Myth

Essay by odifrancoCollege, UndergraduateA-, October 2014

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Within Poem 45 of The Kalevala, the mistress of North Farm prepares diseases for the Kaleva District. Vainamoinen cures the people with charms and ointments. The last page of the poem is what got my mind turning; first, when Vainamonen is curing the people he calls out to a deity to help cure the people of their diseases. However, later in the passage he speaks to one specific deity saying "May the Creator grant me aid, May God bring me aid after I have seen with my eyes…" So I just thought it was interesting how the story has constantly done this sort of back and forth with the characters having multiple gods but only calling "God" their creator. It's sort of been this confusing battle of polytheism vs. monotheism. Vainamonen was also calling the one specific deity by names that are common associated with Christianity; I'm not saying that the author was inspired by the Bible or by the works of Jesus in any way, I just found it interesting how the two were so similar (The Almighty One, Creator…).

Another piece that I found interesting was how Vainamonen himself had cured the people; instantaneously upon reading this passage I found myself thinking of when Jesus cured the lepers in the Bible. However, just so that it is clear that I do not think that the author was in any way trying to compare Vainamonen to Jesus, I actually found it interesting how Vainamonen did what he did out of the goodness of his heart and to help clean up the mess and save the people of Kaleva. While what Jesus did was wonderful in the story, he also told the lepers to spread the word of God and tell the people in the city...