THE KALEYALA Written and adapted by Gary Aylesworth-2000

Scene # 1 - Creation

Chorus
I am driven by my longing,
And my understanding urges.
That I should commence my singing,
And begin my recitation.
I will sing the people's legends,
And the ballads of the nation.
To my mouth the words are flowing,
And the words are gently falling,
Quickly as my tongue can shape them,
And between my teeth emerging.

Rise, O earth,
From out thy slumber Field of the Creator, rouse thee,
Make the blade arise and flurish,
Let the stalks grow up and lengthen,
That the ears may grow by thousands,
Yet a hundred fold increasing,
By my ploughing and my sowing,
In return for all my labor.

"Ukko, thou of Gods the highest,

Father, thou in heaven abiding,
Thou to whom the clouds are subject,
Of the scattered clouds the ruler
All thy clouds do thou assemble,
In the light make clear thy counsel,
Send thou forth a cloud from eastward,
In the north west let one gather,
Send thou others from the westward,
Let them drive along from southward,
Send the light rain forth from heaven,
Let the clouds distill with honey,
That the corn may sprout up strongly,
And the stalks may wave and rustle."

Song
Vainamoinen sang the world into creation
Vainamonen old and steadfast
Gathered wisdom all around him
As a bee would gather honey
And he sang his songs of sweetness
Sang his songs and proved his wisdom.

Scene #2 - The Challenge

Chorus:
Then the racing wind it carried all his songs of his creation
until they reached young Joukahainen

Joukahainen:
O wind, wind, why do you send these
songs which blow through branches of trees?
Are Vainamoinen's songs the only ones you sing?
Are his the only ones you bring?!

Wind:
They are the greatest. They are the best.
They are the finest. They brought the world into creation.
They bring to nature great elation!
His songs, not yours, Joukahainen.

Joukahainen:
Blow yourself away! And to you I say-
I will challenge Vainamoinen!
Then you'll not blow his songs ever again!
I go now to sing down the old one.

Mother:
My son, you speak without thought.

Father:
These ideas will come to nought.

Joukahainen:
I will set shoes of stone upon his feet!
I will destroy him when we meet!

Mother:
It is you who will not sing again.
He is the worlds' old one, the great one!

Joukahainen:
Where is my sledge, my horse, my reins? (Drives to Crash)
I am youthful Joukahainen
IF you are old Vainamonen
You should move aside a little!
Vainamoinen:
I have passed my life in quiet
Here among these very moorlands.

Joukahainen
Let us give ourselves to singing
A contest now to find the greater.

Vainamoinen:
Then tell the utmost of your 'knowledge!

Joukahainen:
Well, so .. in the roof we find the smoke-hole
Well I know whence comes the titmouse.
That the titmouse is a birdie!
And a snake the hissing viper!
And I know that iron is hard.
Painful too is boiling water!

Vainamoinen:
Is there more that you can tell me?
Or is this the end of nonsense?

Joukahainen:
Then I stood with six great heroes,
I myself the seventh among them
And I reared the arch of heaven,
Helped the sun upon his pathway,
And the stars in heaven I scattered.

Vainamoinen:
Ay, indeed, a shameless liar!
No one ever yet had seen you,
Now my song will start to sink you down deep in the marshy meadow
Till your armpits swim in quicksand.

Joukahainen:
O thou wisest Vainamoinen
O thou oldest of magicians
Speak thy words of magic backwards
Oh release me from my prison
Break the spell that overwhelms me!
You shall have my sister...Aino!
Golden fabrics she shall weave you
And shall bake you cakes of honey!
Vainamoinen:
Finally words that make me joyful
A promise of your lovely sister.
Now I will reverse the magic
Magic the reverse will I now.

Mother:
Wherefore weep, my daughter Aino?

Aino:
I weep as one who has been sold
To be betrothed to one so old!
So old, so old, so old
An ancient one growing mold!
Therefore do I weep forever.

Chorus:
In the evening wept the maiden
through the dark-some night lamented
On the rocks that fringed the margin
In the waves amid the waters
In the waves a rock was standing
When at length she stood upon it
In the waves it sank beneath her
Sinking to the very bottom
And the underworld Ahto took her
I, Ainto of the underworld have come to take her.
(Vainamoinen's lament)
And at length one day it happened
Very early in the morning
On his hook a fish was hanging, And a salmon - trout was captured Vainamoinen could not hold
her.

Aino:
I am not a water - salmon,
But a young and lovely maiden. Youthful Joukahainen's sister.

Vainamoinen:
Sister thou of Joukahainen, Once again return, I pray thee.

Scene #3 The Origin of Iron

Mother
In these weary days of evil
In these days of deep depression
Seek thou out the Maid ofPohja!

Vainamoinen
To the cold and dreary regions of the gloomy land of Pohja,
I will take my straw-hued stallion.

Joukahainen
Watch now I for the old wise one, Now to finally have revenge on
He who took my loving sister
This arrow will now fly for her!

Chorus

Vainamoinen plunged in the water

Drifting like a fallen pine tree. Picked up after six-long days by an eagle with its wing tips.
(Vainamoinen stands weeping)

SET CHANGE

Maiden
(enters singing Northern Princess)
From the lake I hear a weeping
Sounds of woe across the river.

Louhi
O thou aged man unhappy
Thou art in a foreign country
Why do you weep, O Vainamoinen?

Vainamoinen
I must weep throughout my lifetime
In this unaccustomed country.

Louhi
If I send you to your county
What are you prepared to give me? I wish not for gold or silver,
But if you could forge a Sampo
Weld its many colored cover
From the tips of swans white wing plumes, From the milk of barren heifer,
From a single grain of barley,
From a single fleece of ewe's wool, Then will I my daughter give you.

Vainamoinen
No, I cannot forge a Sampo
Nor can weld its pictured cover. Only bring me to my country, And I'll send you Ilmarinen.
Lou hi
This sounds like quite fine a bargain. As your steed may not be wearied Tum it not to gaze about
you.
Do not raise ypur head up higher
Till the evening shall have gathered.

Vainamoinene
(Maiden appears in rainbow cloud, he raises head)
Lovely is the maid of Pohja Brightly shining on the rainbow Put aside your wondrous spinning
Come into my sailing sledge.

Maiden
If you truly be a hero,
As a Man I will esteem you.
If a boat you now can carve me, From the splinters of my spindle And shall lunch the boat in
water, But no hand must even touch it!

Vainamoinen
None in any land or country, Under all the vault of heaven, Like myself can build a vessel Or so
deftly can construct it.

Maiden
Wait to seize the very moment
When begins the painful torment
Watch and wait dark one,
Hiistt!
I know you will always help me.

Hiisi
Slip, Slip, Slip and dip, oh ax of iron. Above the knee the blade be buried And to death he will be
married.

Vainamoinen
. (to ax)
Oh! Tis my flesh that thou hast wounded! And my veins thou hast divided.
But I cannot think of any Words of origin of iron. Spells of origin for healing
Is there no one in this household Who can cure the wounds of iron? Old man, is it you can help
me?

Old Man
I can tell Iron's origin.

Vainamoinen
Old man, can you please be brief?

OldMan
Ukko rubbed his hands together
And three maidens were created
Three fair daughters of creation
Black milk from the first was flowing
Where the black milk had been dripping
There was found the softest iron.
Where the red milk had been trickling,
there was undeveloped Iron.
Then the Iron sought a refuge
From the hands of furious fire..
In the swamps lay hid the Iron.

Then was born smith Ilmarinen

Born upon a hill of charcoal
And next day he built his smithy
And erected there his bellows
And his anvil there constructed
Then he hastened to the wolf-tracks,
And the bear tracks also followed
And the ore of Iron he saw there
"What would be the upshot of it?
If I cast you in the fire?
And I laid you on the anvil?
Fire his friends will never injure!

(Iron)
"O thou smith, O Ilmarinen
Take me quickly from this furnace
By all the oaths of all most solemn
I will not assault my brother
Nor a mother's child will injure

(IImarinen)
"Even yet it does not please me
O thou Bee my nimble comrade
Honey on thy wings convey me"

But the hornet, Bird of Hiisi

Looked around him and he listened
Brought the hissing of the serpents
And of snakes the dusky venom
And of ants he brought the acid
And of toads the hidden poison.

Then the smith e'en Ilmarinen

He, the greatest of the craftsmen
was confused and did imagine
That the Bee returned already
Thereupon the steel he lifted
And the Iron was seized with fury

And its solemn oath was broken –

To bite its own and strike relations

Enters now in Iron the Evil

and in steel the troubling witchcraft.

Vainamoinen
Yes this is the tale of origin
And it is the tale that heals me
Now my blood has ceased its flowing.

Scene 4 - The Sampo

(Vainamoinen points to the "moon" in a tree, then sings a tempest song to blow Ilmarinen to
Pohja \set changes)

Lou hi
Now, my hero! the Sampo!
This Sampo a mill of magic
Three mills in one, a neat trick!
From this Sampo which never stops,
Corn, salt and gold coins it drops.
With you smith, my goblins will toil
Take feathers, milk, barley and wool
then with corn, salt and coins my chests will be full

(llmarinen works-finally Sampo is forged) *(Louhi's wild cry > chant I cry I song)

Grinds forth meal, the new made Sampo

First for food it grinds a chestful,
And another grinds for barter
And a third it grinds for storage (Wild Cry)

You have finished, you are through

But my daughter will not marry you.

Maiden
Even if you like a dove, bill and coo
You are better than the last one
Still, both of you don't seem like much fun
When he says his good bye,
I will at least pretend to cry.
And there will be a third to try

Scene #5 Lemminkainen
(Set changes)

Mother
Lemminkainen do not leave us!
I, your mother, and Kyllikki!
You are a hero strong and fit
You need not leave to prove it!

Limminkainen
Let Kyllikki dance when I go
Let her wander to and fro
I go now with songs to sing
Magic to Louhi's Pohja I will bring

Kyllikki
Take your comb for here it lies.

Lemminkainen
Let it lay and if I should die in Pohja, it will say.

(Set changes back to Pohja)

Chorus
Dogs come out to bark and bite but are frozen with the sight
of Lemminkainen at the gate
to meet Old Louhi and his fate.
A meeting of Wizards, all identical
Lemminkainen spys on, quizzical. (clarinet)

Louhi
You have disappeared the wizards but left servant Markahattu.

Lemminkainen
He is far beneath my notice
Very easy for me to miss
It is to you I have things to say
He was simply in my way.
Kyllikki is no longer my wife
With your daughter I wish to spend my life.

Maiden (dogs growl)

If it is my hand for which you ask,
My mother must then set a task. (Dogs)
The dogs wish you the best
as you prepare for your test.
And as they surely do,
I wish you luck too!

Louhi
Lemminkainen, hear me.
To marry my daughter you must bring me
The Swan of Tuonela

Lemminkainen
Tuonela is the land of the Dead
Give me something else instead.

Louhi II Maiden
One shot, one arrow

Lemminkainen
The swan is so near
The target large and clear.
One arrow, one shot
And to miss? I can not.

Markahattu
This adder you'll never see
just like you would not notice me.

Lemminkainen
Mother! you never taught me to sing
the origin and charm against a serpents sting!·

(Down to Tuonela he goes)

(Mother+ Kyllikki see blood on comb)

Chorus
Then did Lemminkainens mother
Take a mighty rake of iron
And she rushed to Tuoni's river
And she raked, yet found she nothing
Then she went and sought him deeper
Then she found his ribs in pieces
Likewise many other fragments
And her son she pieced together

Mother (sings)
Knitting, sewing - knitting, sewing
Weaving, growing - weaving, growing
A needle of light, stitches just right together back together back
veins on their track, no lack, no lack
Now will flow and flood, now will low and flood
The veins with iron's blood, rushing red blood

Mother
My son to you life has returned,
speak, tell me what you have learned.
Take this ointment and it will free
the words of your mouth to speak to me.
Speech is honey! Speech is honey!

Lemminkainen
Oh mother, you never gave me
chant or charm against the serpent,
that Markahattu, wretched servent,
to sorely bite me, sent.

Mother
Water snakes are born in water
On the waves among the reed beds
Syojatar, an 'ogress spat there
Her spittle is such pure venom
That the water can't dissolve it
It is this that twists and turns
into a snake with bite that bums.

Scene #6 - Frost Lost

Lemmindainen
Tiera! Tiera! My friend!

Tiera
Lemminkainen, my brother!

Lemminkainen
Tiera, my friend and brother!

Tiera
Lemminkainen, my frien9, brother, and hero!

Lemminkainen
Tiera, my friend, brother, heroes helper and fellow traveler!
Let us travel together!
Tiera
Anywhere you say oh!

·Lemminkainen
To Pohja for the sister of the Maiden, and for war!

Tiera
To sail with you, I could not ask for more!
Into my boat, let us get afloat!
(set changes)

Lou hi
Again Lemminkainen? Will he never learn?
His ashes I'll send to his mother in an urn!
I must call my dearest step child
He'll come, no matter the cost
Come my Blue Boy. Come Frost.

Frost
Mother, Mama, Mommy, Mom
My heart is so cold for you
My fingers are shiny blue
What do you have for me to do?

Lou hi
Freeze the lake which Lemminkainen, the fool
is sailing to reach our shore, with Treia, his tool.
He would engage us in a little war.

Frost
Mutter, Say no more, say no more.
For you I will always be nice,
and bring to him snow, wind and ice.

Tiera
Didn't we leave in the height of summer?
Now we need a strong fire and warm cover!

Lemminkainen
So that our cause would be lost
She sent her angel, that devil- Frost!

Frost
Do I hear a man whisper there?
I love to hear your teeth chatter, what could be better?
Chatter, in chill / Frozen I'll fill / your veins
with ice / will that suffice? / If not, let the wicked winds start /
blowing straight from my heart.

Lemminkainen
I think I will start to sing
and to you your origins bring -
Born among the willows, rocked by the cold north wind, suckled by adders

Frost
No, don't sing that! Stop! No! Stop!

Lemmindainen
Then you met one who did not fire
you had a beautiful meeting with..Fire!
Fire, fire, growing brighter and higher!

Frost
I ... SSSS ....SSSSSS
If I turn from blue to red
I am finished, through, I am - dead.

Lemminkainen
Back we go, we turn around!
Before she hears his dying sound!

Scene # 7 -Stealing the Sampo

Vainamoinen
O thou smith, O Ilmarinen
Unto Pohjola we'll travel
And will seize the splendid Sampo
And behold its pictured cover
From within the hill of copper
And the ninefold locks that hold it.

Ilmarinen
Wherefore weep, O wooden vessel?
Boat with rowlocks, why laments?

Boat
Know, a vessel longs for water
And its tarrysides desire it
And I weep to speed through water
And to float upon the billows.
trees & land "move" by Vainamoinen
Do not weep, O wooden vessel
Soon shalt thou go forth to battle.

Ilmarinen
Look, on banks stands Lemminkainen!

Lemminkainen
Do not make this run without me
As I come then we will be three!
Old Louhi we will stun!
How could I miss this fun?

Vainanmoinen
Welcome, young hero!....
Oh! what is the reason why we have stopped in our movement so suddenly.

Lemmindainen
Not on rock the boat is resting
But upon a pike's broad shoulders! (All try to grab pike)

Vainamoinen
Let the eldest of the yeomen
Come and cleave the pike to pieces
I could make...a harp of pike bones
From the fragments of the jawbones
Fit to give unending pleasure.

Lemminkainen
And from hairs of Hiisi's gelding
could the harp strings thus be fashioned

Vainamoinen
Now the instrument is ready
And the Kantele completed.
(He plays, all creatures come, tears drop..)

Ahto
Never have I heard such music
In the course of all my lifetime,
As is played by Vainamoinen
Joyous and primeval minstrel.
(Tear drops fall..)

Scene #8 - Overboard
Lou hi
(Looks into fire)
Visitors, three, to see me
(they enter)
What news do you bring, my heroes?
How can I help...you?

Ilmarinen
We have come to take the Sampo!
Surely now it must be shared

Lou hi
I cannot spare it, I cannot share it. I am too old, I would be cold.
You wouldn't want Old Louhi, to end up cold
and hungry?

Vainamoinen
This would not be, you would not be cold or hungry.
One half for you and one half for the whole world.
You will not suffer.

Louhi
I say I would.

Lemminkainen
If it cannot be divided, then we must take it whole.

Lou hi
(directs "shadows") Kill!

Vainamoinen
(plays Kantele, shadows sleep)
Now, Ilmarinen, show us where the Sampo lies!

Ilmarinen
Nine locks hold it.

Vainamoinen
I will sing of open things
Open ways All openings (Take Sampo)

Ilmarinen
Back to Kalevala or Karelia!
(Wind comes up- boat rocks)
Louhi sent old IkuTurso, giant and dread of all the sailors.
Vainamoinen
IkuTurso, is it you?

IkuTurso
Yes, you know me, Vainamoinen. I shall eat all of you up!
Then I shall pick my teeth with your mast and go to sleep again!

Vainamoinen
I see old Louhi made a promise
Just to get her way she told you
But to eat us would not suit you,
it could even start to kill you!
You could hide from dreaded Louhi
just go underneath the deep sea!

IkuTurso
But I hope you will not tell her.

Vainamoinen
Of that you can be sure, I promise you.

IkuTurso
Then offi go, forever, below!
Just one last trick a big, flick kick!

Ilmarinen
Hold on or we capsize!
Oh! No! The Kantele is going over the sides!
And see! Louhi, comes as an .. eagle!
Dark, evil bird comes dawn

Vainamoinen
But we are close to our shores
Hail, Mistress of Pohja!
Let us go ashore and divide the Sampo fairly.

Louhi
Never with you Vainamoinen !
And you Lemminkainen,
I will have your lying tongue for my dinner.
(struggle for Sampo)
There it breaks into small pieces
Under the sea it will sit
The best is that You shall never have it!

Vainamoinen
(boat goes ashore)
Look now here is Kalevala
splinters of the pictured cover and Sampo. From these seeds the plant is sprouting !
I will sow these Sampo fragments.
That they here might grow and flourish ! Grant, O Jumala, Creator,
That we now may live in comfort

Scene #9 - Robbery of the Sun & Moon

Chorus
Louhi, Pohjola's old mistress,
Old and gap toothed dame of Pohja,
Set to work the Sun to capture,
In her hands the moon seized likewise
Straightway to her home she brought them,
To the gloomy land of Pohja.

Louhi
Never more again in freedom
Shall the moon arise for shining,
Nor the sun be free for shining,
If I come not to release them,
If I do not go to fetch them.

Chorus
When the moon away was carried,
And the sun had been imprisoned
Deep in Pohjola's stone mountain,
In the rocks as hard as iron.
Then she stole away the brightness,
And from Vainola the fires,
And she left the houses fireless.
Therefore was the night unending
And for long was utter darkness,
Night in Kalevala for-ever.

Ukko, then, of God's the highest

In the air the great Creator
Now began to feel most strongly
In the air a light struck Ukko
And a flame did Ukko kindle,
High above aloft in Heaven
Told the maid of air to rock it
That a new moon might be fashioned
And a new sun be constructed.
On the long cloud's edge she sat her
On the air- marge sat the maiden

AirMaid
I don't care to rock this flame!
I don't care, am I to blame?
I rock and rock, into a trance
Of course I would much rather dance!
I would like to go have fun
and right now I am having none!
Bye Bye Baby fire spark
Out you go into the dark!

Vainamoinen
Smith and brother, Ilmarinen
Let us go and gaze around us
And the cause perchance discover
Where the strange flame may have fallen.
(into boat)
Let us now go forth together
Where the net is in the water.
See a grey pike hurried forward
And the salmon trout he swallowed
Is it wise with hands to seize it?
Save with gloves made out of iron
Save with mittens made of copper.

Chorus
But the fire flashed up most fiercely
Singed the beard of Vainamoinen,
Burned the smith much more severely
Burned up half the land of Pohja
In the rotten stumps he found it
Then he thrust these sparks of fire
In a little piece of tinder
Fire he carried to the kettles,
Now was fire within the dwellings,
In the rooms again was shining, still the sun was never shining.
Neither gleamed the golden moonlight

Ilmarinen
With my gold I will make the sun it will appear where now is none.
Then I will sing a silver tune
and fashion a lovely, glowing moon.
With no true light in the lands.
I will take things in my own hands.
I know it is right, and they will give light!
You'll see I'll put them in a tree.

Vainamoinen
This smithing tune I sounds like a loon.
From this sight I can come no light.
I would like to be kind
but something's gone wrong in your mind.

Ilmarinen
Shine, Shine ! O Creation mine ! Light, not night ! Light, not night !
(5 sec Chorus laughter)
Vainamoinen, and all the rest, I am contrite. You were, I see, quite right.

Vainamoinen
Now what will you do my friend
to keep the would from its dark end ?

Ilmarinen
Now ofLouhi I will get the better!
For her neck I will forge a fetter !
From a rock of the mountain will come a wail and shout

Lou hi
(as Hawk)
What is this, O smith, thou makest ?
What, O blacksmith, art thou forging?

Ilmarinen
Tis a neck ring I am forging for the aged crone of Pohja!
That she may be firmly fettered,
To the side of a great mountain.

Louhi
It is true, and he is right,
I fear chained and bound for many a year
will I be, if heroes still live
as long as heroes still live
as long as heroes still live
as long as heroes still live
as long as heroes still live !!
Alright, back to world the light
I will give.

Scene# 10 Marjatta

Chorus
Marjatta was a little damsel And was always pure and holy, And was ever very modest Marjatta
the petted damsel
For a while lived on as herd - girl
From the hill there cried a berry,
From the heath there cried a cranberry

Bush
O thou maiden, come and pluck me Rosy cheeked me, come and gather, Come with breast of tin
to pluck me.

Chorus
Oh the hill she found the berry
On the heath she found the cranberry. Then into her mouth it glided
And along her tongue it hastened, From her tongue to throat it glided and it dropped into her
stomach Marjatta the petted damsel
After this had chanced grew pregnant

Mother
What has happened to Marjatta That she casts aside her girdle Always dresses loosely, beltless
Hides herself inside the darkness.

Father
Go thou forth from here, O daughter
Wander forth, O girl for burning.

Marjatta
Come thou to my aid, Creator,
To my aid, O thou most gracious, In this anxious time of labor
In this hardest time of labor.

Chorus
In the greatest pain of body
To the stable in the pine wood
Then the good horse breathed upon her. **
And a little boy was born her, And a sinless child was given On the hay in horses' stable On the
hay in horses' manger
On her knees she took the infant
And she wrapped her garments round him
There she reared the little infant, Thus she reared the beauteous infant Then these words an old
man uttered

Old Priest
You are King of all Karelia
And the Lord of all the mighty

Chorus
Then was Vainamoinen angry, Greatly shamed and greatly angry.

Vainamoinen
O thou old and wretched creature,
Wretched old man, void of insight
O how stupid is your judgment
How contemptible thy sentence !
Men will look for me, and miss me
So I sing a boat of copper
To take me to loftier regions
To the land beneath the heavens
(sails away - music -)

THE END