“Then they laid the child of wonder,
Fatherless, the magic infant,
In the cradle of attention,
To be rocked, and fed, and guarded;
But he rocked himself at pleasure,
Rocked until his locks stood endwise;
Rocked one day, and then a second,
Rocked the third from morn till noontide;
But before the third day ended,
Kicks the boy with might of magic,
Forwards, backwards, upwards, downwards,
Kicks in miracles of power,
Bursts with might his swaddling garments;
Creeping from beneath his blankets,
Knocks his cradle into fragments,
Tears to tatters all his raiment,
Seemed that he would grow a hero,
And his mother, Untamala,
Thought that he, when full of stature,
When he found his strength and reason,
Would become a great magician,
First among a thousand heroes.” (Rune XXXI)
For the May Book Club we continue reading the Finnish epic, The Kalevala. We will read Rune 27 to the end of Rune 38. This includes the tragic story of Kullervo (or Kullerwoinen).
You can find the text, translated by John Martin Crawford, at
https://archive.org/details/kalevalaepicpoem02craw/page/438/mode/2up
Or you can find the whole text at
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5186/pg5186-images.html#chap27
Discussion starts and continues in the Forum, and we will meet via Zoom on Friday May 15 at 1:00 p.m. EDT. The link will be posted in the Forum on the day.
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Happy readings!