As
Tolkien interacted with
the Kalevala
and especially with the story of Kullervo, he adopted
them, adapted
them, and made them his own, including
their “luxuriant animism.”
In
fact, Tolkien actually intensifies the portrayal of a sentient,
intelligent natural and
material world
in his The
Story of Kullervo.
In
Tolkien's version, Kullervo
calls
his ax “dearest brother” and invites
it to go cut down birch trees with him (13).
Further,
he is even closer to his knife than in the original story. Here,
the knife is named Sikki, and when it breaks, Kullervo addresses it
directly as
“O my Sikki O my comrade...Nought I had to love in sorrow / But my
knife the picture graver” (29). Clearly,
Sikki was more than a tool to Kullervo; it was alive in its own
right, a friend and companion for a lonely boy surrounded
by contempt and abuse.
As
in the original story, the main perpetrator of this abuse in
Tolkien's tale is the smith's wife. Again,
she is far more concerned about the well-being of her cattle than she
is about Kullervo, and Tolkien retains many of the charms she sings
for protection over them (22-23).
The
vivid
sense of pervasive
life remains as the smith's wife implores the trees and the spirits
of nature to care for her animals. In Tolkien's version, the smith's
wife even gets chatty to the stone she bakes into Kullervo's bread.
“Break thou the teeth of Sāri
O flint,” she commands, “rend thou the tongue of Kampa's son that
speaketh always harshness and knows
of no respect to those above him” (21). The
stone becomes a servant to the smith's wife in her nasty plan to take
Kullervo down a few pegs.
Finally,
Kullervo's animal companions in Tolkien's adaptation are more active
and interesting than in the original tale. The magic dog, Musti, for
instance, becomes a protector and teacher to Kullervo and his twin
sister Wanōna
(10). Musti's magical hairs prevent Kullervo's death three times,
and the powerful and mysterious hound follows Kullervo when the boy
is sold into slavery, helping him survive in the wild and even
enhancing the child's own magical abilities (20). Through Musti,
Kullervo learns to speak with other animals, including wolves and
bears, who become his comrades and allies in revenge.
Obviously,
Tolkien was highly attracted to the “luxuriant animism” of the
Kalevala,
so much so that he enhanced it in his own version of the Kullervo
tale. As
a budding mythmaker,
he saw the appeal and the usefulness of such abundant
life. First, it provides a fresh perspective on nature and the
material world. Talking
crows, demanding ale, and protective trees allow readers a
view from the inside rather than a mere
observation from the outside. Moreover,
this new angle offers
an appealing strangeness that sets a modern audience a little on
edge, perhaps
shocks us out of our complacency and allows us to get in touch with
some deeply buried part of ourselves that still delights in the
outrageous and the weird. Finally, Tolkien explains that this
“luxuriant animism” is
part of the “undergrowth” of the Kalevala,
the part of the story that is not cleared away and neatened up by
artists using literary techniques (103). This is the matter of a
people so close to nature that for them it lives and breathes on its
own. This is what most modern readers are missing in their lives.
This is what mythmakers like Tolkien embrace as their task: to give
back to the world a sense
of
“luxuriant animism.”
Works Cited
“Animism.” Dictionary.com,
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/animism?s=t. Accessed 23 Sep. 2016.
Kirby, W.F. Kalevala: The Land of Heros. Vols. 1 and 2.
London: J.M. Dent & Co., 1907.
“Luxuriant.”
Dictionary.com,
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/luxuriant?s=t. Accessed 23 Sep.
2016.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The
Story of Kullervo.
Edited by Verlyn Flieger. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.
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