[25.] The meaning is a little uncertain. Literally, "the only boy," as Madame Malmberg suggests. The commentary renders it, "the gallant youth."
[93.] The Finns and Lapps often hide money in the ground. The word used in l. 94 is "penningin," from "penni," a word common to most Teutonic and Northern languages.
[211, 212.] Such omens of death are common in fairy tales; as, for instance, the bleeding knives in the story of the Envious Sisters in the 1001 Nights. The bleeding trees in mediæval romance belong to rather a different category of ideas.
[233.] Lemminkainen seems to have hidden himself to escape further remonstrances from his mother and Kyllikki.
[262.] Probably a creature like a kelpie or Phooka.
[474.] We are not told how Louhi escaped; but she seems to have come to no harm.
RUNO XIII
[105.] The part played by Hiisi in the Kalevala usually resembles that played by Loki in the Scandinavian Mythology.
[109.] Animals, etc., are often thus constructed in Finnish, Esthonian, and Siberian mythology by gods, demons, and magicians. They do not seem able to create from nothing, but to manufacture what they please or what they can from pre-existing materials, however incongruous.