Kalevala Rune IX - an unfinished sketch
Recently I have begun reading the Finnish National epic Kalevala. I am reading it in Swedish because even though Finland is an integral part of the culturally connected Nordic countries, it differs in one important way. The Finnish language has no similarities whatsoever with the old Norse language. So, even though the Finns are considered a brother-people we are seldom able to communicate in our own languages, but are mostly talking in English.
Kalevala is a romantic recreation of Finnish folk-legends collected and slightly rewritten by Elias Lönrot who walked around barefoot in eastern Finland in the early nineteenth century and talked to guys like the ones below, and thereby created the Genesis-poem of modern Finland.
The cultural impact on the young Finnish nation from this work can not be underestimated, and Finnish artist have returned to the strange and fantastic stories for many generations. It also inspired me to do the following sketch. My intention was to create a two colour print and then license the two blocks as CC-by. After making this sketch I was not entirely satisfied with the style. I had imagined something more stylished and less comic-like. It is not a bad drawing, but probably not fit for the print I had envisioned.
The drawing takes it's motive from the ninth rune of Kalevala where the three daughters of Ukko are creating the Iron from their breast milk. I really liked this strange parable. From sweet, fluid, and soft to biting, burnt and hard.
The Kalevala is written in it's own rhythm called the Kalevala meter making it possible to sing the runes (chapters). Below is an example of Contemporary Kalevala rune song. A beautiful rendering of Rune IX.
I have published an older version of the drawing on my Diaspora-profile.
I have tagged this #nsfw even though nothing really explicit is going on. Thanks to @orchish and @neoxian for advice conserning the #nsfw - tag.
The drawing is not, like many of the other artworks on my prodile, licensed CC-by, as I only release artworks as creative commons that are finished. It can be used on Steemit if you link to this post.
It's mesmerizing. Folklore is a reflection of the people's soul . For what do they need so much iron?
The whole place i lakes and pine and birch-trees. You need axes to create a living space, and it is a well known fact amongst Finlands Scandinavian brother-people that all Finns carry a knife.
Learn new things every day :-) Thanks for the post and your answer.
Hello @katharsisdrill! I came hereby to inform I used your sketch of the three daughters of Ukko in a post of mine as I felt it was a perfect fit for it:
https://steemit.com/story/@celestal/kalevala-shortly-9-the-birth-of-the-iron
OK.