Kalevipoeg

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The Kalevipoeg ( Estonian for Kalev's son ) is the national epic of Estonia written by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald .

Illustrative watercolor by the Estonian painter Aleksander Promet

Content of the epic

Overall characterization

One of the gigantic stones that Kalevipoeg is said to have thrown

The epic consists of a good 19,000 verses in 20 songs. It is based on motifs from Estonian sagas and folk songs , but in its entirety is the work of the Estonian writer Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald . Only about one eighth of the text is based on original folk poetry, the rest was written by Kreutzwald himself on the basis of various legends about the gigantic hero Kalevipoeg. In Estonian legends (especially from Eastern Estonia) Kalevipoeg throws gigantic stones at his opponents. He shapes landscapes, changes rivers and founds cities. The giant's character is quite ambivalent. Sometimes he helps people in need, sometimes he is the unpredictable, violent destroyer. In this respect, the legends about him are similar to other giant stories from the Baltic States or Scandinavia . There is some overlap, especially with the Finnish national epic Kalevala . The most important differences to other epics or heroes are that Kalevipoeg sleeps a lot, that is, bears general human traits, and that in the end evil is not conquered or wiped out, but only tamed.

The individual chants

After the prologue and introduction, in which the readership is attuned to the coming stories, the hero's origin is highlighted in the first song. His father Kalev had married Linda, who had grown out of a black grouse, after she had turned down a whole crowd of suitors.

In the second song, Kalev falls ill and dies, while Linda becomes pregnant with his last son. Soon Kalev's last child, Kalevipoeg (son of Kalev) will be born. He is endowed with enormous strength and grows up to stretch. At the same time, his mother Linda is harassed by many suitors, all of whom she turns away. The Finnish magician is also among them.

In the third song, Kalevipoeg goes hunting with his brothers. Meanwhile, the Finnish magician takes Lindas but is not strong enough to kidnap her to Finland because the supreme god of the sky, Uku, knocks the Finn down with lightning at Linda's cries for help. But Linda does not survive the hardships and dies while the Finn goes home without having achieved anything. After returning from the hunt, the brothers search in vain for their mother.

In the fourth song, Kalevipoeg swims to Finland. There he suspects his kidnapped mother. On the way he stops on an island where he is beguiled by the singing of a young girl on the shore. The two find each other, but the girl's screams alarm her parents. When Kalevipoeg then mentions his name, the girl turns pale and plunges (herself?) Into the depths. Kalevipoeg's attempt to rescue him is unsuccessful, and the parents only find an eagle's egg, an iron hat, remains of trees and other things at the bottom of the sea.

In the fifth song, Kalevipoeg is in Finland looking for the magician. After a while he finds him and makes short work of him, but without finding out where his mother is. Only in the subsequent dream does the hero learn that his mother is dead.

In the sixth song, Kalevipoeg wants to buy a sword before he returns, so he goes to the Finnish blacksmith. When he has found the right one, a showpiece that his father once commissioned, a feast is held to celebrate the deal. In the intoxication there is a dispute between Kalevipoeg and the son of the blacksmith, who was the groom of the island daughter. The dispute escalates and Kalevipoeg draws his sword and kills the son. Thereupon the blacksmith curses the murder weapon: may it one day kill its carrier.

In the seventh song, when Kalevipoeg returns to Estonia from the bottom of the sea, she hears his sister singing, explaining the incestuousness that followed in the fourth song. On the way he is also informed by elves that his mother is dead. At home, the brothers tell each other about their adventures and decide to vote for a king the next day.

In the eighth song, the brothers look for three stones by a lake and decide that whoever throws his stone farthest should become king. Kalevipoeg's stone flies far out over the lake, and as a new king he first clears the land. Tired of this, he goes to sleep and ties the horse's legs together.

In the ninth song, the hero finds out that wolves and bears have ripped off his horse, whereupon he furiously takes revenge on the animals of the forest. Then a messenger startles him with a war message, which Kalevipoeg initially pays little attention to. But he promises to come himself if the war extends. At the end there is a monologue by the war messenger about the cruelty of war.

In the tenth song, Kalevipoeg or his assistant Alevipoeg settles a dispute between two sons of Satan who could not agree on the delimitation of their swampy territories. With the help of a perforated hat he steals a mountain of gold from the water spirit, who had promised him a felt hat full of gold if he did not shut off the water. When the water spirit discovered the vertigo, there was a wrestling match with Kalevipoeg, which the latter easily won. Then he goes east to get lumber for his cities to be built.

In the eleventh song, Kalevipoeg returns with a load of boards and has to fend off attacks from another water spirit, this time the magician of Lake Peipus. Afterwards, when the hero sleeps exhausted, he even steals his sword. But he can't carry it far, it slips out of his hand and sinks to the bottom of the Kääpabach. When Kalevipoeg notices that his sword is missing, he immediately goes on a search. He finds it too, but neither can he get it off the bottom of the stream. As the Finnish blacksmith once did, Kalevipoeg is now disgruntled and cursed the sword: Anyone who once carried it - while thinking of the thief - should be killed by the sword.

" Kalevipoeg laudu kandmas " ( " Kalevipoeg carrying boards ") ( 1914 ) by Oskar Kallis ( Eesti Kunstimuuseum , Tallinn )

In the twelfth song, the sons of the water spirit harass Kalevipoeg with his board load. In the defensive fight, one board after the other breaks until a voice whispers to Kalevipoeg that he must hit the edge. No sooner said than done, and the adversaries will be put to flight. His advisor, a naked hedgehog, receives a piece of his fur coat as a reward. After a nightmare-filled sleep, he set off again to the east to fetch wood, as the board load was badly decimated.

In the thirteenth song, Kalevipoeg and his cargo of boards are no longer obstructed, but he passes the entrance to Hell and decides to pay her a visit. There he discovers a few maids who are being held against their will. They teach him all sorts of tricks and together they lock their guard in the kitchen.

In the fourteenth song, Kalevipoeg explores the underworld and meets the devil who puts him to fight. Using a ruse by the captured maids, he defeats him and leaves the underworld with rich booty and the freed maids.

In the fifteenth song, Kalevipoeg shakes off his pursuers from the underworld. He then falls into a heavy sleep, during which he is almost drowned in the body fluid of a wizard's daughter. Finally, Olevipoeg appears and implements the urban development plan begun by Kalevipoeg. Furthermore, the fate of the maids is described in detail.

In the sixteenth song, Kalevipoeg wants to go to the end of the world. On the way he meets the Lapland sage Varrak, whom he takes on board as a pilot. Despite getting quite far, Kalevipoeg finally realizes that his endeavor is doomed to fail. He returns home unfinished.

In the seventeenth song, Kalevipoeg baptizes the completed city with the name Lindanisa (one of Tallinn's old names). Then war breaks out again. Kalevipoeg drives the enemy to flight, but loses his horse. Then he travels through the country with his companions and experiences strange things in front of a cave entrance with an old woman who is boiling soup.

In the eighteenth song, Kalevipoeg goes into the underworld for the second time in order to finally defeat the devil. After overcoming a number of obstacles, he finally meets the host and challenges him to a duel.

In the nineteenth singing this battle is being fought. It lasts seven days and seven nights and sees Kalevipoeg emerge victorious. He ties the ruler of the underworld and leaves it with rich booty. A period of prosperity and happiness is dawning in the country, which only ends with renewed war messages.

In the last and twentieth cant one prepares for war. This time the enemy is overwhelming and many of Kalevipoeg's companions die. The hero himself withdraws sullenly and accidentally climbs into the Kääpabach. The sword lying there separates his legs from his torso, and Kalevipoeg dies. In heaven, however, a new task is formulated for him: From now on he should guard the gates of hell so that the horned one can never again cause harm in the world.

History of origin

In folk songs, stories about the figure of Kalevipoeg are rarely passed down. In literature it is first taken up by Heinrich Stahl in the 17th century . Concrete ideas for putting the stories down in writing for the first time came up after the Kalevala was first published in Finland in 1835. A German estophile and enthusiast, Schultz-Bertram , brought up this idea in the learned Estonian Society and one of the founding members of the society, the doctor Friedrich Robert Fählmann , wrote the first drafts for a national epic in 1839.

After Fählmann's death in 1850, Kreutzwald, who had been friends with Fählmann, was charged with continuing his work. After initial plans to write the Kalevipoeg in German and in prose, he decided on the traditional form of verse, which is also used in the Kalevala. He could only rely on a few original texts (folk songs) and composed large parts of it on the basis of the folk tales himself. Some passages and figures are also freely invented by Kreutzwald in order to give the work a narrative structure and to support the “teaching mandate” to create an epic that creates awareness of history. So it happens that in today's version of the Kalevipoeg only around an eighth are "original" verses, while the rest is an imitation of their style. The meter is based on the Old Estonian alliance poetry and usually consists of an eight-syllable (and thus four-syllable) trochaeus .

The first version of the Kalevipoeg with 13,817 verses could not be printed in 1853 due to censorship reservations. The second, thoroughly revised edition with 19,087 verses appeared in six editions between 1857 and 1861 in the scientific series of the Estonian learned society. In this way, the censorship could be circumvented, since the work was now aimed at a scientific audience, not the people. A parallel German translation was also included. In 1862 a minimally abbreviated and monolingual Estonian edition with 19,023 verses was finally published for the general public.

The Kalevipoeg was subsequently - in the spirit of its creator - of great importance for the return to one's own cultural identity and the development of national awareness in Estonia. The work also created a previously unknown lyrical Estonian language.

Editing, implementation

The epic has been edited and brought onto the stage again and again. In addition to the numerous new editions in Estonia, an adaptation for the youth by Eno Raud has become famous. It is also available in German translation. On the occasion of the 200th birthday of Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, Markus Zohner staged the epic as a play "Kalevipoeg - The cool Estonian epic" in Tallinn in 2003 . It is a coproduction by VAT Teater Tallinn with Markus Zohner Theater Compagnie , Lugano and has been on tour around the world since its premiere.

Translations

German translations and retelling

  • 1857–1861: Kalewipoeg, an Estonian legend. In: Negotiations of the learned Estonian society at Dorpat. Fourth volume. First issue. Dorpat 1857; Fourth volume. Second issue. Dorpat 1858; Fourth volume. Third booklet. Dorpat 1859; Fourth volume. Fourth issue. Dorpat 1859; Fifth volume. First issue. Dorpat, 1860; Fifth volume. Second and third booklet. Dorpat, 1861.
  • 1873 (retelling): C. Chr. Israël: Kalewipoeg or the adventures of the Kalewids. An Estonian legend, freely adapted from Estonian. Heyder & Zimmer, Frankfurt a. M. 1873.
  • 1875 (free adaptation, rewording): Julius Grosse : Die Abenteuer des Kalewiden. JJ Weber, Leipzig 1875.
  • 1894 (retelling for children): Kalewipoeg. An Estonian fairy tale. Edited for children aged 8–12. Published for the benefit of Fenner's deaf-mute institution. Kluge & Ströhm, Reval 1894.
  • 1900 (new translation, monolingual edition): Kalewipoeg. Translated from Estonian by F. Löwe. Edited with an introduction and annotations by W. Reiman. Franz Kluge, Reval 1900.
  • 1988 (adaptation for children): Eno Raud: When daring warriors roamed the country. The children's book publisher, Berlin 1988.
  • 1997 (retelling) Kalewipoeg. Verse epic by F.-R. Kreutzwald, retold by Friedrich Balcke. Harro v. Hirschheydt, Wedemark-Elze 1997.
  • 2004 (reprint of the translation from 1900): Peter Petersen (Ed.): 'Kalevipoeg. The Estonian National Epic. ' In the translation by Ferdinand Löwe. Mayer, Stuttgart 2004.

Translations into other languages

In addition to German, full translations are available in the following languages:

  • English
  • Finnish
  • French
  • Hindi
  • Latvian
  • Lithuanian
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Swedish
  • Ukrainian
  • Hungarian

Partial translations or prose versions are available in the following languages:

  • Danish
  • Esperanto
  • Italian
  • Yiddish
  • Czech
  • Spanish

Influence in the Baltic States

The example of Kalevala and Kalevipoeg led to efforts in the neighboring Latvians to create their own national epic. The author Andrejs Pumpurs introduced in his work Lāčplēsis (The Bear Slayer, 1888) an Estonian giant Kalapuisis , who was initially an opponent, but then became a comrade in arms.

literature

  • August Annist: Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwaldi "Kalevipoeg". Toimetanud Ülo Tedre. EKSA, Tallinn 2005.
  • Cornelius Hasselblatt : The meaning of the national epic Kalevipoeg for the national awakening of the Estonians. In: Finnisch-Ugrische Mitteilungen 20 (1996), pp. 51–61.
  • Cornelius Hasselblatt: History of Estonian Literature. From the beginning to the present. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2006, pp. 221–249.
  • Cornelius Hasselblatt: Latin, German and Estonian. Language and morality using the example of an episode from the Estonian national epic. In: Kees Dekker, Hermann Niebaum, Alasdair MacDonald (eds.): Northern Voices. Studies in honor of Tette Hofstra. Peeters, Leuven 2008, pp. 279-294.
  • Cornelius Hasselblatt: Birth and Care of the Estonian Epic. For the functionalization of Kreutzwald's Kalevipoeg. In: Northeast Archives. Journal for Regional History New Series Volume XVI / 2007, pp. 103–126. Nordost-Institut, Lüneburg 2009.
  • Cornelius Hasselblatt: Kalevipoeg Studies. The Creation and Reception of an Epic. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society - SKS 2016 (Studia Fennica Folkloristica 21), doi: 10.21435 / sff.21
  • Uuno Karttunen: Kalevipoegin kokoonpano. Helsinki 1905.
  • Marin Laak, Piret Viires: Intertextuality and Technology: The Models of Kalevipoeg. In: Marina Grishakova, Markku Lehtimäki (Ed.): Intertextuality and Intersemiosis. Tartu 2004, pp. 287-312.
  • Marin Laak, Piret Viires: The Estonian epic "Kalevipoeg" and its reception in culture and literature. In: National epics between facts and fictions. Contributions to the comparative symposium May 6th to 8th 2010 Tartu. Edited by Heinrich Detering, Torsten Hoffmann, Silke Pasewalck, Eve Pormeister. Tartu University Press, Tartu 2011, pp. 295-318.
  • Eve Pormeister: The Estonian epic "Kalevipoeg" in the tension between the national epic and the epic of humanity. An interpretation of the hell-driving scenes. In: National epics between facts and fictions. Contributions to the comparative symposium May 6th to 8th 2010 Tartu. Edited by Heinrich Detering, Torsten Hoffmann, Silke Pasewalck, Eve Pormeister. Tartu University Press, Tartu 2011, pp. 256-279.
  • Wilhelm Schott : The Estonian sagas of Kalewi-Poeg. In: Treatises of the philosophical-historical class of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin 1862, No. 7, pp. 411–487; also separately Berlin 1863.
  • Friedrich Scholz: The literatures of the Baltic States. Their creation and development. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1990, ISBN 3-531-05097-4 .
  • Ülo Valk: Authorship and textuality. The Kalevipoeg as epic landscape. In: Lauri Honko (ed.): The Kalevala and the World's Epics (= Studia Fennica Folkloristica 12). Finnish Literature Society, Helsinki. Pp. 407-419.
  • Otto Alexander Webermann : Kreutzwald's "Kalevipoeg". On the problem of the Estonian epic. In: Wolfgang Veenker (Ed.): Volksepen of the Ural and Altaic peoples. Lectures of the Hamburg Symposium from 16.-17. December 1965 (= Ural-Altai Library 16). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1968, pp. 13-35.

Web links

Commons : Kalevipoeg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald: Kalevipoeg. Tekstikriitiline väljaanne ühes commentaryide ja muude lisadega II. Tallinn 1963, p. 243.
  2. ↑ Kalevipoeg. Ms. R. Kreutzwaldi eepose järgi jutustanud E. Raud. Eesti Riiklik Kirjastus, Tallinn 1961.
  3. ↑ Eno Raud: When bold warriors roamed the country. The children's book publisher, Berlin 1988.
  4. ↑ For more information: Cornelius Hasselblatt: Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2011, pp. 55-77.