KUEKERTOENE (The Spell of Kuekertoene)
LUONNOTAR (Luonnotar the Nature Goddess)
MELKUTUS (Melkutus Dance)
SINIHIRWI (The Blue Elk)
KURKILINTU (The Crane Bird)
TURJANMAA (Finna Land)
AHTIM' PARTA (Ahti's Beard)
SINISULKA (The Blue Winged Bird)
KUVETAR (The Invocation of Kuvetar)

The Spell of Kuekertoene

Arise from the juniper bushes, arise from the moors
Arise kuekertoene, arise the hairy one

Arise the might of fen, arise the lord of marsh
Arise the worshipped one from the swamp

Show your fingers, show your claws
Show your deepest wrath!

Crush my enemy
Pull down the one with dog's face!

In ancient times people demolished their anger and their negative feelings into a form of spells or conjurations, when the hate concretized into a form of a being or a thing. This song, which is written in Savo dialect of Finnish language, is a spell of kuekertoene, the black spirit of the swamp, which is supposed to conjure above one's enemy. "Kuekertoene" is led from the Finnish word "kuikka", which means the black-throated diver. Diver's yell was a mark of destruction in Finnish and in Sámi folklore. "The one with dog's face" points to war-dogs, which were kept by Novgorod people and later Russians in their warlike campaigns in the deep forests of East-Finland. The song is written according to Savo dialect ortography of Martti Lehmonen, who has translated the Kalevala in Savo dialect.

Luonnotar the Nature Goddess (translation)

Luonnotar, you graceful maid
The maiden of the air, the flame of fire
Luonnotar, you growing beauty
The whirlwind, the spirit of waters

My nature comes from you
My inner spirit comes from you
I live with you, I die with you
I'll grow side by side with you

Where do I walk, where do I travel
There you walk, there you travel
Where is life, where is death
There you are, there you live

Luonnotar, you graceful maid
The maiden of the air, the flame of fire
Luonnotar, you growing beauty
The whirlwind, the spirit of waters

The sky, the earth, the fire and the snowstorm
The eye of the forest, the spirit of the seas
In everything there is your primeval force
Your heart and your birth

This is a cosmic ode to the Nature. In this song nature takes a form of a woman figure, which is everything around us, where we live and whre we die. We're all a one part of a nature, although too many of us has forgotten it.

Melkutus Dance (translation)

I'm dancing melkutus
With my love
You do not have
A shiny button on your breast

This Melkutus Dance version is from Lapinlahti. We wanted to make some groovy arrangements to make this song a little different from other versions of it.

The Blue Elk (translation)

Vuojolainen the fine archer
Kauppi the handsome Laplander
Left wandering in the woodland
Moved in the heats of backwoods.

Autumns he made his lyly*1
All winters he made his kalhu*1
Springdays and summerdays
He carved his spear

He wanted to have the deepest strength
He had in mind to capture this mightiness
From the powerful male elk
From the skillfull wanderer

He called with voices, he called with spells
He used his precious words
He weedled, he sang
He cood, he used his runo-words:

"The bluey Blue Elk
The reddish Red Deer
Come here to eat bread
Come here to drink beer"

The good old Blue Elk answered
The Red Deer gave his speech:
"I have my own bread to eat
I have my own beer to drink!"

The elk jumped away
Poropetra kicked off
He ran the day, ran the second
He even ran the third one too

He ran against the swamps, against the earth
He ran against brushwood hills
He rushed there over the clouds
He escaped above the starfull sky

Vuojolainen chased after
Kauppi the Laplander hunted
Exerted above the firmament
Jumped over the zenith.

There was captured Vuojolainen
The handsome Kauppi turned into stars
To be there to ski forever
To have there an eternal chase

*1. Ancient Finns used the different kind of skis as nowadays. Lyly was one big ski used as a sliding ski and kalhu was the smaller ski used in kicking.

This is an epic tale about the sky-elk Sinihirwi. A skillfull hunter hero Vuojolainen (from which is also used the synonym Kauppi) tries to hunt the elk down, but elk climbs in to the sky and stays there still turning into a constellation. The sky-elk vs. the great hunter theme is very usual in the cosmical legends of the peoples in North-Eurasia. It is believed that when Vuojolainen catches Sinihirwi, the Elk of Hiisi, the sky will shake and the world will be destroyed. This story adapts the old runo-song version of "Skiing the Elk of Hiisi" sung by Aleksei Burushka and Iivana Ratinen from Suistamo village in Border-Karelia (Border-Karelia was once a Finnish region, but after the Second World War it has been a part of Russia). The tune has it's base in Estonian folk tune "Nõianeitsi" (The Which Virgin") from Saaremaa province.

The Crane Bird (translation)

I heard the crane's lament
The whining from the Pahamaa fields
I took it into the pen:
I had no white calf in there

I gave the straws to eat
- it didn't eat them
I gave the hay to eat
- it didn't eat them
I gave the rye to eat
- it didn't eat them either
I gave the bread to eat
- it ate little from it

I let Maija to milk it
- she didn't find the udder
I let Kaija to milk it
- she ripped off all the hair
I let myself to milk it
- I milked the full cannikin
I milked the biggest pot of Pahamaa full
I milked the beggar's shoe full

This is the traditional text from the Pyhämaa (Pahamaa) region of Western-Finland written in the Western-Finnish dialect. It's the animal fairy tale about the fabulous crane, which is able to give milk. The theme is known in the Finnish west coast, in Estonia and in Ingria. The tune mixes the newer Finnish folk music with blue notes.

Finna Land (translation)

The vast air is ready to cry
The light of the sky is waiting
The wind is full of flurry drops
The northern lights are waiting

Make my kyly*1 to go cold
Make my sauna stove to go blue
Let the fields be full of snow
Let the frost be cruel

You Frost the son of the Gale
You wind of tundra, the dancing flame
Strike on against hills and mountains
Give your blizzard to the pikes

Bring the strong year to the Lapland
Bring the cold season to the Finna land*2
Bring the moon of darkness, the blood red night
Bring the destruction so sharp

Banish the old year
Bring down the old season
Let the new year to come up
The new season, the new life

*1. Kyly is the dialectical variant of sauna.
*2. In Beowulf you can find the word Finna land, which it's translated in the Finnish version with our old word Turjanmaa, which is the synonym of Lapland. That's why it's translated now back in Finna land.

This is the prayer for winter, which cleans away all the dirt and mud. In winter the nature rests and gathers it's strength.

Ahti's Beard (translation)

Under the waves, under the waters
Under the singing billows
Lays the god of depths
Lays Ahti, the lord of the lighted seas

Ahti's beard, the hair of waters
The specific green cloth
Lands on the beach, moves on the sand
Rips down the rough stones

Ahti's throat, the huge mouth
Is opened from time to time
It's the hole in the ice
It's the wretched maelstrom

Ahti's nose, the secret scar
The unsinkable heavy cliff
Is there near to see
Is this little island on the surface

You can't see anything else from Ahti
It's quite unknown to all
In the forests of the sea, in the backwoods under the waves
The human mind is not enough

This song is about Finnish god of sea, Ahti, which is better to keep in good mood, if you wish to go to the sea. The depth of the ocean has always been a little unknown and even scary thought to people, that's why we have heavy doom-like atmosphere in this song.

The Blue Winged Bird (translation)

The bird flew under the city
The bird came from Tuuteri*1
The white winged bird from Votic lands
The blue winged bird from Finland

It has eyes under the wings
It can see with own feathers
It brought the words filled with lies
It brought the messages filled with lies:

"Your sister has to go to war
Your brother has to stay home"

The bird flew over the city
The bird came from Finna land
The red winged bird from Osthrobothnia*2
The blue winged bird from Finland

It has eyes over the the wings
It can see with own eyes
It brought the words filled with truth
It brought the messages filled with truth:

"Your brother has to go to war
Your sister has to stay home"

*1. Tuuteri is the village in Ingria district, which is the small area in Russia between Estonia and St. Petersburg
*2. Pohjanmaa (Osthrobothnia) is the Finnish province.

This song is based on Ingrian traditional poem. The theme of sisters and brothers who are on their way to war is very popular among the folklore of Ingrian Finns, Izhorians and Votic, who all live in Ingria, because namely this area has suffered being a battlefield of many wars and feuds.

The Invocation of Kuvetar (translation)

Come, come along with roads
Bring your herd from the tundra
Come, come along with roads
Bring your herd from the tundra

Sleep like a walrus, you arctic fox
Twang like a mermaid

Move against the crimson sky
Crawl along the fen of blood
Move against the crimson sky
Crawl along the fen of blood

Go under the holy lakes so gloomy
Walk over the burned pikes

The word "kuvetar" is lead from the North-Sámi word "guffitar" meaning a gnome. This song is straigth from the tundra. It mixes together both Finnic and Sámi traditions. The original Finnish text uses much loaned words from the Sámi languages.