The Hero of Esthonia | Page 3

peoples belong
to the same race, whom we need not further notice.
Esthonian abounds in dialects, but is so close to Finnish that it bears
almost the same relation to it as Lowland Scotch to English, or perhaps
as Danish to Swedish. But there is a strong admixture of German words
in Esthonian, and their tales, when exhibiting traces of foreign
influence, have apparently derived it from Germany. In Finnish tales,
on the contrary, Russian influence is often very apparent.
The orthography is a little unsettled, words like Ukko or Kalev being

often written with a single or double consonant, as Uko or Kallev;
while words like Käpä are often written with double vowels, as Kääpä.
The pronunciation of most of the letters resembles that of English, or,
in the case of the vowels, German, and calls for no special remark.
j, as in nearly all languages except English and French, corresponds to
our y.
v is printed either v or w in Finnish and Esthonian, but corresponds to
our v, and is thus used by the best Finnish authorities. Of course the
Germans properly write it w, their w corresponding to our v.
For the modified vowels we have no exact equivalent in English; ä and
ü are pronounced nearly as in German; but the õ may roughly be said to
resemble our ee in sound. y has somewhat of a u sound, as in the
Scandinavian languages; and, as in these too, the modified vowels are
placed at the end of the alphabet, but in the following order: ü, ä, õ.
Musical as is Finnish itself, Esthonian is still softer, as may be seen in
the dropping of final consonants, as Vanemuine for Väinämöinen; and
in such words as kannel (harp) for kantele. As in most parts of Northern
Europe, the Gothic character is still much used in Finland and Esthonia,
especially in literary works.
As a specimen of the language we may quote the original of the lines
on p. 14:--
Ristitantsi tantsitie, Viru tantsi veeritie, Arju tantsi hakkatie, Lääne
tantsi lõhutie, Sõre liiva sõtkutie, Murupinda piinatie. Tähte peig ja
Salme neidu, Pidasivad pulma ilu!
We may add the text of the lines on p. 49:--
Kalevide poeg ei väsi; Piht on meehel pihlakane, Õlanukud õunapuusta,
Käevarred vahterased, Küünarnukud künnapuusta, Sõrmelülid
sõsterased, Sõrmeküüned kuuslapuused, Raudarammu kõiges kehas.

THE KALEVIPOEG
In the year 1838 some Esthonian scholars founded a society called "Die
gelehrte Ehstnische Gesellschaft," and set themselves to collect the
popular literature of their country. Doubtless encouraged by the recent
publication of the Kalevala in Finland, Dr. Fählmann undertook
specially to collect any fragments of verse or prose relative to the
mythical hero of Esthonia, the son of Kalev, intending to weave them
into a connected whole. He did not live to complete the work; but after
his death Dr. Kreutzwald carried out his design, and the book was
published, accompanied by a German translation by Reinthal and
Bertram, from 1857 to 1861.
The materials were defective, and were augmented and pieced together,
not always very successfully or artistically,[1] by Dr. Kreutzwald, and
the story is interrupted by long lyrical passages, especially at the
beginning of some of the cantos, which are tedious and out of place in a
narrative poem. Consequently, a complete translation would hardly be
sufficiently attractive; but there is so much that is curious and beautiful
in the poem, that I think that a tolerably full prose abstract may perhaps
be found both useful and interesting, as opening up an almost new
subject to English readers.
Besides Reinthal's translation, there are two condensed abstracts of the
poem in German, one by C. C. Israel, in prose, published in 1873, and
the other by Julius Grosse, in hexameters, published in 1875.
But while the Kalevala has been translated into six or seven languages,
and into several of them two or three times, extremely little has been
published on the Kalevipoeg outside of Esthonia and Finland.
The metre is the eight-syllable trochaic, which is the commonest metre
used by the Esthonians and Finns. In the Kalevipoeg the verse usually
flows continuously, while in the Kalevala it is arranged in distichs,
almost every second line being a repetition of the first in other words;
nor is the Kalevipoeg quite so full of alliteration as the Kalevala.
Longfellow adapted this metre in his Hiawatha from Schiefner's

German translation of the Kalevala, and as it was then a novelty in
English, it was set down at the time as Longfellow's own invention, and
was much ridiculed. A similar metre, however, was used before the
appearance of Hiawatha in some parts of Kenealy's Goethe, which was
published in 1850, and subsequently condensed and completed under
the title of "A New Pantomime." I quote a passage from this wonderful
but eccentric poem (Goethe,