KalevalaWhorl

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

The poem is the Kalevala. The books are by Ian Watson. Rich Horton

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=

In message <199707011247.FAA00431 at lists1.best.com>, RRHMAH at aol.com writes:

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

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?

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)