RUNO XXIX
242. “Grass-widows” are probably intended.
253-268. Even this old woman did not appeal to him in vain. We might compare with this passage Byron’s Don Juan, VIII., cxxxi., cxxxii.
RUNO XXX
175, 187. Literally, “nails.”
185. Pakkanen, Puhurin poika. Frost, the son of the North Wind.
389. The unmanly lamentations of the heroes over a fate that has not befallen them may remind us of Grimm’s story of “Die kluge Else.” It will also be noticed that the heroes are only concerned about their mothers; and Tiera has as little thought for his virgin bride as Lemminkainen has for Kyllikki.
RUNO XXXI
1. The tragedy of Kullervo is the favourite episode of the Kalevala in Finland, next to that of Aino. The preamble (lines 1-10) is the same as the opening of the Esthonian Kalevipoeg. The story of the Esthonian hero, though he was a king and not a slave, resembles that of Kullervo in so many respects that he must have been the same character originally.
19. I think the change of style, indicative of different authorship, in this episode is sufficiently obvious even in a translation. Many words used here do not occur earlier in the poem.
91-96. The same story is told of the infant Kalevipoeg.
107. Esthonians call dwarfs “Ox-knee people”; i. e. people as high as an ox’s knee.
137. Like Simple Simon.
337. It is obvious that some of the youthful exploits of Kwasind (slightly varied, after Longfellow’s manner) are imitated from those of Kullervo. (Compare also Runo XXXV., 11-68.)
RUNO XXXII
24. The rye-bread, on which the Finnish peasants largely subsist, is described as baked in very hard round loaves, like quoits, which are strung on a pole. But Kullervo’s cake seems to have been prepared to look nice on the outside.
156-162. Does this refer to stories of witches milking cattle?
206. Of juniper wood.
498. Literally, an apple-berry. Probably a small crab-apple is intended.
513. I think wolves are here intended, not dogs.
