STORIES FROM THE KALEVALA
In the late 1800 Elias Lonnroth traveled all through Finland visiting remote villages where the very ancient way of singing mythological stories were still a living tradition. He noted the stories down and then collected them into an epic story that tells about the creation of the world and about heroes and heroines and their adventures. |
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The Theft of Fire and Light
When the old Vainamoinen played on his Kantele, that instrument made out of the jawbone of a pike and with strings of a horse's mane, when he played everybody just had to listen, even the sun and the moon.
Louhi, the gap-toothed hag of the North, then got hold of the sun, she caught the moon with her hands and she brought them straight back home to the dark North land. She hid the sun from shining into a bright breasted rock and she sung the moon from gleaming into a mountain of steel. Then she stole the fire from all the cabins. And now it was night; perpetual, long, pitch dark night ...
Everybody was cold. Even God felt cold. So he struck fire on his fingernails to start a new sun and a new moon. But the spark of fire flared up and escaped. It wrought terrible damage all through the world, until it was swallowed by a fish.
Through the courage and wisdom of the old Vainamoinen the fire was tamed and eventually the sun and the moon were also freed. |
The Wanton Lemminkainen
Lemminkainen is jealous. His wife has gone out dancing while he was out fishing! He sets off to find another wife. He travels to the dark North to win one of the daughters of Louhi the gap-toothed hag of the North. She makes him do heroic deeds to put him to a test. During one of these adventures Lemminkainen gets killed by a snakebite and cut into pieces by the gods of death.
But his mother comes to his rescue. She puts him together again, wakes him up and brings him back home. |
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MEDIEVAL BALLADS These are songs that have survived in oral tradition from medieval times. Before TV and newspapers, the only way news could travel was from person to person. Sometimes these stories could travel very far and for a very long time, sometimes they were set to music and became ballads. The tradition of singing ballads originated in the courts in Southern France in teh early 1200. From there it spread throughout Europe and also to America. The texts and the melodies changed as they traveled from singer to singer and often you can find many different versions of the same song. We have used versions from different parts of the Swedish speaking part of Finland. |
The Island Furthest Away
There lived a man on the islands southern shore
- Wake up now already from your slumber
He had A lovely daughters so beautiful and fair
- But you have been sleeping for too long ttttttttt
The Ballads tell of dramatic love stories, wild sea journeys ttttttttt
And when they came to the middle of the sea
The waves foamed white as far as they could see
- Row me over the water with these oars
ttttttttt
and strange creatures...
ttttttttt The young man he walked on the sea shore of sand
- There is a cold wind blowing from the sea
There he met a sea lady so beautyful and grand
- There is a cold wind blowing from the sea
Original song texts printed 1934 by Society of Swedish Literature in Finland FOLKTALES |
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The Wolf Prince
One day a princess finds a huge louse in her father's hair. She keeps it in a box in her room, but the louse starts to grow at an amazing speed. She has to put it in bigger and bigger boxes until it has grown to a monster. The king kills it and hangs its skin on the castle door.
He announces that any one who can guess from what animal the skin comes can marry the princess.
The only one to guess right is a wolf. Well they marry and they happily until the wolf (who is really a prince) one day is whisked away by the troll woman who once transformed him, from a prince into a wolf.
The princess sets out to get him back from the troll. And meets with many adventures on her way. |
The Rosemary Plant This is the story of a magic rosemary plant that is actually a princess.
The rosemary plat falls in love with a prince.
Eventually she is rescued from her state as a plant by a clever gardener with the help of two old dragons. Click HERE to see video clip
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The Seal It was when the humans started to use fire, that they lost their ability to talk to and understand the animals ... But deep inside we all remember a time when we could communicate with everything around us ...
This is a folk tale from the Kola Peninsula, just North East of Finland, in Siberia. It tells about a boy who through magic gets to experience how it is to be an animal. |
Katarina and her Destiny
The story of a girl who one day is visited by her destiny in the form of a woman holding a little wheel in her hand. Katarina gets to choose whether she wants a happy youth or a happy old age. She makes her choice and from then on her life starts to take unexpected turns. At the end it all turns out for the better thanks to a little bundle of red yarn.
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East Indian Stories and Dance Mythological Stories TULSI
This is the story of how the Tulsi Plant - also known as Holy Basil - came to be a herb that is revered as sacred throughout india and beyond. Tulsi was once a young maiden in love with Krishna. But before she can join her beloved she has to be reborn, and go through many adventures. This story is performed with movements from the Bharata Natyam Dance as well as storytelling and original music arrangements. MANMATA - THE GOD OF LOVE
This is the story of how the Manmata, the God of Love made Shiva fall in love with Parvathi. This story is performed with movements from the Bharata Natyam Dance as well as storytelling and original music arrangements. Bharata Nayam Dance
The Bharata Natyam dance is used to perform stories from the Hindu Mythology. In a performance Johanna will tell about the dance, its origin and history as well as the stories it portrays. These stories are performed in the tranditional Bharata Natyam Dance style, accompanied by recorded traditional music. Some of the themes and stories are:
THE RAMAYANA
The story of prince Rama and his adventures as he is exiled in the jungle
together with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana.
KRISHNA EATING MUD
The story of how little Krishna eats mud and how his mother forgets to scold him as she sees the whole world in his mouth.
THE CHURNING OF THE MILK OCEAN
The Devas and the Asuras churn the ocean to obtain a nectar of
immortality.
NARASIMHA AVATARA
Lord Vishnu takes the form of half man half lion to destroy the evil
Hirennyakashipu
PADAMS
Romantic stories and poems about different heroines and their relation with Krishna, Murugan and other Gods.
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