RUNO XXIX
[242.] "Grass-widows" are probably intended.
[253-268.] Even this old woman did not appeal to him in vain. We might compare with this passage Byron's Don Juan, VIII., cxxxi., cxxxii.
RUNO XXX
[175, 187.] Literally, "nails."
[185.] Pakkanen, Puhurin poika. Frost, the son of the North Wind.
[389.] The unmanly lamentations of the heroes over a fate that has not befallen them may remind us of Grimm's story of "Die kluge Else." It will also be noticed that the heroes are only concerned about their mothers; and Tiera has as little thought for his virgin bride as Lemminkainen has for Kyllikki.
RUNO XXXI
[1.] The tragedy of Kullervo is the favourite episode of the Kalevala in Finland, next to that of Aino. The preamble (lines 1-10) is the same as the opening of the Esthonian Kalevipoeg. The story of the Esthonian hero, though he was a king and not a slave, resembles that of Kullervo in so many respects that he must have been the same character originally.