J. Tolkien - The Story of Kullervo

And before he could leap up and grasp her she sped across the glade (for they abode in a wild dwelling nigh to the glade spoken to him by the Blue Forest Woman) like a shivering ray of light in the dawn light scarce seeming to touch the green dewy grass till she came to the triple fall and cast her over it down its silver column to the ugly depths even as Kullervo came up with her and her last wail he heard and stood heavy bent on the brink as a lump of rock till the sun rose and thereat the grass grew green, birds sang and the flowers opened and midday passed and all things seemed happy: and Kullervo cursed them, for he loved her.

And the light waned and foreboding gnawed at his heart for something in the maiden’s last speech and murmur and her bitter ending wakened old knowledge in his heart spell-blind and he felt he would burst for grief and sorrow and heavy fear. Then red anger came to him and he cursed and seized his sword and [went] blindly in the dark heeding neither falls nor bruises up the river as the Dame had directed, panting as the slopes leant against him till at dawn so terrible his haste

[ The narrative breaks off at this point, and what follows on the rest of the page is a note-outline of the end of the story, written rapidly and with aberrations in syntax attributable to haste. It is here given in full. ]

He goes to Untola and blindly lays waste to everything, gathering an army of bears and wolves together who vanish in the evening and slay the following Musti outside his vill[age]. When everything is destroyed, he flings himself drenched in blood on the bed of Untamo, his self the only house not burnt.

His mother’s ghost appears to him and tells him his own brother and sister are amongst those he has slain.

He [is] horror struck but not grieved.

She then tells him that she was [killed] too and he starts up in a sweat and horror believing he is dreaming and is prostrated when he finds it is not so.

Then she goes on.

( I had a daughter fairestmaiden who wandered to look for berries)

Telling how she met a fair distraught maiden wandering with downcast eyes by the bank of Tuoni’s river and describes their meeting ending by revealing that it is she who slew herself.

K[ullervo] bites sword hilt in anguish and starts up wildly as his mother vanishes. Then he laments her and goes out setting fire to the hall, passing through the village full of slain into the woods [ in the margin is the note: ‘falls over body of dead Musti’] wailing ‘Kivutar’for he has never seen her (as his sister) since he was sold to Ilmarinen. He finds the glade now bleak and desolate and is about to throw himself over same falls when he decides he is not fit to drown in same pools as Kivutar and takes out his sword asking it whether it will slay him.

The sword says if it had joy in the death of Untamo how much in death of even wickeder Kullervo. And it had slaid [ sic ] many an innocent person, even his mother, so it would not boggle over K.

He kills himself and finds the death he sought for.

[The spacing here is as it appears in the manuscript.]

[ Recto ]

Tūva (w. Nyēli) Ulto

Kampa (Nyēli) Ūlto Kem

or Kēma (Puhōsa his land)

Sāaki Wanōna

or hontō

Black dog Mauri

Smith Āsemo

cf Āse

Lumya the Marshland

Teleä land of Kēme’s birth

Kěměnūme or The Great Land

Ilu Iluko God of the Sky

(the good God)

often confused with Ukko:. ran

Amuntu hell

Tanto god of hell Pūh

Lempo plague & death

also cal[l]ed Qēle or as a [huntsman?] Kuruwanyo

The great black river of death

Kūru

Ilwe Ilwinti Sky heaven (Manatomi)

Wanwe armed goddess

Sutse the marshland

Samyan god of the forest

Koi Queen of [illegible]Lōke

[ Verso ]

the seven daughters of Ilwinti

Eltelen Mēlune

and Saltime

Tekkitai

Malōlo a god the maker

of the earth

Kaltūse

or

A loose folio numbered 21 contains discontinuous jotted notes and on both sides rough plot outlines alternative to the continuous narrative. The use of the names Ilmarinen and Louhi is evidence that this precedes the main manuscript.

[ Recto ]

Kalervo and his wife and son and daughter

Kullervo a boy child with his father Kalervo

The quarrel and raid of Untamo. The homestead laid waste — Kalervo slain and as Kullervo in anguish& all his folk and his wife is carried off by Untamo. She bears Kullervo and a younger sister in sorrow & anguish and tells them of the Tale of Kalervo.

UntamKull. waxed to marvellous strength: his vow as

an infant — the knife — (his passionate resentful nature) his ill treatment by Untamo

His only friend his sister. K's misbehaviour and selling in slavery to Ilmarinen. His utter misery: here he speaks with wolves in the mountain. carving strange figures with his father’s knife

The cake of Louhi’s daughter: Rage and revenge of Kullervo: refuses to loose spell and is cursed by Ilmarinen’s dying wife. He flies from Ilmarinen and goes to destroying of Untamo: returning from his triumph he meets a maiden and forces her to dwell with him: he reveals his name and she runs wailing into the dark and flings herself over the savage falls.

Kullervo standing in sorrow beside the falls

[ Verso ]

with 36/140—270 Dog Musti

Quarrelsome mean Kalervo Kind mother

wretched elder sister & brother.

falls in with the Pohie-Lady of the Forest Who tells him where his mother is dwelling (give description) with his brother and daughters.

And he leaves his sorrow and rides to the homestead.

The meeting with his mother: he recounts and she recounts their ventures[?] lives since her slavery.

He finds his mother wailing, she has sought her younger and dearly loved daughter for three years in the woods and describes her.

Kullervo sees what has happ to his sister

and rides recklessly over the ways to the falls where he slays himself.

Or he can meet the maiden in the woodland while fleeing from Ilmarinen and to quench his sorrow {3} go and devastate Untamo and rescue his mother from bondage discover it is his sister and ride back red with the blood of Untamo and slay himself at the Falls.

put the speech of UntKuli R. 36/40 ch met Kuli encounter[?] when his mother beseeches him to be more obedient to Untamo as a boy.

(Mother and Brother are glad he’s to go. Sister alone sorry)

Or make it thus after flight from Ilma he finds his people — then destroys Untamo gathering an [ sic ] magic army of his old friends the wolves and bears: Untamo cursesenchants him and he wanders blinded through the forest. Comes to a village and sacks it slaying the ancient headsman and his wife and taking as wife by force his daughter.