"Helga" is a somewhat poor production, containing but few striking passages except the description of the appearance of the Valkyrior before the fight between Hialmar and Angantyr. But the shorter poems at the end, "The Song of Vala" and "Brynhilda," ought to be alone sufficient to remove the name of this forgotten poet from oblivion.
[ [52] ] The Esthonian demons are often represented as contemptible creatures, very easily outwitted. Later in the present canto the personage in question is distinctly called a water-demon.
[ [53] ] A common proverb in Esthonian tales. We also find it in Italian, in almost the same words.
[ [54] ] The money is sometimes called roubles, and sometimes thalers.
[ [55] ] Visits to Hades or Hell (Põrgu) are common in the Kalevipoeg and in the popular tales, some of which we shall afterwards notice.
[ [56] ] The term "Lett," which the Kalevide himself afterwards applies to the demon, seems to be used in contempt; otherwise the passage in the text might have been taken as equivalent to our old-fashioned expression, "It's all Greek to me."
[ [57] ] Usually the devil's mother (or grandmother) is represented as a white mare. Compare [Canto 14] of the Kalevipoeg, and also the story of the [Grateful Prince].
[ [58] ] This Air-Maiden, who seems to be only a mischievous sprite, must not be confounded with Ilmatar, the creatrix of the world in the first Runo of the Kalevala.
[ [59] ] Finn, the Irish hero, was once entrapped by a sorceress on a similar pretext into plunging into an enchanted lake, which changed him into an old man. (See Joyce's Old Celtic Romances, "The Chase of Slieve Cullin.") The story is also related in one of Kenealy's ballads.
[ [60] ] This is a well-known Mongol characteristic; and it is rather oddly attributed by Arabic writers to the Jinn. "Two of them appeared in the form and aspect of the Jarm, each with one eye slit endlong, and jutting horns and projecting tusks."—Story of Tohfat-el-Kulub ( Thousand and One Nights, Breslau edition).