Wanton Loverboy

The Kalevala the Finnish national epic compiled by Elias Lönnrot in 1835/1849 consists of thousands of fragments assembled into a continuous narrative. The section translated here, cantos 11‒15 of fifty in all, forms about one-tenth of the epic. In introduces Lemminkäinen, the 'wanton Loverboy', alias Ahti the Islander, alias Farmind. Of the Kalevala characters he is the most vividly portrayed, a young man who plays fast and loose with women and with men who get in his way. His clutch of names points to a composite figure based on a number of characters in Finnish myth.