Note 438 — Chapter VI · SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS.
Reading edition
Adam. Bremens. IV. 16, 31.—Saxon. Grammat. Lib. I.—Yuglinga Saga, 6, 7 (Laing’s Heimskringla).
The Finns were not behind their neighbors in the powers attributed to spells and incantations. In the Kalevala, Louhi, the sorceress of the North, steals the sun and moon, which had come down from heaven to listen to Wainamoinen’s singing, and hides them in a mountain, but is compelled to let them out again through dread of counter-spells. The powers of magic song are fairly summarized in the final contest between Wainamoinen and Youkahainen:
“Bravely sang the ancient minstrel, Till the flinty rocks and ledges Heard the trumpet tone and trembled, And the copper-bearing mountains Shook along their deep foundations, Flinty rocks flew straight asunder, Falling cliffs afar were scattered, All the solid earth resounded, And the ocean billows answered. And, alas! for Youkahainen, Lo! his sledge so fairly fashioned, Floats, a waif upon the ocean. Lo! his pearl-enamelled birch-rod Lies, a weed upon the margin. Lo! his steed of shining forehead Stands, a statue in the torrent, And his hame is but a fir-bough And his collar naught but corn-straw. Still the minstrel sings unceasing, And, alas! for Youkahainen, Sings his sword from out his scabbard, Hangs it in the sky before him As it were a gleam of lightning; Sings his bow, so gayly blazoned, Into driftwood on the ocean; Sings his finely feathered arrows Into swift and screaming eagles; Sings his dog, with crooked muzzle, Into stone-dog squatting near him; Into sea-flowers sings his gauntlets, And his vizor into vapor, And himself, the sorry fellow, Ever deeper in his torture, In the quicksand to the shoulder, To his hip in mud and water.” —Porter’s Selections from the Kalevala, pp. 84-5.