The Kalevala · 65 of 275 · tr. John Martin Crawford

Rune XIIIb

In this rising generation, That can travel in these snow-shoes, That the right and left can manage." To his back he tied the quiver, Placed the bow upon his shoulder, With both hands he grasped his snow-cane, Speaking meanwhile words as follow: "There is nothing in the woodlands, Nothing in the world of Ukko, Nothing underneath the heavens, In the uplands, in the lowlands, Nothing in the snow-fields running, Not a fleet deer of the forest, That could not be overtaken With the snow-shoes of Lylikki, With the strides of Lemminkainen." Wicked Hisi heard these measures, Juntas listened to their echoes; Straightway Hisi called the wild-moose, Juutas fashioned soon a reindeer, And the head was made of punk-wood, Horns of naked willow branches, Feet were furnished by the rushes, And the legs, by reeds aquatic, Veins were made of withered grasses, Eyes, from daisies of the meadows, Ears were formed of water-flowers, And the skin of tawny fir-bark, Out of sappy wood, the muscles, Fair and fleet, the magic reindeer.

Juutas thus instructs the wild-moose, These the words of wicked Hisi: Flee away, thou moose of Juutas, Flee away, thou Hisi-reindeer, Like the winds, thou rapid courser, To the snow-homes of the ranger, To the ridges of the mountains, To the snow-capped hills of Lapland, That thy hunter may be worn out, Thy pursuer be tormented, Lemminkainen be exhausted." Thereupon the Hisi-reindeer, Juutas-moose with branching antlers, Fleetly ran through fen and forest, Over Lapland's hills and valleys, Through the open fields and court-yards, Through the penthouse doors and gate-ways, Turning over tubs of water, Threw the kettles from the fire-pole, And upset the dishes cooking.

Then arose a fearful uproar, In the court-yards of Pohyola, Lapland-dogs began their barking, Lapland-children cried in terror, Lapland-women roared with laughter, And the Lapland-heroes shouted.

Fleetly followed Lemminkainen, Followed fast, and followed faster, Hastened on behind the wild-moose, Over swamps and through the woodlands, Over snow-fields vast and pathless, Over high uprising mountains, Fire out-shooting from his runners, Smoke arising from his snow-cane: Could not hear the wild-moose bounding, Could not sight the flying fleet-foot; Glided on through field and forest, Glided over lakes and rivers, Over lands beyond the smooth-sea, Through the desert plains of Hisi, Glided o'er the plains of Kalma, Through the kingdom of Tuoni, To the end of Kalma's empire, Where the jaws of Death stand open, Where the head of Kalma lowers, Ready to devour the stranger, To devour wild Lemminkainen; But Tuoni cannot reach him, Kalma cannot overtake him.

Distant woods are yet untraveled, Far away a woodland corner Stands unsearched by Kaukomieli, In the North's extensive, borders, In the realm of dreary Lapland.

Now the hero, on his snow-shoes, Hastens to the distant woodlands, There to hunt the moose of Piru.

Themes

◆Animismcosmology

The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.

The passage depicts a worldview where natural materials possess spirit and can be animated into living beings, and the landscape is populated by active divine agents like Hisi and Tuoni.

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◆Anthropomorphismtheology

Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.

Divine and preternatural beings such as Hisi, Juutas, and Tuoni exhibit human characteristics like speech, laughter, and crafting.

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◆Cosmic Dualismtheology

Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.

The narrative presents a conflict between the heroic Lemminkainen and the wicked spirits of Hisi and Death.

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◆Living Godtheology

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

The deities and spirits are portrayed as active, dynamic agents who intervene directly in human affairs and the physical landscape.

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◆Psychopomp Journeycosmology

Guided passage of the soul through afterlife realms.

The hero traverses the geography of the afterlife (Tuoni's kingdom), though he remains alive rather than being a guided soul.

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◆Shamanic Journeypraxis

The living practitioner's deliberate trance-journey into spirit, underworld, or upper realms — Lemminkainen's descent into Tuoni and Wainamoinen's entry into Wipunen's body in the Kalevala, the Siberian shaman's drum-mediated travel, Inuit angakkuq's submarine journey to Sedna, classical katabasis as ritual technique. The practitioner returns with knowledge, songs, lost-words, or a recovered soul. Distinct from psychopomp_journey (which guides the *dead* soul through afterlife realms) and from spiritual_ascent (which is the soul's *upward* return to source); shamanic_journey is the *living* practitioner crossing into ordinarily-inaccessible domains as a worked technique.

The living hero travels through the underworld realms of Tuoni and Kalma using magical speed, characteristic of shamanic otherworld travel rather than post-mortem passage.

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◆Shapeshifting Transformationtheology

Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. Loki and Odin's transformations in Norse, Math's pigs and Blodeuwedd's owl-shape and Pwyll's exchange with Arawn in the Mabinogion, the Greek Proteus, the Indian dasavatara, Vainamoinen's bird-flight in the Kalevala, Ovid's metamorphoses, the shamanic and witch's capacity for ritual form-change. Distinct from anthropomorphism (divine taking specific human form, single embodiment) in that anthropomorphism establishes a stable form whereas this concept establishes form's plurality and instability.

Spirits magically transform inanimate natural materials like wood and rushes into a living, fleet reindeer through ritual craft.

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◆Theurgypraxis

Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.

The creation of the magical beast involves consecrated material symbols and actions to engage spiritual power and alter reality.

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◆Word Power Incantationpraxis

The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.

Magic is explicitly enacted through spoken words and songs that create beings, instruct spirits, and propel the hero's movement.

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