Transformations of Epic Time and Space: Creating the World’s Creation in Kalevala-metric Poetry

• Main Author: Lotte Tarkka
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: karelian; karelians; Utsjoki
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.549.7073; http://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/11i/8_tarkka.pdf

To illustrate the “ancient and authentic disposition ” of the Karelians still persisting in 1829, the vicar of Utsjoki parish, Jacob Fellman, described the “classical country of the Finnish Muse ” in the following words (1906:496-98): Enchanted by the charm of their abode, the people do not give a thought to the good of this world, but live in the remembrance of singing praises to the deeds of their gods, heroes, and fathers. in the echo of the harp left on the gates of the North by their forefather Väinämöinen. When I asked an older man in Vuokkiniemi what he believed to be the world’s creation, he answered: “Well, my holy brother, we have the same belief as you. An eagle flew from the north, placed an egg on Väinämöinen’s knee and created the world out of it. See, our beliefs are kindred.” Fossilization of the people into the memory of its own heroic past was a substantial part in the wider project of framing the Finns ’ Golden Era within the Karelian ethnographic present. The two cultures confronted one another