The Traditional Poetry of the Finns. By Domenico Comparetti. Translated
by Isabella M. Anderton. With Introduction by Andrew Lang. (Longmans and Co. 1Gs.)—Professor Comparetti's work on the K.ilevala, with which he deals almost exclusively, was published in Italian in 1891, and a very close German translation, revised by the author, appeared in the following year. We believe there is also a French edition of the book. We are glad to see an English edition, as it will not only serve as an introduction to an interesting subject, little known and studied in this country, but will also call the attention of English scholars to the extensive literature which exists upon it, in many languages, some of which are as little known amongst us as the subjects to which they relate. Here we allude chiefly to the bibliographical notes, though we regret that Professor Comparetti does not appear to have read the proofs, or to have supplemented the notes, for we find no notices of publications subsequent to 1891, and the statement that but one part of the Kalevala variants has yet appeared "is no longer correct; while such errors as V. Tettau for Von Tettau, and "the horse Hiisi " for "the horse of Hiisi," should have been corrected in proof, as also a passage in rune 50, where, owing to an ambiguity in the Italian, the English version represents that Marlette was thrown down by the berry she was trying to pluck, whereas the context implies that she remained standing. Professor Comparetti's work consists of a series of essays on the composition of the Kalevala, with a fairly full epitome of the poem ; and on the divine myth, the heroic myth, and the rune. He argues that Lennrot was a literary man, piecing together materials (often incongruous) which he did not allow himself sufficient liberty to alter or to render consistent enough to weld into a great poem ; and that the Kalevala is therefore not a genuine epic, but a piece of literary patchwork. Genuine epics, however, like the poems of Homer, Professor Comparetti (and apparently Mr. Lang like- wise) regards as the work of a poet of uneducated genius, filled with the ideas of his time, but weaving the stories he employed into a connected whole, without being bound by any scruples about additions and alterations of his own. We must confess that we do not consider the case proved. Of the origin of the Homeric poems we have the tradition that they were edited in the time of Pisistratus ; but we might suggest that Hellas appears to have passed through several alternate stages of civilisation and barbarism, and the Homeric poems may have been traditions which survived from one civilised era to another. One of the longest poems written by a single poet (tor the Indian epics certainly were not) is Firdausi's "Shah Nameh," but Firdausi was chosen to write it because he was held to be the best poet of his time ; and it was almost entirely composed of ancient materials of which Firdausi made free use, though he doubtless used his own judgment respecting additions and altera- tions. Thus the composition of this poem seems to hold a middle place between the Homeric poems and the Kalevala. Again, the recent discoveries of fragments of Homer in Egypt show that either the text was by no means fixed by the editors in the time of Pisistratus, or that it was liable to frequent alterations or interpolations by later scribes. In any case the poem of Lonnrot is accepted by the Finns as their national epic, and just as the poems of Homer and the Indian Mahabharata supplied material for the efforts of dramatists, so also has the episode of Kullervo, the longest and most compact of the episodes in the Kalevala, been made the subject of a tragedy by J. H. Erkko, published, we believe, in 189G. Hardly sufficent allowance has been made by European students for the elasticity of literature in the East, even where a standard text is supposed to exist. Many copies of the "Shah Naineh," to which we have already alluded, contain larger or smaller interpolations later than the time of Firdausi ; and unless a canonical text is fixed, as in the case of the Bible and the Koran, Oriental books (with which the Homeric poems may fairly be classed) are liable to constant fluctuation and interpolation. That this was the case even with the Homeric writings in early times no longer admits of doubt, and must be taken into account in any discussions on the subject. Professor Comparetti attempts to prove, by various ingenious arguments, that the remarkable development of the runes, or popular songs, among the Finns, which was almost confined to them, and scarcely affected the neighbouring races, took place in the Viking period, between the years 800 and 1000 A.D. But distinct references to Northern mythology, or Viking ideas, are few and far between. The Finnish poems are Shamanistic, and the Finns and Lapps were always famous as magicians ; and consequently all their heroes are essentially and prim- ordially magicians rather than warriors ; and their contests are decided, not by force of arms, but by songs and incantations. Professor Comparetti is a writer of independent views, and does not scruple frequently to express different opinions to those of the best Finnish scholars on many points. We have no space for a longer notice of his interesting book, but may be allowed to suggest that there may not be any real inconsistency in one question that has perplexed the commentators on the Kalevala,— viz., Why should it have been necessary for Ilmarinen and his associates to steal the talisman called the Sampo. from Lapland, when it was Ilmarinen himself who forged it, and might reason ably be supposed capable of forging another for himself? But it must not be forgotten that it was Louhi, the house wife of Pohjola, who supplied him with the proper materials, which, though less fantastic than those used by the dwarfs in the Edda to forge the chain for binding the wolf Fearir, might possibly have been unobtainable of the right kind or quality in Finland.
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