Amorphis and Kalevala

Let's see... for the passages quoted in Tales, see here. Eclipse quotes from Kullervo's Story, which retells chapters 31-36, Silent Waters is mainly based on chapters 11-15 (T&A: chapter 26).
Skyforger refers to chapters 9 (FEIR), 10 (Sampo, FTHOMH), 19 (Majestic Beast, Godlike Machine) & 36 (Silver Bride); Course of Fate draws on 33 and 36 but is mostly based on Kainulainen's own imagination, as are the remaining songs.
The Beginning Of Times is also rather loosely adapted, but contains at least the following references: Battle For Light ch. 47 & 49, Mermaid & On a Stranded Shore 5, My Enemy 3, Song of the Sage 44, Three Words, Escape & Crack in a Stone 16, Beginning of Time 1. Blizk and Tuuletar, please add anything I have possibly forgotten...

 

I wanted to give this thread a bump. 1) Because I think it's awesome! And 2) I am currently reading the Kalevala (just finished the 4th rune), and I am using this thread as a reference as I read the book.

 

Yes, this is a very helpful thread! I can't wait to read it too, I've been eyeballing this Dutch copy since the start of my Amorphis kick:



It even has a "tr00 metul" cover.

 

Nice cover indeed. Fitting for such a book.
It reminds me of the cover and illustrations for one of my favorite childhood books.

 

Amazing posts and I can't believe that I haven't bothered to track the book down yet. I have read all of the Icelandic sagas and tonnes of other medieval literature. This will be my next reading project!

I just ordered the Oxford World's Classic version from 2009.

 

Unfortunately my links above do no longer work because whoever is in charge of what is left of the Amorphis website decided in their infinite wisdom to do away with all the lyric & background info I had collected there over the years, but for those of you interested in the links between the Kalevala and the actual Amorphis lyrics, I'll post them here. Starting with Paavo Haavikko's Kullervo's Story, which provided the basis for Eclipse:

The Story of Kullervo
I have a good memory. I remember how I was born, not from a woman but from the fire. That was my birth. I wasn’t killed. I wasn’t given my right, not even the right to die the day I was born. I do remember how the Father woke up, Mother woke up, how they disappeared into the smoke [...] and this master came and took me away. Do I remember this, I don’t remember, and I’ll never forget. But I don’t dwell on it. I don’t want it to
fade and grow distant in my mind.

Thus muses Kullervo, a youth on the threshold of manhood, kept as a slave in the house of his uncle. The uncle, Untamo, had spared the boy during the family feud years ago, carried the infant to safety from the fire he himself had set to the cabin of his brother, Kullervo’s father. Out of flames and smoke he had brought the boy home to his barren wife, who could summon no love for the child, always fearing the man he would grow into, fearing his memory, his revenge.

They took me here to raise me. To work. To be an extension of this axe handle. [...] Grew up under the table. Grew up to table-top level. Grew taller than the table. I was always underfoot, under their eyes, in their teeth. [...] I was called Kullervo. That was mine, my name. It was like a curse.

Untamo, unwilling to forego a pair of good strong hands, pays no heed to the forebodings of his wife. Kullervo is sent to the blacksmith’s to buy a tool of his own, a sturdy axe to put to good use in the master’s forest, far away from the house.
The blacksmith asks Kullervo to lend a hand in the forging and compliments him on his good work – the first and only praise the young man is ever awarded.

Eager to prove himself, Kullervo heads out into the woods. In no time, he cuts a vast clearing as ordered, chopping the felled trees into firewood. But after the axe has done its work, Untamo arrives, devastated. The birch thicket over yonder should have been cleared, not these tall trees. Not his priceless spruce forest, prepared over decades to deliver the logs for a new house someday. Unable to bear the sight of the ruin, Untamo turns away, leaving Kullervo with the instruction to burn the trunks and to fence off the clearing. And so Kullervo does, burning piles of wood during the days and resting beside the glowing embers at night, hardly daring to sleep, always ready to wake up should fire break out unexpectedly -

Perkele. The god of fire. I woke up. It woke me. It woke me because I sleep with my hand held over a burned spot, at the edge of the burned ground. [...] Good hand, it knows to wake me up when the fiery ground burns it. I know how to take the broom out of the water I’ve dammed, to put out the fire. It won’t surprise me in my dream. My dream wakes me up, instantly, and without a word. My hand is a trap for that fire. If it wakes up or ignites, I drown it with water, kill it on the spot. It won’t have time to run far, it won’t get away from me…

Kullervo does not return to the farmhouse. He stays in his forest dwelling all summer, tends the fenced clearing and turns it into a field, sows the seeds Untamo has given to him, and watches the grain grow and ripen until the time comes to reap the harvest. A good harvest it is, plenty of work for Kullervo, who is determined not to leave a single grain unthreshed, not to give his master any more reason for reproach. And he threshes all of it, pounding everything to chaff and powder, rendering it unusable. A great calamity, says Untamo, disbelieving and afraid, eager now to sell his unlucky slave and nephew before winter comes.

The new master, an old man, entrusts Kullervo to the care of his young wife. The mistress sends him to take the cattle to the pastures. Kullervo doesn’t understand why she would give him this task, fit for a child, not for a man. Neither does he understand when she later visits him, bringing him a freshly baked loaf of bread. A token of affection, or just a new mockery? – This loaf is the way you think it is. It’s like you, or like me, the mistress says, encouragingly. But Kullervo does not dare to break the bread. – If it’s like me, there’s a stone inside. – Tomorrow, I’ll bring you another loaf, the mistress says. This one I made in my likeness. And she returns the following day, carrying with her another loaf. Kullervo refuses to try either one, and she knows her good intentions were to no avail. A loaf with a stone inside is what you’re looking for in this world. One like yourself, she comments, sadly.

You already have a woman here, one made of stone. You made her yourself, for yourself. You piled her up, made a stone face, stone eyes, stone fingers, arms of birchwood. [...] It makes me sad to see that you’ve made yourself a woman out of rocks and wood, grasses and tree bark, to lie beside you. Poor you. There’s no room beside her for another woman, a live and breathing one. You’re hard. You’re afraid of softness, afraid of love.
Hate is what you love, the mistress says.

Kullervo gives no answer, thinking to himself, I made that stone woman for you to see and to say: “Don’t make a stone woman. I am here.” But the moment is gone, the chance has passed. The mistress leaves, taking the wrong way through the treacherous bog, takes a wrong step, and drowns in the bog. Too long Kullervo waits before following her, too late he comes to save her. He wanders across the bog until he reaches dry land, walks on without looking back. Passing Untamo’s
house along the way, he decides to set fire to it.

The smoke followed me, but I walked on and it didn’t reach me. [...] I was headed home. A grove, yellow with flowers. I had a dream that when I get home, father and mother will say, “we’ve been expecting you.” The path I walked was monogrammed with kullero flowers, and it took me there. I walked into the yard, up the front step, opened the door.

The son, thought dead for many years, returns home to find his mother and father alive but burdened with age. The young man’s strength is welcome, and again he finds himself being ordered around. At his father’s bidding, Kullervo loads sacks of grain onto the sleigh and takes them to the mill, more than a day’s ride away. But he finds the driver’s seat to be a good place, and holding the reins an enjoyable task:

Now I know how to do things. No longer will I listen to any advice. Now I know, and it’s working. I won’t listen to others, I won’t ponder things. What if the others don’t feel anything? What if the others weren’t made the way I was made, so that everything hurts me?[...] I used to think that people were made the way I was made, but I was made by fire, born from fire. I don’t want to know anything about anybody: no family, no name, let it all go! And it is going. Fate changed, life healed, like a wound. How does the kind of life heal that leaves a deep scar? I don’t know.

Returning from his errand, directing his horse through ice and snow on the long journey home, he spots a small figure ahead of him. From a small dot she grew to the size of a finger, out on the frozen lake she slowly grew, from a tiny thing, on this lake as I drove to meet her. He stops beside the girl and folds back his blanket, inviting her to join him in his sleigh.

I wish you hadn’t said that. When I saw you, I decided that if he doesn’t ask or invite or ask questions or ask for my name, then I’ll get into his sleigh, the girl says. – And you shouldn’t have folded that blanket back. I can do that myself. I dress and undress myself. I cover myself, I uncover myself.

She continues on her way, and Kullervo on his. But before nightfall he meets another girl, with a broken ski and worn shoes. Without hesitation, she gets into his sleigh. There is no need for many words, or questions. I’ll be good to her, Kullervo thinks, I won’t spoil this thing by talking, asking, I won’t ask her a thing. While he is building a camp for the night, she wonders why they both seem to know each other’s thoughts. Kullervo hushes her:

Don’t talk, sleep. It’s a greater skill in this world to sleep alive than to sleep with the dead, to sleep well and to wake up. I’ll never sleep alone again, never without you. Because whatever you say to me will be lies, but what you don’t say I already know, all of it, without having to hear it. Don’t talk. I won’t talk. What would I talk about, and even if I said something to you, you would take those words… or maybe you wouldn’t, but I would hang myself! There’s so much power or magic in words, don’t use them, when you can get by without. Sleep! I’m not ordering you to sleep, I’m making you sleep. You don’t know anything yet, about sleep, because sleep is a house built for lovers. You’ll be the mistress of that house of sleep, quite soon. You’ll be given the wide belt of a mistress, and the big key to the granary. When you come with me, you’ll inherit it from my mother.

As lovers they wake the following morning, a man and a woman. They continue their journey, first to the girl’s home, where Kullervo will ask for her hand. She takes the reins, and how familiar the horse seems to her, how strangely familiar the road to her parents’ house looks to Kullervo…

You are my sister, Kullervo says, gloomy now.
- Well, now that you know that, don’t say it, the girl says. – It didn’t hurt me any.
- That’s what my sister says, and during that day came Spring and Summer, the clouds tore through two full cycles of the moon in one night, and I didn’t say it. I wanted to say: “Whence did you fly here? Any other girl but you who were born by the same woman as I. But it was you I found, the same flesh and blood but a girl, a woman, yes, it was you I found, you I met and slept with, my sister, one just like myself. Myself, no one else in this whole world.” But I won’t say it. [...] A hard place, this world. Nowhere else does one make as many mistakes as here, Kullervo says. – What’s done is done, done and gone, don’t worry and fret about it, says the girl, a wise woman.

Together they arrive home, indifferent the sister, the brother deeply troubled. She sees no reason to let their mother know, but he feels the urge to tell the truth, or anything, tries to speak, struggling for words:

- Mother, on the road I met your daughter, who is my sister, and I took her into my sleigh. She had broken one of her skis. Spring came in one day, the clouds in front of the moon tore themselves to shreds so that two moons passed in one night. Winter went, Spring came, I brought the sleigh back, and I slept on top of the sacks so that not a single grain or seed would be lost. It’s all in the sacks now, saved. The clouds tore off their clothes and washed them in the rivers of rain, and naked, in the dark, they waited for their clothes to dry, those clouds. They even darkened the moon, they would have tried to kill it if they could have reached that far, as it spied on the cloud women who were washing the clothes they had taken off in the waters of heaven, and two moons passed in one night, Kullervo says to his mother, piling up lies like a little boy. Many words.
- That’s a long story you told me. I would have understood a shorter one right away, but this one I had to listen to, from beginning to end, Kullervo’s mother says to him.

Under the same roof they live now, brother and sister, man and woman. Kullervo washes his hands with grass and sand, scrubbing himself clean. But at night his sister calls to him, come to bed now, and he follows. You did a wicked thing, the mother tells her son, reproachful but too weary to care, knowing her daughter’s days are numbered. The plague has befallen the girl and will soon claim her life - people begin to die before their time, Kullervo realizes, turning his mind to his unfinished revenge, setting his thoughts once again on Untamo. He leaves to complete his self-appointed task, to burn down and destroy the hated farmstead for good. Unharmed by the smoke, he watches the buildings burn, sword in hand, waits for Untamo’s kinsfolk to run from the flames. Kills them one by one, sparing none but the old dog. But he returns to find an empty house. The disease that took his sister did not spare Kullervo’s mother and father, leaving him finally alone in the world, alone with his sword.

Who could have buried them? No one will bury me. A beautiful day, when it’s over. Beautiful yard, trees, up against the sky, there it is, an empty opening. Grasses. They live one summer. This world is so good and dear to me that I’ll kill myself. I don’t want to live here. If there were a wicked world, and war, I’d live, I’d go on, I’d kill. A good life, the best I’ve ever had. [...] If one would improve it beyond this, it wouldn’t be a world. Myself, that’s who I found or met here, behind every door, at every gate. How did I get here? – Grew up under the table, grew to table-top level, grew taller than the table; was always underfoot, in their teeth, in their eyes. I was a boy out of which they made a Kullervo. And he became a good Kullervo, as Kullervos go, you have to admit that – hey, Kullervo’s sword, don’t deny it. Help yourself.

All passages in italics are excerpts from Kullervon tarina/Kullervo’s Story
by Paavo Haavikko, transl. Anselm Hollo. Art House, Helsinki 1989 (ISBN 951-884-002-4).

For a slightly different rendition of the tale by the same author see Paavo Haavikko, Rauta-aika. Otava, Helsinki 1982.
The traditional version of the Kullervo saga is found in the Kalevala, runes 31-36.

 

Pekka Kainulainen's poems for Silent Waters (never got the originals, unfortunately)

Lemminkäinen – Original Poems
Original poetry by Pekka Kainulainen.
Translated from Finnish by Erkki Virta.

Song 1: Lemminkäinen
I am of crimson blood
nought shall hold me
the dark of night my mirror
My shape reflected in water

Ablaze are my eyes
my soul consumed by woe
my braids weaved by the wind
An image in the black of my mind

Leave I must with haste
me who tires of quiet life
me who’s path leads to war
me who fears no death

I yearn for more
I yearn to rise
I yearn for everything
I yearn for you
I yearn to rise!

Song 2: I Want
What was denied from poor
I took to riches be
I ran on its’ behest
it made me take my due

To death I’d plunge with joy
For happiness to fetch
Prepared to face I am
The war under black soil

Wont to crawl I was
Wont to cringe and fawn
A lowly servant on hours of day
But a holder of nocturnal sway

I ‘m righteous if I so desire
until I shall reveal my worth
and take unto myself
What was denied from me

I stalked them in their celebrations
I delved into their worlds
I aimed at the highest of high
and decided it’s mine to take

What is denied from poor
is taken to love be
I run on its behest
it makes me take my due

Song 3: Mother Mine
Only one can make me do my good deeds
only one and the shadow of that one

Only one can make me do my evil deeds
only one and the shadow of that one

Only one can make me wage all my wars
only one and the shadow of that one

My wit, my knowledge
borne of her advice
My desires I fulfill by revolt

her alone will I lend my ear to
only her I want to obey
her alone will I want to serve
only her I want to defy

Only one can make me do my good deeds
only one and the shadow of that one

Only one can make me do my evil deeds
only one and the shadow of that one

Only one can make me do all my deeds
only one and the shadow of that one

Song 4: The Departure
I have known the arcane lore
on strange roads such visions met
that I have no fear nor concern
for hatred and obstacles of this world

By stoneshoed wanderer I’m taught
My visions from fiery eyed ironarmed chanter
I know how to fight, I know how to sing
I know how to bend, I know how to break

I’ve not grown weary on lenghty roads
on strange lands not gone astray
such is the knowledge cast in me
such is the knowledge and such are the skills

I know how to fight, I know how to sing
I know the way

If ruin is said on me to befall
it has not come to pass
I’ve conquered all who stood on my way
and drowned the snakes of death

And because of treason I now shall leave
because of my blood burning my soul
now I raise the flaming sword
towards darkness and against everyone

I know how to fight, I know how to sing
I know the way
I know the way

Song 5: The Incantation
So high soared my love, now cruelly rejected
If there be peace above, I’ll find it when I rise

A mind dejected, blood boiling with anger
the storm of the warpath now sings in my heart

To battle I equip myself, to warfare I prepare
My sable locks I comb down, and bridle them with resin

I don my enchanted black cloak of adders
my flaming sword high, summon strenght from the night

Your prayer shall not reach my heart
your despair shall not stop me now

Your pleads I now shall disregard
to weep I leave you, and to fear for me

And only this I give you, as a token
for you to have and mourn over:

This precious hairbrush that belonged to my father
I now hurl at the opposing wall
and when my blood flows from its bristles
when my sap drips from its’ shaft
then you will know of my anguish,
then will my destruction be revealed

My sable locks I comb down, and bridle them with resin
my flaming sword high, summon strenght from the night
now ready for my pain I am, now ready for my end
now ready for my road I am, now ready for my victory

Song 6: The Enigma (narrator’s voice)
On warriors trail rose obstacles of stone
he was deluded and led astray
forces strange he had to face
and magic unseen before

He asked and was not answered
he asked for and was not given
but he was not discouraged
he had no mind to quit

Into a whirling mass of waters
up on the highest mountains
of his desire and will he spoke
from ruin rose to claim his due

And then he faced the one, the highest
and shadow moved in Louhi’s mirror
his restless mind found it to his liking
the fairest maid of them all

Thus Louhi spoke in riddled tones
of three things to accomplish
to find and catch the wild moose
to pursue the elk enchanted

To seek the fire-expiring stallion
to bridle the flaming horse
he took the mad reindeer captive
he bridled the golden horse

And still remained the final test:
from sacred stream of death
to hunt the long necked graceful bird
the wild white swan of coal-black river

Song 7: The Enemy (The voice of Lemminkäinen’s killer)
Vile I am and loathsome, a wretched man of straw
the lowliest of the low, unnoticed by them all
a traitor I am, a coward I am
and I will show you my revenge!

A mad dog of the night I am
I grovel and I creep
I kill and none shall ever know
of snakes I shoot from my black heart

Ordained to be no one I am
trodden below everyone
crushed on the ground I am
unnoticed by everyone

Evil I am and rotten, a wretched man of straw
the lowliest of the low, unnoticed by them all
a traitor I am, a coward I am
and I will show you my revenge!

The man who comes to this river I now strike down
his victorious road I now destroy
to gloomy waters I cast him now
by treason into endless enigma

I wait in stony soil, in the shadows, in hiding
his hope I want to destroy
His happiness I must restrain
Now he draws near, I see his fire

A mind like that I once possessed
my soul desired to shine
such courage and hope I too possessed
but they put out my fire

A snake I’m now, a rat I’m now
I thrive on endless hate
I revel on this pain
a traitor I am, an avenger I am

I take my vengeance upon this man
who deemed me feeble-minded
who spared me in his ignorance
Who thought I pose no threat

into his heart my serpent-arrow
and stakes of bone through his lungs
his flesh I’ll rip with sharpest iron
and shoot down his burning spirit
into the coal-black rapids with him
into the death-jaws of Tuoni with him
where none shall ever come back from
where none shall return!

Song 8: The Death (Lemminkäinen’s voice)
I set out on a longest road
to seek answers from death itself
I set out to the black sacred stream
to seek out and shoot a white swan

Embraced by gloomy mists I was
on those desolate and stony paths
I descended from a mountain to a vale
from day to night I went

I reached the shore and I bent down
to hide among the shadows
and there I saw it come toward
to float into my view, the swan

I took the arrow and raised my bow
I aimed below the graceful neck
under the white of its’ breast
inside the red of its’ heart

The calm surface of black river
reflected the sky and a pale moon
and there I caught a glimpse of myself
before the vision shattered

An arrow hit me from the water
a serpent ripped apart my mind
the pain my sense destroyed
the slash went through my heart

Now I fall into the black river
into the jaws of death
I dissolve into this stream
and vanish in gory mire

My last sight a white swan
behind the swan a starless sky
under the sky a coal black river
in river reflected a bone white moon

Someone slipped from a shadow to another
someone crawled from a hideout to another
someone disappeared on the road invisible
someone ended into the endless

Song 9: The Sign (narrator’s voice)
Far from here, a house forsaken on lands of yesterday
the silence of the night has crept in
as weeping of the women, as thoughts of solitude,
as sadness and as grief

In a dimly-lit deserted room
left on a table, a token, a talisman
inherited from his father, a gilded hairbrush

Oozing from the shaft a stream of bitter sap
dripping from the bristles a slow scarlet flow
forming into a pool of blood, under the table

They know it to be an emblem of death, a sign of destruction
they recognise the end of a friend, the woe of a man and son
they look at the brush, remember the black hair,
They weep the bitter sap.

Song 10: The Shaman
Mother wept for her son, wept and sang
wife longed for her husband
anxiously pondered fate, his and her own
mother began a wail of anguish

A suns’ ray, in through the eye
glimmered in silent room of the mind
changed the shape of old woman, sorrow gone from her face
sought help from the shaman, turned herself into a shaman

Out of the chimney a witch flew out
across the sky a shaman dived
beyond her raced the woods and lakes, the roads of man
till she came to rest on Northlands gates

”I have come for my son, where have you sent my son?
I shall accept no lies, no falsehoods or deception
or else I’ll send you plagues unnumbered,
destruction upon you and your house
your treasures I’ll annihilate, and slay your fairest daughter”

So startled by the shamans’ strenght the hostess of Northland
told of the way, described the road,
the path that leads to river black
told of the task she set, impossible to complete
and from the jaws of death there will be no return

Song 11: The Power Of Shaman
Now mother filled with the spirit of shaman
as wolf through marshes bounded
as bear through wilderness she roamed
as otter through waters glided

Along the sea-coast she sprang, a hare
as ant she sought the lands
a small perch in shallow waters
and a great pike in the depths

She sought her lost one far and wide
she asked the stones she asked the trees
the forest trails and pathways
she asked the creeks but no one knew

Song 12: The Union (Mother-shaman’s voice)
A day’s light told me of my son’s fate
The sun showed the way, grim and severe
pulled under the raging waters, my child
sank in the drowning currents, my son

My strenght is not enough, my powers fail me
I need the help of heavens, I ask for thunder’s force
I plead for you oh lightning, provide a tool of iron
forge me a rake with magic, to drag the river for my son

Help me God of fire, bringer of light, forger of sun
cast your wamth on cold river, put to sleep its’ guardian
lull the folk of silent waters, drive away the serpents
to the river now let me go, to go and fetch my son away

Forged for me the gods of skies a rake made of iron
to my aid the sun was sent by the spirit of clear day
now in my way no man can stand, nor cold troops of Tuoni
and I shall walk untouched by the river of the night

Song 13: Restoration
I knew my son was torn to shreds, dissolved into black waters
to pieces hacked by blood-soaked men of silent river under ground
I knew my son was mad to seek to shoot the swan of death
but he is of my flesh and blood and he shares of my magic

So long I scoured the river black, so long I raked the waters
at last to find the hero’s shoes, his stockings and his cloak
I brought up his bloodied hat and jacket stained by death
and finally the teeth of my rake caught hold of something more

Thus surfaced the fragments of my son, with only half a head
an armless body torn and cut, with fingers missing and broken bones
his flesh a feast for eels of death, his muscles lost in black pools
the spark of his spirit suppressed by cold and gloomy depths

On leafless tree a raven sat and cast a doubtful eye
upon my bitter weeping, spoke these words unto me
”there is no hero to restore, no son left to revive
so cease your bitter efforts here and let your child be gone”

But I refused to give up hope, his measures I disregarded
I raked the river deeper still and pulled up every fragment
the remnants of his head and arms, the portions of his flesh
the knots of veins and shreds of bones, his eyes and his black hair

And so I shaped my son anew, his flesh to bones I joined
and knitted every vein together, and bound back every muscle
his lifeless members and death-like tissue I carefully assembled
until there on the river bank my son lay complete again

But still no breath escaped his lips, his mouth uttered no words
although the blood pumped in his veins his eyes remained shut
a birdling flew down from the sky, a buzzing tiny bee
I asked of him for mead and honey, the balm of magic virtues

The bee flew out, far and wide, across the golden fields
it crossed the seas and searched the lands, the rich gardens abloom
and fetched me wondrous balsams from flowery meadows
but no earthly nectar could restore my son to life

And so I sent the little bee to fly the way of shaman
to pass the borders of the moon, through distant light of stars
to soar swiftly on tiny wings to the seventh of the heavens
to the castle of Creator, the dwellings of the blessed

There to find the balm of life prepared in kettles of gold
there to cull the ointment from silver-tinted cauldrons
and bring back the holy mead, the sweet and golden honey
for me to anoint his eyelids with, and restore his injured senses

Wake my child, arise my son from depths of your slumber
heed my words and incantation, feel my love and know my wisdom
rise now from your dire misfortune, the lowest of conditions
and thus his eyes blinked open and words poured out of his mouth:

”Long, indeed, I’ve lain here, forever slept and dreamed here
of what I can remember of the moments before my death
a serpent struck from water, an adder pierced my heart
and on the shore, amongst shadows lurked an evil man
my enemy, my traitor, my shadow, my destroyer

Song 14: Return From The River Of Tuonela (Lemminkäinen’s voice)
Still searching for my way, the right way to be
Still pondering what I’ve done
Still thinking what I’ve said, still finding from within
All that I know is still not enough

I’m being held by the one
shadow tormenting my soul
the gently curving neck of a swan
the slowly turning head of a bird

So white it’s plumes and feathers
its’ breast the moon reflected in water
so silent and tranquil it moves
across the calm surface of the river

I wander back on familiar roads
I sense the marks I left on hills
I see the cuts and wounds of my deeds
I makes me muse on life

Up the hill, up the mountain
looking back and looking down
There flows the River of Death
and here the wind in my hair.

 

Kainulainen' Ilmarinen poems:

FORGER OF SKIES
IRONHEART
I am brother to the Fire, to Fire a brother I am
from full breasts of maidens three
I’ve drunk the black milk, black!
the white milk devoured, white!
the red milk I’ve swallowed, red!
I’ve lain in the bowels of marshland
dead beneath the soil, dead
under the waters, below, under the waters
oblivious to all, oblivious to everything
devoid of all knowing, devoid of feeling!

Darkness was my light
muteness my tongue
Death was my life
matter my spirit

Brother to Fire I am!
Brother to the Fire!

MY BIRTH
From trails of wolves, from paths of bruin
from fen-depths and mountain winds
raised into the light I was
separated apart I was

I am of air and water, of fire and earth I am
a compound of everything, separated apart
the lore of air, the wisdom of water
the awareness of fire, the memory of earth
yet separated apart

Upon my birth I understood
the alliance of spirit matter
in spatters of liquid iron
separated apart I was

In a dazzle like lightning
I was invited there
Where light curves in an arc
of gods I was constructed

To north, south,east and west
The air spirit of every quarter
was my distant mother
swelled from wind and sea

From chaos of matter discovered I was
Born unto the essence of creation
to red, black and white
to milk, iron and steel

FORGER OF SKIES
(The lights of chaos have transformed into a clear precise spark of my mind, the sounds disruptive into distant singing heard through

waters)
I forge my wisdom into the arc, all encompassing
I forge my heartbeat to dome, all heavens wide
I forge and craft the horizons for flowing blood
I forge the places precise for silver and for gold

Inside this nonexistence I clearly know
the directions and points of every quarter
I know the names of stars, the sun and the moon
their movement and their purpose

I forge my wisdom into the arc, all encompassing
I forge my heartbeat to dome, all heavens wide
I forge and craft the horizons for flowing blood
I forge the places precise for silver and for gold

In solitude I measure out the range of barren lands
I mark the place of Polaris on the vast heights
I draw unto the nothingness the intersecting curves
I look at all directions, I look at one clear point, into the heart

I forge my wisdom into the arc, all encompassing
I forge my heartbeat to dome, all heavens wide
I forge and craft the horizons for flowing blood
I forge the places precise for silver and for gold

Into the flames I thrust my heart and strike
my heart awakes to its’ own pounding
this here is my place, my work
I was made the Forger of Skies!

I forge my wisdom into the arc, all encompassing
I forge my heartbeat to dome, all heavens wide
I forge and craft the horizons for flowing blood
I forge the places precise for silver and for gold

I am the Forger of Skies!

BLACKSMITH
Under the vault of heavens I stood
alone in the darkness, waiting
the blaze of silver in my eyes
the gleam of gold in my hands

The red ore of iron in my veins
the blue light of steel in my bones
the coal black in my hair
the waves golden in my chest

I harkened the place for the moon
assured the sonorous tones
made out the locus of stars
I painted the route for the sun

I pierced the distant dome
for the lights to seep through
I checked the curves and borders
and attached the highest star

I knew it was my masterwork
I felt the strenght of gods
revised the soaring heights
and set the heavens aligned

It worked and sung and danced
it shone and glowed and gleamed
it circled, curved and blazed
it kindled, waned and glimmered

It is my heaven
it has my eyes
it is my space
It has my shape

It flowed from my bones
it bolted from my fingertips
it settled all over and unto me
and forced me to face my longing.

MIRACLE
Sparks sent flying, the space of my mind thundering
the small room of my heart flashing under the sky
The flaring of miasmic fumes fill my senses
pervade this room and this space

I listen and aim to observe
I use all the forces and let it transpire
I confront the darkness absolute
and blinding, dazzling brilliance

From roaring flames the shapes emerge
come forth they do with vile charms
Their poisoned core ensconced in beauty
but I see and perceive their deceit

Into the blaze I shove them back
to lose their forms to fire
again and yet again
I start my work anew

I let the days blend into nights
I let the moon and sun unite
the order of the stars expire
I let it be born, the miracle

I let the night blend into sun
I let the day and moon unite
the order of the stars expire
I let it be born, the miracle.

HEAVEN OF MY HEART
I who have forged the heavens
I too have my king

on his request, by his orders
enforced by his spells

to Northland I was cast
to distant land of Pohjola

Where my skills were known
where they knew my name and might

I forged a godly device
I opened the gates of plenty

from small crumbs of earth
from fleece of summer ewe

from memory of a single seed
from flair of a swans feather

I let the milk come seeping from
the heaven of my heart

the heaven of my heart

REVERIES AND FORCES
The constant needs of Man
eternal desires of you all
Your thirst and your hunger
Your fears

You crave for your miracle
You who subjected me
look now into distant heights
into the heavens, of my making
I made it out of what wasn’t there
of nothing to perfection
I granted it my substance
I granted it my essence

On the lid of my heart the designs I carved
Of galaxies and crimson clouds
The lore of gods and hopes of men
In me combined both dreams and might

Wisdom cleaved a stone
Knowledge kindled the flame
Sense made iron melt
Love made hope glow

I gave you your miracle
The heart that pounds gold
And the key that leads to
riches of divine order

What is now my fate?
What are you giving me?
Redeem your promise,
Pay off your debt!

Before you answer, raise your eyes
There, the heavens, of my making
Before you answer
Raise your eyes!

PROMISE
(Ilmarinen longs for the Daughter of Northland)

As slowly turns the key of time
In padlock of promises broken

to wait I will retreat myself
in black chambers of oblivion

In mute silence of my space
I crouch under my yearning
The works of gods receding now
evade my grasping hands

Perfection of the skies I knew
and memories of my deeds

Now fade away beyond my reach
And change to lonely nights

Her hair I’d long to adorn
With golden glowing stars
Her brow I’d long to crown
With tiny shining sun
in silver I would trace
the moonshine of her beauty

but ever so slowly
Turns the key of time
In a rusty lock
Of broken promises

BETRAYAL
I was not betrayed by Water, my gentle brother
and not betrayed by brother Fire
I was not betrayed by my essence nor my spirit
I was betrayed by my own king

I took the heaven to be enough
I trusted him like a brother
I was not betrayed by my essence nor my spirit
I was betrayed by my own king

I was not betrayed by earth, my cradle
And not betrayed by air my mother distant
I was not betrayed by my essence nor my spirit
I was betrayed by my own king

I took my skill to be enough
I trusted my knowledge and my will
I was not betrayed by my essence nor my spirit
I was betrayed by my own king!

THE PIKE OF TUONELA
GIFT
To a strange land, to distant Pohjola
I took the gift I received from gods
melted the heavenly knowledge, skills of a master
from pieces of my heart built a golden mill

A godlike machine I forged!

I, maker of heavens, created a horn of plenty
released them, delivered them from evil
gave them more than they knew to ask for
it wasn’t enough for the gloomy Northland court

It wasn’t enough for the queen!

The field of Death I had to furrow
To plow the soil black with viper blood
the shadow of a beast in a forest below
from Death to hunt a wolf and a bear

I fetched the gift of life from the river of death!

The Northland Queen, pledge unredeemed,
The wage she offered was death
A life for himself pursued my King
Promised me as a ransom for his happiness

A heart turned unto me!

A heart turned unto me
She whispered the knowledge of gods
And gave the missing words of wisdom
To me, a creator of heavens and miracles
Her heart turned unto me.

FISH OF DEATH
In the bowels of rocky mountain a fiery bird I forged
forged from iron, from steel a flaming eagle
On my eagle’s wings to Black River I flew, to the dale of the Dead Land
From reeking mud, from stream grinding flesh and bone
I found the black pike, a giant, a monster

From jaws of the pike, from gory rapids of the dead
My furious griffin rescued its’ master
Brought to bright light the guts, skin, flesh and bones
Carried under the sun, to the top of an stout oak
split with its beak the monsters’ belly, ripped the head clean off

The eagle rushed sky high, gliding the steepest heights
the sky sparkled and writhed, the vault of heaven creaked and mewed
higher and higher still soared my flaming griffin
with a thunder crash and rumble, I rolled the pike’s head in
As a throne for the queen a bony skull of the dead fish

I had made the heavens, forged out a miracle
the snake infested field of Death’s Domain turned over
slayed the wolf of shadowlands, shackled the bear of Death
Impossibly captured the impossible prey, the pike from Tuonela river
I’ve done my share, redeem your promise!

WIFE FROM NORTHLAND
I got a maid from Northland
A wife from lands strange
The works of gods at last replaced
By days and nights of men

She wakes beside me in the mornings
She walks by me in times of spring
She stares at our sky in the evenings
She lives our lives come autumn time

She sleeps the nights beside me
She works the days by my side
She is with me when snowflakes fall
She stays near as summer blooms

Her hair I adorn with stars
and forge a small sun on her brow
I put a pendant on her neck
and forge a small moon on her breast

She wakes beside me every spring
She wakes beside me every summer
She wakes beside me every winter
She wakes beside me every morning

THE SUN LEFT HER BROW
MY WIFE
Sun left her brow
Moon escaped her breast
Stars fell from her hair

Song departed her lips
spark died in her eyes
Her warmth waned away

Her blood grew thicker
Her skin turned colder
Unto the ground fell the heart
My wife beloved!
My wife beloved!
My wife beloved!

Unto the ground the heart
Her form fell into shadows
her shape dissolved to dust

Unto the ground the heart fell!

VENOM
In the beginning of times
In the chaos of destiny
In the arcane stream of meanings

Roar of the battle to sounds of work I sanctified
cries of terror to a song I harmonised
spirits of wrath with charms I restrained

And now dead is my wife
Ripped apart by iron teeth
Slashed by claws of steel

Poisoned by the bane of riches
Betrayed by lies manifold
Slayed by a wretched avenger

In the beginning of times, in the birth of all matter
The venom spat on the boiling mass
Now surfaced again and turned the course of fate

UNDER THE STARRY SKY
From nights’ misty dreams
I sought the clarity of my days
From empty shades of longing
I looked for the familiar glow

The death of my wife’s slayer
Brought no comfort for me
The sore ache of loneliness
bestowed no shape for a dream

within my heart I lit a flame of desires
provoked the fiery powers of my will
I forced the silvery shape to come forth
A golden queen for myself I forged

I made myself a spouse of gold
I forged a silver bride
From light of northern summer night
From shining winter moon

I made our bed under the stars
With covers aplenty and bear skin hides
I stroked the arc of golden curves
I kissed the lips of silver

Responded not my golden girl
No beating heart I felt
No sighs gave the silver soul
No warmth her sides of metal

SOLITUDE
I wandered on shores of stormy seas
On barren snowy lands I walked
I brought the golden girl to my king
And offered a bitter boon for my chief
My lifeless oddity he refused
Bowed not to my gift of gold

I journeyed on to the Northern Lands
Returned to the stony yard
I asked from the queen for her younger daughter
Covetted my dead wife’s sister
No comfort gave my prize most grim
The heartless redeemed not the heart

With empty hands I thus returned
To homelands, low in mind
Recalling the Northlands splendour
Recalling the miracle I forged
Recalling golden lid of plenty
Recalling the woman deceased

SWORD AND SKY
Sun ceased from my world
Moon went from my sky
Starlight dimmed away

In a bleak shack of sorrow
In forsaken shed of grief
in solitudes’ bitter palace

I listened to my hearts’ silent beating
The faint rush of my blood
The distant echo of space

Something moved in the emptiness
something in darkness drew near
Something touched the heart

The sky stirred above me
Beneath my feet earth breathed
The lights of space now flared

Someone whispered the words in my ear
Someone dictated my future deeds
Someone advised me to take what’s mine

From steel I made the master’s sword
Cleaving stone, cliff, a mountain
From darkness I stepped onto the path of stars

This sky is mine! (This is my sky!)
This sword is mine! (This is my sword!)
This fate is mine! (This is my fate!)
This miracle, mine! (This is my miracle!)

 

...and Väinämöinen:

THE BEGINNING OF TIME

I have a wish to sing now
Of time before the beginning
when nothing was all there was
but how to sing of nothing?

So I sing of the beginning
the birth of all creation
the borders of nothingness
the substance of inception

The solitude of space my mother
my father salt of the sea
infinity had no end
time had no beginning

Still unborn I remained
still unopened the narrow gate
still unborn in my hiding place
still no release bestowed upon me

Wrapped around my darkness
I knew my time was waiting
I felt the days pass by, and nights,
and the way of the northern stars

The songs were born into my mind
the knowledge of the stars
the stories before and after
the spells of war, and peace

The birth of the world was my birth too
I found the land, began the time
from shorelessness of sea
from underneath the space

SOOTHSAYER

I rose, and in doing so
raised others with me
I shared my ancient wisdom
and taught the ways to be

I sang the charms of stars
and sowed the land with strenght
I set the abodes for men
and steered the rightful roads

Within my being sings the god on high
the glimmer of stars in my bloodstream
I am the abyss, I am the bridge
I am the heaven, I am the land

I feel the communion
of the largest and the least
the way from death to life
the path of stone and gold

I live on wings of eagle
I know the secrets of seas
my forms countless, a mole or a frog
the fish in a tiny pond

I’ve been here from the beginning
the echoes and tones I recognise
the eternal poems of nonexistence
the birthwords of time’s beginning

I’ve been here from the beginning!

LEADER’S MIGHT

He holds a sword in his hand
it’s might the flare of sun
to cleave a stone in two
to take down a mountain

He holds a feather in his hand
it’s lightness a heavenly force
he wields the power to transform
the whole world with its’ brush

brains aglow with scenes of death
bones carved with words of life
beneath the footsteps a circle of stars
arms both heavy and light

He holds a sword in his hand
it’s might the flare of sun
to cleave a stone in two
to take down a mountain

He holds a feather in his hand
it’s lightness a heavenly force
he wields the power to transform
the whole world with its’ brush

PIKE

A red pike of blue waters I am
a lifesong resonates in me, my bones ashiver with magic and lore

a wolf of the waters I am, a shooting arrow of solitude
my eye a golden ring to marry the dead with soon to born

a lightning I am, a spear afloat in water
setting sun in a beat of my heart, rising the moon of my eye

come to me, take your star
leave with me, born into your world

capture me, take my flesh
take my head, my lore and my skills

a lifesong resonates in me
my bones ashiver with magic and lore!

EAGLE

An eagle I am
sweeping and soaring
the sun above my wings
the land of men beneath me

My path is paved on wind
a star sets my course
my mind is my sky
my body the soul of land

An eagle I am
sweeping and soaring
the sun above my wings
the land of men beneath me

THREE WORDS

But for want of three words
three words for my magic song
a boat for love I´d carve
a craft of life I’d build

from all the four corners
from heights beyond the skies
from in between the golden stars
from dead lands down below

I seek the magic for my spell
the power for my charm
for want of three words
three words for my (magic) song

Along the Tuoni pathway
to gloomy silent shore
across the lands of dead
to find the missing charm

Death’s maiden showed the way to
Death’s grim abode where
Death’s daughter offered me
Death’s drink to have

But for want of three words
three words for my magic song
a boat for love I´d carve
a craft of life I’d build

Ainotheme:
YOU I NEED

I was born as the world was born
as tones and words of the primeval song
I need no bow nor swords
my kingship is known to gods

Above the sea of my loneliness
I need to have my sky
to go with my story
I need to have your words

I need you to be the guide
the mirror to sky and sea
to portray all above and below
the gate of life and death

And a king has his moon
like a queen has her sun
to make the song go on
the song of creator of gods

I need you to be the guide
the mirror to sky and sea
to portray all above and below
the gate of life and death

Ainotheme:
THE MERMAID

From the blue waters of mermaids
I caught a fish that was no fish
no trout, no salmon, man nor woman

I drew my knife to gut my catch
but off it took, back to the lake
vanished into the waves

to rise again, a long way off, a trout turned into a maid
she showed herself, all glittering, and spoke unto me then
woe to you for never knowing me

She was my maid, my wife-to-be
returned to me one final time
and I did not know her, but made her flee

beneath the waves, and marbled rocks
the crevices of blackest depths
disappeared my dream, swam away my hope

not wanting to become mine anymore, to give herself to me
like she had wanted to, like she had promised
but I did not know her, I knew her not

Ainotheme:
ON A STRANDED SHORE

Silk of blue
woven by the moon
spun by the sun
threads of gold

silver in wrists, and rings
hair braided in red
fabrics iridescent
shoes featherlight

as reeds and straws on a shore
as sallows, sprigs and twigs
as bark and as foliage
as clamshells and as sand

My maidens’ flesh now fish in lake
her blood now waters blue
her ribs now willows on a shore
her hair grass on waters’ edge

o god of sleep
tell in my dream
where has my maiden gone
where lies my mermaid now

rise above the waves
from waters’ dark grave
under the liver coloured stones
become a maid again

These shores are not for fishing
these waters not for drinking
no sun beheld above these shores
no moon reflected on waters here

REFORMATION

When I am broken, when I depart
when my eyes stray from yours
when I no longer know you, my love
when I am broken, when I depart

When from my head my mane is torn
when my hair is blowing in solar wind
when into my eyes glowing nails are driven
when heavy boots march across my chest

When I am broken, when I depart
when my eyes stray from yours
when I no longer know you, my love
when I am broken, when I depart

Fear you not, weep not for me
for finally I am released
to go to the heaven of all earths
to the heaven of all earths

ESCAPE
(Väinämöinen seeks wisdom from Manala)

Death bestows no wisdom
no might from death endowed
there is no return thence
no way to go back home

Therein lie nets of iron
and seines of copper made
with drinks that lull to sleep
of everlasting shackles

Death bestows no wisdom
no might from death endowed
there is no return thence
no way to go back home

But I transformed my shape
and took the form of a snake
I swam through the nets
and wriggled back to life

I did transform my shape
I did return back to life
transformed my shape
back to life

Swampsong, Väinämöinen encounters Joukahainen
MY ENEMY

He set out to take my life
and the power of my soul
his spells against my might
my wrath he did ignite

The lightning of my eyes crushes you to dust
the snakes of my fingers drag you into mire
vanishing under you the trembling earth
your legs turning to sludge

your brain replaced by mine
your mind changed into mine
you lose sight of yourself
your world no longer yours

I feel your feelings now
I know now what you knew
I see how you have lied
plunge you into your grave

Under the ground I force you
to Underworld I curse you
to arms of death deliver
and damn inside a rock

where remorse is useless
and no mercy shown
where bribery is futile
and no promises hold

no one there will listen
no one feels your pain
no one turns towards you
no one takes your hand

and now I will sink you
and drown you in a swamp
and sing the song of dying
and vanguish my foe

He set out to take my life
and the power of my soul
his spells against my might
my wrath he did ignite

but I will show him mercy
let him return to life
I’ll show him mercy
I’ll let him return

Pohjolatheme
THE BATTLE FOR LIGHT

She robbed the moon from the sky
derailed the sun off its’ course
enchained the light inside her mountain
and stole the wisdom away

The sun no longer shines on us no silver moon reflects
the stars no longer twinkle light to help us find our path

I’m thrown on barren wastelands
In feverish swamps I’m lost
I stagger through white-rimed lands
I drown in diseased black mire

I fight the forces of dark and cold
upon the witches cast my spells
I strike with a sword and touch with a feather
and sing my song into the night

Beyond the highest heaven
the god supreme smites with his sword
into the sea falls fiery star
a fish of deep swallows the spark

The Skyforger, come to my aid
the Magicsmith, by my side
the eldest daughter of creation
the tiny man from the sea

Still stays the moon in hiding the sun behind the dark
the spark inside the fish the light inside the mountain

Ilmatar the ancient, the mighty ocean-dwarf
Ilmarinen the skyforger, thunder and lightning

We find the hidden moon release the mountain-bound
we light the wisdom of the heart, the sun dawns anew

Pohjolatheme
A CRACK IN THE STONE

In Pohjola, a prisoner of darkness
in black court, a victim of sleep
slither like a snake I tried
a mole under the soil

a king in a strange land
a slave of the black queen
under the dark magic
bound by an unknown spell

an otter lost in muddy waters
an elk upon strange trail
a prisoner in black court
a victim of sleep in lands of dark

just the one crack in the stone
just the one fracture in the wall
just the one hole in the sky
just the one key in the lock

one path known
one sign in a dream
one direction in time
one star in mind

I needed the help of Skyforger
to forge the machine divine
to the black queen of Pohjola

HEART’S SONG

He’s not a god
I’m not a god
a man he’s not
I’m not a man

I am the cloud spirit
a singing of the rapids
a stillness within a great river
a whirl in a golden stream

He is a cloud of white
a rainbow on the rapids
the blackness of silent waters
the spirit of the man

I lead my people
I am the song of my tribe
I am the wisdom and the skills
a sword turned into poem

I am the oaken sage
the bone-hurling one
the straw-haired warrior
the boulder on riverbank

the running of blue elk I am
the embrace of red bear
the eye of golden eagle
the song in the heart of the Man

RETURN I SHALL

I’ve been here before
when the rapids roared louder
and the brooks spoke aloud
with words of lies and truth

I’ve been here before
when the sea waved wider
the lakes echoed with voices
and words of lies and truth

I’ve been here before
when the sky curved fairer
the clouds were filled with talking
of words of lies and truth

I’ve been here before
and surely I’ll return
I’ve been here before
and return I shall!

THE SONG OF THE SAGE

No man nor a god, with a sword he carved,
with a feather he conjured of bone of fish and instrument
of jaws of pike a kantele
sat on a golden rock, on a bank of a golden river
by the brink of golden rapids, under the golden sun

fingers plucked a chord, tolled the teeth of a pike
lit up the colours of rainbow, above the silent waters

came forth the woodland creatures, the spirits great and small
the Master and the Mistress of Tapiola, and all of forest folk

the birds flew to the singer
the wildfowl from the sea
the swans from distant fens
an eagle from heavens high

behind a cloud of blue, the moon wove strands of silver
on the edge of cloud of red, the day gilded the cloth

the small fish in the shallows, the big ones under the surface
the king of waters, on the waves, the queen on an open sea

people, animals, spirits, sons and daughters of men
all ceased their play, all stopped their work

each one comprehended, each one understood
each one shed a tear, each one cried and wept
each and every tear, the tears of everyone
all joined to flow together into the silent waters

the golden stream of life carried the tears to sea
to oceans’ deep keeps the pearls were concealed.

 

Eurynome!! You're fucking awesome!!

 

Fantastic!

 

My pleasure!

 

Yesterday I got the Oxford Worlds Classics Kalevala in the mail. Can't believe it took me this long to get it. I think it must be the translation that is used for Tales from the Thousand Lakes because its word for word in many parts. Also amazing to see sections on a range of events I only know though other Amorphis albums. Haunting! The chapter names are 30% Amorphis song titles!

 

Awesome! That must be a treasure to have.

 

It's interesting to note that the lyrics to 'Magic and Mayhem' are not found in the Magic and Mayhem chapter of the Kalevala, they're actually in the Into Hiding chapter. I wonder why Amorphis did that?

 

Also Ahti from the Ensiferum song is a major character in the Kalevala. I'm going to have to pay more attention to that song now!