311. “Ilmarinen first employs ordinary servants, and then calls the winds to his assistance.” (K. K.)
331. In the Icelandic sagas, we read of the sword Tyrfing, forged by dwarfs, which, if ever drawn, could not again be sheathed till it had slain at least one victim.
332. Literally, “on best days.”
414. In the story of Ala Ed-Deen Abush-Shamat, in the 1001 Nights, we read of a magic bead with five facets, on which were engraved a camel, an armed horseman, a pavilion, a couch, etc., according to the use intended to be made of each facet.
RUNO XI
31-42. Salme and Linda are similarly wooed by the Sun, the Moon, and a Star in the Esthonian poem, Kalevipoeg (see Kirby’s Hero of Esthonia, I., pp. 10-15).
264-266. These names mean respectively Blackies, Strawberries, Cranberries. “I think Lemminkainen means that he has no cows, and only calls these different berries his cows.” (A.M.)
306. Lemminkainen appears to have been afraid that some one else might carry oft his wife, if she showed herself in public (especially Untamo, says Prof. Krohn).
385. The Snow Bunting (Plectrophanes nivalis), a white bird more or less varied with black.
RUNO XII
25. The meaning is a little uncertain. Literally, “the only boy,” as Madame Malmberg suggests. The commentary renders it, “the gallant youth.”
93. The Finns and Lapps often hide money in the ground. The word used in l. 94 is “penningin,” from “penni,” a word common to most Teutonic and Northern languages.
211, 212. Such omens of death are common in fairy tales; as, for instance, the bleeding knives in the story of the Envious Sisters in the 1001 Nights. The bleeding trees in medieval romance belong to rather a different category of ideas.
233. Lemminkainen seems to have hidden himself to escape further remonstrances from his mother and Kyllikki.
262. Probably a creature like a kelpie or Phooka.
474. We are not told how Louhi escaped; but she seems to have come to no harm.
RUNO XIII
105. The part played by Hiisi in the Kalevala usually resembles that played by Loki in the Scandinavian Mythology.
