Subject: (whorl) Kalevala

From: RRHMAH <rrhmah at aol.com>
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 08:45:40 +0000

[Posted from WHORL, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

In a message dated 97-07-01 03:22:55 EDT, Mantis writes:

> And
>  a trilogy based upon the (modern synthetic) Scandinavian (Finnish?)
>  epic poem that starts with a "K"(?)
The poem is the Kalevala.  The books are by Ian Watson.

Rich Horton

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From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 16:01:00 +0000

Reply:  Item #3107202 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00#

Rich Horton,

Ah yes, the Kalevala.  I was thinking of Emil Petaja's sf version.
No doubt there are others--has Ian Watson written one?

Alastair,

Hello and welcome aboard!

Re: whorl/Cerberus, while it hasn't been done to death, I think we
have gotten ourselves a little dizzy on it (chasing our tails).  The
good news is we've just put the question to Gene Wolfe himself, so we
don't have to think too much about it for a few weeks--until the
answer comes.  (Then we can argue about that! <g>)

=mantis=

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From: Derek Bell <dbell at maths.tcd.ie>
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 19:13:49 +0000

>The poem is the Kalevala.  The books are by Ian Watson.

	As an aside, I think Tolkien used the Kalevala as the basis
for the tale of Turam Turambar(?) in the Silmarillion.

	Derek

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From: Jonathan Coxhead <jonathan at doves.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 1997 17:56:01 +0000

> >The poem is the Kalevala.  The books are by Ian Watson.

   The Kalevala is not entirely synthetic, though it is of modern
composition (1835). The roots are all in "real" Finnish folklore though, and
the author (Elias Lönnrot) is a national figure.

   Ian Watson wrote 2 (fat!) books inspired by it: _Lucky's_Harvest_ and
_The_ _Fallen_Moon_.

   Er ... why were we talking about this?

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From: RRHMAH <rrhmah at aol.com>
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 1997 23:24:37 +0000

I'd forgotten about Petaja's version.  Ian Watson wrote two books: Lucky's
Harvest and The Fallen Moon, quite recently, based also on the Kalevala.

And welcome to Alastair.  A coincidence that he joins this list just as I
have read his fine SF thriller "A Spy in Europa", the cover story of the June
Interzone.  Nice biter-bit (he-he) ending!  

I must confess to have missed the Tick-Tock the crest cat reference: and I
read _The Universe Against Her_ not 6 months ago.  But now Mr. Langford
brings it up, I think it must be a little joke of Mr. Wolfe's.  (Similar to
the Vernor Vinge books shelved under W in _Fifth Head_.)

Tusk (Rich Horton)