The Kalevala · 184 of 275 · tr. John Martin Crawford
Rune XXXIa
SON OF EVIL.
In the ancient times a mother Hatched and raised some swans and chickens, Placed the chickens in the brushwood, Placed her swans upon the river; Came an eagle, hawk, and falcon, Scattered all her swans and chickens, One was carried to Karyala, And a second into Ehstland, Left a third at home in Pohya.
And the one to Ehstland taken Soon became a thriving merchant; He that journeyed to Karyala Flourished and was called Kalervo; He that hid away in Pohya Took the name of Untamoinen, Flourished to his father's sorrow, To the heart-pain of his mother.
Untamoinen sets his fish-nets In the waters of Kalervo; Kullerwoinen sees the fish-nets, Takes the fish home in his basket.
Then Untamo, evil-minded, Angry grew and sighed for vengeance, Clutched his fingers for the combat, Bared his mighty arms for battle, For the stealing of his salmon, For the robbing of his fish-nets.
Long they battled, fierce the struggle, Neither one could prove the victor; Should one beat the other fiercely, He himself was fiercely beaten.
Then arose a second trouble; On the second and the third days, Kalerwoinen sowed some barley Near the barns of Untamoinen; Untamoinen's sheep in hunger Ate the crop of Kullerwoinen; Kullerwoinen's dog in malice Tore Untamo's sheep in pieces; Then Untamo sorely threatened To annihilate the people Of his brother, Kalerwoinen, To exterminate his tribe-folk, To destroy the young and aged, To out-root his race and kingdom; Conjures men with broadswords girded, For the war he fashions heroes, Fashions youth with spears adjusted, Bearing axes on their shoulders, Conjures thus a mighty army, Hastens to begin a battle, Bring a war upon his brother.
Kalerwoinen's wife in beauty Sat beside her chamber-window, Looking out along the highway, Spake these words in wonder guessing: "Do I see some smoke arising, Or perchance a heavy storm-cloud, Near the border of the forest, Near the ending of the prairie?" It was not some smoke arising, Nor indeed a heavy storm-cloud, It was Untamoinen's soldiers Marching to the place of battle.
Warriors of Untamoinen Came equipped with spears and arrows, Killed the people of Kalervo, Slew his tribe and all his kindred, Burned to ashes many dwellings, Levelled many courts and cabins, Only, left Kalervo's daughter, With her unborn child, survivors Of the slaughter of Untamo; And she led the hostile army To her father's halls and mansion, Swept the rooms and made them cheery, Gave the heroes home-attentions.
Time had gone but little distance, Ere a boy was born in magic Of the virgin, Untamala, Of a mother, trouble-laden, Him the mother named Kullervo, "Pearl of Combat," said Untamo.
Themes
◆Cosmic Dualismtheology
Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.
The narrative is framed by the title 'Son of Evil' and depicts a fundamental conflict between opposing kin lines driven by vengeance and moral opposition.
Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.
The naming of Kullervo as 'Pearl of Combat' establishes his destined role and nature within the tragic lineage, reflecting the ontological weight of names.
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.
The passage describes the ancestors of the warring parties originating as swans and chickens that transform into human merchants and chieftains.
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.
Untamo magically conjures an army and fashions youth through will or speech, demonstrating the causal power of magical utterance central to the Kalevala tradition.