Sleeping Sun, part 3/?

[calime]

3.
/…/
Vaka vanha Väinämöinen tuop' on tuossa tuomitsevi:
"Kun lie poika suolta saatu, maalta marjasta si'ennyt,
poika maahan pantakohon, marjamättähän sivulle,
tahi suolle vietäköhön, puulla päähän lyötäköhön!"/…/
(/…/Wainamoinen, old and faithful,
Carefully the child examined,
Gave this answer to his people:
"Since the child is but an outcast,
Born and cradled in a manger,
Since the berry is his father;
Let him lie upon the heather,
Let him sleep among the rushes,
Let him live upon the mountains;
Take the young child to the marshes,
Dash his head against the birch-tree."/…/)
Kalevala, Rune L


Marja had not been quite sure how the tribe would view her sudden ascendancy to motherhood, but she had thought that if the Thunder god had deemed her worthy of raising his child, all earthly objections should be moot by default.

Apparently Urpo, the strongest hunter (and the one to most strongly covet Marja’s bronze knife, even if it meant getting the troublesome woman in the bargain – a prospect he saw dwindling now in a most frustrating way) thought otherwise.

’Surely it is not a real child,’ he said.

’It will bring us bad luck,’ he objected.

’Marja has no mate and has said that she will not accept one. How will she care for a child?, ’ he asked.

And then he brought forth the most powerful argument of all. ’The foundling boy is mute! Have any of you heard him speak during all this time he has been here? He cannot therefore be human, but an evil spirit put on our way to do us harm. I say, lets bash his head in and kill him, before any misfortune befalls us!’

And he advanced threateningly towards the little boy, who though looking less grubby and a bit better fed than before, still had the same fear in his expression.

Marja gripped the hilt of her knife and tensed her body in preparation for an attack. At the best, she would be able to wound the bigger and stronger man, and then she would be cast out of the tribe, to wander homeless in the cold north. At the worst, Urpo would kill her before he got to the boy. Marja could not decide when and why her find had become so important to her, but she would rather be cursed to wander the black shores of Tuonela river forever than back down now.

She was so focused upon Urpo that she failed to notice the Ukko, who had quietly stepped up to her and so made a startled jump when he laid a hand on her shoulder.

’What is going on here?’, the Ukko asked in a quiet voice that still somehow managed to carry over the murmurings of the other tribespeople gathered around them.

’We have to get rid of the evil spirit!’ snarled Urpo, ’no-one knows who his mother is, and he cannot speak the tongue of people!’

’Is that so?’ asked the Ukko. He squatted down in front of the boy and for a long moment just looked him in the eye.

Then he slowly raised his hand, made a fist and touched it to his breast. ’Uk-ko,’ he said slowly and clearly enunciating both syllables. Then he took boy’s hand, folded the fingers into the palm, pushed the small fist against the boy’s breast where a little heart was pounding like a frightened rabbits’. ’Ma-to,’ he said, and sat back on his haunches to gauge the boy’s reaction.

After a heartbeat, the boy slowly raised his fist and touched it to his breastbone. ’Maa-too,’ he said in a sing-song voice, and reaching out to the old man, ’Ukk-koo’. Then he turned, looked up at Marja still clutching the knife-hilt so hard that her fingers were beginning to ache and said, pointing, ’Maaarr-jja?’, drawing the end of the name up liltingly as if asking a question.

Marja could not help it, she had to kneel down and hug the boy and push her face into the silky hair. It was as if from a distance that she heard the Ukko say in his most reasonable tone of voice to Urpo, ’Hear, he can speak. So I think that he is not a spirit after all.’

Adding as an afterthought, over his shoulder, ’And if Marja needs help, I will hunt for them. I need someone to teach the lore of living things to, so that the tribe will have someone to take the place of the Ukko after I go to the Manala lands, and we have no other boys of suitable age. In fact, I think he will do well.’

And, well, one did not argue with the Ukko.

/…/Ukko risti ripsahutti, kasti lapsen kapsahutti
Karjalan kuninkahaksi, kaiken vallan vartijaksi. /…/
(/…/Thereupon old Wirokannas,
Of the wilderness the ruler,
Touched the child with holy water,
Crave the wonder-babe his blessing,
Gave him rights of royal heirship,
Free to live and grow a hero,
To become a mighty ruler,
King and Master of Karyala./…/)
Kalevala, Rune L


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Note: 'Urpo' is a name meaning mostly 'brave'. 'Tuonela' and 'Manala' are the names fenno-ugric people used to call the parts of their underworld, it was where the souls of the dead people went,a sunless place underground,separated from the land of the living by a dark Tuonela river which the souls of the dead or the shamans could cross. With the exception of being sunless, it was supposed to look pretty much the same as upstairs.

I'm working on the next chapter and will post it as soon as it is finished.