There are in Russia and Siberia any number of epic songs or “bylinas,” dating from legendary times to the present day, which have recently been collected by Kireyevski and others, and which already fill some ten volumes.  The heroes of these songs are either personifications of the forces of nature or favorite historical personages.  They form great cycles, one clustering for instance around Vladimir and the ancient capital of Russia, Kiev, another around the free city of Novgorod, and a third belonging to the later Moscow period.  The principal hero of many of the Russian folk tales, and of the epic songs most frequently sung by wandering bards, is Ilya Muromets, who nobly protects widows and orphans and often displays his fabulous strength by reducing mighty oaks to kindling wood with a few blows!

THE KALEVALA, OR THE LAND OF HEROES

The national epic of the Finns was rescued from oblivion by Topelius and Loennrot, two physicians, who took it down from the mouth of the people and published it in the first half of the nineteenth century.  It consists in 22,793 lines, divided into fifty runes, and is considered by a great German authority—­Steinthal—­as one of the four great national epics of the world.

Not only does it relate “the ever-varying contests between Finns and Laplanders,” but that between Light and Darkness, Good and Evil, for in the poem the Finns personify Light and Good, while the Lapps are emblems of Darkness and Evil.  The Sampo, which is mentioned in this poem, and which seems to have been some sort of a magic grist-mill, holds the same place in Finn mythology as the Golden Fleece in that of the Greeks.  Many of the poems incorporated in this epic date back some three thousand years, and the epic itself is composed in alliterative verse, although it also contains rhythm of line and sound, as the following introductory lines prove.

  Mastered by desire impulsive,
  By a mighty inward urging,
  I am ready now for singing,
  Ready to begin the chanting
  Of our nation’s ancient folk-song
  Handed down from by-gone ages,
  In my mouth the words are melting,
  From my lips the tones are gliding,
  From my tongue they wish to hasten;
  When my willing teeth are parted,
  When my ready mouth is opened,
  Songs of ancient wit and wisdom
  Hasten from me not unwilling.[36]

The proem then invites all people to listen to legends of by-gone times and to the teachings of the wizard Wainamoinen, to admire the works of Ilmarinen and the doings of Youkahainen in the pastures of the Northland and in the meads of Kalevala.  It adds that these runes were caught from the winds, the waves, and the forest branches, and have been preserved in the Northland ever since.