Ilmarinen could have forged another for himself, and it would have been unnecessary for the heroes to steal it. The chain forged by the dwarfs, according to the Prose Edda, for binding the wolf Fenrir, was also composed of materials which could not again be procured. “It was fashioned out of six things; to wit, the noise made by the footfall of a cat, the beards of women, the roots of stones, the sinews of bears, the breath of fish, and the spittle of birds.”
RUNO VIII
3, 4. The daughter of Louhi is never mentioned again in connection with the rainbow; and it is quite incorrect to call her the Maiden of the Rainbow, as some writers have done, for no such title is ever applied to her in the poem.
35. There are so many instances of maidens being carried off, or enticed into sledges, in the Kalevala, that it seems almost to have been a recognized legal form of marriage by capture.
57. Finnish magicians profess to understand the language of birds; but the passage in the text is probably intended only in jest.
152. In the Icelandic saga of Grettir, the hero mortally wounds himself in the leg while trying to chop up a piece of driftwood on which a witch had laid her curse.
179. The Finns supposed that if the origin of any hostile agent was known, and could be recited to it, its power for evil was at an end. In Denmark, the naming of any person or thing was an evil omen, and liable to bring about its destruction.
217, 218. Finnish hamlets are sometimes built on a hillside in the manner described.
RUNO IX
35, 36. Here we seem to have an allusion to the first chapter of Genesis.
44. The same epithet, Luonnotar, is sometimes applied to Ilmatar, and thus Väinämöinen might literally be called the brother of Iron.
111, 112. Pallas Athene sprang armed from the brain of Zeus; Kama, in India, the son of the Sun, was born with armour and earrings; and Mexitli in Mexico was born with a spear in his hand.
231. Hornets often build their nests under the eaves of houses.
242. Both frogs and toads exude a more or less poisonous secretion from the skin.
433. Honeydew seems to be meant here.
525, 526. An imaginary mountain to which the sorcerers professed to be able to banish pain and sickness.
RUNO X
306. Compare the account of the forging of the Gold and Silver Bride in Runo XXXVII.
