The numerous myths of the poem are likewise full of significance and beauty, and the Kalevala should be read between the lines, in order that the fall meaning of this great epic may be comprehended.  Even such a hideous impersonation as that of Kullerwoinen, is rich with pointed meaning, showing as it does, the incorrigibility of ingrained evil.  This legend, like all others of the poem, has its deep-running stream of esoteric interpretation.  The Kalevala, perhaps, more than any other, uses its lines on the surface in symbolism to point the human mind to the brighter gems of truth beneath.

The three main personages, Wainamoinen, the ancient singer, Ilmarinen, the eternal forgeman, and Lemminkainen, the reckless wizard, as mentioned above, are conceived as being of divine origin.  In fact, the acting characters of the Kalevala are mostly superhuman, magic beings.  Even the female actors are powerful sorceresses, and the hostess of Pohyola, especially, braves the might of all the enchanters of Wainola combined.  The power of magic is a striking feature of the poem.  Here, as in the legends of no other people, do the heroes and demi-gods accomplish nearly everything by magic.  The songs of Wainamoinen disarm his opponents; they quiet the angry sea; they give warmth to the new sun and the new moon which his brother, Ilmarinen, forges from the magic metals; they give life to the spouse of Ilmarinen, which the “eternal metal-artist” forges from gold, silver, and copper.  In fact we are among a people that endows everything with life, and with human and divine attributes.  Birds, and beasts, and fishes, and serpents, as well as the Sun, the Moon, the Great Bear, and the stars, are either kind or unkind.  Drops of blood find speech; men and maidens transform themselves into other shapes and resume again their native forms at will; ships, and trees, and waters, have magic powers; in short, all nature speaks in human tongues.

The Kalevala dates back to an enormous antiquity.  One reason for believing this, lies in the silence of the Kalevala about Russians, Germans, or Swedes, their neighbors.  This evidently shows that the poem must have been composed at a time when these nations had but very little or no intercourse with the Finns.  The coincidence between the incantations adduced above, proves that these witch-songs date from a time when the Hungarians and the Finns were still united as one people; in other words, to a time at least 3000 years ago.  The whole poem betrays no important signs of foreign influence, and in its entire tenor is a thoroughly pagan epic.  There are excellent reasons for believing that the story of Mariatta, recited in the 50th Rune, is an ante-Christian legend.