WONDER TALES from BALTIC WIZARDS - 41 tales from the North and East Baltic Sea E-Book

Anon E. Mouse

• Herausgeber: Abela Publishing
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

In this volume you will find tales of Enchantments, Wizards, Witches, Magic Spells, Nixy Queens, Giants, Fairy White Reindeer, and glittering Treasures from the Amber lands bordering the Baltic Sea -- Lapland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. There is a mass of East Baltic folklore from which to choose which gives but a feeble idea of the extent of Baltic folk-lore. Herein you will find 41 stories like The Battle Of The Wizards, Kari Woodencoat, The Living Kantele, The Rainbow Maiden, The Maiden Of The Milky Way, The Luck Egg, The Amber Wizard and many, many more. Their setting is the Long Winter Night with its brilliant play of Northern Lights over the snow-covered tundra; or the brief Arctic summer--its sun burning night and day--with its birds, flowers, insect-clouds, singing waters, and almost tropic heat; or the golden sunshine of the southern amber coast. But it is the Northern Lights themselves, flashing and flaming through the dark heavens, that cast their mystic weirdness over many of these tales moulded by the peculiar imagination of the Asiatic and European East Baltic folks. The farther our stories draw south from Lapland, the lower sink the Northern Lights and their influence on folk-tales, till at last they merge with the warmer lights of Lithuania - the Amber-Land. Wizards and wizardry abound in Lappish, Finnish, and Estonian tales, Witches appear more often in Latvian and Lithuanian ones. And in all these countries except Lapland, many European folk-tale themes, which we know are found in new forms in the Grimm collection. 10% of the publisher’s profit from the sale of this book will be donated to UNICEF.  

Leseprobe

From German and English Sources

BY

FRANCES JENKINS OLCOTT

Originally Published by

Longmans, Green And Co., London

[1928]

* * * * * * *

Resurrected by

Abela Publishing, London

[2017]

Wonder Tales from Baltic Wizards

Typographical arrangement of this edition

© Abela Publishing 2017

This book may not be reproduced in its current format in any manner in any media, or transmitted by any means whatsoever, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, or mechanical ( including photocopy, file or video recording, internet web sites, blogs, wikis, or any other information storage and retrieval system) except as permitted by law without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Abela Publishing,

London

United Kingdom

2017

ISBN-13: 978-X-XXXXXX-XX-X

email

[email protected]

Website

www.AbelaPublishing.com

DEDICATION

To

ALBERT von JULIN

A Patriot of Finland

From “The Departure of Wainamoinen”

by Akseli Gallen – Kallela (1865 – 1931)

which hangs in the Hämeenlina Museum of Art, Finland.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Abela Publishing acknowledges the work that

Frances Jenkins Olcott

did in compiling

Wonder Tales from Baltic Wizards

in a time well before any electronic media was in use.

FOREWORD

WIZARDS IN FOLK-LORE

ENCHANTMENTS, Wizards, Witches, Magic Spells, Nixy Queens, Giants, Fairy White Reindeer, and glittering Treasures flourish in these tales from the Baltic Lands--Lapland (both Finnish and Scandinavian), Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

And their setting is the Long Winter Night with its brilliant play of Northern Lights over the snow-covered tundra; or the brief Arctic summer--its sun burning night and day--with its birds, flowers, insect-clouds, singing waters, and almost tropic heat; or the golden sunshine of the southern amber coast.

But it is the Northern Lights themselves, flashing and flaming through the dark heavens, that cast their mystic weirdness over many of these tales molded by the peculiar imagination of the Asiatic and European East Baltic folks.

The farther our stories draw south from Lapland, the lower sink the Northern Lights, and the less their influence on folk-tales, till at last they merge with the warmer lights of Lithuania the amber-land. Wizards and wizardry abound in Lappish, Finnish, and Estonian tales, Witches appear more often in Latvian and Lithuanian ones. And in all these countries except Lapland, many European folk-tale themes, which we know in the Grimm collection, are found in new forms.

The Latvians and Lithuanians are Aryan peoples. The Lapps came from Asia, and the Finns and Estonians are descendants of the Finno-Ugric tribes emigrating from Asia to the Baltic shores. The Lapps and Finns are famous for their Wizards and wizardry. Even today some Lapps use magic incantations which are peculiar admixtures of ancient heathen superstitions and Christian ideas. The modern Lapp who is only half taught in the Gospel of Christ the Lord, which frees from superstition, is a strange compound of heathen survivals accentuated by the hard conditions of life within the Arctic Circle.

And bound by chains of superstition, the Lapp shows little progress. He is gradually being absorbed by neighboring races. It is far different with the Finns. Naturally more progressive, in co-operation with their compatriots, the Swedish-Finlanders, they have produced a modern Republic which in progress and culture is comparable to any European state. United with Finland is a large part of Lapland. Estonia, too, is a progressive modern Republic, as are Latvia and Lithuania.

But to return to Wizards in folk-lore. It is surprising that such an entertaining type of wonder tale as "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," which delights our children's fancy, should have its roots in one of the most repellent of soul-slaveries--Shamanism.

The shaman, wizard, witch-doctor, heathen priest, medicine man--by whatever name he be called--was and still is among some heathen tribes a force controlling with iron grip tribal life, both of chiefs and people. By of his art, the shaman, usually a professional trickster, works on the fear, credulity, and natural religious instinct of his ignorant dupes.

By howlings and whistlings, hideous maskings, capers and leapings, beating of gongs and drums, incantations to bad or good spirits, and by hocus-pocus healing and some real curative knowledge, the shaman manages to keep the helpless folk in trembling terror of his power over their lives. He is an enemy to progress and civilization.

Shamanism in some form is prevalent in all parts of the world, among Asiatics, European Arctic peoples, Africans, American Indians including Eskimos, also Afro-Americans, and the savage islanders of the seas. It is not possible in this short Foreword, to discuss Shamanism in all its phases, with its holdover in mediaeval and modern witchcraft revivals.

But, just as many delightful poetic fairy tales have had their beginnings in pagan myths, so from professional wizardry have descended a variety and host of fascinating tales which, under the magic brush of a light and playful fancy, have taken on the colors of wonder to delight modern children.

The selections in this book come from German and English sources. There is a mass of East Baltic folk-lore and folk-tales in these languages, from which to choose. In the languages of Finland and Estonia alone, may be found more than 33,000 native folk-melodies, 55,000 folk tales, 125,000 riddles, 135,000 superstitions, 215,000 proverbs, 200,000 folk songs. This gives but a feeble idea of the extent of Baltic folk-lore.

The racial groupings of tales here, are interesting to compare--primitive Lapp legends; richly poetic creations of the Finns and their kindred, the Estonians; European types of wonder story, product of the Aryan Letts and Lithuanians. Each group holds its distinctive place in the history of peoples.

And what a variety of selections is here!--prose epitomes of the musical hero tales, and imaginative wonder stories of Finland and Estonia; weird Lapp ideas; romantic legends and wonder tales from Latvia and Lithuania, all so delightful to children. Repulsive tales have been omitted. The wonder tales, with few exceptions, are literally translated. Several rambling ones are shortened. The article, "What Happened to Some Lapp Children," is composed of bits of assembled folklore. The half-title original verses are in Kalevala metre, while the little connecting stories, also original, follow the changing seasons of Lapland, and are woven from bits of folk-wisdom and custom.

All these colorful tales, together with The Tiny History of the Baltic Sea, and The Tiny Dictionary of Strange East Baltic Things will, we hope, charm the children and help them to understand and like the countries and peoples of our East Baltic neighbors.

Mr. Victor G. Candell, our American artist, was born in Hungary and has travelled in the East Baltic. For these pictures he has made a special study of the art motif of these lands, and has rendered them with a wealth of detail. He is an associate of Mr. Willy Pogany.

And this book is dedicated to my friend, Albert von Julin, an iron-master and patriot of Finland, who during the revolution after the late War, was killed, because of his ardent patriotic principles. It was he who first interested me in Finland and the Baltic. So may this book pay honor to his memory.

Frances Jenkins Olcott

Contents

TITLE PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

FOREWORD - WIZARDS IN FOLK-LORE

CONTENTS

THE MAGIC DRUM CALLS YOU!

FROM LAPLAND

OF AURORA COLORS, WHITE SILENCE, MOSSY TUNDRAS AND

HILLS WHERE REINDEER FEED

THE BATTLE OF THE WIZARDS

KARI WOODENCOAT

THE GIANT WHO DID NOT LIKE BONES

NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY SPIDER!

WHAT HAPPENED TO SOME LAPP CHILDREN

THE BOYS WHO DID NOT GET A MAGIC COW

THE ULDAS' OLD MOTHER

THE MOON DAUGHTER'S MAGIC

THE RED-HAIRED WIZARD

FROM FINLAND

OF THE THOUSAND LAKES LOST DAUGHTER OF THE BALTIC

SEA

MAGIC SINGING

THE LIVING KANTELE

THE HIDDEN MAIDEN

THE RAINBOW MAIDEN

FORGING OF THE MAGIC SAMPO

THE WIZARD WITH THE LOLLING RED TONGUE

FROM ESTONIA

THE WISE AND THE FREE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT AND OF

WONDER LEGENDS

THE SINGING SWORD

THE MAIDEN OF THE MILKY WAY

THE LUCK EGG

WOOD OF TONTLA

WEIRD THINGS

THE MAGIC MAIDEN

GOLDEN WONDERS

THE WIZARD WITH YELLOW EYEBALLS AND GREEN

HAIR

FROM LATVIA

OF FEAST OF FLOWERS AND COURLAND GOD'S OWN LITTLE

COUNTRY

THE GOLD AXE

CASTLE-TREASURE

WHAT WITCHES TELL

LITTLE WHITE DOG

THE DUCKLING WITH GOLDEN FEATHERS

THE WIZARD WITH BUSHY GOLDEN HEAD AND APPLE-RED

CHEEKS

FROM LITHUANIA

THE AMBER WIZARD

LUCK, LUCK IN THE RED COAT!

POOR MAN AND NEVER-ENOUGH

LITTLE WHITE HORSE

ONE HUNDRED HARES

MANNIKIN LONG BEARD

THE VANISHMENT!

INTERESTING THINGS

THE TINY HISTORY OF THE BALTIC SEA

PIRATE DAYS

THE MOVING HORDES

THE GREAT AMBER SEA

THE BALTIC NATIONS TODAY

GOOD BOOKS ABOUT EAST BALTIC LANDS

THE TINY DICTIONARY OF STRANGE EAST BALTIC THINGS

THE MAGIC DRUM CALLS YOU!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BEAT! BEAT! BEAT!

IN LAPLAND when the Arctic Storm Wind roars down from the mountains and blows through the valleys and over the tundra, comes the call of the Magic Drum.

Do you hear it on the wind? Do you hear its beat! beat! beat! and the grinding of the Wizard's teeth as he beats! beats! beats!

Long, long ago, with chanting and magic and drum-beating came the Great Wizard Nischergurje down from the mountains. Tree-tall, tree-straight was he, clad in the softest skins of the white reindeer. He was girded with the Wizard Belt of Might, and on his feet were soft-soled shoes. From his right wrist hung his gold drum-hammer, and his left hand held the Magic Drum. Beat! Beat! Beat!

Down from the everlasting snow-peaks he came to visit the Lapp people. He saw smoke curling up from their tents in the valley, where reindeer were digging moss out of the snow, with their hoofs.

And the Lapp people--little children, men, and women--ran and thronged about him in welcome. The finest reindeer-skins they spread for his seat in front of their tents, and the choicest reindeer flesh they dipped from their cooking pots to feast the Great Wizard.

And he sang to the people his Magic Words of the days when stones were gold and silver, and he sang:

"I have learned the secret of the foxes. I have the strength of Honey-Paw the bear, of Thick-Pelt-Old-Man-of-the-Forest. Fleeter am I than the snarling wolf. I know the place of hidden treasures. I know the secret of the Forest.

"Now will I send forth my Magic Call to summon my Comrades, the Four Ancient Wizards of the South Baltic Lands!"

And see! As the great Wizard Nischergurgje beat! beat! beat! on his Magic Drum, and tapped! tapped! tapped! on his Magic Drum, the Storm Wind blew fiercer. On its flapping wings came riding the Four Ancient Wizards!

Kauko, Red-Haired Wizard of Finland of the Thousand Lakes and Thousand Isles:

Sarvik with woolly white hair, back like an oak and lolling red tongue--from Estonia's rocky coast:

Kurbads giant-strong, with yellow eyeballs and green hair from Latvia of the crystal streams:

Jakamas with bushy golden head, pointed eyes, and apple-red cheeks--from Lithuania of the fragrant amber.

And each carried his own Magic Drum. Beat! Beat! Beat!

And the Four Ancient Wizards, grinding their teeth, whistling, and howling, seated themselves on the snow before the Chief Wizard of them all, the great Nischergurgje.

And he, the tree-tall, tree-straight one, struck his Drum with a rolling and a roaring, and bade the Four Ancient Wizards be still, so that the Lapp people might listen to his Tales of Wonder.

And the Four Ancient Wizards were still, and the people waited. Listen to Nischergurgje!

BEAT! BEAT! BEAT! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!