← Home
The Kalevala · 205 of 275 · tr. John Martin Crawford

Rune XXXVI-a

'S VICTORY AND DEATH. Kullerwionen, wicked wizard, In his purple-colored stockings, Now prepares himself for battle; Grinds a long time on his broadsword, Sharpens well his trusty weapon, And his mother speaks as follows: "Do not go, my son beloved, Go not to the wars, my hero, Struggle not with hostile spearsmen. Whoso goes to war for nothing, Undertakes a fearful combat, Undertakes a fatal issue; Those that war without a reason Will be slaughtered for their folly, Easy prey to bows and arrows. Go thou with a goat to battle, Shouldst thou go to fight the roebuck, 'Tis the goat that will be vanquished, And the roebuck will be slaughtered; With a frog thou'lt journey homeward, Victor, with but little honor!" These the words of Kullerwoinen: "Shall not journey through the marshes, Shall not sink upon the heather, On the home-land of the raven, Where the eagles scream at day-break. When I yield my life forever, Bravely will I fall in battle, Fall upon the field of glory, Beautiful to die in armor, And the clang and clash of armies, Beautiful the strife for conquest! Thus Kullervo soon will hasten To the kingdom of Tuoni, To the realm of the departed, Undeformed by wasting sickness." This the answer of the mother: "If thou diest in the conflict, Who will stay to guard thy father, Who will give thy sire protection?" These the words of Kullerwoinen: "Let him die upon the court-yard, Sleeping out his life of sorrow!" "Who then will protect thy mother, Be her shield in times of danger?" "Let her die within the stable, Or the cabin where she lingers!" "Who then will defend thy brother, Give him aid in times of trouble?" "Let him die within the forest, Sleep his life away unheeded!" "Who will comfort then thy sister, Who will aid her in affliction?" "Let her sink beneath the waters, Perish in the crystal fountain, Where the brook flows on in beauty, Like a silver serpent winding Through the valley to the ocean!" Thereupon the wild Kullervo Hastens from his home to battle, To his father speaks, departing: "Fare thou well, my aged father! Wilt thou weep for me, thy hero, When thou hearest I have perished, Fallen from thy tribe forever, Perished on the field of glory?" Thus the father speaks in answer: "I shall never mourn the downfall Of my evil son, Kullervo; Shall not weep when thou hast perished; Shall beget a second hero That will do me better service, That will think and act in wisdom." Kullerwoinen gives this answer: "Neither shall I mourn thy downfall, Shall not weep when thou hast perished; I shall make a second father, Make the head from loam and sandstone, Make the eyes from swamp-land berries, Make the beard from withered sea-grass, Make the feet from roots of willow, Make the form from birch-wood fungus." Thereupon the youth, Kullervo, To his brother speaks as follows: "Fare thou well, beloved brother!
§ Ask Guru about this passage →
Themes
Ancestor Venerationpraxis

Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. Shinto uji-gami and obon, Norse disir and the alfablot, Celtic samhain and the feast for the deceased, Roman lares and parentalia, Chinese ancestor rites, Vedic śrāddha. Practice-coded rather than belief-coded: distinct from soul_migration (cosmological doctrine of soul-transmigration) and theosis_deification (deification trajectory); ancestor_veneration centres the living's ongoing ritual obligation to the dead.

The mother's questions regarding who will guard and protect the father after Kullervo's death imply a cultural duty toward ancestors.

All passages →
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 imbues natural elements like loam, berries, and willow roots with the capacity to form a human being, reflecting a worldview where nature possesses inherent spirit or agency.

All passages →
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.

Kullervo describes creating a new father from natural materials like loam and berries, demonstrating the magical transformation of matter into human form.

All passages →
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.

The text emphasizes the causal power of spoken words, as Kullervo's declarations determine the specific deaths of his family members.

All passages →
Related passages · 10 parallels
theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 53 (part 11)
“They are never erring, perpetually recurring numbers, unveiling, to him who studies the secrets of Nature, a truly divine System, an intelligent plan in Cosmogony, which results in natural cosmic divisions of times, seasons, invisible influ…”
Shared concept: Animism — 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. (derived)
theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 12 (part 6)
“" The Dhyanis ( Pitris ) are those who have evolved their BHUTA ( doubles ) from themselves , which RUPA ( form ) has become the vehicle of monads ( seventh and sixth principles ) that had completed their cycle of transmigration in the thre…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — 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. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite)|Page 53
“§ 2. Concerning the Forms of Infernal Spirits in their Manifestations Having regard to the nature and antecedents of the Intelligences with which Black Magic professes to be concerned, it must be highly important that the operator should kn…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — 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. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|The Elements and Their Inhabitants-e
“The imagination of the Greeks peopled the regions of earth and sea with divinities, to whose agency it attributed the phenomena that our philosophy ascribes to the operation of natural law." Thus, in behalf of the plant it worked with, the…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — 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. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite)|Page 38 (part 2)
“The attempt to propitiate the Deity by means of prayers, sacrifices and abstinence, and thus to obtain the Divine assistance for the successful consummation of hideous offences and preposterous or impossible undertakings, is, of course, mad…”
Shared concept: Word Power Incantation — 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. (derived)
western_esoteric|Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi)|8. Realization-c
“The Astral Body is not always of the same sex as the terrestrial, that is, the proportions of the two forces, varying from right to left, seem frequently to belie the visible organization, producing seeming aberrations of human passion and…”
Shared concept: Word Power Incantation — 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. (derived)
western_esoteric|Psychic Self-Defence (Dion Fortune)|8. The Risks Incidental To Ceremonial Magic-e
“Enough must be hinted, however, to reveal what, under certain circumstances, may be experienced. I do not think it in the least likely, however, that the Qlippotic demons will be encountered save through the use of ceremonial magic. They…”
Shared concept: Word Power Incantation — 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. (derived)
native_american|The Soul of the Indian|Chapter VI-b
“At every meal time, a dish of food was placed under it, and some person of the same sex and age as the one who was gone must afterward be invited in to partake of the food. At the end of a year from the time of death, the relatives made a…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)
western_esoteric|Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi)|13. Necromancy-f
“Thus, a fatal law drives demons downward when they wish and believe themselves to be ascending. So also those who term themselves chiefs are the most impotent and despised of all. As to the horde of perverse spirits, they tremble before a…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)
hinduism|The Bhagavad Gita|Chapter I, Section 1c
“In consequence of the predominance of impiety, O K ri sh n a! the women of the family become corrupt ; and the women becoming corrupt, O descendant of V ri sh n i! intermingling of castes results; that intermingling necessarily leads the…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)