RUNO XVII
20. Roads of this description are thoroughly Oriental in character.
86. In Icelandic sagas we often find heroes roused from their graves, but this is usually attempted in order to obtain a sword which has been buried with them.
93-104. Hiawatha was also swallowed by the sturgeon Nahma, but the circumstances were quite different.
211. Note the resonance of the line:
Kuusista kuhisevista.
237. Ahava, a dry cold wind that blows in March and April, probably corresponding to our cold spring east wind.
285, 286. Vipunen here refers to himself as a little man, which I presume is to be understood figuratively, as I have rendered it.
RUNO XVIII
379. Compare Cuchullain’s wooing of Eimer in Irish story.
RUNO XIX
33. This episode is very like the story of Jason and Medea.
210. “The wolf Fenrir opens his enormous mouth; the lower jaw reaches to the earth, and the upper one to heaven, and would in fact reach still further were there space to admit of it.” (Prose Edda.)
217. Vetehinen, a water-spirit.
311. “Ukko’s bow” here means the rainbow, broken by the fiery eagle. It may be worth noting that in the Scandinavian Mythology, the sons of Fire (Muspell) are to ride over the rainbow, and break it to pieces, on their way to battle with the gods.
483. In the Danish Ballads there are several stories of children speaking in their cradles, but generally to vow vengenance against an enemy.
RUNO XX
17. The Great Ox is a stock subject in Finnish and Esthonian ballad literature.
RUNO XXI
161. The Glutton or wolverine, a well-known animal in sub-Arctic Europe, Asia, and America.
182-186. These civilities sound very Oriental.
393. This curious passage may have been partly suggested by the “coats of skin,” and “the land flowing with milk and honey” of the Old Testament.
