnish mythology places a heavy emphasis on songs and singing. The entirety of the Kalevala in the form we can read it in today was actually a scattered collection of stories collected and compiled by Elias Loennrot. Traveling all over Finland in the early 1800’s, Loennrot gathered the bits and pieces of Finland’s famous oral epic through monograph, which he used to record the songs from the voices of singers who upheld the tradition of reciting the ancient verses. Though there were many variations of the stories in dialect and verse, all kept with the same metre and style. While the stories may have changed over time, the songs themselves remained true in melody and metre even over great distances between singers.

Poem-singing brothers Poavalia and Triihvo Jamanen reciting the Kalevala

Image: I.K. Inha

The Kalevala is unique not only because of the stories it carries, but also because of the style and metre in which it is traditionally sung. A type of trochaic tetrametre in where a long, unstressed syllable is followed by a short, unstressed one, the metre in which these songs are sung is known as the Kalevala metre.

In the Kalevala itself, we see the significance of songs and singing as demonstrated by the hero/sorcerer Väinämöinen. In the confrontation between him and the young, haughty Joukahainen, what proceeds is a battle of verses and melody which result in the transformation of living creatures and objects into mundane features, the sky into torrents, and Joukahainen himself bound and sinking into the Earth by Väinämöinen’s superior mastery of the songs.

Even now, Finnish culture still holds singing in high regard and many Finns retain singing as traditional past-time. One of the most common hobbies of many Finns is participating in choir At dinner parties where shots of vodka are taken after a meal, it is customary for the toastmaster to lead the group in a dinner or drinking song before each shot is taken.

Songs and singing are an important and central theme in Finnish mythology. As demonstrated by the traditional retelling of the Kalevala through song and the power which is wielded through singing evidenced by the hero Väinämöinen, singing in itself is powerful. Were it not through the shared reverence for singing and song carried across the Finnish nation, the Kalevala may not have survived after having been scattered and spread across such great distances.

Week 13 Readings A and B

Finally! I’ve waited all semester to get to the Europe portion so that I could read the Kalevala! I’ve heard of this Finnish epic before and have wanted to read it for a long time. However, reading for pleasure is a virtue long sought-after during the school year. But now I can read it for class credit! How wonderful!

Finnish mythology, culture, and their language in general is fascinating to me because it’s so profoundly unique. The language is especially intriguing because there’s nothing like it anywhere else on Earth. Finnish is a Uralic language and is completely different from the other more common Romance languages we typically hear about. Just to hear it spoken or sung makes my heart happy - it’s a magical language I imagine the elves from ‘Lord of the Rings’ would speak.

The Kalevala is very large - composed of 50 songs (Finnish: Runo), all sung in their own unique metre known as the Kalevala metre. Most epic poems are simply that - poems. The Kalevala, however, is one giant song. How cool is that?

The portion we’re given to read includes the song-battle of Joukahainen and Väinämöinen, Väinämöinen’s pursuit of Joukahainen’s sister Aino, Aino’s suicide, Väinämöinen’s fishing, Joukahainen’s revenge, Väinämöinen’s wooing of the maiden of Pohjola, and the creation of the legendary Sampo.

The epic starts off with haughty Joukahainen wishing to challenge the great song-sorcerer Väinämöinen to a singing contest, to pit each other’s wisdom against each other (as much wisdom was carried in the form of songs). His mother warns him to not go up against such a great sorcerer, but Joukahainen ignores her and goes to challenge the old man still.

Väinämöinen asks him many questions and Joukahainen answers, until he falsely states that he was there at the time of creation. Väinämöinen, knowing this is a lie, punishes the youth by singing all he has brought with him into useless dirt. Then, to drive his point home, he sings the lad into a mud hole. As the mud is closing over Joukahainen, nearly drowning him, he begs Väinämöinen to free him, promising his sister in return for his life.

To me, Joukahainen is a coward in this respect. He thought himself wiser than he was, and his pompous actions endangered not only him, but also his sister. He selfishly offered up his sister to repent for his own foolishness, and this will cost Aino her life (kinda).

Väinämöinen is obviously stoked by this. Aino, Joukahainen’s sister, is certainly not. Upon hearing she’ll be wedded to an old man, she sinks into a deep depression. Honestly, I would too if I got roped into an arranged marriage I wanted nothing to do with. Her mother tells her to stop crying because Väinämöinen is a great and powerful wizard and will keep her home warm and larders full, but Aino is having none of it. In her anguish, she allows herself to be taken by the lake and drowns in the abyss. 

Her mother, brother, and Väinämöinen grieve tremendously for her passing. Väinämöinen actually catches her as a fish one day while out on the lake, but she wriggles out of his grasp and mocks him. Fruitlessly, he tries to recapture the Aino-fish by dredging all the lakes, streams, and rivers of the land. After giving up, his mother comes back from the dead and tells him to seek out the maiden of Pohjola as a wife. What are these regions? Where exactly is Kaleva, Pohjola, and several other regions mentioned in this national epic?

Väinämöinen's fishing 

Image: Wikipedia

On his way to Pohja, Väinämöinen is shot out of vengeance by Joukahainen and immerses himself in the Ocean. There, he is tossed about and beaten up by waves for many days and nights. When he finally washes up on shore in Pohja, he’s so weary and heartbroken that all he wants to do is go back home. The old woman of Pohja promises to send him back and give him her daughter if he can forge her a Sampo. Väinämöinen answers honestly that he can’t, but he can send someone who can, Ilmarinen, the great smith. Also, what’s with everyone using their children as bartering goods or currency? Your child’s opinion matters too!

And from what is said about the land of Pohja between Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen, it’s not a great place. People eat each other, it’s dark, and really cold. What a place to live.

Ilmarinen arrives in Pohjola and says he can and will forge a Sampo. It’s described as an object with a ‘many colored cover’ and is made of impossible things, much like the chains which hold down the wolf Fenrir in Norse mythology.

Ilmarinen eventually forges the complex Sampo, and it churns out milled grain for the inhabitants of Pohja. But he does not take the maid of Pohja as his prize. Like a gentleman, he actually asks for her hand, but she refuses. Even though he’s deeply saddened by this, he accepts her decision and goes back home to Kaleva, to do his smithing and talk with Väinämöinen.

Want to hear some of the original songs of the Kalevala? Click on the link below!
Songs of the Kalevala

Portfolio Index

Welcome to my portfolio! Here is a collection of my very best story re-tellings. I've selected only the very best stories, and by very best I mean stories that have good morals and messages. Alternatively, there are also stories in here that I'm just plain proud of. So browse and enjoy! I hope there's something in here for everyone!

The Queen of the Dead
You've most likely heard the tale of Persephone's capture by Hades and her descent into the Underworld to become his Queen. But have you ever heard the story from her point of view? If not, this story might surprise you!

The Lawless Heart
Based off of the Japanese fairy tale of "Urashima Taro and the Sea Turtle," this story shows how the unexpected kindness from one stranger to another can end up saving a life... and how some systems of government work better for some than others.

The Two Brothers
A tale of love and loss, how pride and the ego can overwhelm and hurt those who love us most. This is a story retelling based off of 'The Quarrel of the Cat and the Dog,' and teaches a very powerful lesson in not allowing greed to control our minds and ambitions.

Little Seal-Girl
A retelling of the Eskimo folk tale, "Attarsuaq", this story shows the strength forged through the bonds of friendship across species.

Semester's End Madness
A sleep-deprived, stress-induced retelling of "How Cormac Mac Art Went to Faery" from the point of view of a college student.

Storytelling Week 12: Semester's End Madness

My eyes burned from staring at the screen for so long and my legs begged to be stretched. Sighing, I pushed myself away from my computer and stood up to stretch with an over-exaggerated yawn. After working on my capstone paper for the past ten hours I felt it was time to go out and get a breath of fresh air to gather my senses.

It was evening when I walked out of my apartment and headed to the nearby trail which went through a humble patch of woods. The evening air was damp and chillier than usual as I trodded down the familiar dirt path and under the trees which were finally beginning to show signs of life again with the return of spring.

Maybe I hadn't noticed it before, but fog had seemingly come out of nowhere and now filled the whole forest. Had this ever happened before? I pulled my jacket tighter around me to fight off the chill of fog and resisted the urge to look behind to see if someone or something was following me.

Foggy Woods by adeimantus on DeviantArt

Suddenly I found myself in a clearing without the spooky mist that permeated the forest. Where had this clearing come from? I couldn’t remember ever coming across it before.

A light to my left caught my eye and I turned to see a small fire and a person with bloodshot eyes feeding papers to the dying flames. His clothes were disheveled and he looked as if he hadn’t bathed in a week. I figured he was homeless and, shrugging it off, continued down the path.

I came to a stream of black running water and grimaced. Was there a pollution spill from upstream? I searched for some sizable rocks and threw them in the stream to form a path to get to the other side. After some haphazard balancing I made it across and turned to look at both the stream and the homeless man with his papers. What was going on?

“I’ve been working on that paper for too long…” I murmured, rubbing my eyes as I continued walking. I’d turn back around soon before it got too dark.

I opened my eyes and saw for a fleeting glimpse a shrouded figure with a cap gliding away from me down the path. Okay, now that was really creepy. Shuddering, I turned around and made my way back across the stream, away from the crazy person, and back to my apartment.

Once safely inside I turned on the light and yelped. The head of my department was relaxing on my sofa!

“Um…. can I offer you some tea?” I stammered, unsure of what to do. I had definitely been working too hard. These hallucinations were getting ridiculous, but I might as well run with them since I had obviously gone insane.

“Certainly.” He smiled pleasantly, standing to extend his hand to me. I took it, shaking his hand with nervous enthusiasm.

I put on the kettle and brought out a variety of different teabags on a tray and brought it out to the coffee table.

“So, er, Dr. Mickey…. what brings you here today?” I asked uncertainly.

“Well, I wanted to see how you were doing with your Capstone paper and project. I like to check on all my students this close to graduation to make sure they’re still doing alright,” he replied cheerfully, selecting a bag of Earl Grey tea.

“Uh-huh…” I said, retreating to the kitchen to pour two cups of boiling water. I brought the cups back and gave him the one I reserved for guests - a plain green ceramic mug. I kept the Nightmare Before Christmas mug for myself.

“I’m particularly concerned about my students’ mental health.” Dr. Mickey stated bluntly, steeping his tea. I gulped. Did my craziness shine like a beacon for the whole world to see?

“Is that so? Is there anything concerning about me?” I asked, opening a packet of Jasmine Green tea.

“Well, after the sights you came across in those woods, I was hoping you could tell me,” he replied cheerfully, a congenial grin on his face.

All cordiality dropped from my demeanor. “How do you know about that?” I asked, startled.

He chuckled good-heartedly, blowing the steam off from his mug before carefully sipping the tea. “Be honest with me, now. Hasn’t this semester taken quite the toll on you?”

I bit my lip and remained silent. Then I sighed and held my head in my hands. “Yes sir, it has. I’ve been trying my hardest, but sometimes it seems like I’m never going to get all this work done and that I’m never going to graduate.”

I heard another slurp from the mug. “I’m glad you’re finally being honest with yourself. For those visions you saw while out on your walk were none other than your repressed feelings about this semester. The dishevelled figure feeding papers to a dying fire was your own passion slowly dwindling with each paper you’ve churned out. That black stream was none other than the gallons of coffee you’ve consumed this semester in order to get through your assignments. And the shrouded figure was what you fear is running away from you - your graduated self.”

I stared at him in disbelief, stunned. “Well, Dr. Mickey, does this mean I’m not going to graduate at all? Are those visions four years of accumulating failure?”

“Quite the contrary,” he grinned. “You’ve admitted the truth to me, as scary as it was. For your honesty and determination, I will give you this. Use it wisely.”

I held out my hand and felt the smooth paper of my diploma slip into my palm….

… and then I awoke in my chair, the dim rays of dawn filtering in through the blinds.

I looked at my computer screen and sighed, rubbing my fingers to try and remember the silky feel of that diploma.

Oh well. Guess it's time for another pot of coffee.

Author's Note: 

This is a much more modern (and college-ized) version of 'How Cormac Mac Art Went to Faery.' In the original story, King Cormac trades his family for a magic bough that brings happiness to all when it is shaken. After a while he misses his family so dearly that he goes off into the mists to find them. The mists transport him to Faery, where he beholds many curious sites of strange things and people doing stranger things. Eventually he comes to the dwelling of the King and Queen of Faery and, after telling him why he has come, they praise his honesty and give him his family back, along with a few other goodies such as a cow that produces lots of milk and a pig that regenerates its meat if its bones are kept after eating. 

Graduation for me is fast approaching and I feel that after so much toil, so much hard work and tears, that I have earned my diploma more than anything. Of course, I didn't use the real name of the head of my department, but I felt the interaction I portrayed of the story with him was much like Cormac's interaction with the King - and hopefully my honesty will be met with due reward, too. 

Bibliography:
Title: How Cormac Mac Art Went to Faery
Book: More Celtic Faery Tales
Author: Joseph Jacobs
Year: 1895

Reading Week B: Still More Celtic Fairy Tales!

In the second part of this section is where I see the stories that I usually associate with fairy tales - light-hearted, with children begin whisked off away into the land of Faery or other strange dimensions and playing with the Fair Folk. Such a tale is seen in ‘Elidore,’ where a little boy, escaping the wrath of the monks who are trying to train him, is led by a pair of pygmies through a cave into a magical land with no sun and moon, only clouds.

There, Elidore spends time playing with the King’s son and keeping him company rather than try his hand at the arduous task of reading and writing. All is well for a time, and then he longs to see humans like himself, along with his mother.

So the King, benevolent as he is, agrees to let Elidore go. His mother is very happy to see him, though distraught (understandably) and begs him to stay. He stays for a while but returns to the happy land to play. So this goes for a few months, maybe years.

Eventually, his mom coerces him into bringing her one of the yellow balls he plays with (convinced that it’s gold), and he’s caught sneaking one out by the pygmies. Since then he can never find his way back to that magical land.

Elidore becomes a monk, but mourns the days when he would play with the little fair people. St. David tries to find out where these little people come from and based on what Elidore tells them of their language, deduces that they must be Greek. How? I don’t understand. I’m not even sure there are fairies in Greek mythology, but there’s a very good chance I’m wrong. 

Looks like it could be the glittering land of Faery to me. 

Image: Flickriver

Another great story, How Cormac Mac Art Went to Faery, shows the value of truth and maybe even of love. In this story, the King Cormac trades his wife and two children for a magical fairy branch which takes away the sorrows and pain of any who are lulled to sleep by its sweet music. After a year goes by and his citizens are lulled into happiness, he decides to go out and seek his family.

Something I found very interesting about his journey - it is said he wanders down a magical path and then mists rise around him and all of a sudden he’s in Faery! Myself, I’m reading ‘The Mists of Avalon’ at the moment and keep trying to find correlations between the myths of Faery along with how those myths are upheld in the book. It excites me every time I find even the tiniest correlation, like the mists rising to reveal the land of Faery!

Anyway, he eventually is reunited with his family after seeing many strange things, such as a man who brings wood to a fire, but it’s burned as soon as he goes out for more (much like a Sisyphusian paradox if you ask me), and a hog that is quartered and cooked under a quarter of a log once a truth is told.



Cormac, for telling the truth that he is out seeking his family, is gifted a hog who regenerates overnight when his bones are in the sty, seven cows that produce an abundance of milk, and his family by Manannan Mac Lir. LIR. Any connection or relation to King Lir, whose children were turned into swans? Curioser and curioser….

Reading A Week 12: Celtic Fairy Tales (2)

This week I chose to read More Celtic Fairy Tales, by Joseph Jacobs. For some reason I keep choosing tales that have something to do with some part of my heritage. Two weeks ago it was Cherokee Folk Tales, now it’s Celtic Fairy Tales for my Irish heritage. I think this class is bringing me closer to my ancestors. :)


The stories in this section are much longer than most of the stories featured in folk or fairy tales, with some taking 3 parts to finish!

The first story featured, ‘The Fate of the Children of Lir’ was rather sad. Typically, when I think of Celtic Fairy Tales, I think of fairy tales - light hearted and fun tales of whimsy and magic. This tale was certainly filled with magic, but more woe than whimsy. Four children are born to a King and his lovely wife, but she soon dies and he takes her sister as his second wife after a time. She becomes jealous of his children, as he dotes on them and gives them more attention than he does her, so she takes them out to a lake to kill them. However, she finds she cannot drown the children, so she instead turns them into beautiful swans, cursing them in these forms for 900 years.

Her plan backfires because the swans can still talk, so they rat her out for being a traitorous sorceress and in she is in turn transformed into an air-demon.

Perhaps the saddest part of the story (I thought) was how even though the children waited 900 years to be transformed back into humans, they did not take the same age as when they were turned into swans. Instead, they all had the forms of withered old men and women and died soon after regaining their human forms due to their decrepitness.

King Lir bemoans the fate of his beloved children. 

Illustration by H. R. Millar

A second story, ‘The Vision of MacConglinney’ is a little more light-hearted, but just as bizarre. A King whose massive hunger is nearly driving his kingdom bankrupt is challenged to fast one night by a young man. Not wanting to look weak, the king obeys and the lad taunts and tempts him by telling him how he once went to a Kingdom in a far-away place made of slatters of bacon, troughs of bread, pots of custard, and rivers of cream. My mouth was watering as I read this, myself!

As he’s doing this, he’s taking savory slices of bacon and passing them just within reach of the King, but not to where he can actually get a bite. Eventually, a small demon is seen climbing out of the King’s mouth, unable to resist the temptation of bacon anymore (and who can blame him? Bacon is delicious!)

And then the demon is thrust into the fire, poof, happily ever after.

More than anything, this story made me think of a similar method I’ve read on how to get rid of tapeworm infections. Very similarly, the afflicted will fast for a night, then hold a very ripe apple in front of their mouth first thing in the morning. Supposedly, the smell will tempt the worm so much that it’s head will come out the mouth, allowing the sick person to pull the worm out. Maybe this story was based off a potential cure for tapeworm infections.