“Of course you know”, said a friend of mine the other day,
“Kalevipoeg is really simply a football hooligan”.
Well, of course, an Estonian mythical giant is, by
definition, going to have certain Estonian characteristics:
A large capacity for alcohol- check
A desire to spend time deep in the countryside- check
An ambivalent relationship with Finland- check
Wanting to be anywhere except Estonia for long periods of
time- check
Yet it had not occurred to me that Estonia’s great national
hero could be seen in quite the same light as the A Team Young Casuals of [NAME
DELETED ON LEGAL ADVICE] United FC. Now that a new translation of the Estonian
national epic is available, it will give a wider audience the opportunity to
encounter the proto-hooligan and judge for themselves. For, I have to admit,
the behaviour of Kalvipoeg does seem to be predicated on a remarkable level of
violence, drunkenness and yet more violence. It comes as something of a
surprise to realise that the national epic is to a great degree the product of
respectable medical gentlemen- particularly Drs. Friedrich Faehlman and
Friedrich Kreutzwald. One cannot help thinking that the contrast between their
sober Victorian existence and the litany of trolls, magic salt mills, dwarves,
maidens of the North, giants of the West, incest, violence, drunkenness,
murder, fights, more violence, spirits of the darkness, magic flying boats and
so on reflects a degree of wish fulfilment. Either that, of course, or
Kreutzwald had seen Cardiff on a Saturday after the match, though there is no
record of him having done so.
These days, of course, the reality of Estonia has rendered
the dreams of a mythic Estonia far less important. Estonians do not quote the
characters of the national epic as archetypes, in the way that Latvians, for
example, do about their national epic, Lāčplēsis. Yet still, there are many
landmarks that retain a connection with the epic, in the same way that King
Arthur has various seats, castles, pools dotted around the more scenic parts of
Britain, so the rocky heights of Toompea form a fittingly giant grave for Kalev
and in everyday life, there are various Kalev sports clubs. Yet, perhaps
appropriately it is Linda, the leading female character in the epic, who carries
most resonance today- the Linda’s stone carelessly dropped from her apron into
Ulemiste lake- by Tallinn Airport- the tears of Linda, which seem enough to
fill any mildly brackish body of water in the country, all these are indeed proverbial
in their use. The sense of loss and sadness which sometimes seems to lie at the
root of much of the Estonian psyche is certainly well expressed in Linda.
Perhaps that is why it was at the statue of Linda near Pikk Hermann that the
singing revolution first began to find its voice.
But what of Kalevipoeg himself?
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