A nnist observed that K reutzw ald wrote his Kalevipoeg at the time w hen the scientific turn in European cultural research had begun;
thus it was im possible to follow any m ore in the footsteps o f James M acpherson’s O ssian’s songs (A nnist 2005: 443). Annist also men
tions the shadow o f G oethe’s Faust hanging over Kreutzwald, at least in the introduction to Kalevipoeg (ib. 619).
Indeed, by that tim e w riting epic verse in Europe had reached its critical limits. Verse epics were overshadow ed by the novel, the great trium phant literary genre at least since the work o f Scott, Bal
zac and Dickens. Since the second h alf o f the 19th century the creation o f verse epics was driven to the European periphery, as
“centres” were no longer interested in it. Their cities and nations had already been built up long before. By the way, even in the Renais
sance the task o f w riting a true epic that would have a m eaning in the sense o f building a city and a nation rem ained a peripheral challenge.
The fashion itself o f w riting verse epics was still there, but the con
tent becam e ever more novel-like. Pierre de Ronsard and Edmund Spenser tried to write epics that would have a m eaning for a nation, but both failed, as their respective works, The Franciade and The Fairy Queen rem ained unfinished. The large epic poems created in
2004. In a w ay, it is a continuation o f the challenges o f m odernism after the failure o f the enlightenm ent project, rejecting at the same tim e nihilist approaches and relying on refreshing contributions on the part o f feminist philosophy. I m y self apply it here as synonym ous o f a perm anent strive for a creative search in societies and culture, in parallel with a basically symbiotic paradigm , as regards genders, centres and peripheries, biospheric and noo- spheric processes. I have tried to forw ard the idea o f sym biosis in my book A Call fo r Cultural Symbiosis. Toronto: G uernica, 2005.
Italy by Pulci, Boiardo, Ariosto and Tasso could well be defined as verse novels. Indeed, their main content did not differ m uch from prose novels o f chivalry, created since the start o f the 16th century in Spain.
Thus Luis Vaz de Camões, who published his Os Lusiadas in 1572, was a lonely peripheral writer in his task o f w riting a national epic. Fie could not avoid im itating the formal and ideological patterns imposed by the Renaissance “m ainstream ” . He wrote his epic in ottava rima, assembled his pantheon o f ancient Rom an gods and did not doubt the right o f the Europeans to conquer “vicious countries o f Africa and Asia”, to “edify am ong remote people a new kingdom”, spreading there Christian faith, inherited from the Rom an empire. (See the inaugural strophes o f Song I o f Os Lusiadas).
By contrast, in K reutzwald’s time not only the general content o f the epic genre had become much more varied, but after the abolition of slavery and serfdom the traditional power centres o f Europe were gradually losing their direct impact in the periphery. This fact inspired the Finn Elias Lönnrot and the Estonian Kreutzwald to create their epics in the traditional-autochthonal metres o f Finno- Ugric folksongs, which village people still remem bered and could reproduce in their day, even though the heyday o f folksong as a vigo
rous phenomenon was rapidly losing ground.
The more menaced a nation is existentially, the more urgent becomes the need to defend it by means o f culture. It is one o f the reasons why Camões, in Portugal, was in the European renaissance the only great writer who took up writing a patriotic epic. It also explains, at least to some extent, why Kreutzwald turned the tow n / nation building into the main theme o f his Kalevipoeg, while in Lönnrot’s Kalevala such a theme is practically absent. As a part o f the Swedish kingdom, the Finns, unlike the Estonians, had not suf
fered from serfdom. Even as a part o f the Russian tsarist empire, F in
land had a considerable degree o f autonomy.
In Kalevala, the main themes are, on the one hand, Väinä- möinen’s search for a wife and, on the other hand, the quest o f Sampo, a symbol o f earthly welfare. These are topics characteristic of ancient folklore, and not directly interfering in the Finnish people’s situation in the present or in the future. Naturally, in a more indirect and much less political way than Kalevipoeg, in the Estonian
Constructing a M ythical Future City for a Sym biotic N ation 95
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case. L önnrot’s Kalevala has likew ise encouraged and elevated the Finnish national self-consciousness.
In Kalevipoeg, K reutzw ald neutralizes from the very beginning the germ o f a private story, w hich has characterized the European novel since it started to take shape in the m edieval and Renaissance rom ances o f chivalry. A fter the first unfortunate and tragic erotic experience with the Island M aid. K alevipoeg does not make any attem pt to find a w ife for him self, although he helps his friends in finding brides. In the 7th Tale, when K alevipoeg sings, approaching the Estonian coast, he im agines three ships full o f young women all eager to m arry the hero or becom e his lovers. Yet Kalevipoeg's answ er is:
But Kalevipoeg w on't be your husband.
This lad will never be your helpmate.
(Kp 2007: 93)
A fter becom ing the king o f the Estonians. Kalevipoeg, very much like the prince Segism undo in Calderon Life Is a Dream, suppresses his personal love, to assum e a full responsibility for his country. In the w ords o f an old man. who in the 9th Tale predicts that Kalevipoeg will becom e a ju st and honest ruler:
A king must bear ten burdens, A ruler has one hundred cares, ( ...)
ten thousand tasks for Kalevipoeg!
(Kp 2007: 121)
K reutzw ald m odels his hero K alevipoeg as a ruler o f his country, exactly corresponding to the ideas about an ideal monarch, expressed in E rasm us's Education o f a Christian Prince (1516): he assumes a total responsibility for his people and country, in a radical contrast to a tyrant who exercises power in his own private interests.
The above-said does not mean at all that girls and wom en w ill not attract K alevipoeg in the follow ing course o f the epic. He is about to frolic and enjoy sexually the Hell maids. One o f the maids, how ever, w ith tears in her eyes, asks him not to rob her o f her innocence, once again hinting at K alevipoeg's nobler mission prescribed by the gods:
Constructing a M ythical Future City for a Symbiotic N ation 97 don’t poke your iron paw,
your finger, into this girl ( ...)
Don’t budge, little brother, Don’t come one step closer;
Taara has created you immense, The Oldman made you so
(Kp 2007: 178)
Although Kalevipoeg frolics with the Hell maids, there is no p roof that he has any sexual intercourse with them. He prom ises to m atch the girls with his friends, admitting that:
I myself won’t woo - still tiny, a can’t take a bride.
I have to grow for yet a fathom, swell for several spans
and gain a bit in wisdom (Kp 2007: 181)
Kalevipoeg appears, thus, as an ideal builder o f a city / a nation. His personal life is sacrificed at the altar o f social and common welfare, in the name o f his people.
On the basis of the above said - quite apparent as it is in Kreutz- wald’s epic - Sergei Kruks in his interesting sociological com parison of Kalevipoeg and the Latvian epic Läcplesis (1888), by Andrejs Pumpurs, claims that “Kalevipoeg manifests a rather pragmatic and socially responsible behaviour”, while “Läcplesis suffers from manic depressive psychosis” (Kruks 2003: 236).
There is no denying that the respective epics o f Kreutzwald and Pumpurs display, to some extent at least, what is generally observed as a difference between the Estonians and the Latvians. To put it roughly, the former are considered to be rather rational-minded, while the latter are believed to be predominantly sensible and senti
mental. However, 1 would add that a lot o f the difference is prom pted by the very nature o f the Latvian epic. It is meant as a novel-like story, with a private amorous plain prevailing over social develop
ments. It follows the model established by the Italian Renaissance epics, rather than the patriotic and socially oriented epic Os Lusiadas, o f Camões.
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