Collected by Elias Lönnrot, Helsinki, 1829
Elias Lönnrot was twenty-seven years old when he published Kantele Taikka Suomen Kansan Runoja ja Lauluja (Kantele — or, Songs and Poems of the Finnish People) in Helsinki in 1829. It was his first collection of Finnish folk poetry — published fifteen years before the final Kalevala, when the great national epic was still only a dream. The poems came from his first collecting journey, principally to Kesälahti and Ilomantsi in Karelia, gathered from singers who asked him not to publish their names.
Among the early collection's most valuable contents are five sacred incantations reproduced here: the bear ceremony skull-mounting words (karhun päälliset), the sacrifice words spoken after the hunt (uhrisanat saaliin jälestä), the words spoken to the bear when livestock first go to pasture in spring, a snake charm (käärmeen lumoussanat), and the mythological origin of the seal (hylkeen synty). These are functional ritual verse — words of power spoken at specific sacred moments, not literary poetry — and they survive in forms that Lönnrot had not yet subjected to his extensive editorial work on the 1835 and 1849 Kalevala. They are rawer, shorter, closer to the oral source.
The bear ceremony sequence is of particular importance. In Finnish and broader Uralic tradition, the bear was the central sacred animal: the son of the sky, lowered to earth in a golden cradle, permitted to live among humans only with mutual obligations of honor. When a bear was killed, an elaborate ceremony — the karhunpeijaiset, the bear feast — reconciled the human world with the bear's spirit. The skull-mounting words translated here were spoken at the ceremony's climax, when the bear's skull was carried to a pine tree on the hill and mounted there. The bear is addressed as a noble guest departing for a good home, not as a slain animal. The post-hunt sacrifice words and the spring cattle protection words complete the seasonal cycle: before hunting, at the kill, and as the cattle go out in spring under the bear's watchful presence. None of these texts have previously appeared in English.
I. Karhun Päälliset — Bear Ceremony Words
Spoken when the bear's skull is carried to the pine tree at the ceremony's close. The bear is addressed as a departing guest of honor, invited along a golden road to its new home in the forest pine, where it will have fish and fresh water.
Honey-one of the Forest, you mother of Mehtola,
Golden King of the Forest!
Come now to the feast-wedding of your bull-calf,
to the banquet of your long-furred one.
I take the nose from my Ohto,
to leave it without scent;
I take the ear from my Ohto,
to leave it without hearing;
I take the eye from my Ohto,
to leave it without sight —
(when the skull is then carried to the pine)
Go now, my gold one, go walking,
my treasure, dear one, step forward
along the golden lane,
along the silver road.
Here the bridges are laid with silk,
the marshes covered in velvet,
the bad places spread with linen,
the wet places draped with woolen cloth.
You will not be taken far from here —
carried to a pine on the hill,
to a forest pine at the field's edge.
There the wind will bring you shelter,
the wave will drive perch toward you.
Beside you runs the whitefish channel,
to the southwest the salmon weir.
You will drink from your own shore,
you will eat of fresh fish.
There it will be good for you to dwell,
good to linger, beloved.
II. Uhrisanat Saaliin Jälestä — Sacrifice Words After the Hunt
Addressed to the forest powers after the kill — the hunter offers the trophies of the hunt to the Gracious Mistress and the Golden King of the Forest, comparing the quality of his treasures to theirs.
Gracious Mistress of the Forest,
Golden King of the Forest!
Come now to take your gold,
to choose your silver.
Spread your love-cloth
under my treasures;
that the gold not fall to earth unsheltered,
that the silver not scatter away.
My gold is worn from use —
some pieces brighter than the sun,
some old as time itself,
won by my father in war,
drawn home from Russian lands,
led away from battle,
seized from under Riga in the fighting.
My gold is wearing thin,
my silver growing lean.
Yours is the rougher gold —
mine is the clearer.
III. Sanat Jotka Luetaan Karhulle — Words Spoken to the Bear in Spring
Full title: Words spoken to the Bear (Ohto, Kontio) when livestock first go to pasture in spring for the first time. The charm first reminds the bear of its divine origin — born near the moon and stars, lowered to earth in a golden cradle — then asks it to leave the cattle in peace, and finally calls on the sky-god Ukko to bind the bear's mouth if it refuses.
Where was Ohto born,
where was Honey-paws rocked?
Near the moon, beside the sun,
on the shoulders of the Great Bear stars.
From there it was lowered to earth
in a golden cradle,
in silver chains.
My Ohto, my only one,
my beautiful Honey-paws!
Do not trample the cattle paths,
do not harm the milk-carrier.
When you hear the cattle bell,
the ringing of the horse-bell,
rub your nose into the sand,
press your head into the turf;
or glide past like a whitefish,
slip along like a river fish
past my food-grasses,
past my life-sustaining hay.
O Ukko, Lord on high,
old man of the sky!
Put a rowan-wood band
around the snub nose;
if the rowan does not hold,
then build it out of iron.
If the iron snaps apart
and still it goes astray —
a fiery plug in its mouth,
the lock of Lemmon on its jaws.
Forest Ukko of the frost-beard,
celebrated king of the forest!
Hide your dogs in the hollow,
your hounds in the den.
You yourself, O God of the sky,
go behind the heavens' back!
As you watch from under a roof,
so watch from where there is no roof;
as you care for things in the house,
so care for them in the pine forest.
IV. Käärmeen Lumoussanat — Snake Charm Words
A charmer's address to a snake, calling it by kenning-names, commanding it to curl harmless in the hand, to close its mouth and fold its tongue, and threatening it with Ukko's iron hailstones if it raises its head.
My snake, my little one,
earth-whitefish, smooth whitefish,
lurker under the golden dry-grass,
root-dweller under the dear leaves,
coiled one under the stone-pile,
ringlet at the stump-root!
Coil yourself into a coil,
curl yourself into a curve;
come now onto this palm of mine,
fit yourself to this finger.
Close your mouth, hide your head,
fold away your flickering tongue.
Wool over your mouth, wool over your head,
your anger is wool,
you yourself are wool.
Press your head into the turf,
push your head into the tussock;
but if you lift your head from there,
Ukko will shatter your head
with drops from the clouds,
with iron hailstones.
V. Hylkeen Synty — The Origin of the Seal
An origin charm for the seal: a boat-building frame leads into a cosmogonic moment in which a man rising from the sea carries six roosters whose scale-covered crests become the seal. The final lines, addressed directly to the seal, command it to carry its anger inward — transforming wrath into wine and bitter tastes into milk.
Little Wäinä, son of Mauni,
built a boat with skill,
fashioned a vessel through song.
Got the little boat made ready —
tarred it with fish-tar,
filled the seams with bream-scales,
caulked it with seal-fat.
He rowed, he glided
around the waters of the Neva,
circling the headland of the Neva.
Huiko cried out from the cape,
bleated from behind the hill:
"Whose boat is on the water,
whose ship on the waves?"
"The boat of old Väinämöinen —
the wind's flicker, Turja's flash,
the little vessel's shimmer."
A man rose from the sea,
lifted himself from the waves,
to count the sea's reefs,
to survey the water's fish.
Six roosters in his hand,
six proud ones at the cock's crest —
all of them full of scales,
and from them it became the seal.
If you have done any evil,
come and acknowledge your deed;
carry your anger away from here
into your yellow lungs,
into your sweet liver,
send it deep into your gallbladder;
change your anger into wine,
your bitter tastes into milk.
Colophon
Five sacred incantations from Elias Lönnrot, Kantele Taikka Suomen Kansan Runoja ja Lauluja, Volume I (Helsinki: Waseniuksen, 1829). Source text from Project Gutenberg e-text #48176, prepared by Jari Koivisto — clean UTF-8, no OCR artifacts. The five incantations are: "Karhun Päälliset" (pp. 764–), "Uhrisanat Saaliin Jälestä" (pp. 825–), "Sanat Jotka Luetaan Karhulle" (pp. 851–), "Käärmeen Lumoussanat" (pp. 898–), and "Hylkeen Synty" (pp. 926–).
The 1829 Kantele Taikka is Lönnrot's first published folk song collection, predating both the 1840 Kanteletar and the 1835/1849 Kalevala. The bear ceremony material collected here represents Lönnrot's earliest recorded form of these incantations — before his extensive editorial work reshaped them into the literary Kalevala. The bear ceremony sequence (texts I–III) is distinct from the bear-origin charm (karhun synty) material in Lönnrot's later 1880 collection (Suomen kansan muinaisia loitsurunoja), already translated in the Good Work Library. The 1829 texts are pre-Kalevalaic; they show the living practice, not the literary synthesis.
Significant vocabulary: Ohto (and Ohtonen) — the bear's poetic/taboo name, used in ritual speech in place of karhu; Mesikämmen — Honey-paws, the bear's kenning-name; Mehtola — the dwelling-place of the forest spirit (from metsä, forest); karhunpeijaiset — the bear feast, the ceremony following a bear kill; tietäjä — the Finnish shamanic healer-singer; Ukko — the sky-god and thunder-god; Lempi/Lemmon — a spirit of dual nature, both love and malice, whose lock (Lemmon lukko) is invoked as a restraint; Maan siika — earth-whitefish, the kenning for the snake in the charm-song tradition. All terms added to Glossary.
Blood Rule: CLEAN — translated directly from the 1829 Finnish. The archaic spelling conventions of the period (w for v, ä rendered consistently, medial consonants sometimes doubled or simplified) are preserved in the source text section. No prior English translation of these incantations is known to exist.
Translated by Talvi, Liberation Translator tulku of the New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text
Finnish source text from Elias Lönnrot, Kantele Taikka Suomen Kansan Runoja ja Lauluja, Volume I (Helsinki, 1829). Project Gutenberg e-text #48176, UTF-8 encoding. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above. The 1829 spelling conventions differ from modern Finnish orthography: w = v; intervocalic consonant clusters may vary; ä is used consistently. Footnote numerals ([49], [50], etc.) are from the Gutenberg transcription and refer to Lönnrot's own footnotes in the original edition; they are not reproduced here.
I. Karhun Päälliset
Mehtolan metinen muori,
Metän kultanen Kuningas!
Tule nyt häihin härkösesi,
Pitkäwillasi pitohon.
Otan nenän Oholtani,
Wainun tuntemattomaksi;
Otan korwan Oholtani,
Korwan kuulemattomaksi;
Otan silmän Oholtani,
Silmän näkemättömäksi;
(Kuin sitte pääkallo saatetaan petäjään),
Lähe nyt kulta kulkemahan,
Rahan armas astumahan
Kullaista kujoa myöten,
Hopeaista tietä myöten.
Täst' on sillat silkin pantu,
Sillat silkin, suot sametin,
Pahat paikat palttinalla,
Weralla wetelät paikat.
Ei tästä etäälle wieä,
Wieään mäntyhyn mäelle,
Petäjääseen pellon päähän,
Siihen tuuli turwan tuopi,
Aalto ahwenan ajaapi,
Siwullais on siikasalmi,
Luonais on lohiapajas,
Juot wettä wiereltäsi,
Syöt tuoresta kaloa;
Siin' on hywä ollaksesi,
Armas aikoellaksesi.
II. Uhrisanat Saaliin Jälestä
Metän ehtoisa emäntä,
Metän kultanen Kuningas!
Tule nyt kullat ottamahan,
Hopeat walihtemahan.
Lempi liinasi lewitä
Alla minun kultieni;
Kullan maahan tippumata,
Hopean riwestymätä.
Mull' on kullat kuunikuset,
Toiset päiwän selkeämmät,
Kolmannet iänikuset,
Isäni soasta saamat,
Wetämät Wenäeheltä,
Taluttamat tappelosta
Alta Riian riitelemät.
Minun kultani kuluwat,
Hopeani hoikeneepi;
Sinun on kullat karwasemmat,
Minun on kullat kirkkahammat.
III. Sanat Jotka Luetaan Karhulle (Kontiolle, Oholle) Kuin Karja Kewäällä Ensimmäisen Kerran Lasketaan Laitumelle
Missä Ohto synnytetty,
Messikämmen käännytelty?
Luona kuun, tykönä päiwän,
Otawaisten olkapäillä.
Sielt' on maahan laskettuna
Kultasessa kätkyessä,
Witjoissa hopeisissa.
Ohtoseni ainoseni,
Mesikämmen kaunoseni!
Älä sorra sontareittä,
Kaaha maion kantajoa;
Kun sä kuulet karjan kellon,
Helkkäwän hewosen kellon,
Hiwo hietahan nenäsi,
Tunkee pääsi turpeesehen;
Tai kule siikana siwute,
Wetelete wein kalana
Minun ruokaruohoistani,
Minun henkiheinistäni.
O Ukko ylinen herra,
Mies on wanha taiwahinen!
Pane panta pihlajainen,
Ympäri nenän nykyrän;
Jos ei pihlaja pitäne,
Niin sä rauasta rakenna.
Wai jos rauan ratkaseepi,
Ja wielä mennee wioille,
Suuhunsa tulinen tulppa,
Lemmon lukko leuwoillensa.
Metän Ukko hallaparta,
Metän kuuluisa kuningas!
Kätke koirasi kolohon,
Rakkisi rapaja kiinni,
Ite ilmonen Jumala,
Tuonne taiwojen takanen!
Kuin katot katoksen alla,
Niin kato katottomassa;
Kuin sä hoitat huonehessa,
Niin sä hoita hongikossa.
IV. Käärmeen Lumoussanat
Matoseni, mammoseni,
Maan siika, siliä siika,
Kulon kultasen alanen,
Lehen lemmen juurehinen,
Letti raunion alanen,
Kieppi kannon juurehinen!
Sykerräte sykkyrähän,
Käperräte käppyrähän;
Käyppäs tällen kämmenelle,
Tälle sormellen sowite.
Sule suusi, peitä pääsi,
Kätke kielesi käpeä.
Willa suusi, willa pääsi,
Willaset sinun wihasi,
Willanen sinä itekkin.
Tunkee pääsi turpeesehen,
Mätä pääsi mättääsehen;
Jospa tuolta pääsi nostat,
Ukko pääsi särkeääpi
Pilwillä pisaroilla,
Rakehilla rautasilla.
V. Hylkeen Synty
Wähä Wäini Maunin poika
Teki tieolla wenettä,
Laitto purtta laulamalla.
Sai wenonen walmihiksi.
Sen katto kalan ketulla,
Sorti sorwan suomuksilla,
Hyyti hylkehen talilla.
Souteleepi, jouteleepi
Ympäri Newan jokia
Newan nientä kierteleepi.
Huuti Huiko niemen päästä,
Määkäsi mäen takanen:
"Kenen on wene wesillä,
Kenen laiwa lainehilla?"
"Wene wanhan Wäinämöisen
Tuulen wirkka, Turjan wilkka,
Wetonen wenehen wilkka."
Mies on nouseepi merestä,
Aallosta ylenteleikse,
Meren luotoin lukia,
Ween kaloin kahtelia.
Kuus on kukkoa käessä,
Kuus' kunni kukan nenässä;
Kaikk' on täynnä raaniloita,
Siit' on hyyty hylkeheksi.
Jos olet pahoa tehnyt,
Tule työsi tuntemahan;
Wie pois wihasi tästä
Keltasihin keuhkoisi,
Makeihin maksoisi,
Saata sappisi sisälle;
Muuta wiinaksi wihasi,
Maioksi pahat makusi.
Source Colophon
Source: Elias Lönnrot, Kantele Taikka Suomen Kansan Runoja ja Lauluja, Vol. I (Helsinki: Waseniuksen, 1829). Project Gutenberg e-text #48176, UTF-8, prepared by Jari Koivisto. Public domain (1829 publication, all rights expired). Texts collected from Kesälahti (Kesälahden pitäjä), Karelia — Lönnrot's first collecting journey, summer 1828. The singers requested anonymity; Lönnrot honored this in his preface.
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